Selling My Safe Space

The next step to my escape was to put my house up for sale. For the last nineteen years, my home has been my safe space. Well, with the exception of my lousy, thoughtless, smelly, noisy neighbors. My first trip to Tucson produced no rental options which made selling my house absolutely frightening. "What happens if I end up homeless?" I bought a t-shirt with the saying, "Fear is Not Interesting" and wore it all summer, every day, to give me confidence and courage.

As I might have mentioned in a previous post, the prerequisite for listing the house was to get rid of my art history book collection totalling nearly 200 books. I started selling on e-Bay the year before. By the time May 2024 rolled around, I sold most of them, but I was left with a few boxes. I took them to the used bookstore in the university district and they bought all but a handful. The leftovers I took to Half Priced Books and unloaded. I was ready. Was I? Not really, but determined.

Selecting a real estate agent was a nightmare. I interviewed three from outside my county plus three from my area. I chose the least stinky who was from my town. She didn't smell of perfume or scented whatever, but she did smell of laundry chemicals. What was I to do? The other five never once even showed my house and the two from my area made a point not to show my house because my agent put right on the listing to be fragrance free as if they were offended by the request. How rude they can't go without stink for one day. I seriously didn't think my house would sell at all with all these challenges.

When I finally had the house photographed and listed, there were few houses on the market in my area and I was happy about that. By June nearly everyone I knew and most of the local population decided it was time to sell. The competition was gruesome especially watching my neighbors' houses sell while mine just sat there. However, I kept having complete strangers ask me if my house was the colorful one, the artistic one, the unusual one. They all claimed to love it and wished they could buy it. That gave me a little confidence, but I also know "unusual" can be a turn-off to many.

Although the listing requested people be fragrance free, this was ignored. It was frustrating. And smelly. I bought some new air purifier filters and ran them for hours once the stinkers left. Keeping my house spotless was a nightmare. Getting agents who would make an appointment, expect me to leave, and then not show was frustrating.

After four months I lowered the price $20K and for the next month I got ZERO showings. I lowered the price another $50K. I really thought I'd be able to hold out for a better price, but once the nightmare of showings and constantly cleaning started, I just wanted it to be over.

The fall season came too quickly along with the monsoon rains. I was so disheartened! Would I really be forced to live in cold and rain for another winter? I worried constantly what might go wrong with the house before someone would buy it. I worried about everything!

Finally, I got ONE offer. ONE! I negotiated a closing date of 50 days a little longer than the normal 30 days because I still wasn't sure I'd be able to find a safe rental. I was told the buyers could cancel right up until the closing date. It was so stressful not knowing if they'd cancel and I'd have a house and a rental to financially maintained. But it closed!! Whoo Hoo!

I feel exceptionally thankful! Now to find a place to live!

Sapient House

Rebecca E. Webber is starting a fragrance-free community in Seattle for MCSers called Sapient House. You can read about it on her website HERE and apply to become a resident. We need more housing options such as this. I'm not sure how well it'll work in the city as I think finding areas with less pollution might be more promising, but it's definitely a start! Kudos to Rebecca!

Not-So-Tiny Houses

Tiny houses aren't so tiny anymore!  This one is 37 feet long and was featured on Tiny House Swoon. It's called the "Denali". Great video:

Can I have this? I don't even care if it's not on wheels!! But someone needs to "gift" it to me because at $77,000 I might as well buy a real house...with property attached. My neighbor's RV cost them $80,000 and I remember thinking Good Lord...my house cost that much! LOL.

Dreaming....

Hobbits Live Here...

Cob houses are dwellings made from dirt/clay, sand and straw molded like pottery. Unlike wood this material doesn't attract insects, doesn't mold, doesn't burn, and doesn't cost so much. This form of construction has been used worldwide for centuries and many structures hundreds of years old are still standing. The only problem is our modern building codes don't allow them. I guess the powers-that-be want us to deplete resources and more than ever necessary on housing. It's not necessary. I wish government would start thinking out of the box.

I recently had an opportunity to tour a 30-acre property where cob construction is being practice and taught. The Cob Cottage Company is located in southern Oregon and hosts tours and workshops year round. It was fascinating. Granted, the village is mostly off-grid, outhouses for toilets, the nearby creek for running water, outdoor showers and washing areas, fireplaces or wood burning devices for heating and cooking. They do have phone service and electricity, but no internet and no cell phone service. No cell phones? Hooray! Oh, and they don't like dogs!!! I think I found my people! There are about six people currently living in the village. Enjoy the photos...

The cob village was at the end of a very primitive dirt road followed by a hike through the woods. (Zippy was not amused....) With no signs, I constantly questioned if I was on the right road, the right path, and nearly gave up and turned around several times. When I reached this little wooden bridge with the arch made from branches and decorated with handmade pottery, I nearly cried with anticipation. After a few more trails to negotiate and forks to ascertain, I finally made it.

The first set of little cob buildings were clustered together and attached with cob walls. Each wall had an archway opening and handmade wooden gate with various styles of handles and latches. I love rickety wooden gates.

Some of the walls were decorated with various sculpted imagery, built-in tables, or built-in windows:

Roofing materials were cedar wood planks supported by tree branch beams.

However, many if not most had swimming pool plastic over which collected tree leaves in the fall, composted, and subsequently hosted a number of woodland plants. Lots of recycled materials were used as well, for instance, old carpeting and plastic tubing and water bottles for gutter drainage.

As the tour progressed we were taken up into the hills to see little cottages freestanding under trees. This was surprising to me since I always thought one needed to dig a deep foundation on level ground.

One of the cottages was built over a large rock. The stairs you see in the photo below climb up over the boulder in the middle of the room to the bed on top of it!

Lots of whimsical interior designs:

Most of the built-in sitting benches (like in the photo above) are part of the heating system that funnels the heat from the wood burning stoves or fireplaces under the seats. See the large, metal barrel in the photo below. 

It heats the seats to the left of it all the way around the room:

Floor tiles made from pottery scraps or recycled tile bits:

Outdoor ovens:

Outdoor bathing area:

Refrigerators built right into the walls using outside air for refrigeration:

We saw about seven different cottages ranging from about 50 square feet to 300 square feet. The most spectacular was the cob cottage I've seen featured in several books and websites. This cob house cost $10,000 not including labor:

The largest building was a community center of sorts with a meeting/dining area, kitchen and Rumsford fireplace:

Most of the kitchen was outside...

Next to the gardens...

It's like a secret garden with cob walls!

Awesome and inspiring tour. I have always worried about perfection and questioned if I was capable of building something that worked and fit right. I was relieved to see imperfection. Nothing was symmetrical, there were cracks here and there, doors and windows didn't fit perfectly. Heck, one house had plastic over the window. This gave me confidence that whatever I build, whether it be tiny or cob, doesn't necessarily have to be perfect. If you are going to illegally build a house that doesn't comply with building codes, who cares!!??

Now I just need some land.