Why We Moved Into the Basement...Small Spaces...Tiny House

We've been asked several times why we moved into the basement of our house. There are actually two reasons for this. First, I can't physically do "cold" anymore. Second, it's a test to see if we can downsize and live in a smaller space. We've been down here approximately three weeks.....and we love it!


First, I have Raynaud's Syndrome (or disease if you prefer). I was diagnosed about 14 years ago and it gets worse with every passing winter.  I "almost" totally forget I have it in the summer, but when winter hits, I am miserable! Raynaud's is an autoimmune disorder where in cold temperatures or extreme emotion (stress), my sympathetic nervous system hyper-activates. My blood vessels constrict too much (called vasoconstriction) and blood flow & oxygen are depleted to my extremities. Mainly my fingers, toes and nose. My right hand is worse than my left hand for some reason. This causes my fingers, toes and nose (for me, it's mostly my fingers and toes) to get extremely cold, turn white and if cold too long, turn blue...and hurt! Once cold and blue, it can take hours to get warmed back up to a reasonable degree. During the "warming up" process, they turn bright red and get swollen. I will have severe pain and "pins and needles" (like when your hand falls asleep), only it's in "hyper-drive" and excruciatingly painful. Too many attacks and I can suffer atrophy of my extremities and/or amputation. So, it's not just a "oh, go warm yourself up", thing. It's a disease with serious complications if I don't take care of myself. 

Due to reduced blood flow, my extremities, especially my hands, get extremely dry and they will crack and bleed. Sometimes I'll get a sore or ulcer if I've been cold too many times. In the past, I used to allow myself to get cold because people wanted to see how this works. Google it if you want to see - it's too painful to show people anymore. 

My magic temperature is about 50 degrees. If it's less than 50 degrees outside and it's a cloudy day, I'm in trouble. In the 40s with some good sunshine and I am okay for a little bit. Anything below 40, I'm inside with sweats, houseshoes, blanket and gloves. I change my socks 3-4 times a day. If I've had shoes on and my socks have gotten the slightest bit damp, I have to change them or my toes will go through the above process. 

It's kind of ridiculous! 

We have a huge house. Especially for me and the Bossman and Meg, the 5 lb pomeranian. In order to keep the entire house warm enough for me, we spend an enormous amount of money on propane. Plus, we run electric heaters even with the propane. The basement is small, partially underground and much MUCH easier to heat. We've been keeping our main heat (the propane) on about 55 degrees and then running an Eden Pure heater and one other electric "radiator" type heater in the basement. Still, this blanket and these gloves are on me most of the time. (these gloves are called AGloves and they have silver woven in them. This is how I operate my iPad when I'm having an attack). I also have battery operated gloves, hot hands, regular gloves, etc. for when I have to be outside for more than a minute. 




***If you are interested in AGloves (good for use of a touchscreen phone or tablet while outdoors), I bought mine at Amazon. Here's a link: Agloves M/L touch screen gloves, iPhone gloves, texting gloves, Agloves!


The other reason for moving into the basement is a test to see if we can downsize. We have dreams of living in an RV (preferably in a warm climate...at least half the year!). This is a test to see how we do in a small space. We love it! (and, it takes like 30 minutes to clean it...seriously!). 

Our whole living space right now is 16' x 35' that's 560 sq ft. Our master bedroom upstairs is 24' x 24' - that's 576 sq ft. Who needs a bedroom that size?! **even downstairs, our bathroom and closet that we are using are at the top of the stairs, so add a little bit for that. 

Whatever we are living without while down here, is outta here!

This is heading down the stairs....I admit, though, going to the bathroom in the middle of the night isn't my favorite thing to do. LOL





This is looking from the garage/TV area into our living space. We hang out on that reclining couch, just like we did when we had it upstairs. (that couch is one of the few things we insisted on moving downstairs) **notice my blanket, gloves and lotion?




This is if we were sitting on the couch watching TV. That door opens into a double garage (one of two double garages in our house - seriously, who needs TWO garages?!)



This is our "bedroom". Notice the Eden Pure heater in the fireplace. That is an actual working fireplace, but we don't use it.



There's my office area between the "living room" and the "bedroom". I've been working on VA paperwork this week. Ugh. I have a huge wrap around desk in my office upstairs - who knew I only needed this one little desk for most things?




The kitchen. I can cook 6' away from my couch! I will also admit that I do occasionally use my upstairs "big" kitchen. Like for Thanksgiving dishes, I totally went up there and used my Kitchen Aid and gas 5 burner cooktop! I'm having a tiny issue getting the hang of this electric stove, but I'll get it!





Full size refrigerator, microwave and Bunn coffeemaker. I'm pretty much all set!




Another shot of our bedroom area with my heat source. 



That's pretty much it!

And....we love it! We haven't "decorated" much, but we love how cozy it is. The bed is a queen size and is our "guest" bed. We are used to a king size sleep number, but this pillow top mattress is surprisingly very comfortable! (by the way, this bed actually goes with our bedroom suit, the rest of which is upstairs). 

We have 14 acres m/l, a house that's way too big for us....with "rooms with no purpose". Seriously, we have rooms with no purpose under the sun. None. 

Needless to say, as soon as we get the upstairs squared away, this place is for sale!

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