Thinking on a tiny scale...
I want to build and live in a tiny house. The girls have been quite happily on board with this idea since I started researching it, and we finally got Shane to go with the idea a couple of weeks ago. The idea of building a house on a trailer, perfectly suited to our needs as a family and able to be moved where we want to go...well, why not? It wouild mean never being without a home again, which is something that would mean a lot to us all.
*chuckles* I didn't expect we'd get a lot of support on the idea, and I was right. So far the overwhelming response has been something like this: "If you're going to do that, why not just remodel an RV?" There are also some that think we'll go absolutely nuts, fitting four people in a small space. I could argue that with the exception of the kitchen, we live in that size of a space now, but...then it will be argued that living in our bedrooms isn't quite the same. In that, they'd be right. We'd be forced to have more interaction with each other.
Yes, with a lot of money and time, I suppose we -could- gut an RV, put in bunks and all that in addition to whatever bedroom-thing is in there already. We wouldn't have to monkey with -quite- as much in the way of electrical and plumbing. If we got one that didn't have to be towed, we wouldn't have to leave the house to take it somewhere. These are good arguments, BUT...
An RV is not insulated enough to keep me properly warm in Winter, especially in the places we would go.
An RV generally has lightweight materials in it's construction - aluminum, plastic, etc. These are not the materials I would wish to build a home out of, especially in an area prone to storms.
We want a home perfectly suited to our needs, not one we would have to shape to imperfectly suit them.
I want the girls to each have their own private space. This is doable in a tiny house, it is not so doable in an RV.
I want a home that we -can- move if we wish, not a temporary home until we find something better. I want that home to BE home for a long time.
Our biggest issues on this are going to be 1) money, 2) a place to build it, 3) a truck to pull it (we've been planning on getting a truck for our next vehicle anyway, to haul camping gear and my chair around) and 4) somewhere to park it so that we can live in it.
Our largest initial outlay would be the trailer itself and the truck that we need anyway. For building materials, appliances and the like, Craigslist is likely to be a useful tool, as is Freecycle. Scraps and leftover materials from building projects usually find their way there to be sold. It would be useful to get a truck as soon as we can, though, regardless - it'll get us around and will be useful in collecting materials as we won't have to ask for help doing so from someone with a truck. Some of the appliances we'll probably end up buying new, but not as many as one would think. I can think of two things that I would insist on being new - a faucet fixture for the kitchen and, if we can swing it, a small single-unit washer/dryer.
I even have a plan for the layout already. It'll have to get into a blueprint form, but...we'll get there. It's a rough plan, depending on the size of trailer we can get and all that, but it's a start.
Everything works well in theory, right?
*chuckles* I didn't expect we'd get a lot of support on the idea, and I was right. So far the overwhelming response has been something like this: "If you're going to do that, why not just remodel an RV?" There are also some that think we'll go absolutely nuts, fitting four people in a small space. I could argue that with the exception of the kitchen, we live in that size of a space now, but...then it will be argued that living in our bedrooms isn't quite the same. In that, they'd be right. We'd be forced to have more interaction with each other.
Yes, with a lot of money and time, I suppose we -could- gut an RV, put in bunks and all that in addition to whatever bedroom-thing is in there already. We wouldn't have to monkey with -quite- as much in the way of electrical and plumbing. If we got one that didn't have to be towed, we wouldn't have to leave the house to take it somewhere. These are good arguments, BUT...
An RV is not insulated enough to keep me properly warm in Winter, especially in the places we would go.
An RV generally has lightweight materials in it's construction - aluminum, plastic, etc. These are not the materials I would wish to build a home out of, especially in an area prone to storms.
We want a home perfectly suited to our needs, not one we would have to shape to imperfectly suit them.
I want the girls to each have their own private space. This is doable in a tiny house, it is not so doable in an RV.
I want a home that we -can- move if we wish, not a temporary home until we find something better. I want that home to BE home for a long time.
Our biggest issues on this are going to be 1) money, 2) a place to build it, 3) a truck to pull it (we've been planning on getting a truck for our next vehicle anyway, to haul camping gear and my chair around) and 4) somewhere to park it so that we can live in it.
Our largest initial outlay would be the trailer itself and the truck that we need anyway. For building materials, appliances and the like, Craigslist is likely to be a useful tool, as is Freecycle. Scraps and leftover materials from building projects usually find their way there to be sold. It would be useful to get a truck as soon as we can, though, regardless - it'll get us around and will be useful in collecting materials as we won't have to ask for help doing so from someone with a truck. Some of the appliances we'll probably end up buying new, but not as many as one would think. I can think of two things that I would insist on being new - a faucet fixture for the kitchen and, if we can swing it, a small single-unit washer/dryer.
I even have a plan for the layout already. It'll have to get into a blueprint form, but...we'll get there. It's a rough plan, depending on the size of trailer we can get and all that, but it's a start.
Everything works well in theory, right?