Full-time in the San Francisco Bay area while working?
Hi everyone,
My wife and I need to be within commuting distance of San Francisco most weeks for the next 18 months or so. We're thinking about getting an old, cheap (<$10k) RV and then moving between long-term spots in Marin County as an alternative to paying Bay Area rents. We have zero RV'ing experience and would very much appreciate any and all thoughts about the workability of this plan.
We lived on a roaming canal boat in England for two years and loved it, so the small space and practical challenges like toilet management wouldn't be issues for us. We do have three indoor/outdoor cats, but they grew up on a roaming canal boat and are accustomed to getting a new front yard every couple of weeks, so they'll be fine _if_ we can find places to stay that don't have fast-moving traffic or off-leash dogs nearby.
On the boat, the primary challenge by far was finding places where we could stay without falling foul of local authorities. The boat topped out at 4mph and the longest we could stay in any 1-2 mile zone was 2 weeks, so we did have to spend quite a lot of time cruising when we didn't want to.
The second challenge was fixing things when they broke. Repairs usually had to be done urgently so we could live and move comfortably, but it was sometimes hard to find parts or qualified repair people quickly. And, as everyone here knows, any repair in a small living space is very disruptive. Those two challenges took so much time some weeks that they interfered with my ability to work, which was stressful.
One thing we loved about the boat lifestyle was that we could moor in town some weeks, but move out into the country for others. We were thinking that living in an RV could have the same advantage, letting us sample more of Bay Area life than we could living in one place.
As I said we'd love to hear anything anyone thinks we should know, but we do have some specific questions also:
- Would it be hard to find places to stay nearish to San Francisco with no fast-moving traffic or off-leash dogs nearby and where cats are allowed?
- How long could we stay at any one place?
- In an old, cheap RV, would we have to spend lots of time repairing non-vehicular systems such as water, toilet and residential electric?
- Are there social or legal sources of stress that people who live in old, cheap RV's have to deal with?
Thanks!
My wife and I need to be within commuting distance of San Francisco most weeks for the next 18 months or so. We're thinking about getting an old, cheap (<$10k) RV and then moving between long-term spots in Marin County as an alternative to paying Bay Area rents. We have zero RV'ing experience and would very much appreciate any and all thoughts about the workability of this plan.
We lived on a roaming canal boat in England for two years and loved it, so the small space and practical challenges like toilet management wouldn't be issues for us. We do have three indoor/outdoor cats, but they grew up on a roaming canal boat and are accustomed to getting a new front yard every couple of weeks, so they'll be fine _if_ we can find places to stay that don't have fast-moving traffic or off-leash dogs nearby.
On the boat, the primary challenge by far was finding places where we could stay without falling foul of local authorities. The boat topped out at 4mph and the longest we could stay in any 1-2 mile zone was 2 weeks, so we did have to spend quite a lot of time cruising when we didn't want to.
The second challenge was fixing things when they broke. Repairs usually had to be done urgently so we could live and move comfortably, but it was sometimes hard to find parts or qualified repair people quickly. And, as everyone here knows, any repair in a small living space is very disruptive. Those two challenges took so much time some weeks that they interfered with my ability to work, which was stressful.
One thing we loved about the boat lifestyle was that we could moor in town some weeks, but move out into the country for others. We were thinking that living in an RV could have the same advantage, letting us sample more of Bay Area life than we could living in one place.
As I said we'd love to hear anything anyone thinks we should know, but we do have some specific questions also:
- Would it be hard to find places to stay nearish to San Francisco with no fast-moving traffic or off-leash dogs nearby and where cats are allowed?
- How long could we stay at any one place?
- In an old, cheap RV, would we have to spend lots of time repairing non-vehicular systems such as water, toilet and residential electric?
- Are there social or legal sources of stress that people who live in old, cheap RV's have to deal with?
Thanks!
