My First Night in the Shed and It Was AWFUL! But I am Alive.

Nightmares of never waking up due to carbon monoxide poisoning, and peeing all over myself in the middle of the night. Ugh.

Alright, so I have officially moved into my Tiny House aka the 9x12 shed. I made dinner and it turned out good. Dinner was chicken avocado toast (sourdough, for those who are wondering).

I turn on Vampire Diaries and am getting ready for bed in my new twin air mattress. I have an electric heater going, but its not enough. So I turn on my Mister Buddy propane heater. That is where the downward spiral begins.

If you are not familiar, a Mister Buddy heater uses propane as its fuel source. It creates a good amount of heat and is indoor safe. However, it sucks the oxygen out of the room, and if there is not enough new oxygen to replenish, it creates carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide is an odorless gas that basically puts you to sleep, and you never wake up again. It is the silent killer of gasses because there is no human sensory way to detect it.

Now, the Mister Buddy does have an automatic shutoff if the oxygen dips under 18% in the room (21% is the regular oxygen makeup of the air).

So it has the built-in safety feature, but what if it fails? I tend to not trust anything, and I question everything.

Earlier in the day, I installed a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, and the batteries are brand new, and it works fine. OR DOES IT.....

But as I am laying in bed, I cannot help but let the fear creep in. Will there be enough oxygen in the room? Or will I fall asleep and never wake up again?

This is mental torture. My mind and body so want to fall asleep but the fear keeps me awake.

Yes, I do have vents at the top of my ceiling, two actually. But my concern is that they are up so high, that the fresh air is being drawn in too high, while the Mister Buddy is too low.

This turns into about an hour of surfing the net of how much air does a Mister Buddy need. There is no direct answer, other than cracking a door or window. INSUFFICIENT! I say!

So I turn the Mister Buddy off, and go to sleep. But the cold creeps in, and quite quickly. I feel the cold air underneath me in my air mattress, which is chilling my whole body.

So, fine! I give in and turn the Mister Buddy on.

I have a lightbulb moment, while looking at my shed door. I installed an interior lock, which is a padlock hasp and staple.

I can therefore OPEN the door, and the door cracks open, but does not swing open. Success!

BUT IS IT ENOUGH AIR?????

I accept that it is enough air, so I drift off to sleep.

Not so long after, I jump out of bed gasping for air and shout, "We need more air!!!" I run to the door and burst it open, and breathe deeply. I quickly realize that there is no we anymore, only me. I also realize that I basically had a night terror, and that there is plenty of air in the room. Mental torture at its finest.

I have to pee at this point, so I grab my urinal that I had just bought. I hadn't used this one before - I use a female urinal to pee outside - but I don't want to go outside because it is cold and dark out. Being that I had not practiced with it, and that it was the middle of the night, I managed to fail at this task. So I end up with pee all over! Ugh!

It wasn't a good first night in the tiny house.

I finally fell asleep, tossing and turning, realizing that the air mattress is not accomodating my luxuriously curvy hip bones. This will be easily remedied with a nice soft foam topper - which equates to more dollars flying out of my wallet.

But, I made it. I made it through my first night. I woke up, alive, good start. The shed stays warm, excellent. And my percolated coffee is delicious.

Regina Cal.

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