How to build a House for Free

How this all started!

The Lucky 7

Three years ago, I came into the possession of a wonderful old boat called the Lucky 7. Everything important to do with her seem to happen on the 14th.(7x2=14) I lived on that boat for over a year and loved the experience. Unfortunately, there was too much rot in the wood for me to repair her back to her former glory and in the end she was demolished for scrap. I was heartbroken as she was my first home of my own and I had finally been able to experience my dream of living on the water.

As much as I loved that boat ( and she was seriously cute), I had always lamented the lack of space. I am fairly good at living in small spaces but was really missing having appliances like a washer/dryer, a full size fridge and a room for all my tools and craft supplies. Ideally I would have preferred to live in a float home and had the boat for excursions and holidays.

Well today (being the 14th day of the 7th month) my dreams are about to become a reality! I have been sitting on this news since June 21st, as I didn't want to jinx anything and I am about to explode with excitement. I am finally getting my dream home..... a beautiful huge floating building that has enough room for all of my needs.

 It has been a month fraught with anxiety and stress as I tried to pull things together to make this happen. The house ( well really its a huge workshop that I will be converting into a house) is 60 km away in a town called Mission. I have to arrange for a tugboat to bring her down to Vancouver where she will be moored for the time being. This is not the ideal time of year to be doing this as the freshet is running strong right now( freshet is the runoff from melting snow in the mountains, this increases the flow of the river dramatically and makes things much harder to control).

 Of course the tides have not been cooperating at all lately. The marina I will be moored at, needs to do a lot of rearranging of docks and vessels to make room for me and high tide is needed to accomplish this. Unfortunately all the high tides have been at 2 am or some such thing and during the daytime the tides are staying very low. This has slowed things down a lot. The tugboat also needed some work done to the prop before going out and they couldn't get space to work on it until today. Once the prop has been repaired, they will be going back to the marina to move a few vessels around and then tonight or tomorrow morning, they will be going up river to pick up the" Ark" as it is affectionately known. My stomach has been in knots for the last month and I can't wait until she is home and in her berth safe and sound.

Seven years ago, one of my teachers had us do an exercise where we were to draw a picture of anything we wanted that exemplified our hopes and dreams for the future. My drawing was of me and my cat on a houseboat with an attached float that carried a greenhouse. Now my dream is finally manifesting itself. I never lost sight of my goal, I hoped and prayed for it constantly. I wanted a place big enough to work out of, entertain in and be creative in. My ultimate goal is to make the place completely off the grid by producing my own power, having a water desalinator and installing composting toilets. I will eventually get a floating greenhouse together so I can produce some food for myself.

The most amazing thing is, I am creating a home for free in the most expensive city in Canada. How is that possible you ask? Well we live in such an affluent society, that people are throwing away/giving away everything and anything, including homes. Seriously, in the last year I have seen several homes for free on craigslist. You just need to pay for moving them. This was a free floating building that a friend had acquired. They weren't able to make the payments on their moorage, so I paid off their debt in exchange for the house. ( A HUGE thanks and hugs to my Dad and friend Daryl who lent me the money to do this)

 I had a vision of what I wanted in my dream home and while holding that vision, I have been scouring the free section on craigslist everyday for the last year searching for the things I wanted. I am lucky foresighted enough to own a cargo van, I rented a 40 foot container for a storage locker and have been filling it full with all my finds. I had found pretty much everything I needed to create a home except for the material for the actual structure itself. Now that I have that, I am good to go. I have all the appliances, fixtures, flooring, cupboards ,windows, doors, etc, etc that I need to finish it to suit me and my needs. I saved everything I could from the boat demolition so there will be many aspects of the Lucky 7 incorporated into the house as well.

 I will have many years of stuff to blog about as I go about doing all my renovations and finally getting my life out of storage so I can show you all my treasures. If you don't hear much from me in the next few weeks, it's because I will be busy moving and starting some Reno's so I have the basics in place, like somewhere to cook, sleep and wash up. Stay tuned for the adventures of the Eclectic Ark!

                                                      HOME SWEET HOME!!

So focus on your dreams, let the universe know exactly and specifically what you need/want, don't get too attached to what that looks like, and act like it is already your reality,because dreams CAN come true! I'm a dreamer and look what I manifested!

Read my page The Ark to learn the history of my home and to see some pictures of the interior before the reno's get started.

What do your dreams look like. Have you been able to manifest them?

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Inspiring Makeover

Some houses are so cute, it's not hard to see how your furniture will fit and how to decorate the space. Then there are those so ugly, you can't ever imagine living in them or making them homey. This woman knocked my socks off with her reno's. She took a house I would have walked right past without a second look( unless it was in horror, the way you can't stop looking at a car accident) and turned it into a place I would love to live in. Take a minute to go check out her before and after shots of the reno's, I promise you will be impressed and inspired.



http://theoldpaintedcottage.blogspot.com/2009/08/cottage8-before-after-reveal.html

100 Things About Me

1.  I am addicited to shopping in thrift stores
2.  I love cats
3.  I have one cat named Casper who is the light of my life
4.  I love chocolate,.... hot chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, orange flavored chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate brownies....you get the idea
5.  Every year I give up chocolate for lent.
6.  I think this makes me a stronger person
7.  My favorite drink is water
8.  I'm allergic to coffee
9.  I've moved over 100 times
10. I speak French fluently
11. I am a Capricorn and proud of it
12. I love to read and have over 3000 books ( mostly reference books)
13. My favorite TV show is Survivor, I wish I could be on it
14. I've owned two horses
15. Summer is my favorite season but I also like the promise of Spring, and the mysterious nature of Fall
16. I can live without winter
17. I used to be a chimney sweep
18. I loved that job, I got to see the interiors of so many great home's
19. I used to be a bartender
20. I loved that job, I got paid to be at the party
21. I work as a Massage Therapist
22. I love my job, I get to help people
23. I lived in Europe for 11 years, I loved every minute of it
24. I've driven across Canada 7 times, the fastest time took three and a half days, the longest took a month
25. I've sailed across the Baltic Ocean
26. I'm a night owl, I have a hard time sleeping before 2 am.
27. I love having the night to myself while everyone else sleeps, I'm my most creative then
28. I want to live in a hobbit house
29. I lived on a boat for a year
30. I've dyed my hair everything from indigo blue, jet black, various shades of brown, pink and red, none of it sticks, my blonde always shows through
31. I don't understand most poetry, I take things too literally
32. My favorite flowers are scented ones, Honeysuckle, Jasmine, Gardenia,Lilac, Carnations
33. My favorite houseplants are Scented Geranium, Varigated Philodendron and Peace Lily's
34. My favorite colours are pink and purple to wear and burgendy and sage green in my home
36. My first craft project was making a dream catcher
37. Mosquitos don't like me, I rarely ever get bit by them
38. Horseflys love me and will hunt me down at all costs to their life and limb
39. I am physcic when it comes to knowing what sport team will win
40. I hate watching sports, so I never use my powers
41. I used to play the steel drums
42. I still play hand drums
43. I tried to play bass and guitar but never got very good at them
44. I wish I could play the fiddle, banjo and harmonica
45. If I was rich, I would travel forever
46. My first thought upon waking up, is "must check email"
47. My biggest peeve is loud noises like leaf blowers, lawn mowers, car alarms
48. My greatest fear is being homeless
49. My favorite ice cream is Butter Pecan in a  waffle sugar cone
50. My favorite jewlerry is silver and garnet stones
51. My biggest regrets: not keeping a diary my whole life and not saving 10 percent of my income since childhood
52. I can roll my tongue in a circle
53. I have always wanted a tattoo but have never gotten one
54. I used to do airbrush tattoo's at craft fairs
55. I love cucumbers and relish and garlic and dill but I hate dill pickles
56. I love cooked carrots and raw carrots but hate carrot juice
57. I like the look of sexy high heels but can't wear them at all
58. I have never worn a bra that I didn't want to rip off after five minutes
59. I love sushi but only eat it plain with no soy sauce or wasabai
60. I love Thai coconut curry but can't stand East Indian curry
61. My favorite comfort food is macaroni and canned tomatoes
62. I have never been lucky in love
63. I have never won anything more than a free lottery ticket
64. I believe in magic
65. I've never broken a bone
66. I love lists, I make them all the time for all kinds of reasons, I have lists of lists
67. My weakness is sensitivity, I tend to take things to heart, it's easy to hurt my feelings
68. I was in a bad car accident years ago, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, my life changed in every way afterwards
69. The pain from that accident was the worst of my life, it lasted 7 years and was 24/7
70. I prefer sweet snacks over salty
71. I wish I lived in a society where I didn't need keys, I hate carrying keys around
72. I like vanilla flavored food but hate vanilla scented things like candles and pot pourri
73. Everytime someone buys me a scented gift, it is always vanilla
74. The chore I hate the most is vacumning
75. I never liked taking baths until I had a bathtub in my bedroom, now I love them
76. I'm not afraid of spiders or snakes
77. I'm horrified and disgusted by cockroaches
78. I learned to drive when I was 14 but didn't get my license until I was 18
79. I always wanted to homestead , be off the grid,and live off the land,
80. I could read very well before I went to kindergarden
81. I hate the colour orange unless it's food
82. I was healed of agonizing pain by someone playing the digereedoo over me
83. I have never understood people who put ketchup on everything  like eggs, I only use it on hambugers
84. I think I lived in Glastonbury England in a past life. I went there for a visit and felt like I was finally home after a lifetime of travelling
85. My 3 favorite songs are Lazy -Deep Purple, Do you feel like I do- Peter Frampton, Street Corner Talking- Savoy Brown
86. The song I hope I never hear again is Jump- Van Halen
87. I loved the 60- 70's, hated the '80's
88. I have been working since I was 13 years old, yet I have never had a job with benefits
89. I was born on one coast of Canada and live on the other. I hated living anywhere in the middle.
90. I wish Canada and the USA had been divided from top to bottom instead of across the middle so we could have a  southern climate too
91. I've cheated death 6 times
92. I'm not scared to die, but I don't want to suffer
93. I believe in reincarnation
94. I love Halloween, its my favorite holiday and I always get dressed up
95. I would rather host a home party then go out to a bar
96. I don't care much for alcohol, but if I am going to have a drink, I like a German Pilsner beer or Grand Marnier on ice. On very hot days , I have been known to have a frozen Marguarita
97. I love to dance but I suck at it
98. I was a pool shark in my 20's
99.  I don't like soda pop at all, never have, don't understand how people can drink liters of it

100. I am torn between wanting plastic surgery to look better and being terrified I'll end up looking like this

I think I will live with what I have!

Whats one hundred things about you?
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