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Living in a Van

blog.priceonomics.com

41–50 of 166 posts

Re: Living in a Van

#42
post #32

Not quite a van or RV, but I have always found the tiny house movement interesting. http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/ Many of them are small enough that you can legally tow them anywhere.

Wowwwww !! These look absolutely beautiful. But one still needs to own a piece of land. What would be interesting though, is a bunch of people buying a piece of land (sharing the land/electricity/water costs), and living in half a dozen of these on the land. Don't know about the legality of it, but it would be awesome

Actually, many of the tiny house floor plans are designed to fit on a flatbed trailer. Not as easy to manage overnight parking as a van, but pretty feasible.

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/blogs/tumbleweed/5912813-tra...

Re: Living in a Van

#43
post #15

This seems like a romantically bohemian way to approximate a pampered middle class kid's idea of how poor people live. If you want to save money, you can try what they actually do, which is move to a less desirable neighborhood and spend one third what you do on rent for an apartment. You live in a crazy expensive neck of the woods? Nice to meet you; I live in Japan, cry me a river. There's old folks on social securi…

> You live in a crazy expensive neck of the woods? Nice to meet you; I live in Japan, cry me a river.

I was under the impression that things weren't too bad out in the inaka. Is Gifu that expensive compared to SF or NYC?

Re: Living in a Van

#44

If you think you can handle some sweaty palms, Alex Honnold, one of the best free solo climbers in the world, lives in his van so he can easily get from park to park and seems to absolutely thrive off the lifestyle -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR1jwwagtaQ There is something that appeals to my personality to live out of a van and just move on a whim but I don't think I would ever have the guts to go for it.

Yes, this sort of living is pretty normal in climbing circles. I live in my truck part of each year while I'm on the road. I know guys who have been living in their vehicles for years, one guy for nearly two decades.

Re: Living in a Van

#45
post #8

My favorite "living in a van" story is http://www.hobostripper.com/ (I wonder how much worse a van is than a military trailer. Those range from 40x12 with private bathroom and nice furnishings down to 10x8 with a roommate and no bathroom. It's probably a lot easier due to everyone else around you doing exactly the same thing, and there being portapotties, shower trailers, etc. freely available.) I lived in a car for…

Would that scale for someone who wanted to do an extended visit to the Bay Area? (say a month or so)

I'd like to visit San Francisco, but, apart from the US Visa and airfare, accomodation doesn't seem cheap (I haven't researched much but it comes up all the time here on HN). Food, oddly enough, sounds cheaper than in my 3rd world country.

Re: Living in a Van

#46
post #44

If you think you can handle some sweaty palms, Alex Honnold, one of the best free solo climbers in the world, lives in his van so he can easily get from park to park and seems to absolutely thrive off the lifestyle -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR1jwwagtaQ There is something that appeals to my personality to live out of a van and just move on a whim but I don't think I would ever have the guts to go for it.

Yes, this sort of living is pretty normal in climbing circles. I live in my truck part of each year while I'm on the road. I know guys who have been living in their vehicles for years, one guy for nearly two decades.

Yep. My family spends ~2 months a year living in our VW van, travelling to various climbing areas.

Though I do enjoy our time on the road, I also really enjoy coming back to my home.

Re: Living in a Van

#47
post #15

This seems like a romantically bohemian way to approximate a pampered middle class kid's idea of how poor people live. If you want to save money, you can try what they actually do, which is move to a less desirable neighborhood and spend one third what you do on rent for an apartment. You live in a crazy expensive neck of the woods? Nice to meet you; I live in Japan, cry me a river. There's old folks on social securi…

Yup, thanks for pointing out this is essentially lower class tourism.

Re: Living in a Van

#49
I met Steve Roberts [1] at a conference when he was riding his bike around the country (pedal power). And he was living this life by choice. When I moved to the Bay Area it was in the midst of a huge recession (chip companies were dying, fabs were closing). I thought a bit about it, and wondered what it would be like.

I've always wondered if, when flying high, folks might put together a 'bug out plan' which included mobile accommodations.

[1] http://nomadness.com/

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