
ENGINEER / ARCHITECT AND THINNING OUT !!……
Probably the most important new best friend you will need! That is the person making your plans…. It is amazing how difficult it suddenly becomes when you are thinking of getting 3 rather large human beings to live in a very very very small space – the beauty of where we are though being that 90% of your life you can live outside. Now don’t take that as me saying that 90% of the weather here is sunny and hot – it is not!! We just have thick English skin and are quite prepared to sit outside even with thermals, thick blankets and a fire pit – and hot chocolate… with added chocolate…. and brandy … and marshmallows…..sorry I digress, almost changed over to a food blog!!!
So your “plan maker” will need to be willing to think not “outside of the box” but in the box – actually a small oblong but you get the idea! Now it may be like us that you have been planning this for let’s say 5 years and have a million and 1 pinterest saves [literally] and various little plans on scraps of paper to the extent that there is no way in a million years that you will get to use all these amazing ideas you have saved – this is where your “plan maker” takes over and basically tells you what you can and cannot fit in a real world. One important thing to remember is what is REALLY important and what you REALLY want then make a new list of what you actually NEED. The ‘need’ list should actually be at least half the size of the other lists if not smaller ……and this is the list you need to try and stick to when making your plans. I have already literally spent the last year thinning out everything we own…. donating, giving away and selling anything that will not fit in the new “planned lifestyle” …… it is actually quite liberating, letting go of things that you are keeping “because” ….. Some things were quite “emotionally precious” – these things though had no practical purpose and would not have anywhere to be in the new smaller area – so I used my passion for photography and photographed anything that came into that category, when the house is up and running I am then going to make a huge mural in our bedroom of the photographs of these items so no space will be used but the beyond precious memories attached to these items, will live on……….
So what do you need? You need somewhere to sleep, somewhere to wash, somewhere to “poop”, somewhere to prepare food and somewhere to hopefully relax and hang out…… these are your essentials – the beauty of shipping containers being you can make all of that on a very, very, small scale – if it doesn’t work and you can afford it – get another container. Our “dream” plan has a HUGE kitchen – we are a foodie family you may have gathered- until we can afford the dedicated “kitchen container” we are going to live in 2 smaller ones which cover the “Sleep, wash and poop” functions with an outdoor kitchen. This is the plan so far – but watch this space as they say!
In the meantime we have been incredibly lucky to find a couple of engineers who are interested in what we want to do, who I met with the day before yesterday and will hopefully be a big part of putting the dream into reality!
2 Comments
Karin De Vaal
Dear Monro family, My mind blew away by reading, looking and watching your endeavours…incredible…and so interesting how it started all out, with sweet and sad memories interwoven.
I can relate to you because I have lived 30 years on a small sailing yacht and my husband Tony (UK) and I Karin (Dutch) have sailed in that time around the world. We are since 2019 in Greece and live in a marina in Agios Nicolaos in Crete where we are very happy.. But one day we need a ” home” because we are getting older {77 and 74 ) Then I was thinking about buying a piece of land ( lol ) and put a container there. One is probably enough, the boat is 10×3 m . We know about solar power and windgenerators. I am incredible close to your writing because it plays in my head.
I hope to read and see more in the future. With kindest regards,
Karin
monrocorfu
Dear Karin
How lovely to hear your own story and what amazing adventures you must have had! If you ever sail this way you must come and see us! The nearest marina is Benitses !!!Do follow us and you will see when the single unit is done and how cozy we hope it will be !!!
I have lots more to post but it has been super busy with work {I work for an estate agent ] and we were banned from using the welder etc due to the high fire risk …. I am sure you saw poor Evia on fire… so there is lots to catch up on …. lovely to hear from you! Kind regards Sarah-jane