A tiny house

We wanted a small home, so we bought a plot of land on the outskirts of the city and built a tiny house and invited our friends over for a tiny house-warming party.

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Of course there wasn’t enough room inside, so we all spilled out onto the front step and into the yard. Someone had recently come back from a camping trip and had some folding chairs and a lantern, and with a cooler full of drinks, we sat around outside for a long time and watched the stars come in.

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The next time there was to be a party, we bought some yard chairs and a folding table, and set up outside from the very beginning. But the clouds came in, and a forecast that was supposed to be a chance of rain turned into actual rain, and we all huddled inside, knee-to-knee like sardines, talking about whatever and whenever.

The third time, we had a largish temporary tent shelter roof thing to keep off any rain, and it went well. We liked that tarp on poles.

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It blew away in the storm, you know the one.

We had some disposable income, so we talked to a contractor and did some measurements and got the permits, and built a permanent roof. No walls or floor, just a nice, sturdy roof over a gravel floor, with a firepit at one end and a chimney. The roofed area was bigger than our whole house. We laughed.

Our parties got bigger.

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There was a bus line out to our neighborhood now, and one evening a crowd of university astronomy students got on the wrong bus and ended up at our neighborhood instead of the dark-sky site three miles south. They saw our fire and came to ask for directions. They had come prepared for a small party, with telescopes, and we already had a party, so we invited them into our circle.

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         oo o
         /o

They ended up staying the night, camped under the roof in sleeping bags.

At some point, we decided to add on to the firepit and make it an actual fireplace, with roasting gear and a small kitchen. We added removable screens to keep the bugs out of the porch.

People kept coming over to camp out, so we built a guest bedroom and another bathroom onto the side of our tiny house.

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         oo o
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So, no, this isn’t the tiny house we moved into. It’s more than that.

You see, we’re expecting.

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            /o  /