After sending out my blog last week I was inundated with messages asking if we made it to the Tiny House Festival or not. This week I’ll conclude my first ever, accidental two part blog and can assure you that it definitely got worse before it got better.
In case you didn’t read last week's blog, I can summarise it in two words - uncertainty and desperation. I left you all hanging, not knowing myself what state our little TinyOffice on wheels was in on the eve before its show day at the Tiny House Festival in Bendigo. Matt arrived home after midnight exhausted but still optimistic.
He was up again at 4.30am and straight to the factory to keep working. I had to organise the kids and get them to their respective institutions and all packed up for a weekend at Grandmas before rushing to work, posting my blog, and getting straight out into the factory. We had two other staff on and it was a hive of activity as we painted, sanded and drilled, always edging closer to The TinyOffice being ready for the show.
Despite being ‘Tiny’ there is nothing ‘Tiny’ about the tasks required to build a TinyOffice, especially one on a trailer. As each job was completed, another one appeared. There were so many trips to Bunnings that I was starting to get embarrassed that the staff thought I was having some kind of breakdown. I was to a degree, but the adrenaline was running high and we were making progress.
As the end of the working day drew near our staff started to leave. And rightly so, to be honest I envied them - to just go home and leave all of this behind sounded amazing. Alas, Matt and I continued working away, as midnight ticked by things started to slow down - Matt had now been in the factory for 20 hours.
There was a point when I was helping Matt put the final sheet of cladding on at 4.30am that something snapped. I didn’t care about making the festival anymore - I cared about being at home in my bed. We still hadn’t finished and if we left right then, at 4.30am, we’d have just enough time to bump in at 8am for the first day of the festival. I cried. I was so tired. We just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. After all my complaining last week about feeling helpless and being relegated to child minding, I was now back in my rightful position as ‘second in command’ and it was all too much.
At 5am we laid down our tools and went home. I was so tired that I couldn’t sleep - I was basically in the swings of a full blown, sleep deprived anxiety attack. We had worked so hard and nearly spent every cent we had to get this TinyOffice to the festival and we weren’t going to make it.
While I wept and slept for maybe an hour, Matt rang the event organiser. They were happy for us to come in for the Sunday, we just need to be there at 8am the following morning. This gave us all day Saturday to finish the TinyOffice and get to Bendigo. Matt’s relentless optimism paid off again. He was even excited about the day ahead and getting there. It took me a bit longer to come around but we were back at work by 9am with some coffee and almond croissants, ready to go.
It only took two more trips to Supercheap Auto and Bunnings and we had a TinyOffice on Wheel ready for the Festival. We were on the road at 3pm which is exactly when Ballarat had a tremendous hail storm but in the scale of the last 24 hours that wasn’t going to hold us back now.
The road to Bendigo was a long and stressful one - Tiny Houses are meant to be taken from their place of manufacture to their forever home. They aren’t caravans, they are small buildings on trailers. Matt drove the ute and couldn’t go over 70km per hour or the trailer would start to sway. I followed behind with white knuckles as I gripped the steering wheel so tightly my hands ached. Never have I been so scared of potholes and speed humps.
We made it to Bendigo and other than the hotel giving our room away because we didn’t show up the night before, it was pretty smooth sailing for the rest of the trip. We managed to set up on Sunday and even though the weather was terrible, we had lots of interest in our TinyOffice.
It was so great talking to real people about what we do. There were probably 4-5 people who were really interested and even just selling one TinyOffice would be enough to cover the outrageous amount we’d spent to get it there. The most valuable part of this whole experience is the lessons we learnt about putting the TinyOffice together (especially on a trailer). It was our first Tiny on wheels and like any first time you gotta suck before you get good.
In Angela Duckworths’s book ‘Grit, Why Passion and Resilience are the Secrets to Success’ she observed an equation that is common to ‘outstanding human achievement’. It’s not just talent or skill - it’s Grit. Grit is passion and perseverance for long term goals and luckily for us - effort counts twice.
Talent x Effort = Skill
Skill x Effort = Achievement
Effort counts twice and effort we have.
If you’d like to come and see our TinyOffice on wheels I’d like to invite you to our factory open day next weekend. Sunday October 2nd, 10-2pm we’re opening up the factory doors and showing people how we manufacture the HUCX prefab system and build our TinyOffices.
If you're interested then please register here. I’ve mopped up the tears especially and we’re very excited to share our progress with you all!
