Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

So I promised some stories about being creative on the Tiny House Tanzania that I think even Zack from Tiny House Nation on FYI Network would be proud of.  This week I am going to talk about the bathroom.   I made the decision early on to switch to a tile floor throughout the house instead of the concrete topper we normally use.   The tile helps in several ways.   First it is easier to clean especially with a mop.   Second it tends to feel cool all the time giving you at least something that is cooler on hot days.   Third it allowed me to remove the shower pan in the bathroom and go with the tile floor as the shower and just put in a floor drain.   Removing the shower pan, gave more room for the toilet by allowing me to move it inches into the shower pan space.   In most bathrooms here the toilet is so close to the shower it gets wet and my bathroom was going to be the same way.   So I decided to capitalize on that and ass...

As many of you know from some of my earlier blogs, I am a fan of home improvement shows and the Tiny House Nation show on FYI channel with John and Zack.  I have always enjoyed seeing some of the creative ideas they came up with to get the most of the tiny houses on the show.  I have daydreamed of being able to do many of the same things in my tiny house in Tanzania.  However there are some differences between tiny houses they build in the states on the show and a tiny house in Tanzania.   Most of the differences apply to just about any home in the states versus a home built here in Tanzania, it is just more obvious when dealing with a tiny house. Some things that may be the same would that you should not take full steps in a tiny house.   It is roughly 6 full steps between the front door and the back of my house.   When getting up in the night to go to the bathroom, you basically feel your way around the home instead of ...

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...