ADU, Travel, Community
Lina Menard
Maui, Hawaii

After A Week Long Send Off, My Round the World Trip kicked off with eight days in Maui visiting my sister Sarah who has split her time between Hawaii and Alaska for many years. What an epic way to start this adventure! There was mist falling when my sister greeted me at the Kahului airport on Maui a week ago, so she teased me about bringing the rain from the mainland. We headed straight for Paia where she presented me with a young coconut and a lei, accompanied by the chant for the gifting-of-a-lei.

Maui, Hawaii
Tiny House, Travel, Planning
Lina Menard
Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla

A number of circumstances collided recently to compel me to move the Lucky Penny to my property in Walla Walla where I have a ground bound small house called Valencia Cottage. So on Tuesday trusted tiny house movers Linh and Stephanie Pham helped me move the Lucky Penny safely from Portland to my place in Walla Walla.

Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla
Minimalism, Workshop
Lina Menard
Downsizing Tune Up

As I packed up recently in preparation to travel cross country in my Honda Fit, I did some downsizing… It was harder than it had been during my last couple of moves because this time I had more stuff. I’d been living in a bigger space…My apartment was a studio, but it was still about 6 times bigger than the Lucky Penny! I talked with several people about the experience and a handful of them said “oh my goodness, I need to do more of that!” So I’ve decided to offer a 6-week Downsizing Tune Up…

Downsizing Tune Up

spray paint

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Painting My Skylight Frames

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2014-04-28 13.17.23 A couple weeks ago I purchased two Skylights for My Vardo from Mark at Natural Light Skylight Co. They are double-paned acrylic dome skylights with a plain black metal frame, which was all well and good except that my house is The Lucky Penny. It is not going to be plain. It is going to be a beautiful little house with copper accents.

So I decided to spray paint the frames with one of my new favorite art supplies: Rustoleum's hammered copper spray paint. I picked up a can at my local hardware store, Division's Do It Best Hardware (which, by the way, is the only place in town where I could find it!)

Voila! Beautiful copper skylight frames!

I started my skylight painting project by giving the windows a good cleaning and then covering the acrylic with newspaper, being careful to tape the edges thoroughly with masking tape. Then I set the skylight up on sawhorses, gave the can about 3,000 good shakes, and proceeded to spray the skylight frame down with a layer of spray paint. Once it was dry I re-taped the edges (because the tape pulls back from the edge when it dries after being painted) and then gave it another layer of paint. Voila! Drab skylight frames become beautiful!

Yes, I recognize that this spray paint is not the most eco-friendly product on the planet. I know, I know. But it is really beautiful. And I recognize that building a tiny house on wheels all about the trade-offs. There are a few places where I have to compromise one thing for another. I'm using styrofoam in the SIPS for my Tiny House - even though stryofoam is a material I detest in general - because I believe it's an appropriate application. It's lightweight, insulative, and doesn't break down. This is a problem for one-time food containers, but great for keeping my house warm! The spray paint uses aerosols and it's high in VOCs, but I'm not using much of it, and it's a quick and easy way to bring a little bling to The Lucky Penny.