I expect August stats from the NWMLS to be posted either today or tomorrow, but here’s something from the lighter side to kill some time until then.
Mark Zimmerman (zim) had a problem that many have been faced with thanks to the housing bubble:
A few years back, I got tired of living the American Dream and struggling to keep up with a horrendous mortgage and rising credit card debt. I know there’s really only two ways to balance a budget, spend less or earn more, and I didn’t see a huge wage increase in the future. Also, I have always been interested in unusual homes and can’t pass a two or three hundred square foot enclosure without wondering what interesting living space could be made there. Less space, less stuff, less consumed, less owed. It sounded like where I wanted to be.
So what was his solution? Convert an old bus into a cheap home, of course!
Then, I got a call from a buddy that purchased a pair of used school buses from the Texas A&M surplus property auction. He knew I had been interested in one and was willing to hold on to it until I could head out to pick it up. I got myself to College Station, spent a few days changing fluids, ripping out the seats and doing general preventative maintenance. Then, for about $1400 for the bus and another $600 in diesel (probably twice that, now), I headed back to Florida with the beast. Two years later, I’ve got a fully functional, comfortable, clean living space for about $12,000 and my monthly housing and utility costs are less than $400/month.
It’s no Ballard Craftsman, but I guess it’s a step or two above living in a van, down by the river.
Hat tip: Boing Boing
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14 responses so far ↓
1
Markor
// Sep 5, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Another option is to make a shelter out of used shipping containers. There’s about 3 million of them in the NYC area alone, as it’s too expensive to ship them back to China empty.
2
Jenny
// Sep 5, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Here’s another example of a bus reno, except this one was done just for fun: http://steampunkworkshop.com/bus1.shtml. It’s a nice example of what’s possible with a little imagination.
3
K
// Sep 5, 2008 at 1:00 pm
http://twitter.com/ronsims/statuses/910331253
4
jon
// Sep 5, 2008 at 1:02 pm
“Markor // Sep 5, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Another option is to make a shelter out of used shipping containers. ”
That’s funny. Turns out there are a lot of projects like that. Here’s one:
http://www.wisebread.com/welcome-to-container-city-how-shipping-containers-are-recycled-into-green-dwellings
5
The Tim
// Sep 5, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Re: shipping containers - Oh yeah, it’s a totally serious movement, and some people are doing some pretty cool stuff with them.
Re: Ron Sims - Nice find, K. I wonder what he’ll be saying this time next year?
Just in case it gets deleted or something, I’m going to copy it here:
6
Fripp
// Sep 5, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Not just this time next year, but by “early next year.” I think we can safely assume he means by the end of March…he must be expecting quite the rebound in what are traditionally the worst real estate months of the year.
7
Ron Sims: Realtor Mouthpiece? | Seattle Bubble — News & discussion about real estate & the housing bubble in the Seattle area.
// Sep 5, 2008 at 2:03 pm
[...] Spotted by commenter “K” on Twitter. [...]
8
Jonny
// Sep 5, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Don’t buy what you cannot afford. It’s as simple as that for me.
9
softwarengineer
// Sep 5, 2008 at 3:19 pm
FINALLY A HOME “LUNCH BOX JOE” CAN AFFORD
Thanx Tim for the laugh :-)
10
Scotsman
// Sep 5, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Looks like fun, especially after the kids are gone. Were i single, I’d be living on a boat. There are lots of alternatives to half million dollar Ballard boxes.
A more interesting question to me is “what would your work and general life situation/choices be if you didn’t need to make $3-4,000 a month just to pay for a roof over your head?”
11
Dan
// Sep 5, 2008 at 4:07 pm
With a school bus, you can live in the exclusive Green Lake neighborhood underneath the I-5 overpass on Weedin. I used to live near there, and I would say the population underneath the overpass at night was at least 10 or 20. There were all manner of vans, RV’s, buses and trucks - mostly filled with trash for some reason. The city lets you park there for two weeks before towing. I think townhomes within 100ft of the highway were selling for $500k.
12
Tom
// Sep 5, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Ya. I ride Weedin Pl under I-5 daily. There were about 6 ‘mobile homes’ under there recently. Most were gone yesterday for some reason. I wish they wouldn’t dump their trash on the curb.
The cars filled with trash is a little different story. That is car ranching.
13
Can’t get a foothold in the housing market? Buy a bus. | Redfin Seattle Sweet Digs
// Sep 7, 2008 at 5:18 pm
[...] Seattle Bubble, the story of a gentleman who skunked the housing market in favor of building his own residence — in a [...]
14
bigdollordog
// Sep 7, 2008 at 6:11 pm
cool bus, that reminds me of a friend of mine, (story time) he went home with two attractive young sisters he met here around the seattle area, on the way there he askes, where do you 2 girls live anyway, they said, oh in a bus down by the river, he laughed so hard, then after they rounded the next corner and down a hill there it was an old school bus complete with chimney pipe on the roof, what was weird was they did not think it was strange or wierd, to live in a bus down by the river, they thought it was cool, so why not live in a bus? cant be that bad if they think its cool eh?
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