Vanchella Vagabonds

By Chris Several friends requested I write about tiny house living. We've spent the month of July living in a tiny cottage in our host's back yard. At 18 x 10.5 feet (185 sq. feet), I'm not sure I'd even call it a tiny house - maybe a teeny house? The cottage was originally purposed as a visiting mother-in-law suite and then converted to an AirBnB rental, so it wasn't built with a view toward long-term living. Most guests who stay are vacationing in Santa Barbara, not 'living' in the cottage. Still, we feel that with some slight modifications, we could live in this space. Two particular features help the space not feel claustrophobic. First, the ceilings angle up to quite a high height. There are also small windows at the high points that let in a lot of natural light. Second, the cottage has a little patio outside that expands the seating and living area. This, of course, only works in a climate amenable to outdoor living. So, I don't think a teeny cott...

By Chris Found in our tiny cottage here in Santa Barbara, 100 Things To Do In Santa Barbara Before You Die . Seemed like an intriguing theme to structure a blog post, so I checked it out.  Now, John and I are never going to: Go free diving and spear fishing; Go skydiving in Lompoc; Take to the skies in a glider plane; Tour wine country in a hot air balloon; Carve and grind at skater's point; or Get in a round of golf. However, as it turns out, we've already done several of the items in the book. I'm sharing some of those here, so this post (parts 1 and 2) has a bit of a retrospective element. As well, I'm sharing the ones we've added to the list, also adding in hikes that we tried from Best Easy Day Hikes Santa Barbara . Altogether, they should provide a good picture of fun activities to do in and around Santa Barbara, should you choose to make a visit here. We hope you do!    Bucket List Items from previous trips: Catch a Show at the Grenada. We've actually don...

By Chris True! I thought this water tank was quite cool - it had very interesting elements. The last two weeks of vagabonding have been a mixed bag. Staying in Bakersfield in the extreme heat has been especially challenging in terms of getting exercise and being able to cook, as well as being outside.* The air unit in our studio AirBnB has barely been able to keep up. Turning on the stove was unthinkable!  *Vagabond Learning for Chris: A component of outdoor living in my home is critically important! Why Bakersfield? So many friends have asked. Well, we're pensioners now, so we have a budget. We were looking for something within that budget to fill the two weeks between our last stop (Emily's place) and our next (July Santa Barbara AirBnB). We were looking within a 3 hour radius, because we didn't want to drive far from where we were coming from and returning to. Southern California was out for the time being because of curfews and general unrest (at the time we were reserv...