Living in an RV Camper & Our New Upgrade!
Hey all & welcome back to the blog!
I’ve been pretty low key about it on the blog, and on social media, but for the past 3 years (minus a winter) my daughter and I have been living in a renovated 2007 Keystone Hornet 38DQDS.
Now, I specifically went with this trailer for one reason, the bedrooms. I did not want either of us to feel like we were living in a ‘trailer’, I wanted us each to have our own actual bedroom, with solid doors and not feel like we had to ‘crawl’ into bed, ie a loft. It also placed the bedrooms at either end of the trailer, giving us each even more space and privacy.
Now, ours has of course been renovated cosmetically to feel more homey and it has served its time with us amazingly well. Being 38 feet long it has offered us about 350 sq ft of fully functional living space and, having parked it on my mom’s property, has allowed me to pay off student loans, credit card debt and even pay off my car and the trailer itself.
The Math: I originally bought it for $11,000 Canadian and put an additional $3,000 into it between the pellet stove, furniture & paint. The idea was that we would live in it for the 3 years, pay off the trailer and car, and pay off my debt. Spreading the cost of the trailer out over those 3 years would have been like paying $390 a month in rent, which as we all know is unheard of considering the average rent for a 2-bedroom in my area is $2,500 a month. Not only that, at the end of 3 years I would be able to recoup some portion of my money, whereas with a rent I would not see any of that money back whatsoever.
Note: I was exceptionally lucky to have the support of my mother and through her, a place to park it for essentially the cost of utilities. Otherwise, I would have been looking at a monthly parking cost of at least $600 a month. Although this monthly total would still be well under the standard rate of rent, it would have impacted my savings and my timeline.
The Cons: Winter. News flash, we live in Canada and winters here are preeeetty cold. This means our utilities were limited to hydro, a pellet stove for heat, a blue water jug for drinking and cooking, and an inside (flushable) camping toilet. While you can insulate your skirting, ours was a ‘short-term’ solution and we decided not to risk frozen water pipes. Instead we chose to walk up to my mother’s house for showers, dishes & laundry. I will admit though, these last three things eventually added up to my breaking point.
Tiny Home Vs. Small Home
A tiny home is typically under 400 square feet; this would include anything smaller than the standard 40x8 ft trailer with pop-outs, or a 30x12 Amish ‘shed’. While I will be the first to advocate these options for anyone looking to live within their means & get out of debt, and I will allow that while they are livable, for myself personally, they are not necessarily enjoyable. They are meant for minimalistic living, and in my opinion, anyone who dreams of self-sufficiency, with any degree of ease and comfort, a family life, as well as a minimalistic lifestyle, needs a reality check. You simply cannot fit a family into a 400 sq foot home and still expect to have space to process, can and store your own food.
Which leads me to our upgrade!
I am so excited to share that I have officially put in an order for the brand new
2024 Forest River Wildwood 44View!
There are a number of reasons that I chose to stick with a trailer ‘format’ that I will get into in a later post, but suffice to say, I am ecstatic! In what is essentially a 3 bed, 1.5-bath unit we will not only have an additional 160 square feet of living space, we will also have enough space for food processing & storage, 9 foot ceilings, tons of natural light, a spare bedroom to host family & friends, and laundry!
If you’re interested, one of the most detailed walk-throughs for this unit was posted by Bish’s RV on their Blog & Youtube. (Thank you Josh!)
With delivery due sometime in April I cannot wait to share this move with you guys and even a little custom surprise when it arrives!
I do want to leave you with one thing to note, don’t forget, these big steps that people seem to be able to make online, are years of small steps in the making. This isn’t a quick thing either, I will essentially be going from (relatively) debt-free to taking on a 10-year Mortgage. While my payments will still be under what rent would cost me, and it is much less than a house would have cost, there is still a price tag attached to this. My personal hope is that our current Canadian housing and economic situations will lead to minimal depreciation if and when I come to sell. Ie. in a few years when I’m ready to build there will still be high demand for affordable, smaller spaces that will limit the amount of money lost on buying a brand new asset off the lot. Trailers tend to depreciate like cars as opposed to appreciating in value like houses. This is not an investment that will grow in value, it is hedging against a greater loss I would have had to take on otherwise as a renter and I simply could not have bought a livable property at this same price point.
Keep taking your own small steps, make smart decisions that make sense for you and your family, and as always guys, never stop growing, in life or in the garden!
-Anna R.
