The funniest show on DIY Network follows people who have decided to get into the house-flipping market as they tackle their first project. If the mishaps and mayhem of inexperienced carpenters didn’t provide enough entertainment, the overlays of commentary added by the producers certainly make the experience hilarious.
I watch this show while eating dinner or doing laundry, interspersed with reruns of Tiny House Hunters on HGTV. I tell myself that I admire these brave souls but actually I get some sordid satisfaction from not being the only klutz in town. I tell myself that if I ever rehabbed a house, I’d wear safety goggles and steel-toed boots.
The truth is that I’m jealous of anyone who hauls out the toolbox and manages to produce a livable dwelling with sleek tile and gleaming varnished floors.
I have no carpentry skills but I greatly admire wood guys. And gals. I’d like to be able to stand amidst the sawdust holding a finished product or on a deck that I’ve sawed and stained. The drive to refresh and renew keeps me glued to the television while couples, sisters, and best friends swing sledge hammers and challenge their relationships.
So you can imagine my glee as I toured my tiny house at Country Cabin Village in Hamilton, Missouri yesterday. My friends Paula Kenyon-Vogt and Sheldon Vogt accompanied me to the site where my future home moves increasingly closer to reality under the able hands of Kevin Kitsmuller. I stood watching Sheldon and Kevin plan the next phase. They drew sketches on the wall to depict the placement of the stairs, the live-edge drop-down table which Sheldon will build, and storage for the wooden folding chairs at which I and my guests will dine.
I don’t yet know where I’ll park the tiny house, but friends, in case you doubted it, I’m definitely going tiny. I’m selling my home and downsizing to whatever I can fit into the various storage cubbies which Kevin has designed in my tiny house. I’m hoping that I and the old grey dog will make the transition with minimum fuss. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what the next chapter of my life will hold and where it will unfold. But one thing is for certain: everything will change as I stand my reality on its head. I’ve never done a 180 on life. So I guess you could say: I’m Corinne, and this is my first flip.
It’s going to be a doozy. But I’m not complaining.
It’s the twenty-fifth day of the forty-second month of My Year Without Complaining. Life continues.
Is that a fold down deck on the front? !
No, I’m sitting in what will be an outside tool / storage shed. The front door is on the back side of what you see. Wherever I end up parking it, we will build a deck “in place” according to dictates of where I am at the time. For now it just has steps.