best temporary shelter while house is being built?

Started by Brigitta, June 02, 2006, 01:12:25 PM

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Brigitta

I was thinking one of these:
http://www.shelter-systems.com/shelters.html
along with generator, propane system for stove, hot water, simple composting toilet, a really good cooler, mattress of some sort, place for clothes.
or
a travel trailer or mobile home

It seems to me that we could put the dome to good use after house is built. Also it would allow more space, light, air, and I don't like the way most trailers/motorhomes look.
Anyone have advice or ideas?

glenn-k

Seems the dome would give privacy but is not real secure and you have to get everything together to make it livable.

I bought a 27' motorhome - yeah --ugly --for $1000 and it had everything including a 4000 watt generator.  Since it is only a temoporary shelter and you could resell it if desired it seems something like that may be a good choice.  Depends on what you want.


Dberry

You could build a small shed in a few days for temporary shelter.  I built one a few years ago that was 12x12 for storage.  Once I was done, it occured to me that in a pinch I could have lived in it for a few months with a few additions.   The nice thing is once you have your house built, you've got a useful shed.  Nothing to get rid of or haul away.

I built mine on 4x8 PT beams so I could drag it around if I wanted to.  I think it cost about $1500 to build but I splurged on a few things.

Dan

Dustin

We'll probably go the old used mobile home route while building. We can turn around and sell it afterwords. There are loads of them and they are often fairly cheaply had if you are near a town.

The problem with a yurt is security, and they get freaking hot -like a tent- when it's warm (yes, even with the vent at the top open). Ever stayed in a yurt before?  You may also run into issues with building permits, depending on where you build. If it's out in the middle of nowhere, more power to you!

Yurts are a good idea for mountain retreats (cooler), and where you aren't storing any stuff that you don't mind being stolen in, or you're in such a remote area that you don't think it's a risk.





bil2054

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bilfiske/detail?.dir=54b4&.dnm=7294re2.jpg&.src=ph
That will be my home for however long it takes to build Victoria's Cottage.
It has a kitchenette, bunks, bath, and a generator.  Also, ala' Glenn, it was around $1000.
Also, if I find I put it in the wrong spot, easy to move!


glenn-k

#5
Billy Bob --no offense but that one is almost exactly as ugly as mine too.    Nearly the same color scheme and lumps.:-/

They sure do make an easy place to stay though.:)

Dberry

I would pay 10 times that to live in one of those everytime the in-laws think about coming.  :)

Pala

My buddy had the same Winnie for several years.  We called it the "Road Toaster".

While building our first place in the woods, we lived for about 9 months in a 19' Aljo Ally RV trailer.  It even had a usable shower.  We put the septic system in first then hooked the RV up to that and installed a 30 amp outlet on the temp. pole for power.  Small but doable.

We kept it good shape and had no trouble reselling it 3 or 4 years later.  We even rented out for to a friend for a while.

Amanda_931

#8
I live in a travel trailer as well.  200sf with 6 inches of counter space in the kitchen.

The stuff at shelter systems really looks neat.  Definitely can be taken down after you're through.

These guys linked below used to have a small storage building.  Don't see it any more.

http://www.aidomes.com/default.html

Speaking of domes for storage purposes--maybe living in, sort of.

http://www.strombergschickens.com/starplate_building_system/starplate_index.htm

Can't quite remember what a friend of mine says for calculating how long it takes for building--Something like, make all your calculations,  and a fudge factor like 10-15%, then take it to the next unit of time.

So if you figured it could be done in 10 months, fudge it to 11, then make it--take your pick--quarters or years.  Somewhere between not quite three years and over a decade.

The strategy is to be comforable enough that, if you have a S.O, you don't break up over the horrible housing situation, but there is still some motivation for getting things done.




JRR

If a person wanted to try a Yurt just as an experiment, you might see if the local state parks offer any as rental cottages.   Some of the Geogia state parks do (Red Top Mountain for ex'ple).    Yurts may be seasonal so you would surely want to call ahead ... but they also may be available for just "inspection before renting", if not already booked.

mark_chenail

When we started out we bought  an 8x12 garden shed. The door was on one gable end and  we put an old window in the other gable.  Built in a bed plaform under the window big enough for a double mattress with cubbyholes and some old drawers framed in underneath. Book shelves on either end over the bed. There was room for a chest of drawers , a small table with a lamp and  a rocking chair.
The first summer we had one of those screen houses across the front of the shed and that was the living/dining space and we cooked over an open fire and rigged up a little counter work space  by nailing two 2x4 between two big trees and laying a bit of plywood on it.  Kept  the food in a cooler and the dishes in a rubbermaid tub.   When it got to be a bit cooler in September, we decided to build a little pole shed across the door end of the garden shed and made a T shaped buildingand had 3 times the space.  8 posts in the ground and we hung a deck on the posts (almost level with the floor of the little shed.  The new shed was 12 x 20 with a shed roof and a row of old barn sash in the long wall and one big old window and a door on one short end.  On the other short end we left a 4x4 opening in the floor and filled it with stones and concrete and capped it off with pavers. We set a wood stove on that. and ran the chimney out of the roof.  We got the whole place wired up and hooked into the grid and we were sitting pretty. A couple of old kitchen cabinets supported a counter where we set an old stainless sink we got for a buck at a yard sale and we piped a drain outside through the floor.  Rough and ready but quite luxurious compared to camping out.  We splurged and bought a used apartment size electric stove and  a tiny beat up refrigerator.  The little original shed was now a bedroom and the big room was kitchen and living room.  Plenty of room for chairs and table, couple of rockers and the radio and tv.  All the comforts of home. WE used a lot of recycled lumber, windows,doors, cabinets etc.  The whole thing cost us maybe 2K for about 300 sq. ft. Since then we have just kept adding on pole buildings.  The little original shed is now a sort of little breakfast nook off the kitchen and is completely engulfed in the rest of the house and roofs.  The big room is now our kitchen and leads into a dining room, a big living room and  5 bedrooms and soon a huge bath and utility room.   If I were you, Id go with a little pole building and see where it leads you.  Good luck.

FrankInWI

Thanks for a really cool post Mark.  It goes to show what can be done when we do it bit by bit.  I'm about to start with building #1, and it will be small too.  
Sounds like you were somewhere where the local government didn't bug you?  That's the game stopper for so many these days.

ailsaek

Just curous, have any of you all done this while also keeping track of four cats, a dog, and a small child?  I think some of the shelters might be a trifle close, but I like the idea of a modest shelter while building.  I've been ogling yurts, mainly, and thinking of putting a few of the stand-alone IKEA kitchen units in it.

Daddymem

#13
Ailsa, come on down to the Cape.  Shawme-Crowell camprgournd rents yurts out if you wanted to try one.  Nice quiet park with big wooded sites and little amenities.  Bring the family and your suits, access to Scusset beach is free for campers.


Amanda_931

I brought two dogs and a bunch of cats (down to four now, but I've added two mostly outside dogs) down from Nashville in 2001.

No kids, though.

Brigitta

Well, some things to think about, good ideas.
SO is less inclined to roughing it (or squishing it) and he is leaning toward buying a house already in good shape. The problem with that is...money, of course. We would like plenty of land but we can't have that and a finished house without serious debt.
Looks like we'll be going with a used motorhome or something related and maybe add on a shed or tent for more room, then power through and get that house built!


glenn-k

That sounds like a plan that will work, Brigitta. :)

Amanda_931

Motor homes and travel trailers do have all the comforts of home--if not much space, and pretty much everything is there--maybe even a perfectly dreadful "short queen" mattress (the short queen-ness isn't a problem--just use queen sheets, by the way--but the mattresses tend to be pretty, uh, inexpensive.  You might be able to cut a nice foam mattress from foamorder or somebody, stick it back together when you moved into the new place.   (or put a full mattress on there and leave a few inches of OSB on the sides)

I've got two rental storage spaces and am contemplating a third.  And a shed.  Really, a rented storage trailer would be cheaper--last I heard they were around $100/month in Nashville, but that might have been before the turn of the century.

Used travel trailers sometimes go down rapidly in price, but for both them and the motor homes, watch out for water leaks that leave the whole place smelling like mold.

Airstreams, now collector's classics, require periodic caulking, according to a couple of websites I've seen on them.  That actually might be better than having a trailer that leaked without a way to easily fix the inevitable leaks.

But collector's classics translates to "priced to match."

Actually, even moved and set up, you might be able to get a new or used single-wide for less than most motorhomes and maybe travel trailers.

mark_chenail

FrankinWI:  Yes we are 17 miles from town out in the county and absolutely no zoning or building codes to deal with other than good common sense.  I remember right after we finished closing in that first 12x20 pole building, we came down to work and found a little card stuck in the door from the tax assessor. A little form asking if we had central heat, inside plumbing, electricity, etc. etc.  Only thing we had was power and that was just 2 small circuits.  We answered NO to all the rest of the questions and our taxes are still under 40 dollars a year on the 12 acres.  Of course, if the tax man comes round now, we might see the bill go up a might.  Still no central heat or plumbing but its almost 1500 sqft house with 6 bedrooms.   ;)   Wait and see.

Jimmy_Cason

The best temporary shelter while house is being built?
My wife and I stay at her parents house right down the road from where we are building.
A hot shower at the end of the day and a soft bed to sleep in.
It is so much better than the little camper we stayed in the first few weeks.
The only down side is that I am still uneasy about sleeping in the same bed with my wife at her parents house...


glenn-k

You could pretend you were leaving, Jimmy, then sneak around the back and climb in the bedroom window. Maybe at least you'd feel a little better about sleeping there then. :-/

peg_688

Quote
The only down side is that I am still uneasy about sleeping in the same bed with my wife at her parents house...


 Still :-/ :o

  Well back "then " you really weren't trying to sleep we're ya ;D


bil2054

O.K., about two weeks, and I'll be driving my temporary shelter to the building site.
Glenn is right, it is ugly, [smiley=wink.gif], but the price was right, and it has all the stuff I need, like Amanda said. One reason it came cheap ,(<$1,000), is that roof leaking thing.  The AC unit caused the roof to bow down and water leaked in there, and around the television antenna mount.  Covered it with OSB roof decking and a rubber membrane, and used Weyerhauser ceiling panels inside. No leaks, looks O.K., and a little extra R value.  Luckily, no smell of mold.

My experience with the more "affordable" mobile homes is that they are not as well built as motor homes, and start to "loosen up" the more they are moved.  Also it can be quite costly to move them as it requires a large truck, permits, etc.  There is a dealer a few miles from here, and the same used mobile homes have been sitting on the lot for several months.  They can be hard to get rid of.  IMHO, Brigitta, either the motorhome/trailer idea, or the storage shed as temp housing are better ideas.  As you say, you can put up an addition for more living room if needed.
Good luck, and enjoy!

Sassy

Does traveling in a car - 2 parents, 4 kids, a dog & a cat - cross-country several times a year count?  :-/  With my dad being in the military, we moved from coast to coast & also visited grandparents in Minnesota & Nebraska frequently...

Back to the subject... Glenn & I lived in our little 11x8 section of the cabin for several months, plastic sheeting to close off the inside walls - homemade bed..  We had the wood stove, old carpet over the floor, cooked on the woodstove.  We did have the RV in the horse trailer up the hill with a tiny fridge, tiny sink, stove & microwave that I'd run back & forth to (also shower & port-a-pottie).  We kept expanding to the next 8x8 section that we would get somewhat finished.  We had lots of company visiting... even before we got any of the cabin liveable.  I can't imagine doing it now... but at the time it was fun, although a lot of work...  I guess I knew it was only temporary.

Mark, our place evolved kinda like yours!  We just kept adding on... I think we have the basic house size but now Glenn has gone on to "out buildings" such as the "RV garage"... we still have a large section that is just about shelled in but finishing that part will be like building another house  :-/
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

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