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Bendable Life

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Life

Bendable Life in Bend, OR

June 30, 2017 · By Teri

Our Bendable Life continues as we enjoy some time hanging out with friends in Bend, OR.  This was the place that sparked the name of our blog and our approach to life.  i.e. we need to be “bendable”, flexible, and resilient.  The last few months have been the perfect example of that!  We continue to be “bendable” and embrace all that is intended for us on this journey.

This week we’ve had the opportunity to really enjoy some of the incredible offerings in Bend, including kayaking, mountain biking, and hiking thanks to our friends Kristin and Sonia.  Here is a little video clip from our kayaking day in Bend:

https://youtu.be/R9_221lwmgE

Life

Livin the tiny dream

April 10, 2017 · By Teri

Wow!  How time flies! We can hardly believe it’s been over 6 months since we left the comfort of our former home for this tiny living adventure.  And what an adventure it has been! From the wettest winter in years, finding a place to park it, fixing broken pipes, emptying the “black” tank, and more, we have surely experienced some adventure, and also new found perspectives. 

To briefly recap, in October 2016, we sold our 2300 sq ft home to live in a 30 ft travel trailer.  Some of you might be wondering what it’s like making the transition.  Do we like it? Do we have any regrets?

 

The short answer….no regrets! And overall, we love it.  Most of it anyway.  In the last 6 months, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and a lot about the pros and cons of this lifestyle.  We know we will continue to learn more along the way but we’ll share some of the good, bad, and the ugly so far. 

 

Funny thing when we started talking about a list of the pros and cons the first thing to come to mind were the cons.  I think sometimes we gravitate toward seeing the negatives.  At first, I looked at the list and thought “Geez, why are we doing this if there are so many negatives?”  Over time the list of pros grew in number as we thought of more things we consider to be positive. And the positives have a lot of weight in our opinion.

So, let’s start with the bad and end with the good!  The downsides to our tiny living lifestyle include:

  • Limited space for cooking. It’s a decent space and I can cook up some pretty awesome meals but it has certainly been an adjustment.  We have found ourselves eating out more which isn’t the most healthy. We are looking forward to the warmer weather and perhaps more outdoor cooking.  I do miss my big oven for roasting brussel sprouts and cooking my sweet potato fries!
  • No dishwasher. Ok, I miss the dishwasher.  Darcy doesn’t! I know many people live perfectly fine without a dishwasher and it’s not the end of the world to not have one but I do miss being able to put the dinner dishes right into the washer.  It makes me appreciate the convenience more.
  • Condensation! Moisture is the enemy of tiny living.  Especially with such a wet winter moisture has been a challenge. With 2 people and 2 dogs that’s a lot of breathing in a small space and limited options to ventilate when it’s pouring outside.  We have gotten creative with some barrier applications in key places and the use of a de-humidifier which has helped.  We look forward to the sunny days when we are home during the day to really dry out.
  • Lack of movement. You don’t realize how much your steps add up walking around your house until your house is this tiny. It takes about 8 steps to move from one end to the other. As a result we have found ourselves feeling a little more stiff and achy.  We have found we need to be intentional in getting outside and moving about as much as possible.  We’ve got to move it, move it!! 
  • Quiet please! Darcy tends to go to bed VERY early.  I tend to be a night owl.  This makes for interesting tiny living! Overall, we have made it work. We have a partition that blocks off the bed area of the trailer and if I keep the TV turned low I can watch it or work on my lap top without keeping Darcy up.  But forget any late night phone chats, unless it’s work calling, of course. 
  • Limited hot water. We have about a 6 gallon hot water tank which is usually more than enough for one shower.  If we get ready at the same time Darcy has to take a navy showerJ
  • Limited space for clothes and shoes. As a result, we focus on keeping only the items we really love. We do have a storage unit nearby and we plan to switch clothes out as the seasons change.
  • Internet and data. We learned that when you don’t have the normal home wifi set up you use a lot of data!  We have a Verizon “Mifi” but it uses your cellular data.  We had to really monitor data usage until recently.  Verizon recently offered an unlimited data option so we nabbed that right away.  It has been well worth it! 
  • Limited food storage. This was a tough one for me at first. I was so used to buying larger amounts of food and only shopping once a week.  No more big tub of spinach anymore! We need to buy our food more on demand. Perhaps this is why we find ourselves eating out more. 
  • Rain. This falls in the category of both a pro and a con.  The sound of rain in the Airstream when you are on vacation it is so soothing and even relaxing.  However, when you have to be up at 5:30, and it’s pouring constantly, this does not make for the most restful sleep, particularly for Darcy.
  • Dogs. Let’s face it, having 2 dogs in a trailer makes things a little more challenging.  Fortunately, our dogs are on the senior side of living and as a long as they have a snuggly spot to lounge and are with their people they are pretty content.  That being said, we could not have made this lifestyle change as successfully without our dear friend Gail.  She has been unbelievably helpful and so generous with her time and love for our girls.  Makes it a lot easier to head to work knowing the girls are so well loved when we are away.
  • Feeling more vulnerable. Feeling safe in your home is super important.  I wont go into details but we did have a moment where that sense of safety was compromised.  It required us to take a step back, regroup and re-evaluate.  The truth is we were vulnerable in our other home too.  But we didn’t necessarily feel it as much.  Let’s just say we are a bit more cautious now than we were before.  Situational awareness is important no matter where you are.

Enough with the cons!  What’s so great about tiny living??

  • Fast house chores! We no longer spend a large chunk of time managing house chores.  We can thoroughly clean the trailer in less than 30 min. It would probably be even faster if we didn’t have 2 dogs that shed more than any other dogs we know!  Laundry takes a fraction of the time since we use the laundry room at the trailer park and can do 2-3 loads at once.  We have even treated ourselves to drop off “wash and fold” for $1.25/ per pound.  Drop it off in the am and pick it up in the pm for the ultimate time saver!
  • Rent is cheap! Compared to our mortgage, rent space in the trailer park is very reasonable and includes water and garbage.  We do pay for PG&E which resulted in a costly lesson the first month.  Who knew a space heater consumed so much energy?
  • Achieving financial goals. This is a big one for us.  Part of this adventure is helping us to achieve specific financial goals and we have found this to be a big plus.  We want financial freedom in the future and for us this is a trail leading to that.  Not only do we no longer have the financial responsibility of a mortgage but we have dramatically reduced our monthly expenses. So many big and little bills have been eliminated.  No property taxes, gardener services, housekeeper, no water bill, garbage bill, etc.  Lot’s of little things we no longer have as monthly expenses. This also saves time as I have been able to automate the few bills we do have so I spend very little time now each month managing bills and balancing my check book. In fact, with Darcy’s encouragement I actually gave up balancing my checkbook.  I was the type that would spend hours writing every withdrawal and deposit in my checkbook and if it was off, by even a penny, I would spend hours until I found it! On the contrary Darcy would spend NO time doing this and guess what?  Nothing bad ever happened.  So, I decided to let it go and see what would happen.  I gave up writing EVERYTHING in my checkbook register and took that time back.  I could not be happier and I’ve gained a few more hours a month back in my life.
  • Buying less stuff. We buy less “stuff” because we don’t have a place to put it.  And if we do buy something, such as a clothing item it usually means something gets tossed or donated.  This also helps with the financial goals.
  • Enjoying experiences more. We have found that we enjoy our experiences even more.  We find ourselves enjoying more weekend adventures, and without the stress of feeling like we need to be home taking care of the house. Ideally, we would like to be a bit more mobile with the trailer on the weekends.  So far the weekend getaways have not involved taking the trailer but we are working on a plan to be able to get the trailer in/out of the current space without having to disrupt other residents around us. Our trailer space is tight and to move in/out requires other residents to move their cars.
  • More time to play. We have realized we don’t spend a lot of waking time at home.  And the time we do spend at home is more relaxing.  Between busy work schedules and the activities we do in between work we are not really home a ton.  We get more time to relax because it doesn’t take so much time to do house chores.  More time for Darcy to practice the UkuleleJ
  • Darcy can fix almost anything! Since our adventure began she has fixed 2 different plumbing leaks, a variety of minor repairs, and thankfully manages all things tank related. 
  • Everything within reach. Or just a few steps away. 
  • We are closer. Physically and emotionally.  Fortunately, we both really enjoy being in each other’s space and tiny living creates even more of that.
  • Wanna fight? Not for long in a trailer.  Going to the other end of the house because your mad doesn’t get you far.  Still just a few feet away.  Best to hug it out sooner than laterJ
  • We appreciate the little things even more. Kind of like how backpacking makes us appreciate a flushing toilet and having hot water on demand.  Tiny living makes us appreciate things we might have taken for granted.  Like elbow room in the shower, practically unlimited hot water, a flushing toilet with no need to monitor “tank level”, a huge oven to cook in, a giant fridge and pantry to stock our favorite beverages and foods, plenty of storage, etc.  We realize how fortunate we are to be choosing this journey and that this is a path to a larger goal. We appreciate our BENDable life.

And most importantly…….we really appreciate each other. 

 

 

 

 

Life

Darcy is #1 at removing #2!

December 18, 2016 · By Teri

One question we get asked a lot is about poop!  It’s an interesting topic and an important one if you are full timing in your RV.  For the first 2 months we were parked in a spot where we had only partial hook ups with water supply and partial power (not enough to run all electronics). The place was absolutely beautiful and had the most incredible view, but not having sewer hook ups added some interesting challenges in “waste management”.  This is the part where Darcy became number 1 at removing number 2!

 

Let’s first back up though to the beginning of our full time RV adventure.  We had been on several trips in our trailer, and of course loved it, otherwise we would not have opted to do this full time.  One thing we realized we did NOT love however was “RV toilet paper”.  Let’s face it, it was NOT Charmin!  It was so bad, I actually thought to myself “I don’t think I can do this for years!”. TP could be my breaking point!  RV TP is very thin and designed to break down quickly in the black tank.  There had to be a better option!  Leave it to Darcy to find it, and let’s just say she seized the opportunity!  She comes home from a trip to Walmart (they actually have a pretty decent RV section) and I open the truck up and practically the whole back cab it spilling over with TP.  I wish I had taken a picture.  Bottom line is she found a brand name RV TP (made by Scott) and figured it HAD to be better than what we had.  So she bought every roll they had in stock! And she was right!  Scott RV TP is the way to go!

 

So now that we have the TP part figured out let’s talk about tanks.  In a typical RV you have 2 tanks that collect waste.  The “grey tank” collects water from the kitchen and bathroom sink and the shower.  The “black tank” is what collects the liquids and solids from the toilet.  As long as you don’t put any contaminants in your grey tank you have more options in how you empty that and it can even be repurposed to water plants and such.  The black tank, however, is quite a bit more challenging. We knew this would be our biggest hurdle in living with only partial hook ups for the Airstream.  Initially, we found a portable sanitation collection company (Honeybucket) that would come out and empty the “black tank”.  This was great except it cost $90 each visit and we seemed to fill up the black tank within a week!  (Darcy has to go a lot! Lol).  Since Honeybucket was not cost effective Darcy began exploring other options and ended up purchasing a portable tank on wheels that we, I mean she, could empty and properly dispose of the waste.  Thanks to Amazon, our own portable “honey bucket” arrived quickly.  Darcy determined the location of the nearest sewer clean out on the property where we were staying and after emptying the black tank was into the portable tank she went on a little walk to get rid of number 1 and number 2. 

 

Donning her haz mat suit, which consisted of a trash bag with holes cut out for her arms and head, dedicated gloves, and boots, Darcy took on the weekly chore with a sense of humor and adventure. You will see from the photo that the event was a family affair with the dogs right by her side as if helping with the stinky chore.  Over the course of a few months Darcy became #1 at removing #2! Thank you Darcy!

 

Life

Home Is Where the Trailer Is

November 20, 2016 · By Teri

Web site lay out still under construction so please be patient.

For years we had dreamed of owning an Airstream.  In fact, we had a picture of one posted on our bulletin board as inspiration and had a small model Airstream replica displayed on our TV stand.  When we bought our first Airstream in 2014, the dealer advised us to buy bigger than what we thought we wanted due to the number of customers they have returning to trade up for a larger model.  We felt we had taken their advice into consideration when we purchased the 25ft International model.  Fast forward to the start of our full time Airstream living adventure in 2016 and it did not take long for us to realize that 25ft was going to be a bit small for living full time (for us).  We contemplated all the options carefully and ultimately decided that the 30 ft International had the most benefits for us for full time living.  So we found ourselves back at Airstream, as do many customers, to trade up to a larger model.  With the 30 ft International we appreciated a separate dinette and couch for lounging options, more kitchen space to prep food, a larger fridge, a bed that we could walk around all 3 sides, much more storage space, greater floor area for the dogs, tons of natural light, etc. We felt this would provide a much more “livable” foot print for our needs and it certainly has.  If you are in the market for an Airstream or just want to explore some of the different models up close check out Bay Area Airstream in Fairfield, CA and ask for sales manager Christina Bross.

Determining the right size trailer was one thing, but figuring out where to park it was another.  We quickly learned that city ordinances are not exactly supportive of those wanting to live in their trailer full time.  We had some incredible offers from people to come park on their property but we soon realized that was not going to be the most secure permanent option.  At any point we could get the knock on the door telling us we had to move.  It was a bit daunting when our closing date for our house sale was fast approaching and we honestly did not know where we would be beyond a week or two.  We made reservations for the first two weeks at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, CA so we at least knew that was the starting point.  We also were exploring all the RV/trailer park options in the vicinity.

We arrived at the fairgrounds on October 2nd and were warmly greeted by our wonderful friends Robin and John who had coincidentally started a similar adventure about a month earlier.  I think we were in kind of a state of shock at that point as we faced the reality of the journey we had initiated.  It was so reassuring to talk to John and Robin that evening and share in our new adventures.  We felt a sense of comradery.  We also started out our first week without our dogs. This was quite a big adjustment and our friend Gail graciously offered to take care of our 2 dogs for the first week to allow us some time to get settled with our new routine. This was a HUGE help.

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October 3, 2016 marked the final day in our home and was definitely the most emotional day for both of us.  All of our belongings were now out of the house and the finality of our decision to do this really hit hard.  There was no going back now.  As I walked through the house and took in the emptiness I broke down in tears and asked Darcy if we made the right decision.    Darcy reminded me how lucky we were to have had so many great experiences in our home and that we were fortunate to be leaving with full hearts as opposed to broken ones.  I wholeheartedly agreed.  We then shifted our focus on the adventure and opportunity that was ahead of us.

So there we were, our first week of full time tiny living.  So far so good.  We got this!  Of course, nothing can be that easy.  So begins the series of many lessons learned.  One of our first lessons was in cellular data usage.  We knew we needed a portable wifi option so I could reliably connect to my work computer. I read about options on line and opted to purchase a MiFi jet pack from Verizon.  No problem. Seemed pretty easy to use. Only problem…we had connected our phones to the MiFi device when we were at the Verizon store and did not know we should have disconnected them after that.  Apparently, phones are not judicious in the use of data when connected to wifi.  The wifi from the MiFi uses our cellular data.  Unfortunately, our plan is not one of those coveted unlimited ones.  Three days into our new billing cycle we started getting alerts telling us our data plan was used up.  And this was AFTER we had already expanded the amount of data we had in our plan.  Yikes!  Back to Verizon we went.  Thankfully, their customer service was excellent and they were very helpful in educating us as to how the issue had occurred and adjusted our data plan to accommodate the error.  So the lesson we learned was this….don’t allow the phones to connect to the jet pack.  Phones are data hogs!

Determining where our permanent location would be ultimately came down to location and stability.  Our standing back up plan continued to be the fairgrounds in Pleasanton but we did not feel that would be the best option for the long haul due to commute length and the fact that the fairgrounds require you to move every 14 days for one night.  Other options we considered included some mobile home/ RV parks in Concord and Clayton.  After weighing the pros and cons of the various locations we opted to focus our attention on a small RV park in Pleasant Hill called Park Royale.  It has a combination of small mobile homes and RVs.  We had received good feedback about the place from several of the residents.  It was a great location and at $650/month, it was also a good value.  The only problem is there was no current opening.  Also, once you move into a spot you are not allowed to change locations in the park. So, that meant we needed to focus on a good spot that we felt would work best for the long term.  At this point, we have the spot identified that we want and if all goes well, we’ll move into that location by the end of December.

In the meantime, we took a friend up on the offer to park on his property until our permanent location is available.  We currently lack the convenience of “full” hook ups but have enough amenities to make it work.  This has eliminated the longer commute and has offered other experiences we could not have predicted.  One of the best parts of our temporary location is an incredible view of Mt. Diablo from the trailer.  Each day we learn more and more about the “art” of tiny living and look forward to sharing some of those experiences in upcoming posts.  For us, home is where the trailer is.

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Life

First Post

November 7, 2016 · By Teri

November 7, 2016

First blog post…..sorry if the site is a bit clunky.  We are newbies to the blogging/ web site world and this is DEFINITELY a work in progress! I had no idea there were so many steps needed to get a blog set up.  I’m sure there must be easier ways of doing this but we don’t usually take the easy path.  Darcy and I both like taking the trails less traveled:)

As of this post (11/7/16) we are just over 1 month into our new tiny living adventure.  For those who don’t know, in August, 2016 we decided to sell our home and significantly downsize.  We decided to live in our trailer.  Why?  Well, there are lots of reasons,  some of which will be highlighted in future posts.  We loved our house and we had certainly put a LOT of work into it over the 10 years we lived there.  But, we were itching for some kind of change, something different.  The house we once felt would be the house we would stay in forever no longer had that sentiment.  It felt like a chapter of our lives was some how coming to a close and a new one was about to emerge.  We had casually talked about selling but were not sure what we would do.  Would we buy another house?  Maybe a condo? We were not sure but the topic kept circling back. I continued to watch the real estate market but didn’t see anything that really sparked either one of us to want to take action.  We are avid fans of the TV show “Tiny House Nation” and in general have been inspired by the whole tiny house movement.  We love the focus on less “things” and more “experiences”.  We often asked each other “Do you think we could do that?” when watching these people on TV downsize their entire lives to less than 400 sq ft.  We would often laugh and talk about how crazy it would be.  Just our bikes alone would need their own tiny house! And with 2 dogs, all our clothes, kitchen stuff, it seemed like an impossible dream.  Could we really downsize to that extreme?

I wont go into detail of the “other”reasons in this post but lets just say the fuel was on the fire and the match was lit on August 7, 2016.  On this day we watched a documentary called Minimalism: A documentary about the important things.  We were immediately inspired.  We had been dreaming of ultimately traveling in our trailer but that was not going to be for years due to career commitments.  After watching the documentary, Darcy asked me “What if we live in the Airstream NOW?”  What would that look like?  We talked about it.  There would be challenges of course but the adventure of it sounded really appealing.  After weighing all the pros and cons we decided we were really serious and called our realtor.  On October 2, 2016 our “tiny living” adventure began.  And we couldn’t be happier with our decision.  It has been challenging, comical, and educational in so many ways.  We look forward to sharing part of our adventure in future posts.

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About Us

Hey there, we're Teri and Darcy, the creaters of Bendable Life. We made the decision in 2016 to change the way we live life by having fewer "things" and more "experiences". To do this, we sold our house and moved into a 30 foot travel trailer to save money and reduce our daily responsibities. We hope you enjoy our stories as we live our Bendable Life.

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Latest Posts

  • Bendable Life in Bend, OR June 30, 2017
  • Livin the tiny dream April 10, 2017
  • Darcy is #1 at removing #2! December 18, 2016
  • Home Is Where the Trailer Is November 20, 2016
  • First Post November 7, 2016

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