Compact Camping Options

I recently purchased a small truck (Ford Ranger) and have been looking at camping gear options. Since small trucks can only handle so much towing weight, I began looking at older fibreglass trailers in my local online classifieds. Because I live in a town house and have limited space, my thinking switched to finding suitable camping gear and once again I turned to the internet. That's when I found it - the Adventure Truck Tent at http://www.adventuretrucktent.com/

As the website states:

"... (the) ENEL Company, is an engineering company that designs a wide variety of high-tech and innovative products. The Adventure I Truck Tent was first designed in 1992 and was patented (patent 6,481,784) and 1st released to the public in 2001. Thousands of truck tents have been sold and with an almost 100% satisfaction rate, showing you the customer that The Adventure I Truck Tent is the best truck tent on the market. The Adventure I Truck Tent allows truck owners to set-up camp on any ground surface, sleep comfortably and adapt their truck box into an enjoyable camping experience, and because of our unique design no floor is needed. No floor means, EASY TO CLEAN and MAXIMUM use of your truck bed. Thousands of families, campers, fisherman, mountaineers, cyclists, sportsmen and hikers have enjoyed turning their truck into an affordable recreational vehicle.

The Adventure I Truck Tent is constructed with quality in mind, and only top-of-the-line materials are used. High-strength fiberglass poles (aluminum poles are also available for additional charge), double-taped seams, nylon fabric and high quality zippers are just a few of the outstanding features. The Adventure I Truck Tent is designed to encompass the tailgate and due to its patented conestoga tent style design, the tent is extremely spacious with 145 – 195 cubic feet of tent and truck box space. You can walk in and out of the tent ( 5ft. 6 inch for all models), no crawling in to stand up, no other truck tent can match that. That means that there is 5ft 6 inches throughout the tent, not just in the middle. No other tent can match that! The truck tent is lightweight, weighing only 11 lbs, and is stored in a small stuff bag, measuring 22" x 11". The simple and easy to follow instructions enables anyone to quickly set up the Adventure I Truck Tent in about 10 – 12 minutes. Customers are amazed at the ease of set-up and the comfort and spaciousness that comes with an Adventure I Truck Tent. The truck tent is affordable and available in different sizes to accommodate most truck models."

At $249, it is definitely an affordable, well designed and compact alternative.

Combine this with the mini camper found on http://www.minicampingtrailer.com/index.html and you will have everything you need for an enjoyable camping experience. This unit is a mere 40" x 48" x 48" and sits on a small utility trailer that can easily be pulled behind a small vehicle. It contains a kitchen space complete with sink, stove top and cooler, and a bathroom with port-a-potti and shower. It also features a water tank, outside spigot and lighting. Check out the video showing how the unit is set up.

The plans to build your own mini camper are available for free at this website. The plans are copywrited to Brad Flickinger (2008).

Romantic Caravans - Made in Canada!

If you've ever dreamed about tiny house living with a romantic gypsy-inspired flair, then you have to check out Roulettes en Bois Tango. This new manufacturing business based in Quebec, Canada, builds fully insulated mobile cottages, using high quality materials, and offers four levels of finish: basic, finished, equipped and decorated, and made to measure.

The units are built on a trailer and can be pulled with a three-quarter ton truck using a conventional hitch and electric braking system. The web site states that "ready-to-use" lodgings can be set up in an hour. Models equipped with sanitation systems are designed to be hooked up to a standard sewer system. Each caravan has a 100 amp panel ready to be hooked up to an electrical feed system. The 24 foot-long version offers 204 square feet of space plus a porch.

The model featured on the website is absolute eye-candy! The attention to detail is evident everywhere from the wonderful paint colors and fabrics, to the trim and fixtures chosen.

Roulettes en Bois Tango is owned and operated by Maryse Roy and Guy Lemieux. You can find their company website at: http://www.roulottesenboistango.com/home_en.htm

Furniture for Small Spaces

Tonight I found a website entitled "Furniture for Small Spaces" http://www.furniture-for-small-spaces.com/

As the site says, "Furniture for Small Spaces offers fun decorating ideas, fabulous space saving tips and, most of all, compact and modular furniture. That means you no longer have to push, shove and kick huge pieces of furniture into spaces that won’t fit. Rather, you’ll find yourself delighting in the ever-growing selection of space saving ideas and furniture at your fingertips."

The site is organized by category, listed on the left hand side of your screen, or you can scroll down and sample from the listing of what's new. Categories include:

• Organizing Small Spaces - offers helpful suggestions and strategies as well as some question and answer-type sections
• Closets for Small Spaces -discusses a variety of approaches such as creating a closet with a garment rack or closet system kit
• Furnishing a Small Livingroom - provides a range of suggestions such as a wall mounted can opener, fish tank, wall mounted computer station, etc.

to name a few.

One of the topics under the what's new list is wall mounted electric fire places. The web site features a picture and general description of a Dimplex EWF-SS Sahara Wall Mounted Fire Place and then provides a link to CSN Fireplaces where the unit can be purchased.

Another new topic is washer/dryer combo units. The website features a picture of an LG washer dryer combo, a general description of the item and a link to the Compact Appliance website where combo units from a variety of manufacturers can be purchased.

A Tiny Stone House

The other evening I was searching for pictures of small houses and I came across this picture on Maria Roff's blog http://icelandeyes.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

According to her blog, this tiny cottage named Sómastaðir (or "Pleasant Place") was built by her great-grandfather in Reyðafjörður, Iceland. According to her post, there were 22 children in that family. As she writes, "they didn't all live in house at the same time, but I understand that it was always pretty crowded nevertheless."

This is the first tiny stone house I've seen on line. If any readers know of any others, I'd love to hear from you.

Miniature Quilts

In keeping with tiny house thinking, I considered how my hobbies would need to be adapted in order to better fit into a downsized life-style.

Knitting is no problem as it is a fairly compact hobby to begin with. Projects are reasonably compact unless you are into knitting bed spreads or afghans. Sweaters, vests, socks, mittens and scarves easily fit into a knitting basket. As long as the knitter can control the impulse to buy yarn (and this is easier said than done), knitting is portable, tiny house-friendly hobby. Crocheting falls into a similar category. Once again, focusing on smaller projects would be key.

Quilting can also be down-sized. While a full size quilt will require sufficient space to construct if traditional techniques are used, even this can be adapted to a smaller space if a "quilt-as-you-go" technique is utilized. Another approach is to consider smaller projects like table mats, runners, seasonal items, and quilted clothing. Below are several photos of smaller projects I have in the works.




If all else fails, the avid quilter should consider miniature quilts. If you go to your favorite search engine and type in "miniature quilts free patterns" you will have no problem finding patterns for miniature quilts. For example, at http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/QuiltCategories/FreeMiniatureQuiltPatterns.htm there are a variety of patterns available to see if this approach to quilting is for you. If you are the kind of quilter who feels there are so many quilt patterns and so little time, consider scaling down your favorite pattern to miniature or select from the many minaturized patterns that are out there.

The picture below illustrates a completed miniature quilt - finished size is 20" square. You can find the pattern for this one at http://www.qorsite.com/styles/mini/miniqlt.htm




Now, if I just have to find a way to control the urge to buy fabric, especially fat eighths and fat quarters (i.e. smaller pieces of fabric)...some habits are definitely harder to break than others. Oh well, what's life without a few challenges?

Cheers!

Being a Tiny House Fan

I love the internet! Even on a day when I'm nursing a stomach bug, I can still indulge my small house habit. Today I learned how to become an "official" fan of other blogs and websites devoted to tiny houses so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you.

The Tiny House Blog http://tinyhouseblog.com/ is one of my favorites. Kent Griswold has a wonderful variety of topics on this blog and often features other bloggers as well. Today's latest post is about a group of women who restore vintage travel trailers and share camping adventures. They call themselves "cowgirls" and any woman who has a vintage trailer can join in their fun. Take the time to have a good look at this blog as there is a wealth of good information for tiny house devotees.

The Mini Mobile Cottage site http://mobilecottage.blogspot.com/ is chronicling the construction of a tiny house by Jeff and Arlene Hemsley and features other topics relating to their adoption of a tiny house life style. The latest post is by Arlene where she shares her "Eat Simpler, Save Money" strategy.

The Small Living Journal http://smalllivingjournal.com/?nomobile features a number of contributors and describes itself as a "bi-weekly web-zine on the small house movement." The latest issue features a number of recognizable people from the small house movement (Michael Jantzen, Kent Griswold, Greg Johnson, to name a few) sharing their goals and plans for the future. The controbutors come from different back grounds and have travelled different paths; however they all share a love for small, if not tiny, houses. It offers validation that the small house movement definitely has a broad appeal.

Anyway, that's a sample. Enjoy!

Varde Mini Kitchen From Ikea

One of my favorite things to do is browse magazine stands for British home decorating magazines. You can usually count on finding something interesting pertaining to small space living. Yesterday I found a reference to an IKEA product that you won't find on the IKEA Canada page: the Varde Mini Kitchen.

This free-standing kitchen includes all the major functions one would need in a neat 140 cm wide by 69 cm deep by 208 cm high package. It features:

• a ceramic hob (i.e. stove top) with two burners


• a small under the counter fridge


• single bowl sink with mixer tap (i.e. faucet) and sound absorbing material under to bowl


• spice rack


• small black board for notes


• cupboards (a mixture of birch, birch veneer, particle board with melamine shelves


• stainless steel legs and back-splash

They have considered safety features as well. Besides the usual wall brackets to anchor a the free standing unit, when you close the left side door, this cuts the power to the stove top. There will be no closing the doors with the burner left on!

For more information on the Varde mini kitchen, go to http://www.ikea.com/ , select "United Kingdom" from the bottom of the European country list and then search for "Varde mini kitchen" using the search feature in the top right hand corner of the screen.