{"id":2598,"date":"2008-09-05T12:01:43","date_gmt":"2008-09-05T19:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2009-05-22T08:09:22","modified_gmt":"2009-05-22T15:09:22","slug":"diy-solution-for-affordable-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/05\/diy-solution-for-affordable-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY Solution for Affordable Housing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I expect August stats from the NWMLS to be posted either today or tomorrow, but here&#8217;s something from the lighter side to kill some time until then.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Zimmerman (zim) had a problem that many have been faced with thanks to the housing bubble:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>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&#8217;s really only two ways to balance a budget, spend less or earn more, and I didn&#8217;t see a huge wage increase in the future. Also, I have always been interested in unusual homes and can&#8217;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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So what was his solution?  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/Re_use_a_Schoolbus_for_Cheap_Housing_Prologue\/\" title=\"Re-use a Schoolbus for Cheap Housing\">Convert an old bus into a cheap home<\/a>, of course!<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Then, I got a call from a buddy that purchased a pair of used school buses from the Texas A&#038;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&#8217;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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin: 5px auto; width: 600px; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000; margin: 5px\" title=\"Now that's cheap housing.\" src=\"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/converted-bus.jpg\" alt=\"Now that's cheap housing.\" width=\"600\" height=\"258\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s no Ballard Craftsman, but I guess it&#8217;s a step or two above living in a van, down by the river.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 85%;\">Hat tip: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boingboing.net\/2008\/09\/04\/howto-live-in-a-scho.html\" title=\"HOWTO live in a schoolbus - Boing Boing\">Boing Boing<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I expect August stats from the NWMLS to be posted either today or tomorrow, but here&#8217;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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[205],"tags":[28,510,1119,538],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","tag-affordability","tag-diy","tag-humor","tag-small-spaces"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>DIY Solution for Affordable Housing \u2022 Seattle Bubble<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/05\/diy-solution-for-affordable-housing\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"DIY Solution for Affordable Housing \u2022 Seattle Bubble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"I expect August stats from the NWMLS to be posted either today or tomorrow, but here&#8217;s something from the lighter side to kill some time until then. 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