Both Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke won Academy Awards for their portrayal of teacher and student in this multiple-award winning 1962 movie. While Patty Duke is mesmerizing to watch, all of Anne Bancroft’s monologues are just as spellbinding to hear. (Great writing of course…let’s not forget William Gibson, who wrote the screenplay and the original play on which it was based.)

The final triumphant scene is the everyone remembers most, but a close second is probably the breakfast scene, where the two strong-willed women battle it out over a meal. For me, this is the best scene. It’s an all-out brawl that’s choreographed like a great dance or stage fight. What makes it all the more impressive is that there is virtually no dialogue. You can practically see Patty Duke’s Helen’s mind working to beat her teacher, while Anne Bancroft’s Annie keeps coming up with strategies to get the child to eat a meal in a civilized manner. Two great actresses at their best.

As a teen I had no idea who Robert Shaw was when I saw him in Jaws, but I was as riveted as everyone else who experienced his character’s speech about surviving the Indianapolis. I’d just read an article about the Enola Gay, so I knew what the Indianapolis had done - delivered the Enola Gay and, thus, the Hiroshima bomb. But I never knew the story of what happened afterwards to the ship. The facts in the movie are right, but seeing them in a book would never have been as gut-wrenching as how the character of Quint presented them — in a weary monotone born of a lifetime’s remembrance of one horrible night.

Now you know one of the first things people will say about these building blocks is that they will just encourage people to throw more things away. Sigh. On the positive side, how fun would it be to own a ‘garbage house’ and have it be a good thing? I like the idea. Building blocks from garbage that are stronger and cheaper than cement blocks? Isn’t science wonderful?

I mentioned the tankless water heater the house will have. Being a tiny house there are space considerations to take into account. Happily, I’ve found a few other fabulous mechanical conveniences that I’m excited to install.

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I’m telling you, this is the best bathroom ever. Well, the best small bathroom ever. Styled in mediterranean colors, it will feel like a courtyard at an italian villa. And it will have no shower curtain or walls. In such a small space I felt it a crime to waste space on a bathtub that I might use twice a year, and on unnecessary shower walls. I mean, everything gets wet when you shower anyway. All you need are good fans to get rid of the steam when you’re done, as in any bathroom. Speaking of which, on to the particulars.

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There is a fundamental disconnect in modern home design that unnecessarily separates clothing storage from clothing cleaning. Why do we store clothes in our bedrooms? You do not need a bed in order to use clothes, and vice versa. Okay, so you may wear pajamas to bed, but do you have to change into them within five feet of your bed? I don’t think so.

In my house, therefore, the laundry room is also the clothes closet. A wall of closet organizers on one side, washing machine/dryer on the other, a few other odds and ends around the room.

And since I am a theater buff, what better place to decorate theater-style than…the Dressing Room!

Let’s start with the stairs to the loft in my tiny house. In a house this small, every part has to function in multiple ways. A stair cannot just be a stair. As Alton Brown says, “the only uni-tasker is the fire extinguisher”.

The utility items will be housed under the stairs, which should be possible since I’ll be using a tankless water heater (much smaller than a tank heater) and radiant floor heating. If I need more utility room I can extend the 5′ x 8′ entry way. The “door” to the utility area will be pantry shelves that are on wheels so they can roll away when I need to access the utilities.

The rest of the stairs will house book shelves, much like these stairs from an HGTV program (Can you guess that I get a lot of my ideas from that network?) More bookshelves will be up in the loft. Yes, I have a lot of books. Want to make something out of it?

Ahem. Anyway…

Most normal people would put the utility items in the basement, allowing the stairs to the basement to reside under the loft stairs, right? Yeah, right. What fun would that be? I’m still working on a way to put both utilities and stairs under the loft stairs, but for right now, the separate entry will house the basement stairs. I want to keep the utilities on the main level to keep them easy to access.

I want the stairs to look very open, as long as building code allows me to create stairs without a railing on both sides. The more open they are, the bigger the space will look. Also, I’m torn between a classy natural wood finish, such as maple, or rustic like the cool stair pictured here. Now that would be fun!

Today’s fortune cookie: One of life’s greatest pleasures is doing what people say you cannot do.

I’m building a house. A tiny house. No, really. I don’t know where, I don’t know when, but I’m building it.

Why? I was inspired by Jay Shafer’s Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, which I first saw in Natural Home Magazine. You may have seen his work in the Sierra Club magazine or heard about it on NPR. It was one of those “Aha!” moments when I realized that I could build myself a tiny house for a relatively small amount of money, making it affordable to finally own my own home. Since then I’ve been planning and researching, finding ways to incorporate environmentally friendly building techniques and gadgets into my plans.

Details? If you insist…
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