Late Summer Adventures and Moving our Tiny House Soleil
Hiya! It sure has been busy on our end with loads of adventures, Erin starting her dietetic internship, Dondi doing his thing at work, and moving our tiny house. Here’s the last month or so in pics. . . enjoy!
Our friend Rebecca, Erin, and Dondi celebrating Erin’s MS thesis defense at Scrumpy’s. . . the new cidery in Fort Collins
Erin and Dondi mountain biking near Estes Park, CO before the big flood
The start of the boulder path to Castle Peak near Aspen, Colorado
Erin and Dondi at the top of Castle Peak- peak by noon, ate lunch, then got ready for our next adventure (beyond getting back to the truck). . .
The view from the top of Castle Peak- we made it up our first 14-er!
The view of Pearl Pass Road from the top of Castle Peak (aka, our next adventure)
One of the “dicey” spots on Pearl Pass Road. . . we should have thought twice before taking Dondi’s stock 4WD truck up an old US Forest Service Road
We made it to the peak of Pearl Pass (nevermind the lightning and everything literally buzzing. . .)– the map said the road was 6 miles long, not 19 MORE miles to Crested Butte!
The other end of the “road that never ends” through the aspen trees. . . Erin even made up a song: “this is the road that never ends, it goes on and on my friend, some crazy people started driving it not knowing what it was, and then they kept on driving it forever just because. . .” (they really really didn’t want to turn around and go back the same way they came) LOL!
If Pearl Pass Road wasn’t enough for that weekend in September, Erin and Dondi decided to go check out the Crystal Mill while near Marble, CO
We made it to Crystal Mill about 5 miles down the 4WD road right before a major downpour, it sure was beautiful
Driving North from Crystal Mill, we stopped in and checked out the field of planes, campers, and food trucks. Maybe our next adventure will be flying??
Tiny home moving day! Pulling our house down the dirt road we lived on. . .
Our house was on display at the NCRES (Northern Colorado Renewable Energy Society) event at Swing Station en route to our new location in Fort Collins, CO- who would’ve thought 150+ people would be able to walk through/fit in our little house in a couple hours!?
With all the rain we’ve had, we got a little stuck at the gate
Our tiny house Soleil in its new spot in Fort Collins- near the bee hives and horses
Good morning snow on October 18th. . . it was a bit too early to be excited about snow but it sure was pretty!
That’s all of our adventures and tiny home moving for now. Leave us a comment if you’d like! We love to hear from you. =) -Erin & Dondi
Erin and Dondi 
I M a french woman in normandy and would like so much having my own tiny house but unfortunatly there are no tiny houses in france …friendly yours…
Ann.
October 27, 2013 at 3:42 pm
Love being updated about your happenings. I still want to make it out for a visit before your next move. How much time do I have to plan a trip? My February break? My April break?
October 27, 2013 at 4:47 pm
Wow when it comes to adventure you folks have it locked in and with a house too boot! Be with Mom and Dad over Thanksgiving. Great Naturopathic book- The Fourfold Path to Healing by Thomas S. Cowan MD, Sally Fallon , Jaimen McMillian. Take care,
October 27, 2013 at 8:45 pm
Your tiny house looks so peaceful in the snow!
December 6, 2013 at 5:04 pm
Thanks Buffy! We have about 6 inches more snow now than in the photo in the blog post. It sure is peaceful and quiet. =) -Erin
December 6, 2013 at 6:24 pm
I found your blog from the TedX notification. Looking forward to hearing you in May.
February 19, 2014 at 4:08 pm
Great! Looking forward to meeting you Alison!
March 23, 2014 at 9:32 pm
Hey you guys- my partner and I live near Ft Collins and are wanting to build a tiny house to plant on some land there somewhere- are you guys still living in Ft Collins? How were the regulations and codes for that city- was anything kind of tricky for you- like your compost toilet or anything like that?
February 19, 2014 at 10:32 pm
Hey Harmoni! Thanks for getting in touch. Yup, we still live in Fort Collins. The codes are fine. . . out of the city limits. Not really anything too tricky. The composting toilet is working well and doesn’t smell at all. Just a little bit of trouble on sub-freezing days. Short days in the winter, solar struggles a bit to keep up with demand but all-in-all, everything is working out great! -erin
March 23, 2014 at 9:38 pm
Hi, I am moving back home to FoCo after almost 12 years of living elsewhere. I’m really excited of the idea for a tiny house and being off grid, but have read about zoning and other limitations. We are pretty green in FoCo but I am just now checking into tiny houses, and rules and regulations there. You were the first return in my google search. Any problems with having a tiny house there? Also I see you are built on a trailer and I’ve read this is one way around zoning. But I would rather not…why did you chose to build on a trailer? Are you guys off grid? Or plugged in?
Thanks so much,
Shannon
July 26, 2014 at 4:24 am
HI Shannon, thanks for your comment! To answer your questions briefly. . . we built on a trailer so it would be movable and to avoid issues with building codes. Our house is completely off the grid (solar PV and batteries, composting toilet, water tank) but can be plugged into AC power on cloudy days if needed. The code in FoCo is a bit tricky. Both locations that we lived at were just outside of the city in the county and we had no problems. Hope that helps. -Erin
July 26, 2014 at 8:57 am