ATTENTION ALL BUSINESSES: You Stink, You Lose! No Money for You.

Blood...Sweat...Tears

It's tax time! For the past eight years I've gone to the same tax man, felt too much worry, and paid too much money. I really like my tax man. He is very personable and free with advice. He makes his own homemade wine. Every year the IRS sends me a notice of correction and an extra refund because he missed some kind of write-off, but still he's nice and the IRS is efficient. I've always considered maybe I should find someone a little more competent, but most importantly, his office is fragrance-free and his receptionist doesn't stink...

...until this year. Unfortunately his former receptionist has moved on to another job. As I pulled into the parking lot I notice the silly, little girl through the window posing at her desk. I entered the building cautiously. The smell was faint, but detectable. On the desk sat a bottle of disinfectant hand gel. She had the crazed look of a chemical addict afraid to touch her computer. I made an appointment for an hour later, but as I exited my headache was building and my lungs were hurting. On the way out the girl hollered after me, "Are you SURE you don't have a phone number?" I grumbled to my car feeling massive amounts of irritability building with my discomfort.

What is it with the fanatical need to chemically disinfect everything these days? We are now expected to wipe down every surface in our lives with toxic chemicals. How did we get so paranoid wiping down a shopping cart has become standard practice and a requirement for grocery shopping?  I get it people don't wash their hands after they use the restroom, or they drip salmonella from their dead chickens, or maybe that package of bloody ground beef is contaminated with E.coli, or that snotty-nosed little kid just sneezed all over the cart handle, but hasn't all that been going on for centuries? Why do we need to sterilized our lives with toxic chemicals in order to feel safe and secure? Is it any wonder our immune systems are so screwed up?

As I drove away from tax man's office the pain and nausea continued to build. What to do? On the way home I visited and sniffed around two other accounting offices discussing cost with women wearing excessive amounts of make-up. No one can give a price or even an estimate and all of them said the cost is limitless. Great. The closer I got to home the more my irritation mounted right along with the growing pain and nausea.

My taxes are a pain especially if I'm forced to go into smelly offices to get them done. And they are expensive due to all the forms I need to use. The good old days when I did my taxes with an easy form are long gone. Now I must calculate profit, expenses, deductions, depreciation, amortization, exemptions, interest, and then figure the actual taxes. Can I use the short form or do I need to use the long form? Do I use 8829 or 4562? Schedule C or Schedule A? And MATH. Holy cow, the math overload is enough to bring on a headache. Since we are required to pay taxes, the powers-that-be should make the process a little more user-friendly.

What are my options? Or rather, option. Singular. Do it myself and feel thankful I have one option left. I became determined to do just that and use every free resource available if need be. I reviewed all eight years of my professionally prepared tax forms, followed several sets of instructions step by step, used the IRS website for information, compared the old forms with the old documentation, compared the new forms with the new documentation, and the new forms with the old forms...four hours later my taxes were DONE! You can't imagine how many times I wanted to skip steps just to hurry it along. But I didn't. I stuck to it. I am a proud American.

I do hope I won't go to jail for doing them wrong.

My Real Dream House: Part Three, pH Living

pH Living specializes in homes for people with MCS! Their designs are focused on environmental quality with special considerations to energy efficiency, green technologies, state of the art electrical distribution systems and low or non-toxic construction materials. They use wool for insulation and tile for flooring, although you can request hardwood, too.

http://phliving.us

The cost is $150.00 per square foot which is really quite reasonable. If I'm doing the math right (correct me if I'm wrong) a tiny 10 x 10 house would be $15,000 and that includes design, construction and building codes. I don't know if all building codes allow tiny 10 x 10 homes so even at 200 square feet the cost would be $30,000. Their website says it takes 3 to 5 months from concept to finish to complete, but really only 2 to 4 weeks to build the house.

Here are some of my favorite designs:

The Barn design

A Studio design - I like the stilts. No chance of flooding.

Another Studio design...this is my tiny house.
I like the woods. Do they come with it?

The Expandable Flat design...hmmm.
Looks like a lead-free shipping container. I can do that.

And they also remodel houses. I'm guessing that means they come into your house and make it non-toxic. Maybe they can come over and make my house look like this:

 

I love that architectural companies are thinking about the environment and healthy living!

 

Thanks to Anaphylaxing for posting this company on her blog.

My Real Dream Houses: Part Two, Cargotecture!

Shipping containers! I love this idea! It seems there is a surplus of old shipping containers lying about with nothing to do but clutter the landscape. Architects have put them to good use for housing. Because they are stackable, they can also be used for tall buildings like apartments and offices.

I read somewhere one used shipping container will cost about $2,500. Of course, as this idea spreads the cost will probably go up so don't quote me on this figure. I don't know if that would include the cost of delivery as I'm pretty sure one would need a special truck and rigging.

About a year ago I came across a video on a tiny house website showing how a woman got one for free and converted it into a house herself, cutting holes in the metal and adding windows and plumbing. She lived there with her young daughter and love that one whole wall would slide open and provide a great view of nature.

A company located in Seattle called HyBrid Architecture (www.cargotecture.com) is designing them ready-made. The cost is anywhere from $40,000 to $110,000 and up depending on size, style and details.

Here are some examples:

One, single shipping container house. The porch adds space, I think. I would prefer less yellow and more...pink.

Clean, simple, lots of light and air. 

This one is from Dwell www.dwell.com
 

This one is my favorite. I like the garden on the roof and all the windows.

 

Too shipping-container-ish for you? What about this:

Whoa!!

Whoo Hoo!

From Low Impact Living  www.lowimpactliving.com
 

 

I think this is the wave of the future. Not only that, but shipping containers are made of metal which is the material of choice for those who are chemically sensitive. Other non-toxic materials would then be added for insulation, walls, flooring and plumbing. I like the simplicity of design. It looks very airy and clean.

From Ecoble (www.ecoble.com)

My first concern would be to wonder what the shipping container shipped in its previous life. Did it transport toxic chemicals?

My second concern would be to check building codes in your county. I would think if you go through a company like HyBrid Architecture they could let you know, but if you buy one yourself and want to remodel into a living space, who knows what kinds of rules you might have to fight. In my area some of the tiny houses are not up to code as they need to be bigger than 10 x 10.

UPDATE/WARNING:  I checked into the toxic factor of these shipping container houses and it seems they need to be made with some very sturdy materials for them to withstand shipping, namely chromate, phosphorus paint and lead-based paint. The article below mentions insecticides sprayed in the floors and I'm sure that is for shipping containers shipping anything perishable, much like cardboard boxes are also sprayed with insecticides. Another article I read said before shipping containers are used as living spaces, their surfaces are sand blasted to remove all the old, [lead] paint. This would create a whole lot of hazardous waste.  So obviously, before you invest in a shipping container, first, make sure a professional architectural company is providing it and check to see what kind of pre-construction treatment or cleaning they do on it. Thanks to Evelyn for the tip!

Still, I do love the idea of taking something that will sit around cluttering up a garbage dump and making it useful, I'm just not sure I want to live in something that might give me grief. And as a MCSer, there is a good chance it would give me grief!!

Here's another article with more creative ways people have used shipping containers for buildings:


http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/the-shipping-container-scene-in-2010.html

My Real Dream Houses: Part One, Tumbleweed Houses

I've been looking into various options for small, affordable, non-toxic house construction.

Tumbleweed Tiny Houses  www.tumbleweedhouses.com 

The company will build one for you and deliver it. It runs about $40,000 and up depending on the features and designs. One can also buy the plans and build it yourself. I read a recently article about a woman who did just that and spent $16,000 on supplies. Fortunately, she had friends and relatives in construction to help. She now has it parked on the ranch property of a friend. Nice. I also saw a post on Craigslist of a man who is experimenting with building tiny houses. He's thinking he can sell the finished product for $20,000. We'll see. Unfortunately for me I have bad construction karma so I would have to have someone build it for me.

These plans don't include non-toxic materials so I'm guessing costs would run higher to build it chemical-free and healthy enough for someone with MCS.

Tumbleweed has many different style plans. Here are my favorites:

This is a Weebee House. I would love a Weebee. So adorable.

This is a Walden House. I'd take a Walden, too.

This is a Whidbey House. In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, most people built little houses. Why did everyone give up that trend? Now all we see are enormous six bedroom houses with four-car garages. I prefer a smaller house. Tumbleweed has a variety of cottage plans, still small, but a little bigger than the ones on wheels.

I was expressing my tiny house desire to a friend of mine who was in construction and currently is building his own house. I explained the tiny house plan and asked him how much he would charge to build it for me. He said there is no way I could live in a tiny, ten by ten foot house. He said my computers alone would take up ten by ten feet. I argued.

This got me thinking. In the last couple weeks I've been cleaning closets and re-organize my stuff to sell this house. How did I accumulate so much junk in eight years?  Currently to live in a ten by ten foot space, I'd need to get rid of about 90% of it.  How do I do that? He's right: my computers do take up ten by ten feet of my office space and my library takes up another ten by ten feet more! (Don't tell him I said he's right. I'll never hear the end of it!) Hmmm...How do I downsize and still function like I do now? Am I being rational? Do I need to wait to retire? It'll definitely be a lifestyle adjustment.

Well, I've reinvented my life once, I can do it again.

Dream Themes

I've been having the weirdest dreams since I became chemically sensitive. The thing that makes them strange is the dreams repeat. I recognize the same setting and same themes over and over. I know certain foods affects dream states, but I'm pretty sure chemicals do too, since chemicals affect your brain and dreams are brain-based. My dreams are so very strange and how they change and evolve is even more mind-boggling.

Furniture dreams. I dream I'm living in a huge mansion. It's usually my house or my family's house and I can see the landscaped grounds from a window. Sometimes there are people in the house with me either people I don't know, friends, or relatives from my past, but it's as if I'm invisible and no one hears me speaking to them. I'm usually in the mansion on the lower floors, but I know there is a small, secret passage staircase to the upper floors that is hidden beyond the door to the left. I can't wait to climb those stairs and get up there. No one else knows about this passage. I look forward to my visitors arriving so I can show them. I try to leave to go up the stairs, but either something stops me, distracts me, I fall asleep, or on the way there I encounter rooms leading to other rooms or hallways like a maze. I'm never frustrated or scared because I like it that the rooms lead to other rooms and closets lead to back hallways. I'm fascinated by the architecture. I'm always looking forward to getting to the upper floors, but rarely do I ever get there.

On those few occasions I have reached the upper floor, it looks like a huge room in a warehouse with ten foot tall windows and the room is packed with antique furniture. Hundreds of couches covered in velvet, over-sized armoires with elaborate carvings, huge oak dining room sets with ornate chairs, large painted portraits with gilded frames, and fancy lamps all on top of floors covered in thick, oriental rugs. There are narrow walkways so one can meander around in between, but there is little room between the treasures. Everything is dark, yet rich looking. There are a few lamps on in the back of the room, but most of the light comes from the huge windows. I know it's my furniture. I worry I need to get rid of some of it so it all fits or I need to move it around so it's easier to use, but it's too heavy. I tell the people who are with me what we need to do to organize the furniture, but they aren't listening. Everyone is busy doing other things or moving other furniture on the other side of the room.

Some of these dreams take place in an apartment building located in the middle of a city. The architecture is very old and ornate and I visit this building often in my dreams. Like the mansion, I feel very at home there. The apartments have huge rooms, high ceilings and the windows are covered with thick draperies. The furniture is again, ornate, overstuffed, carved and beautiful, but not usually as cramped. 

Other dream scenarios I have just moved to a small apartment and the furniture won't fit or looks out of place. If it just looks out of place, I am determined to move it around so placement is at least attractive. In one dream I walked into the apartment, looked at all my furniture packed so tightly it's impossible to move around and realized in a panic I don't want to live there. I'm frantically trying get the movers to move the furniture out before anyone notices thinking if I can get it done quickly enough I can change my mind. But the furniture is heavy and the movers are getting in their trucks. Hey! Wait! Don't leave!


Pet dreams. I walk into a large room and there are cages and aquariums on shelves or bedding on the floors. It looks like a deserted pet shop. I realize I forgot I had these pets and they haven't been fed. I panic. I run around the room searching and I find most of the animals are dead or the aquarium water has almost evaporated. I start to find some animals are miraculously still alive. They are very excited to see me, but are too weak to move. I frantically try to find food or water to try to save them. It's a horrid dream. One night one of those pets was a horse. Other variations I have found a litter of kittens and they are starving or sick and dying.

Then for a while I was dreaming I'd find a litter of kittens but they were fat and fluffy. I know they are my kittens and they run to me when they see me. It seems I left them with someone who has been taking really good care of them.

Toilet dreams. In these dreams, I am always looking for a place to potty, but the toilet stalls and toilets are filthy. Excrement all over the toilet seats, dripping onto the floors. Everything is dark and wet, and I can hear the sound of dripping water echoing loudly. I'm usually in some kind of public toilet so there are multiple stalls. Some don't have doors or the door locks are missing. I keep checking each stall, but they are all filthy. I move farther into the restroom and the hallways get smaller and darker and the toilets dirtier. There is rust all over the sinks in the corner. I don't want to use any of them. Sometimes I am with a group of people and we are all needing to use the bathroom; or in other dreams people are in the restroom with me and I can see their shadows. In other dreams people are watching me from a distance and whispering to each other like there is something wrong with me because I don't want to use the toilets. Oddly enough, I am very calm in the dream except near the end when I'm worried I'm not going to be able to find a clean place to do my business. And you thought the pet dreams were going to be the weirdest? HA!

What triggered my desire to confess these dark recesses of my mind is last night I had a mansion dream, eager again to go up the hidden staircase as I wait for my friends to arrive but when they do we are talking non-stop catching up and decide we need to head to the ladies' room...of course, I can't find a proper toilet. My friend continues to talk so I know she obviously doesn't have toilet issues. I continue my search suprisingly not surprised dirty toilets are the norm in my huge mansion with lots of gorgeous furniture.

Woe is me. Maybe I should write screenplays for horror movies? Any dream interpreters out there? I've read on some sites what some of the symbolism might mean, but I don't buy it. I think I need a professional dream interpreter.

Anyone have weirder dreams than mine?

Winter Project...Done and Over!

Well, I downsized the winter project just to stay sane. Making thousands of beads could drive a person crazy. This is one bowl. I had about four bowls worth of beads.

 

Instead of making a door archway bead partition, I made a "where-the-dishwasher-would-go-if-I-had-one" curtain. It's always been kind of ugly and unfinished looking. Eventually I had planned to remodel the whole kitchen so I waited. But I hate dishwashers. Besides the toxic detergents one must use with them, I prefer the relaxation of my hands in warm water sudsy with Planet Dishwashing Liquid the Miracle Soap. I keep my garbage can and the plastic bag receptacle in the space. If I put the house up for sale, I need to camouflage the ugliness. Isn't it odd I didn't finish painting this until I was ready to get rid of the house? You'd think I would want to beautify it for ME!

So rather than bead enough beads to cover an archway which would take me until the next millennium to complete, I made a bead wall to cover the dishwasher space. I painted the inner walls so they are prettier and currently have a raging headache from the fumes. It reminds me why I wanted a non-toxic winter project this year!

Now I want to buy a new, brightly-colored rug to match. My old one looks faded and worn when next to these shiny, bright beads.

Now the fun begins. I get to clean up and put the house back in order....



 

 

The Bead Production Center formally known as "the Desk". What you can't see is the dried glue all over those white desk protectors. Icky. "The Desk" reborn:




 

 

The Varnishing Center

 

 

 

 

I love having winter projects to keep me busy, but they are always so messy. By the end of it I am so glad it's over. With the varnishing table gone, I have my aquariums ready to plant my indoor starts for the garden. (See the archway to the right in the photo below? Yes, it would have taken me years to finish enough beads to cover it. I tried.)

 

 



The Stringing Center



 

Stringing sounds very easy. Maybe it is for a patient person. I had to re-string nearly every one of these strands because I kept making them the wrong lengths. In addition, one must make very good knots in the fishing line so the beads stay put. 

 

 

I used 50 lb. fishing line for this. The heavier weight line helps the beads hang almost straight although the end of the strand wants to curve from the weight and the elasticity. Damn fish tails. Why can't they just hang straight like a $20 beaded partition? I tried thinner line, but they hung very crooked with the weight of every bead bending the line. 

The dining table is back to normal.

 

 



 

 

After four months of production, it's so nice to have the house back to normal! Now with indoor gardening starts, I'll mess it all up again and feel very relieved when the plants are finally transplanted outside in June. I'll enjoy the clean and wait a few days before messing it up again.



Winter Project Woes: Update

THESE BEADS ARE NEVER-ENDING!

 

I have made thousands of beads. It's going much slower than anticipated. After two months and hundreds of beads I thought I'd take a break and start stringing them. All that time and after making all those beads, it came to...six strands. Since I need about fifty strands to complete one room partition, this was very discouraging.

 

Still, I trudged onward. Bead after bead after bead.

 

Then I started running out of construction paper! It's hard to imagine I used a whole box of old construction paper to make beads. When I first looked at my supply I didn't think I would need all of it nor get through it all.

It's very difficult to find packages of single colors to match my selected color scheme. I searched art stores, novelty shops, online supply warehouses and even requested colors on Freecycle in hopes someone such as myself had a box of colored paper not being used. "Hey, I'll trade my putrid brown, dirty-looking tan, and gaudy gold for your blue!?" No takers.

PURPLE BEADS!

I did find one office supply store that sold a package of blue and white sheets together. For some reason the company's marketing department thought blue and white should go together in the same package. But what about the other colors? Even if I purchased a pack of 100 sheets of multiple colors I might only get one or two sheets of the color I need. If I could even find separate packages of colors, it was going to get very expensive.

FUSCHIA BEADS!

 

So I got creative. I just bought a whole lot of white construction paper knowing I wouldn't need all of it for the beads. I figured I could always use it for some kind of art. Why not paint it the colors I need? Of course, that defeats the purpose of a toxic-free winter project, but it's either stick to my principles or finish the project. I'd rather finish the project. The great thing about painted construction paper is the color doesn't come off on your hands like it does with the dyed construction paper.

 

TURQUOISE BEADS!

 

In attempt to match the colors to the beads already made, I now have a healthy supply of fuchsia, light blue, light green, purple and pink, with turquoise beads just for fun in case I decide to change my wall colors later. (I think I'd really like turquoise walls!)

Now I'm running out of black and red. Damn. And I might end up running out of those bamboo beads, too, and I have no idea where to get a supply of those. A case of poor planning, I think, but onward I trudge, bead after bead after bead...  I've gone through five bottles of Elmer's Glue!

Bamboo Beads That Are Quickly Running Out

I WILL get this done!

Bloggerversary!!

Today is my first bloggerversary! It's hard to believe I could babble for a whole year. In the beginning someone told me blogging is too much work, too much time commitment, and too much responsibility.  It involves idea brainstorms, writing, re-writing, researching, re-writing, spellchecking, and more topic development. Add the illustrations and the photography and it's nearly a full-time job. It's not for everyone.

Has it been worth it? Yes! I highly recommend it. Other than the steep learning curve and the occasional technical glitch, there are few disadvantages to blogging, but many benefits. The first and most important benefit is the communication factor. As I've mentioned many times over the last year, I live alone in a town on the outskirts of civilization. The few friends and relatives I do have live hours away and most of them don't like to email as much as I do. I know few people in my area and those I do know I avoid as I value my health. Self-imposed exile is harsh especially in the middle of no where and having a blog affords me the opportunity to talk. Even if I'm talking to no one, I'm still communicating by expressing myself through words and pictures. It makes me feel alive. The comment section is a bonus and each response is a gift.

The second benefit is entertainment. Prior to the blog, I rarely used my camera. Now it's my partner in crime. I take it everywhere to document experiences in case I end up blogging about the event. I take pictures of the most mundane things! I also never really did much illustration or watercolor and having a blog has given me the opportunity to explore this medium. When work gets slow or the exile gets boring, the blog is there to keep me busy and entertained. Even if I'm not writing, I'm reading my own past posts or the blogs of others. I can't imagine not having a blog.

Education. I feel like I'm helping others who are chemically sensitive by sharing my experiential learnings. It's been a long, difficult adjustment to get to where I am now. I hope anyway, that sharing my experiences is helpful and makes someone else's life a little easier. Also, those who share their experiences are constantly educating me, too.

 

And last, it's incredible therapy! I am free to develop ideas, consider options, express my feelings, acknowledge my fears, identify my personal issues, explore my weaknesses, and work out solutions. Sometimes I even get feedback: comments agreeing with my ideas, supporting my opinions or telling me I'm full of shit. Like therapy, I can monopolize the conversation and not feel badly about it. And unlike therapy, it's FREE!

The first month of blogging I wrote 26 posts or almost one a day. It was off-season for work so I had a lot of free time and starting out I had a lot to say about chemical sensitivity. Last month, a year later, I wrote only six. Granted, I've been really busy, but I confess I've purge almost every subject on chemical sensitivity that I am passionate about. Now it's just the day to day survival experiences I have to share. I've heard the first six months of blogging is the easiest and after that keeping up the momentum can be difficult. Businesses and celebrities who have blogs for public relations purposes often hire people for blog maintenance and to write posts for them. I won't be hiring anyone to blog for me so I do wonder if I'll be able to keep up the posts, but there is no minimum requirement so I'm not going to worry about it. And it's free. That also may change someday but until then, hooray for blogging!

I want to thank Evelyn, my blog mentor, who initially inspired me and who has been there with answers to my burning blogging questions. She made that learning curve less steep. Thank you, Evelyn!

Happy Bloggerversary to me!