I harbor (pi) fantasies of living on a boat. Boats are probably better than barges because they can move themselves from one spot to another, and can be hauled out if needed for maintenance or storage. If you start looking into it, you’ll find a lot of pretty cheap boats that can be covered to live aboard pretty easily. The trick as @Skeptic pointed out is that you need a slip, and those can cost quite a bit, and generally are charged by the foot (length of the boat). You can get water and electric hookups at some though so you’re not entirely off the grid.
My father owns a small 22’ sailboat, I grew up learning to sail in rural PA on the lake.
Boats are a huge pain in the ass man- the common refrain is it is an acronym for “break out another thousand”.
Normal maintenance and upkeep of a standard boat, especially fiberglass hulls, is outrageous.
I was specifically thinking of converting a steel barge myself for durability, and you can always weld it up if it rusts through. Durable too. Pittsburgh has all the long steel coal barges that pass through constantly, thought it would be cool to convert one to a house.
I just haven’t figured out how to work on watches at the bench with waves rocking the thing. Gimbaled workbench?
She seems critical of tiny homes as a way of living the “mobile lifestyle” rather than just getting an RV. And certainly some tiny homes are pretty heavy, and require a 3/4 ton truck to move. But for people who know the deal, which is that tiny homes are more like trailer homes than RVs, I don’t think this is a big deal.
That’s the point. “Tiny homes” on wheels are not tiny homes at all. They’re glorified trailers for hipsters. And the video glamorizes this lifestyle without explaining the realities, which in my mind is irresponsible. Pretty sure she doesn’t own a truck. Moving these things is an ordeal. $80000 Canadian is a pretty decent downpayment on an apartment, or a piece of rural land in B.C. Or it buys a pretty sick RV. This is none of the above.
is she? there is a shot in this very video of her filling up her drinking water bottle directly and another shot of her drinking from the bottle. so the video made me question if she was.
Well I will say that the woman in the video you posted does seem like she’s a little resentful that she didn’t understand the full ramifications of building a tiny home with house materials. And it sounds like others in her family were similarly unaware. Definitely these tiny home shows glorify the lifestyle, and downplay the disadvantages. And they rarely talk about the weight, and the need for a big truck to haul them around if people really are looking for that mobile lifestyle. But I guess I never really thought that people who were building these things, hung with drywall, filled with appliances, and sheathed in cedar shingles, actually thought they’d be driving them from one place to another more than once every 6 months. If someone’s planning to move around that much, they definitely need to consider an RV instead.
You seem to have a particular grudge against tiny home owners though. And social workers and (strangely) librarians. I wonder where that comes from.
I didn’t notice that; I thought if she felt she needed to boil water for laundry, she wouldn’t drink it first. That said, I grew up in that area, long before drinking straws, etc, were common. ( although a lot of people had “tablets” in their backpacks or tackle boxes…never saw anyone use one ) and you generally looked for fast moving well aerated water to drink as it was considered to be safer. I think there’s a bit of presuming this woman is unfit for this lifestyle based on what she does for a living and her “uptalk” voice… I don’t think it’s neccessarily so . There are some indications that there is a bit of art applied to the situation; freshly scraped site, where’s the woodpile, etc. that I expect were done to present the subject in a particular way but I wouldn’t discount her abilities based on that
This is why I was careful to pinpoint production values for the show, and not the person. I mean, honestly…on a normal day, she’s probably hauling water in denim and a plain cotton tee, and the interior probably looks less like a J. Crew advert.
Just to be clear, I like straight lines, fresh paint, etc. Yet, a lot of this “makeup” on these shows is intentional, to promote consumerism under the guise of sustainability, much in the way capitalism has co-opted the novelty of the organic food movement for added profit.
Yeah, work as tool and die machinist, but also went to school for watchmaking in Oklahoma for a couple years, didnt finish because of health issues.
There is a watchmaker somewhere in St. Thomas in the Caribbean, perhaps they fix them on sailboats.
Granted it would be difficult, but I bet it could be done.
Certain operations though would be much more difficult, if not impossible. Basic service, yes, but poising a balance might be physically impossible.
I may have to rethink this. Gyroscopically stabilized workbench?
The woman in the video I posted doesn’t seem “resentful” at all; in fact she say she doesn’t regret the decision and has learned a lot from it. But she brings up a very important consideration regarding “tiny homes” on wheels that videos like the original post often fail to mention, among other issues.
Agreed. A proper RV suits a transient lifestyle much better. Young people, particularly if they have no experience in the trades, can be convinced of a lot of things, particularly if that thing is deemed edgy or trendy. If I have a “grudge” its with people who deliberately misinform others, especially for profit.
How exactly is being critical of a trend like this “a grudge”? I lived in a van for several years. Then completely renovated an 1000 sq. ft. house. I applaud anyone trying to house themselves creatively in this economy. I just think that for most people, this is a dead end. The “social worker” quip was perhaps misplaced; it just fits perfectly with what to me is an Onion sketch. My sincere apology to social workers, many of whom do difficult and important work. As with any occupation however, there are good ones and bad ones. If this woman is really interested in learning anything about her fellow humans, she should go and live in a trailer park. Librarians rock.
I have a theory that most tiny homes end up in trailer parks eventually, not parked next to some bucolic wilderness scene. That’s another fiction promoted by these shows.
) and you generally looked for fast moving well aerated water to drink as it was considered to be safer. I think there’s a bit of presuming this woman is unfit for this lifestyle based on what she does for a living and her “uptalk” voice… I don’t think it’s neccessarily so 
