It’s probably no secret to folks who regularly read this blog that I’m not a big fan of the work-until-you’re-65-and-then-retire-and-finally-start-enjoying-life mindset. Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin’s book Your Money or Your Life comes pretty close to describing my current thoughts on the intersection between vocational and retirement planning.  This is why I was so excited to recently discover the blog Early Retirement Extreme.

Early Retirement Extreme is the creation of Jacob who at 33 describes himself as “semi-retired”.  (He still occasionally copyedits papers for a scientific journal for additional income.)   Through extremely modest living and careful saving, Jacob reached financial independence at 30.

Jacob writes: “Most of my focus in my ‘retirement’ is on finding ways to be more economically and ecologically sustainable and find ways to use less resources, live better, and to be the change I want to see in the world.”

Jacob earns additional “cool” points with me because he and his wife have made the choice to live full-time in an RV, making them tiny-housers as well as kindred spirits.

If you aspire to financial independence in a radically short period of time, I encourage you to check out the blog.  Be forewarned, though, that some of the advice is not for the faint of heart.  As Jacob writes: “I basically live differently from 99% of those around me. I don’t have a driver’s license, I don’t have any debt, I don’t live in a house, I cook everything from scratch, I cut my own hair, I practically never buy new or anything at all for that matter, I am not on any prescription medicines, and I am in great physical shape.”

Jacob has pulled together a summary page of some of his best posts from 2008.  I recommend starting there.   He also has a great 30-Day Financial Makeover plan which can be located on the right navbar on the main page of hissite.

And if all that doesn’t keep you happily busy with reading, Jacob can also be followed on Twitter at @extremejacob.

As one final note, Jacob recently had a post about his aspirations to become a tiny home slumlord.  Relentless determined to march to the beat of a different drummer, he refuses to choose Portland as the possible location because “all things cool already come from Portland”. Please do me a favor and drop him a note saying that resistance is futile and he needs to give it up and join the rest of the cool kids already. Portland could very much use its own  tiny home slumlord.

For those of you who don’t do the Twitter thang, my friend Bee recently made a LOLCat image from Rumi’s picture under the ceiling fan a few days back when we were dealing with a heat wave.

And before anyone reports me to the ASPCA–I am trying to find a window AC unit.  The challenge is most of my windows don’t open very high and the one I have that does is wonky dimensions.

Thankfully, we’re back down to 70 degree days in the marina again.  (And, in fact, Rumi woke me up this morning by stuffing his paw in my nose and informing me it was time to turn on the heat already.)

On my way home from the laundry mat yesterday afternoon, I stumbled across Polly the Ho’ sitting in one of my neighbor Paul’s lawn chairs catching some rays.  (The life vest was my addition over the holiday weekend.  Can’t have the poor girl drowning.)

Thought I’d share a quite photo.  You may also notice that someone took the time to make her mouth a little more PG for the kids at the marina this past weekend.

I have a sneaking suspicion this won’t be the last I see of Polly.

So I am completely enamored by Vodafone’s Extreme Mobile Solar Home design.

I don’t think it’s any secret that I’m fascinated by just about any type of tiny home on wheels.  However, there are several things I love about this particular design.  First, I appreciate the modern design aesthetic.  Many of the tiny mobile homes follow Jay Shafer’s design lead and have very rustic, cabin-feeling interiors.  While those have a great appeal for me, as well, it’s refreshing to encounter a different style of design which creatively employs the use of glass, light wood floors, and loft-style elements.  The Vodafone could easily appear in the next issue of Dwell Magazine without being out of place.

Secondly, the Vodafone design uses its 19’7″ x 8’2″ dimensions extremely well in terms of spatial design.  There is a spacious (by tiny home standards) sleeping loft upstairs, a well-equipped kitchen, and clever use of convertible furniture and storage space (such as the cupboards below the stairway).  And, naturally, the solar panels incorporated in the design are another fantastic element.

The home is built with white polyethylene panels and clear polycarbonate.  The modern interior has a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and two beds upstairs. It was designed by Waskman Design Studio, with CuldeSac, for Vodafone to showcase its fixed phone and wireless internet services.

The home is currently occupied by blogger Marcos Morales and his family as they travel through Spain. You can follow their journey here.

Below is a video of the home being built.

Photo credits: Waskman Design Studio

So I’m happy to report that Rumi is adjusting to both his life vest and leash surprising well.

The two of us have gotten into the routine of spending about 20-30 minutes exploring the marina together when I knock off from work for the day.  In fact if I ask Rumi if he “wants to go outside”, he’ll start excitedly jabbering, go stand expectantly at the front door, and hold perfectly still until I snap his life vest on.

What’s really shocked me, though, is his attitude toward the leash.  My cat prior to Rumi viewed a leash as a complete affront to his feline person-hood.   Rumi, on the other hand, seems to think of it more as a safety line.  I am expected to be firmly attached to the other end of it at all times when we’re outside.

If something happens and the leash slips out of my hand (say, when I’m trying to snap a photo) he’ll stop in his tracks until I pick up the other end again.  And if I should be foolish enough to drop it more than once in a session, I get a look of sour disapproval over a cat shoulder which I can only translate as meaning something close to: “Sheesh!  What kind of cat owner are you?!  My safety and wellbeing are at stake here.  Hang on to that thing, already!”

Rumi is getting pretty comfortable with the homes and floats but he’s still a little uneasy about meeting people in the marina if he’s not standing on his own deck.  His favorite time to go exploring on the ramps is a weekday afternoon when hardly anyone is out and about.

Perhaps our biggest adventure to-date is when one of my neighbors left one of the marina wheelbarrows outside my front door.  Rumi immediately hopped inside and the two of us were happily trundling him up and down the rampways–right up until my neighbor Dan ran into us on his way home for lunch.  At that point, Rumi wanted both out of the wheelbarrow and back to be safely back home NOW.

I’m still not certain he entirely gets just how much water is around us.  Some days he seems perfectly aware of the fact and others he spaces it.  For example, when he’s busy watching ducks, he’s perfectly capable of walking straight off the ramp if I’m not careful to rein in his leash.  He’s also totally fascinated by the boats docked out front.  Especially the kayaks and canoes.

When the river goes down more later this summer and it’s standing height out front of my house, I’m contemplating doing a controlled splash into the river to make sure the kitty “gets” it.  But I’m not that brave yet.  But watching my neighbor two door’s down’s dachshund happily paddle by in the same exact life vest makes me wonder if Rumi might someday get to that point.  At the very least, it would be good if he didn’t completely lose his mind if he ever fell in.  I’ll have to give it some more thought.

Some tiny home concepts are just completely fascinating. Often tiny home pioneers are also pioneers in other aspects of the housing revolution. This may be in the world of building materials, the artistic use of space or in the overarching concepts.>The Dome House meets all three of these criteria and in an impressive fashion to say the least.

The Dome House comes to us from Japan and has the support and approval of the Japanese Ministry of Land and Transport. As the creators of the Dome House are quick to point out, Japan has the world’s strictest building codes, so you can be assured that the Dome Home is a structurally sound design.

Not surprisingly with a name like the Dome Home, this housing concept uses a dome shape for its construction. This is not, however, a simple design aesthetic choice. The dome shape has been chosen for its unique building characteristics, which the Dome House team believes melds nicely with their choice of building materials. The dome structure, with the shape’s innate benefits, as well as the material choice of expanded polystyrene, combine together to give the Dome House a variety of interesting characteristics.

The material choice of expanded polystyrene means that the house’s construction is free of formaldehyde. This fact combined with the design’s air circulation plan combine for a home that tackles the “sick home” crisis facing modern housing. Further, expanded polystyrene is an exceptional insulator, and the dome shape itself contributes to the cost savings. Air circulates more freely as it does not become trapped in corners.

The Dome House, because of its expanded polystyrene design, will not rot or rust and is not vulnerable to termites and other pests. Due to its lightweight and dome shape, the Dome House is also very resistant to earthquakes. Of course, the earthquake consideration is of paramount importance for the Japanese building code, and it is no surprise that this factor played such a large role in the overall design. Additionally, this earthquake resistant factor could make the Dome Home yet more attractive in other earthquake hotspots such as California.

Now for the potential downside. Is the Dome House eco-friendly? The designers of the Dome Home have taken measures to make sure there is little waste in the design. Also a small team of a 3 to 4 people home can assemble the entire in a week using prefabricated, lightweight sections. There are only five basic parts in the construction of a Dome House. The prefabricated aspect of its design and quick build time definitely help make the design more eco-friendly. This is the good side.

As for the expanded polystyrene foam, it does not biodegrade and it is not easily recycled due to its low weight and low recycle value. There is also the issue that conventional polystyrene foams can have harmful substances such as benzene contained within them. The website doesn’t clearly address these particular issues specifically, but does point to the fact that those who choose a Dome Home will not have to worry about “sick home syndrome. This statement could very well mean that some sort of precautions have been put in place to protect dwellers from any health concerns.

The Dome Home concept has a great deal in its favor. The concept looks great, is easy to build, and the design concept would save energy in a variety of ways. Slowly, more environmentally friendly alternatives to polystyrene are becoming available, which could eventually make this concept a real winner. For now, the Dome Home is cheap to manufacture, is durable and has great insulation properties.

This past week is the first time we’ve hit 90+ degree weather since I moved in.  Like many places in Portland, my little place does not currently have air conditioning.  I didn’t think this would be a huge issue considering the fact that I’m sitting in the middle of a river with some of the best wind in the world.

Unfortunately, I’m learning that the lovely windows I added which only open in the bottom portions so as not to obstruct the view of the river are not as good for ventilation as I had hoped.  Moreover, I can’t leave my front door open like most of the marina residents do because Rumi is all-too-happy to go out and explore without supervision if I’m not paying close enough attention.  (It would really help a lot if I still had a screen over my front door.)

My plan is to eventually add a small, split-system AC unit but that probably won’t happen until next summer.  In the meantime, Rumi and I are spending a lot of quality time this week either under the ceiling fan in my living room, or, when it’s gotten really bad, in front of my open refrigerator.

If this keeps up I have a feeling I’m going to be developing a deep and meaningful relationship with my ice cube tray.

As it is, I’ve been taking a lot of ice-temperature showers and Rumi has gotten to the point that he’ll actually ask me to wet him down under the kitchen sink.

The temperature is supposed to break on Monday.  I can’t wait.

On a more somber note, this is the post I’ve been dragging my feet onwriting.  I’ve been using my crazy workload as an excuse to put it off, but the reality is it’s just not the easiest thing for me to put out into a public forum.  But considering I put other parts of our relationship on the blog, I probably need to put this, too… Awhile back, Charlie and I agreed it was time to stop dating.

While we’re both sad, it was very much a joint decision.  We’d reached a point where we simply could not longer ignore the fact that we want some very different things for our relationship and futures.  And the differences were significant enough that there was no way to resolve them without one or both of us compromising in ways that would leave one or both of us profoundly unhappy in the long term no matter how much we cared for one another.

The biggest deal-breaker was children.  I very much would like to have a family, whether that would be finding a partner who already had children or, preferably, having some of my own.  (And, considering my age, the later option is growing less and less likely at a pretty quick clip.)

Due to the Huntington’s gene being in his immediate family, Charlie has spent most of his life thinking that children probably weren’t an option for him.  It’s only in the last year he’s been tested and discovered he’s not a carrier.  And, as much as he’s tried to get behind the idea of children for my sake, he’s simply not there, and there’s no indications that that might ever change.  (As things stand currently, Charlie has an enormously difficult time even being in the room with a child under about the age of eight.)

Charlie also is not a believer in marriage. He simply does not aspire to have that be a part of his life.  While he would like to find some form of long-term, “committed” relationship, in his mind that means still having the ability to wake up one more, pack one’s bags, and leave in under two hours flat if things are no longer working.  (To be fair, Charlie could probably much better explain his position on this than I.  As many times as we’ve spoken about it, I’m still not certain I fully understand.)

I, myself, am not in a huge hurry to be remarried based on my experience last time.  If Charlie had proposed to me about now, I would probably have run screaming in the opposite direction.  But I do, someday, really want to be married again.  I want that commitment with another human being that you’re in it together for the long haul.  And while I have no sort of mental timeframe about expecting a ring in some certain amount of timeframe,  it’s important to me that the person I’m in a relationship be working toward the same long-term goal.

I also wouldn’t be completely honest if I didn’t say that my buying a house in Portland and my whole fascination with the small home movement had put a significant strain on our relationship.  Charlie dislikes small spaces about just as much as he does screaming infants.  And he was more than a little hurt that I chose to buy a place in a state other than where he lived.  I will probably write some more on that at some point, but not now.  I think there’s some valuable lessons in my experience, though, for others who have partners who disagree strongly about what’s important to them in a home.

There were also some interpersonal issues at play between Charlie and I, but nothing I want to go into gory detail about here.  My close friends have been hearing about those for awhile.  Suffice it to say, he’s still terribly British and I need a partner who’s more “out there” in terms of his thoughts and feeling, particularly in regards to how he might feel about me.

I still care for Charlie deeply and really, truly want him to be happy.  We’ve been through a break-up once before and we able to maintain our friendship.  It is my hope that once we’ve given it some time and space, we’ll once again be able to be part of one another’s lives as friends.

As it was, we had the most peaceful, loving break-up conversation(s) I’ve ever experienced.  We ended things well enough that we actually were able to go out to dinner and movie together before I left town during my stop to pick up belongings.  And I think highly enough of Charlie that I’d be happy to offer a character reference to his next girlfriend.

So consider yourself informed that at this point my personal story is me, my crazy cat, and a half-finished floating house.  And, for now, that’s okay.

Normally, my marina is a lovely, sleepy little floating village with occasional bursts of rowdiness.  That doesn’t seem to be the case the weekend of July 4th, however.  Then the world invades.

Long-time residents of the marina warned me that I really didn’t want to leave the marina after roughly noon on Thursday or I’d never find a parking spot again until the weekend was over.  I decided to chance it and go out for dinner.  When I returned, I lucked in to the last available “legal” parking space in the lower parking lot.

As of Friday morning caution tape started getting strung across most of the common places residents park second cars.  And, today I hear we’re going to have an actual guard stationed at the gate of the marina.  (As it is, there’s two security points where you need a code to get in.)  The city of Portland also completely shuts down Marine Drive, the main road along the bank of the Columbia, starting around dinnertime tonihgt.

The reason why all these precautions are being taken is apparently my marina, as the one sitting at the mouth of the Columbia River gorge,  is THE spot from which to watch the firework shows along the water.  Everyone with a connection to the marina likes to come down to the marina to watch the show either from our rooftop decks or from their boats directly in front of us in the river.  Plus there’s a large number of gate-crashers.  From the number of large-scale ice chests appearing on front decks, it’s looking like it’s going to be a heck of a party later.

To add to the excitement, more enterprising spirits have established entire camps across from us on McGuire Island.  The first round of drunken parties and fireworks kicked off in the camps last night.  Things were loud enough that, with my windows open to catch the evening breeze, it felt reminiscent of an oversized Saturday night party in the college dorms.  Don’t think I’m going to be getting much sleep this weekend.

So far, Rumi hasn’t been upset by the fireworks.  In fact, he’s hugely curious about what’s going on outside.  Last night he made a mad dash outside to see what’s going on over on the island.  Thankfully, he stopped at the end of my deck and simply did his little meerkat pose on his hindlegs to get a better look at the fireworks.

If it wasn’t so warm this weekend I’d be tempted to keep his life vest on all weekend just in case he gets out again.  As it is, I’m just keeping a close eye on him.

One would be hard pressed to find a more innovative use of shipping containers than the Greentainer Project.  There are quite literally millions of shipping containers already built, and many of them are simply sitting on load docks all over ports around the world.  What could be more eco-friendly than taking these structures, already built, and turning them into homes and offices?  The Greentainer Project taps into this rather sensible notion in a big way, taking the standard 40-foot shipping container and really running with it.

The Greentainer takes the idea of large windows and ample light exposure to a new level, as the floor to ceiling windows wrap around the entire shipping container structure. Essentially, the vast majority of the walls have been replaced with glass, leaving the original shipping container floor, ceiling and support structures.

One of the first aspects of the Greentainer design that most people will notice is that it is quite beautiful. No doubt the design concept is simple, but the execution of that concept is well done and polished. Lit up at night the Greentainer looks more at home in a museum than it does in suburbia or an business district.

The eye towards functionality is high which also yields a great degree of flexibility in how the Greentainer itself can be used.

The entire Greentainer concept is one that is designed to be eco-friendly.  Solar panels are built into the top of the design to provide for the units energy needs, and the large floor to ceiling windows make the Greentainer an excellent choice for passive heating in colder climates.

The Greentainer is a truly excellent example of how new concepts in housing can be elegant, eco-conscious and very economical.  The notion that all homes must be built in exactly the same way is an idea that will likely not hold sway in the 21st century.