Tiny House Tanzania!

I have always been a big fan of the DIY type shows and it nearly became an addiction while I was recovering from heart surgery.  While I was home during Christmas last year, my parents had recorded an entire season of Tiny House Nation on the FYI Network for my brother.  I enjoyed them not only because of the decisions people had to make about what could go to their new home typically a tenth of the size of their current home but mostly about Zack's methods for finding inventive ways to get more from the small footprint of the homes.  The other part I liked about the show was many of these tiny houses were more than double and some triple the floor space of the building I was going to take over as my house in Tanzania.  Don't misunderstand I am not whining here, our doctor his wife and small child all lived in the building originally intended to be a guard shack before me.  Them and a colony of bats.

One of the deals I made for moving into the structure as my own domicile was that I would make upgrades to the house using the money I would otherwise spend on an apartment or hotel in town as my permanent residence.  As with all projects, the biggest constraint is actually the time to do it.  If you follow the blog you know we already had some big projects to do on site.  The other is the small space:  136 square feet and trying to upgrade/renovate it while living in it.  Other concerns are the construction methods used in Tanzania and the problems they present.  When I first thought about this, there were no anchor bolts or screws available near me for attaching anything to the concrete walls.  Usually I made a hole with a nail, then filled the hole with glue and screwed in what ever I wanted to hang on the wall but that has significant weight restrictions.  Two weeks ago my hardware supplier called to tell me he had just gotten his first shipment of expanding nails-huh?  Yes that is what they call the plastic sleeves you insert into the wall that expand out when you screw mount in.

Sorry I seemed to have strayed from some of my original points, but when you get excited about expanding nails-well you know you have to go with it.  What I was getting to was that I am going to try and do a video blog describing the changes to the house and show some of my own DIY skills in action as well as discuss some of the ideas for maximizing the use of the space.  Feel free to email or comment with suggestions as you see some of the problems develop over the next couple of months.  One other thing I plan to do is add some simple and most likely quiet videos of life tasks here at our site.

Please enjoy this first "episode" as I introduce you to the house.  I understand some folks have trouble seeing the YouTube videos in the blog so I have also included a link.  Also I forgot to mention it in the video but on the left side of the kitchen table is my "sink"

YouTube Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjp1x2E-SvM

I hope you enjoyed the introduction.  Future episodes will include how we wash and dry clothes (riveting stuff), Installing Solar Power Generation and wiring the house, plastering the walls and painting, Building kitchen counters and storage, Building bed and "wardrobe", building craft center and desk/entertainment area, Creative storage, Creative ideas for decorations and so on.  

In addition the last couple of weeks I have enjoyed finding a new cheese product that does not require refrigeration which is very similar to the pie shaped Happy Cow.  I have been adding it to my pasta night but this week I decided to do a Grilled Cheese sandwich.  It spreads well and while it does not have a lot of great flavor it is pretty decent.  

I had to use ear drops this week, the critters chewed open the box and chewed the label off the bottle.