Author: sandcastle

Colin Wright, the guy who lived out of a backpack for several years while letting his blog readers choose his next destination, is settling down for awhile. As such he needs to furnish living space.

Kind of like we did when we moved out of the motorhome. We did it by first making a list of furniture we needed: desk, chair, kitchen table & chairs, living room chairs, end tables, entertainment center to hold a large screen TV, beds & dressers. Then we went to IKEA to see what they had in those categories.

I’ve always been drawn to Scandinavian style furnishings so it was easy for us to find every thing we need at IKEA. Then we had them deliver it all to our new apartment. Easiest move we ever made. Except for the “some assembly required” part, of course.

Now Colin is writing about his concept of the Minimal Viable Home at http://exilelifestyle.com/minimum-viable-home/.

And the settee that has been moving around among Dave’s family members since it belonged to his Grandma is coming back to live with us again. I have missed having a couch in our living room. It will be good to have a place to cuddle up for a nap once again.

After all, minimalism is figuring out what YOU want to have in YOUR life.

TTYL,

Linda

You don’t always have to be traveling to meet up with RV friends.

Sometimes they decide to tour your home state and you can meet up for a meal. We spent a most pleasant two hours reminiscing about RVing with Jerry and Janice on Monday. What a wonderful happening! And how fortunate that they called when I was having a good day!

TTYL,

Linda

TTYL,

Linda

This is Dave’s piano keyboard and stand that traveled with us in our RV. The keyboard stand and the music stand both fold up to be stashed when not in use. They sit out full time now that our house no longer moves.

The chair is a current dining chair that moves into position when Dave decides to play.

The cabinet on the left holds his head phones and music collection although, as you may have noticed, his headphones are sitting out at the moment.

The lamp moves onto the piano to better light the music.

The little black thing on the floor at the corner of the music cabinet is not part of the system. It belongs to the Roomba vacuum to tell it not to go under the piano.

The candle on the music cabinet is also not part of the system. That is one of our emergency candles that will burn for 90 hours in a power outage.

The other thing minimalist about this piano is how often Dave plays it. But, he does enjoy doing so when he decides it is time again.

TTYL,

Linda

This minimalist fireplace is built in across one corner of our living room.

The framing is less than one inch deep so there is no temptation to fill the top edge with nick nacks.

In keeping with the minimalist idea that you should decorate only with things that have meaning for you, the photos above the fireplace are part of Dave’s college photography class final. He took many black and white photos, developed them (in the only bathroom we had at that time), chose the ten best, and mounted them. He, of course, got an A on his final.

These three are of railroad tracks. If you know Dave at all you know trains have been an interest of his ever since he was old enough to ride his bike down to the nearby tracks.

Part of that interest, for several years, included participating in model railroad conventions. The middle picture above, the abandoned track by the old Burma Shave building, was submitted to a photo contest at a Thousand Lakes Region of the National Model Railroad Association convention. It took first place. (We won’t mention that this was the only black & white photo submitted that year.) As the winner, with the advantage of being a vertical format picture, it was reprinted on the cover of the region’s next quarterly magazine.

The other minimalist thing about this fireplace is its operation. It is a gas fireplace with an electric ignition. So, instead of acquiring and storing wood, using tender and wood to build a fire, remembering to open the damper, and seeing how many matches it takes to light it; we flip a switch on the wall and the fire lights. Can’t get much more minimal than that.

TTYL,

Linda