Unconventional Living?

[Ted_Kaczynski]

Who else said fuck you to conventional living?

I'm 43, my wife and I have two kids, they're both out (we started young). We sold all of our shit and now live in a 5th wheel.

My wife is retired Army, 22 years. I followed her around and am now in a spot where I'm 11 years away from my pension check.

We put our stuff in storage and started in a travel trailer then upgraded once we were sure we liked it. We've been out of a house for over 2 years now and still loving it. I've never had so much free time and lack of responsibility. I fill my time with small hobbies, bonsai trees, telescope, kayak fishing, biking, hell I even trained for and finished my first marathon in January.

Once I'm done, we're gonna hit the open road until we find a spot to make a "base" and possibly build a small house or duplex.

Chime in vagabonds.

 

[Arickvan]

Who else said fuck you to conventional living?

the real ted kaczynski did and look how he ended up

 

[trampas]

Unconventional Living?

Trailer trash?


Sounds like you got your house in order. Stay active, fix the leaks in the roof, post on irate.


That about cover it?

 

[backchat]

Thread title and your User Name had me a little on edge there...

i look forward to something like this in retirement.

 

[Ted_Kaczynski]

the real ted kaczynski did and look how he ended up

I am more or less "get the fuck off my lawn" and hate technology after working on the shit for over 2 decades. Sadly I can relate to the mostly sane parts of ol Ted hence the username.

 

[OHV Wildcat]

My wife and I are saving like crazy and trying to fulltime-RV in early retirement. Supposed to be in 5 years, but we'll see if that works out. Anyway, I like your style, and hope to emulate it. Neither of us have pensions, so it's just savings that will have to cover it until we can start pulling from 401k in a long time. Of course, to get this done, I'd also have to empty out 2000 sqft of shop, condense the toys down to a small enclosed trailer, and hope for the best.

 

[Action Fab]

I did it for several years.

I much prefer my little minimalist log cabin.

 

[Ted_Kaczynski]

My wife and I are saving like crazy and trying to fulltime-RV in early retirement. Supposed to be in 5 years, but we'll see if that works out. Anyway, I like your style, and hope to emulate it. Neither of us have pensions, so it's just savings that will have to cover it until we can start pulling from 401k in a long time. Of course, to get this done, I'd also have to empty out 2000 sqft of shop, condense the toys down to a small enclosed trailer, and hope for the best.

Getting rid of all the shit was the most liberating thing. We made money selling our house, pretty much gave away the "stuff". I literally paid a guy $180 to haul boxes of new clothes and other stuff to a church...and I fucking enjoyed it lmao. Once you get your mind and goals aligned it gets easy.

If you plan to try to make some cash selling your stuff, plan way ahead with an auction or estate sale. Craigslist and Offerup from storage is a losing game not worth your time.

 

[Arickvan]

I'd also have to empty out 2000 sqft of shop, \

you got anything good?

 

[dnsfailure]

there's a transmission sitting on my coffee table.... so that might be unconventional

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Yes sir.....

Wife, 2 full size dogs and I moved to Texas 4yrs ago for my job. At the time it was still a "let's see what happens with the new shop" kind of thing so I was leery about buying a house here and didn't want to rent one and pay someone else's mortgage. We found a bad ass upscale RV resort a few towns away, bought a slightly used 42' 5th wheel and started living there. Plan was to move into a house once my job settled down. Welp, 3yrs later we still live there and love it. It's got everything...... Lake, Olympic pool, hot tub, sauna, gym, tennis/basket ball courts, dog park, impeccable grounds keeping and I do ZERO maintenance other than keeping the camper clean and waxed. I even have daily trash and propane pickup.

We have contemplated moving into a house a few times but its soooo cheap to live like this, and we are not lacking anything, so why bother. I'm lucky enough to have shop and storage space at work so I dont even really need my own shop. The bonus to this is the amount of money we have managed to save in the 4yrs. A couple more years in the RV and we will be able to buy pretty much any house we want around here for cash money.

 

[Provience]

I did it for several years.

I much prefer my little minimalist log cabin.

that's what i'm shooting for.

though the compromise on how minimalist the retirement house with the wife will probably upsize it a bit. I don't mind having a space to work on random projects, keeps me sane-ish.

what the hell in conventional living, anyways?


edit: i guess living out of an RV is probably not nearly as shit a proposition when it isn't just a side effect of being poor

 

[Ted_Kaczynski]

Yes sir.....

Wife, 2 full size dogs and I moved to Texas 4yrs ago for my job. At the time it was still a "let's see what happens with the new shop" kind of thing so I was leery about buying a house here and didn't want to rent one and pay someone else's mortgage. We found a bad ass upscale RV resort a few towns away, bought a slightly used 42' 5th wheel and started living there. Plan was to move into a house once my job settled down. Welp, 3yrs later we still live there and love it. It's got everything...... Lake, Olympic pool, hot tub, sauna, gym, tennis/basket ball courts, dog park, impeccable grounds keeping and I do ZERO maintenance other than keeping the camper clean and waxed. I even have daily trash and propane pickup.

We have contemplated moving into a house a few times but its soooo cheap to live like this, and we are not lacking anything, so why bother. I'm lucky enough to have shop and storage space at work so I dont even really need my own shop. The bonus to this is the amount of money we have managed to save in the 4yrs. A couple more years in the RV and we will be able to buy pretty much any house we want around here for cash money.

Trailer Trash...

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Trailer Trash...

Yep, and loving it.

Best part..... If you don't like the neighborhood or neighbour all ya got to do is pull up the jacks and roll on out. Cant do that shit with a house.

 

[trampas]

Trailer Trash...

Nope. They pick that up for him too.

 

[Ted_Kaczynski]

that's what i'm shooting for.

though the compromise on how minimalist the retirement house with the wife will probably upsize it a bit. I don't mind having a space to work on random projects, keeps me sane-ish.

what the hell in conventional living, anyways?


edit: i guess living out of an RV is probably not nearly as shit a proposition when it isn't just a side effect of being poor

ST3 started this whole adventure. It chased us the fuck out of Pierce county and Washington State.

​​​​​​Yeah, we're not living like the RVers in Freeattle.

 

[mjlogan88]

I've done a few variations of this

Lived out of a camper shell on a '69 International pickup for a year or so in college. Definitely a liberating experience having your whole life in a 48 sq ft space on wheels. Now that I have a mortgage and all the house related BS I look back on that with very fond memories. People thought I was crazy but it was definitely one of the better decisions I've made.

After college lived out of a backpack for a month or so hitch hiking and backpacking around the west coast.

Lived in a shop for almost 2 years. Cush compared to living out of a truck but still unconventional and really freaked people out when they found out where I lived.

 

[BBgun]

Wife, 15 yo kid, 2 boxers and myself will be living in this for 2 week at the end of the month. selling our house and waiting to move into the new one. 2 weeks will feel like a a lifetime. I just cant do the confined spaces. maybe just me and the ole lady but na

 

[dnsfailure]

I've done a few variations of this

Lived out of a camper shell on a '69 International pickup for a year or so in college. Definitely a liberating experience having your whole life in a 48 sq ft space on wheels. Now that I have a mortgage and all the house related BS I look back on that with very fond memories. People thought I was crazy but it was definitely one of the better decisions I've made.

After college lived out of a backpack for a month or so hitch hiking and backpacking around the west coast.

Lived in a shop for almost 2 years. Cush compared to living out of a truck but still unconventional and really freaked people out when they found out where I lived.

I think my ideal home would be a warehouse where I could work on things all the time. A small bathroom, sleeping area, and an outdoor cooking area that I could enclose if needed.

 

[woods]

Wife and I did a truck camper for two weeks for our honeymoon. Traveled a bit of the country. It was awesome. We figured we'd split the trip half hotels and half truck camper. Nope. Truck camper entire time. Would recommend. For one night I believe I was within spitting distance of 45acp in Clear(?) Springs.

 

[Ransil]

Working on it now had a 5 year plan down to 1.
wife is still in the USNR so we will milk that for money and healthcare plus work camp, she just hit 20 should be able to get 24 before HYT which will be 1 year before she can draw retirement.
started selling stuff last year, giving stuff away, fixing the house up.
My wife is ready to go now, I'm wanting to build up savings to make sure we don't quit good paying jobs to go to minimum wage.

 

[det107]

Waiting for Wally World adventure stories

 

[45acp]

Wife and I did a truck camper for two weeks for our honeymoon. Traveled a bit of the country. It was awesome. We figured we'd split the trip half hotels and half truck camper. Nope. Truck camper entire time. Would recommend. For one night I believe I was within spitting distance of 45acp in Clear(?) Springs.

Uh, not sure where that is? I'm in Texarkana.

 

[EricT]

Shooot great thread !
Doing that now actually. Little bit different then y’all. I’m 43, retired, single , no kids. Doing it out of a camper shell. Camp,hike, fish, mnt bike all over the US.
Hit the road a couple days ago matter of fact. At my folks place in WY about to build out inside the shell. Similarly’ish to these two. Amazon for the shell tent 1/4

 

[KarlVP]

that's what i'm shooting for.

though the compromise on how minimalist the retirement house with the wife will probably upsize it a bit. I don't mind having a space to work on random projects, keeps me sane-ish.

what the hell in conventional living, anyways?


edit: i guess living out of an RV is probably not nearly as shit a proposition when it isn't just a side effect of being poor

One of my friends up in Naches lives with his family of 4 him, wife, two kids. The house itself is a two bedroom maybe 600-800 SF one bath. The rest of the house is a shop big enough to pull your truck and trailer into. The property is awesome. You can be out on the trails from his driveway.

That's the way to live.

 

[Provience]

One of my friends up in Naches lives with his family of 4 him, wife, two kids. The house itself is a two bedroom maybe 600-800 SF one bath. The rest of the house is a shop big enough to pull your truck and trailer into. The property is awesome. You can be out on the trails from his driveway.

That's the way to live.

for some reason she won't buy off on the idea of 2 bed, so far 3 bed, 1 bath, 12-1300 sqft is what i'm trying to keep her under now.

my dad wants to go out first, his plan is to set up the shop/garage and put a small apartment in one corner of it. He also spend about a decade living on a boat that was never intended for long term use, so it will be dramatically massive as far as he is concerned

 

[evernoob]

I did it for several years.

I much prefer my little minimalist log cabin.

that's what i'm shooting for.

though the compromise on how minimalist the retirement house with the wife will probably upsize it a bit. I don't mind having a space to work on random projects, keeps me sane-ish.

:

I just want an earthbag home or get or build a sawmill and build a minimalist home one piece at a time. I don't want any fancy youtube-able art about it, I want it built for practicality and minimum maintenance.

I want a micro-hydro setup, and I've researched getting NEPA anthracite coal to my location. The good thing about anthracite is it's rocks and will always be a backup, and it's cheap. So if my 3500W of micro-hydro doesn't keep me warm enough, there's always dead dinosaurs. Figure load in about 120 tons of the stuff in a big windrow. Haven't checked the prices lately. I'm only going to live another 20 years so it's not like I need decades and decades of it.

There's a guy in Colorado running 7kw of micro-hydro, that's enough to heat a two-story conventionallly-sized cabin. For the hovel I'm talking about, I could heat it with 3kW and keep a couple windows open. Nothing like fresh air mid-winter with the snow falling.

I need comptuer and internet, I have no illusions about being really off-grid. All of the real off-grid people don't post on the internet lol

 

[Provience]

Shooot great thread !
Doing that now actually. Little bit different then y’all. I’m 43, retired, single , no kids. Doing it out of a camper shell. Camp,hike, fish, mnt bike all over the US.
Hit the road a couple days ago matter of fact. At my folks place in WY about to build out inside the shell. Similarly’ish to these two. Amazon for the shell tent 1/4

right on although, if you are going to wear shorts that short, you should probably grow your hair back out!

 

[Provience]

I just want an earthbag home or get or build a sawmill and build a minimalist home one piece at a time. I don't want any fancy youtube-able art about it, I want it built for practicality and minimum maintenance.

I want a micro-hydro setup, and I've researched getting NEPA anthracite coal to my location. The good thing about anthracite is it's rocks and will always be a backup, and it's cheap. So if my 3500W of micro-hydro doesn't keep me warm enough, there's always dead dinosaurs. Figure load in about 120 tons of the stuff in a big windrow. Haven't checked the prices lately. I'm only going to live another 20 years so it's not like I need decades and decades of it.

There's a guy in Colorado running 7kw of micro-hydro, that's enough to heat a two-story conventionallly-sized cabin. For the hovel I'm talking about, I could heat it with 3kW and keep a couple windows open. Nothing like fresh air mid-winter with the snow falling.

I need comptuer and internet, I have no illusions about being really off-grid. All of the real off-grid people don't post on the internet lol

5g and whatever that skynet shit elon musk is floating about are bringing the internet to everybody my place will be off grid, just because the grid is prohibitively far away and local power generation will be cheaper, but is still flat enough that i'm on the tmobile 5g coverage map even sat internet, for as shitty as it can be, isn't all that bad and uses pretty little energy. great thing about 4' thick earth walls is you only need to heat from 50 to 70 degrees in the winter and don't need to do shit in the summer

edit: kind of on subject, the wife is apparently well on board with doing the truck in and bulk store water if we end up not being able to get a decent well for a reasonable price. $25k is between 50 and 100 years of our annual water use, erring on the high side of water use

 

[evernoob]

edit: kind of on subject, the wife is apparently well on board with doing the truck in and bulk store water if we end up not being able to get a decent well for a reasonable price. $25k is between 50 and 100 years of our annual water use, erring on the high side of water use

This is why I live where it precipitates.