living in camper

[PI]

OK here is one for you out there. How many of you lived in your pop-up/camper on your lot while building a new house?  We need to sell ours to build our new one and are trying to figure out where to live. I thought about renting a larger camper to put on the lot while the house is being built by a General Contractor. Any comments?
PI

[Kay in NC]

not sure if I would be able to "camp out" that long in a pop up.  DH and I used to travel for his job and we "lived" in a 5th wheel.  More like a home and not so much like camping...bathroom, oven, air.  

Remember, when building or redoing a home, it always takes longer then you think!

good luck!

[wavery]

OK here is one for you out there. How many of you lived in your pop-up/camper on your lot while building a new house?  We need to sell ours to build our new one and are trying to figure out where to live. I thought about renting a larger camper to put on the lot while the house is being built by a General Contractor. Any comments?
PI

We are preparing to do the same thing. We thought about staying in the PU (for about 2 minutes). We decided that there is just simply not enough room for the clothes needed, shower facilities, food storage and just the mere comfort needed for everyday living while working hard. We even thought about erecting an aluminum storage shed for a large fridge and clothes storage. We just decided that we didn't need the added stress.

If you check with some mobile home parks, you can often find free mobile-homes for the taking. They are older and they just want them out. A friend of mine did this. Also check here:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/zip/

Of course, you will have to check the regulations in the city that you are building in and also consider the cost of disposing of the mobile home when you are finished with it. Remember, that's why the mobile-home parks are happy to let you have it for "free". My Dad always used to say, "Son, there ain't no free lunch. If something is free, there is a reason for it".

[Miller Tyme]

A friend of mine did it..but they lived for 6 months in a local county park cg. Short drive to work, water/electric, etc...but what a mess!!:eyecrazy: What a mess..4 people living in a pop-up for 6 months is NOT a good thing...:yikes:

[bmbkamp]

While waiting for our new house to be finished 3 years ago, we stayed in a Comfort Inn for 6 weeks.  We got a good rate from the hotel, and free breakfast every morning was certainly a plus.  But me, my DW, 3 kids, a dog and a cat all in one hotel room was a bit tight.  We had all had enough at the end.  I wouldn't even consider doing that in my PU.  Good luck.

[NadMat]

Had a buddy who did that in a small TT (<15') but was a single guy who was building own house on lot. He already had the TT so could save money when contracting out of town. For him, as a single guy was ok, although first month or two before he got a shower set up on lot were kinda rough. Don't think I would want to try it with a full family in a PUP.

[PI]

It would be just me and my DH. We were actually thinking about renting a mobile home to put on the lot. Our office is also out of our house. We also have 3 cats and a bird. After reading your comments, I think it would have to be a mobile home or 5th wheel or nothing....I don't know how some of you ever managed with a family for 6 weeks in a motel room ...AHHHHHH!. Thanks for all your comments. It certainly gave us food for thought.
PI

[cjpoppin]

We lived in our pup for three months last summer and was I ready to get settled in our new home......The out side temps were over 100 plus everyday and we do have A/C but it couldn't keep up with that kind of heat! We have solar covers and even wrapped it up like a taco to help the cooler. It probably would have done better except we kept blowing the circuit breakers there was some kind of short and this had to be fixed.......Would have helped if there had been a tree or two around......Other then the heat it wasn't to bad we managed to do the cooking and took lots of sponge baths.....Yuck.....I am glad we didn't have little kids to take care of......The beds became pretty hard after a few weeks, it was hard to find room to store our clothes and food.....Would I do it again?  Maybe but I sure hope I never have to......carol



































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[AustinBoston]

We sold our home in Massachusetts in early August of 2003.  We drove to Minnesota, where the pop-up had been taken earlier.  We lived in the pop-up for about a month until we closed on our new house in Minnesota in September of 2003.  We stayed in a commercial campground, which was important...without a shower in the pop-up, other arrangements would have been, um, unacceptable.

What was difficult and/or awkward wasn't living from the camper, but getting DS registered for school when we didn't actually own a house here.  They eventually accepted the P&S as proof that he would[/] live in the district.

Austin