Living In A Van Or Small Trailer

Discussion in 'Places I Have Lived' started by Kitty Carmel, Jun 25, 2017.

  1. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    I do understand the not feeling secure especially if alone. Did you hear about the woman who lives full time on a cruise ship, that may be nice, although very expensive. She can afford it Shes rich.
     
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  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    When I was a kid, vacations consisted of my dad parking our trailer at campgrounds for the entire season. The kids would spend weeks there with our mother, dad might stay a week or so and come up on weekends, I think the parents got a break from each other, etc.

    When we lived in Indiana, summers were spent at Muskegon State Park on Lake Michigan.
    When we lived in Virginia, summers were spent on the bay just outside of Ocean City, MD.

    I told you that story to tell you this story...

    Our father bought a Trotwood trailer that was meant to sleep 2-3 people, and somehow rigged it to shove 6 of the 8 of us in, with overflow staying in a tent.

    [​IMG]

    Perhaps I could live like that if it were just me. I lived in a 600 ft² home for decades, and it was ideal until I got over being house poor and started to seek happiness through "stuff."

    It's funny, having lived in small homes with a family of 8 set my expectation of what "enough room" was. Conversely, I worked for a woman who lived in a huge home with vaulted ceilings, and she told me that now she could never go back to a regular rambler because it would be too claustrophobic.
     
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  3. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    My husband comfortably lived in a 1/2 of a housing trust home most of his life from time he was born,
    I’ll go look for a picture on the net what they were like they had several different interior designs 3 bedrooms and a tiny lounge room and a small back verandah under the main roof that was used as another bedroom by installing a unlined wall to make it a sorta room.

    They are government owned and many we’re built in area where workers were needed after the 2 nd world war
    Like Whyalla in SA which is a steel making area however during and after the war ships were built at Whyalla.

    In the city Adelaide , many such homes were built at Elizabeth about 35 km the city to house UK immigrants who came out by the 1000’s on the 10 pound Pom scheme to work in the Holden car factory which closed about 10 years ago, same with Whyalla ..hubby was a diesel mechanic at Whyalla steel works

    Anyway now days Hubby gets cranky if he has not got enough room or he has to move something to do something inside the house like fixing a power point.

    and I say to him how on earth did you live in a HT house all those years ? they are so small compared to our home
    Our home is a 4 bedroom and quite open plan spacious living I believe it’s 23 squares of living not counting the garage ( some builders count the garage as living areas )
    Where HT homes would be battling to be 9 squares in total …no garages
     
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  4. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    So what is a "square"? It can't be meter.

    The 600ft² home I live in was typical of the ones built for returning WW2 soldiers. My neighborhood was full of them until more money came into the area. I see areas full of them here...each sitting on a 10,000 ft² lot.

    Hip roof house.jpg
     
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  5. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    8D3F41F5-6AED-4B16-AFE9-397C6D9F8B85.jpeg I’m not good at maths I just know what size was in our contact to build the house and in their promotional books

    I’ve heard many times Housing trust homes are 10 square in total
    This was our home for 2 years between selling our home in Adelaide and getting the one we now live in built

    We only recently sold the van ..however the Holden Ute didn’t have the power to pull the van up hills easily so we ended up with a Holden Rodeo with more power
     
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    Last edited: Aug 6, 2022
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  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    From an Australian builder's website:

    Squares are the most common unit of measurement referenced when it comes to overall house size, and one square is equivalent to 9.290304 square metres

    So, given that 1 metre² = 10.76 ft² (American)

    HT home of 9 squares = 83.6 metres² (900 ft²)
    Your home of 23 squares = 213.7 metres² (2,293 ft²)

    My old (600 ft²) home = 6.2 squares = 55.75 metres²
    My current (1,300 ft²) home = 13.4 squares = 120.8 metres²

    I love it when I learn something new. Now I gotta find a way to prod someone into raising Australian building standards in conversation without seeming too obvious.
     
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    Last edited: Aug 6, 2022
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  7. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    LOL well Kate I guess we get spoiled fast now. Hubby upsets me too with some of his uppity ways. Nothing wrong with liking nice things it's just sometimes you have to accept less.
    Like the video of the dog Greggory, can't have gravy all the time.
     
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  8. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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  9. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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  10. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    The design had a square opening between dining room / family room and in passage way we asked for that to be made into one open area

    48196BBA-5271-4260-A17D-38AB7272DDCB.png
     
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  11. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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  12. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Love the large open area.
     
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  13. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    We saved all our spare cash to get our home built in Adelaide when we first got married in 1987
    Second marriage for both ..and the money we got for the city home paid for our existing home.
     
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  14. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    Yep a friend of ours has the design with the big square openings and her home feels allot more confined compared to,ours where we had the. 2 walls left out of the dining room area.
     
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  15. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    [​IMG]

    Very nice!!!

    My 13 squares home was built in the 1960s. Having lived in a 9 squares home for over 30 years, it seems large.

    This is my house:

    House.jpg

    This is my garage:

    Garage.jpg
     
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