Tiny living

James just bought a camper!” My mother exclaimed over the phone. James being my mom’s alcoholic good friend had won 100 grand off of a scratch ticket and well was enjoying his new found freedom.

“He says we should park it outback, he’s moving out of Dave’s house and in to ours! Isn’t that great?” I shuddered at the thought.

“Sure mom, great!” I said chirpy, knowing I was lying. Quite frankly I don’t like James too much, his deep love affair with booze made him a person to be avoided but since he was my step-dad’s good friend we had to pretend to like him. Or at least that’s what my mother told me to do, in her divine wisdom.

I ended the call quickly thereafter and drove into the city. Me, by that point, had broken up with my ex-boyfriend and we were still living together and trying to make it work, sadly it wasn’t.

A few months go by and mom and I are talking.

“James is selling the trailer for $8,000”

“That’s nice so what did you need from the store?” I countered. I didn’t care what James did, he had money so I’m butting out.

“Well I thought you would want it?” She threw in there.

My ears perked up.

“Wait, what? I would want it?” I asked.

“Yes, it be like your first home?” Thinking about where I was living now and a camper would be nice but...

“Where would I park it?” I followed up with.

“Well here for now until we found a spot.” In other words she hasn’t thought this through well enough, she just wants to help James get some money back (after he’d frittered it away uselessly) which I knew she would always do, as helping somebody in need is her way. Only he wasn’t in need, really (still had some left of his winnings, but not very much).

“I’ll think about it.” The famous words I would use to buy me time to shut her down by saying ‘nope, I’ve thought about it, and it won’t work due to XYZ reason.’ Only I didn’t.

I thought of all the great reasons to own this camper. It was small enough for 1-2 people, to house my cat and myself, get away from my now-ex, and to start over... Again. On the way to the store I thought about it, tiny living. It would be small, smaller than most boxes sized apartments in Vancouver, heck I could move at the drop of a hat if I wanted too!

So I asked,

“Where could move it to? Since your place can’t house it for long.”

“I was thinking your cousin Tracy’s!”

“Did you clear it with Tracy first?” I asked hopeful my mom did so I won’t have to live at her house.

“Well not yet but I thought for you to get used to it you could live in my back yard for a month to get used to it.” She had hope in her voice in other words she wanted something from me, but I still wasn’t crazy about the idea of her backyard.

“I’ll pass until we talk to Tracy.”

~

So we talked to Tracy and her husband Dave. Now I could tell you that three months at my cousin Tracy’s was easy but really it was hell. Her husband, Dave, loves to micromanage, hell bent on making me independent! I couldn’t stop the eye rolls hard enough every time he spoke to me. Boundaries were violated numerous times by both him and my cousin, it felt like I was 16 again and hiding pot in my room from my mother.

“What do you think kiddo?” I almost shuddered at that word, me being 33 years old being called kiddo really rubs me the wrong way.

“It’ll do,” I shrugged, home is where the camper is parked I thought. It was a beautiful piece of land in the back end of Langley, looking back that was the most at peace I was until I settled in and got a feel for what was going to happen.

~

Shortly after moving on to the property, I was faced with a mountain of problems, everything from “no turning the propane off” to leaving my fan on.

“It wastes electricity!” I would hear Dave bark at me at 7 pm at night, just as I was pulling in from work. Of course, they’d gone in and “helpfully” turned it off, without opening a window or two, so the temperature inside was about a million degrees.

I have an animal, a cat no less. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like wearing fur and cats...well, they are fashion queens who think fur is always in style and in a way I agree with them. My Persian Elsa who is my needy baby would exclaimed loudly, “Excuse me! Darling, I know you control the air in this tin can so do a me favour and make it cooler, I can’t afford to sweat in my fur!” Then she would bolt outside and under the trailer to cool off for an hour or two.

This would be my first month with my tiny home, I have spent six months in my tiny camper and have more to tell. Personally, I won’t be leaving it anytime soon, so there will be more stories to tell.

A home is where you closest to the ones you love, and where the other campers are parked. Until next time, Bye for now.