On the map (A tiny home/land development report)

It has been another busy week!

Since the shed was finished a week ago Thursday, this week has been a week of inspections and legitimization. And also a week of sweet peace and quiet, now that the genny and nail guns have moved on to other projects.

The (almost) entirely finished shed

I'm developing an affection for the cascading nature of this process. Each step leads to the next.

NS Power came to inspect the electrical work on Monday and issued a connection order. They told me that I would have power within 10 business days. No word from them yet, but ostensibly within the next 6 business days, they will come and install poles and lines and hook me up! After that, I can contact Eastlink and hopefully get high speed internet hooked up as well so I can work seamlessly from my tiny home.

The municipal builder inspector came and okayed the shed on Wednesday which meant that on Thursday, I was issued my civic number. I think I can be officially declared a civic number nerd – I was SO excited about getting it.

Salinger pretends not to be excited about our civic number. But he is. You know he is.

There are two reasons why I am excited about my civic address. One is the sense of permanence it gives me. Even though I won't be living here this winter because I can't afford to build a winterized dwelling yet, I still have the sense that this is my forever address – something for which I have been longing. As soon as I can get myself properly set up, I will get to stay here as long as I like. I can't be evicted or impacted by anyone else's decisions about the place where I live. I will be only at my own whims – and of course, the whims of the VERSE.* I can't even find words to express how desperately I've been longing for this. Security. Refuge. Shelter from the Storm.

And of course, getting a civic number is tied to getting postal service. I have been a postal nerd for many years. I love mail. I haven't been getting or sending much personal mail lately, but I plan for that to change.

I've had a big dilemma this weekend deciding how I want to have my mail delivered – I was given the option of setting up a mailbox, clustered with my nearest neighbour's box close to the top of my driveway, or receiving my mail in the community box down the road. There are many pros and cons to each option – The personal mailbox would be close and homey and convenient, individualistic and fun – but it would also need to be shoveled out and set back up every time the snow plow knocked it down. The community mailbox is about a 20-minute round-trip walk, or a 6-minute bike ride, or a minute-and-a-half by car, so that would either prompt me to get more exercise (a good thing) or drive needlessly (a bad thing). I wouldn't have to shovel it out or occasionally re-erect it. And it would be more secure, which is probably important, given that about half of my clients still pay me with cheques sent through the mail. The community box is more generic and corporate-feeling; it doesn't have any personality, but its setting is fabulous – next to a lovely little bridge over the Petite River.

The (sun-drenched) Petite River by the community mailbox.

The more I think about it, the more I think that I will opt for the community box, but once I'm living here permanently, I plan to set up a box at the top of my driveway too – well off the road, out of the path of snowplows (and therefore also mail carriers) and use it for miscellaneous pick-ups and deliveries from friends and neighbours. Maybe I'll even establish one of those cute little free libraries...

This week has involved some DIY stuff for me. I installed my civic number by the side of the road and installed the door knob and deadbolt on my shed all by myself. Neither job was very smoothly or elegantly accomplished, but they were accomplished nevertheless.

This has been a good week. I've been appreciating the heck out of the weather. I have been appreciating the heck out of my neighbours, my community, my cat. In general, I am appreciating the heck out of my little woodland retreat. This is the perfect place for me to be right now. My emotions have been all over the place this week. I've been very up and I've been very down. I'm ending the week feeling a bit fragile and sad. But there is fluidity to my emotions and that's important. I'm not feeling stuck. The best thing of all is that I feel like I have a safe place to be however I need to be. That is priceless.

* VERSE=Very Enormous Random Swirl of Events