Is this completely ridiculous?

[Lady_Katie]

Hello there, I'm brand new to this forum. My husband and I (along with our two little boys) currently own a 1700sf home in upstate NY. I have to tell you, I thought I would enjoy home ownership, but I actually hate it with every fiber of my being. Most of all, I hate feeling trapped in this one location. Secondly, I hate feeling like no matter how much maintenance we do, and how many upgrades we can squeeze out of our budget, there's still more that needs to be done than we can ever get to. In short, it's choking the life out of me.

I've spent most of the time we've lived here (4.5 years) trying to figure out a way out that makes sense. We could rent and share walls with people to save a buck (uuuuuuugh), or we could rent a house and still be trapped in one location and have to move all of our stuff every time we get sick of it (which I can guarantee would happen often). Then I read on a homeschooling forum that I'm a member of that some people actually live in RV's with their children. I have to admit, this idea makes me giddy.

My husband and I are not complete strangers to RVing. My parents owned a small RV when I was a teenager, and my inlaws owned a travel trailer. So, we both grew up camping, for what that's worth.

But before I research any further, I need to know if my idea is plausible. I understand that it is basically not possible to live this far north in an RV. We get a ton of snow and regularly have negative temperatures. We worry about the pipes IN our house freezing in the winter, even though it's heated regularly, so I would never consider living in an RV here. However...my husband may be able to transfer to Charlottesville Virginia, where it is considerably warmer. He can also likely do some of his work remotely to make traveling regularly possible, with Charlottesville as our base. I'm just not sure about their temperatures. It looks like their climate is considerably warmer than what we have here, but for a few months out of the year their lows are in the upper 20's/lower 30's while the highs are around the upper 40's. Is that kind of weather too cold for RV living? I have read that there are "arctic packages" available. Would something like that make the idea more worth considering? I know we'd be fine during the day, but obviously we wouldn't want to suffer at night. We'd probably be fine heating it to about 60 at night, a little warmer during the day. Is it difficult to heat to about 30 degree's warmer than the air temperature outside?

Thank you!

[Dustytuu]

Our RV is comfortable and we do have room to have alone time. They make 5th wheels big and some have 2 bedrooms or one bedroom and a den. You can get them with two baths. We have all the comforts of home. I have a dishwasher, washer and dryer and we also have 2 electric fireplaces.
Children do need room to grow. I do not know if this is a life for 2 small kids. Although some people do it with no problems.
If you have to worry about depreciation when you buy then you can not afford an RV. Rving is a good and exciting life style but is not for everyone. We have been doing it for 8 years. We did own a nice house on 5 acres in Colorado. We were hardly ever there so we shopped for a bigger 5th wheel we knew we could live in and sold our house. We love this life.

[2gypsies1]

Lady_Katie wrote:
Oh, by the way, if anyone could answer my original question about heating an RV in Virginia, that would be helpful!

First find a RV park that stays open year-round. Then find out if they allow the huge commercial propane tanks which you'll have to rent. If those two things are a 'go' then look for your RV. It should definitely have double pane windows and minimal slide outs would help immensely with heating. Slides don't have any insulation on the top of them so heat will escape. Also, there would probably be air coming in the sides.

You wouldn't want to leave your water hose or sewer hose outside. Use them when needed and store them. Exposed pipes should be wrapped or heated. An enclosed under belly is necessary. Your sewer pull levers and water hookups should be in a inside compartment and you could put a utility light inside to keep it warm.

A good window covering would help rather than leaving them exposed. Showers and people = lots of condensation and you'll have to wipe down your windows daily or more so the water doesn't seep into your walls. You'll have condensation behind your mattress so every morning you should move the mattress away from the wall about 10" or so to dry out otherwise you'll get mold.

Closets are a good place for mold to grow. Keep the doors open and don't pack too tight close to the wall. It's even helpful to leave your cabinet doors ajar so air can circulates.

Putting a skirting around the bottom of the RV would help but some parks will not allow this.

All floors should have carpet covering to keep warm. Door locks have a tendency to freeze shut.

It's not going to be easy or comfortable and it will be very expensive to heat your RV.

[Lady_Katie]

Oh, by the way, if anyone could answer my original question about heating an RV in Virginia, that would be helpful! Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate all of this advice, and we're not making any plans to move into an RV any time soon (if ever), but I'm still wondering about that. Thanks!

[Lady_Katie]

tatest wrote:
The work situation might be what needs changing, in order to have a more mobile lifestyle.

It is not completely ridiculous, but it might be addressing the wrong part of the problem.

Thank you for your insight, your response feels the most accurate to me. Many of these responses are advising me to figure out the root cause of my unhappiness, and I've honestly been giving this a lot of thought. I can't help but conclude that the bottom line is boredom. I'm really not a "dig my roots into the local community" type of person, and neither is my husband. We've been here for 4.5 years so far, and we still cannot bring ourselves to call it "home". In all honestly, I think I might actually, truly and honestly be a wanderer. Once I hit my 20s, I moved around our state quite a bit for about 5 years, and I was pretty happy doing that. But about a year into "living the American dream", I started to feel like I wanted to relocate again. Here I am, 3.5 years later...still feeling the same way. I don't want to be one of the ones who suffer through a lifestyle that doesn't work for them.

Now, of course, having young children and my husbands job are factors. I've always planned to homeschool, so that's one non-issue. There actually is hope of my husband working remotely. We were talking about this the other day, and I guess he's been doing a lot of work that doesn't require him to be in the office. I used to actually work from home as a freelance designer, so there's hope of me being able to pick up work in the future too. I could probably even make money blogging about traveling (I worked in marketing and graphic design).

Looking at our future with these ideas in mind makes me feel a lot more optimistic, to be honest.

[MPI_Mallard]

There's such a romantic "see the world" stigma attached to full timing that in part is correct but it is expensive and full-time travel does wear your rig down, mile up your truck but doing it with young kids I don't agree with. I believe that kids need to have roots, community, a place to make life long friends to give them stability and being in the States I would worry about the safety aspect as well. don't get me wrong, we love it as retired snow-birds but no way in hell would I subject this lifestyle to kids.

Sheryl Crow;
It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got!

[Ropdoc]

I am from a family of wonderers, gypsies if you will. The RV life style is in me. I tried to ignor it and talked about the family as if they had no wants in life. Now at my age ... I find it the opposite. I crave traveling everywhere. Nothing holding me in one spot. Luckily my wife has that need too. So we sold almost everything and are now fulltimers. Have LOTS to learn but love the lessons. Everything breaks down. Economy crashes and grows. Housing market goes up then down. I am not going to be controled by any of it. If this life style fails. I can move into an apartment till I get myself up again. Better to sit on the couch old and worn out knowing what is out there instead of guessing. I have people look down on me and comment about my choice. I just hook up the RV and head on down the road away from them. I have worked on farms shoveling manure and designed product to support and save members of the millitary. Won awards for my ideas and even have patents. I am ok with leaving my engineering job to work stocking shelves if that keeps me on the road.

The kids will grow old and maybe forget the marks placed on the door to highlight growth points. But they will never forget standing next to the worlds largest ball of yarn or looking down the edge of the Grand Canyon. If RV lifestyle sparks an interst GET OUT THERE and do it. And screw the naye sayers.

[paulcardoza]

to the OP:

I was in the same boat as you, but without the kids issue. I reached a point where maintenance, yard-work, etc., was just something I didn't want to deal with any longer.

When I retire, probably another 7 years yet, we are planning to fulltime. So what have we done?

Sold the house and bought a downtown condo. No painting, snow shoveling, landscaping, even the garbage is handled for us. This will be our fallback, should the day come where health prevents us from fulltiming. Where it's located, we would have access to everything without the need to drive, if that was an issue.

Bought our 44' Cyclone and have gone seasonal (April-Dec) at a top CG closer to my office. We've considered renting out the condo for the summers, but to date have chosen not to.

When retirement time comes, the RV will be paid off and we'll either buy a truck to pull it around, or buy something smaller to travel around the country. Planning ahead sure helps relieve the stress of how this will all work out.

[tatest]

Usually it is a work location that ties you down, rather than what kind of structure you are living in (multi-unit, single-unit, mobile home, tiny house or RV) and mode of occupancy (renting, buying, condominium). If a job keeps you in one place, you end up "stuck" in that place, even if you move around within the commuting area for that workplace.

Full time RVing is usually about being able to move around. For some people it is about moving to temporary job locations (construction, agriculture, consulting, short term contracts or other temporary or seasonal work. For others, who don't need to work or don't need to work in a particular place, it is about just going where the weather is nice or using the mobility to enhance a home-schooling experience.

Putting a RV in a long-term rental space for several years because someone needs to go to a job location every day might not be that different than living in an apartment complex, or renting or owning a mobile home in a trailer park. But a mobile home would be likely more suitable for extended living, that's a matter of the design differences that give RVs more mobility than manufactured housing.

If a job means you are not going to be able to keep moving around, I'm not sure that living in the (under 400 sq ft) confines of a RV is going to help with the "I'm trapped here" feeling of being kept in one place by somebody's work.

I was trapped by a job for 25 years, moved around within the same city to break that up some, and managed to get an overseas job location for the last two years working. Retiring back to that place so my wife could keep working was really depressing, but not as tough as being stuck there alone after she died. I get relief from the trapped feeling by traveling often, for short periods of time, but that works because I don't have a job keeping me down. The work situation might be what needs changing, in order to have a more mobile lifestyle.

It is not completely ridiculous, but it might be addressing the wrong part of the problem.

[weathershak]

dahkota wrote:
Quite a few people have replied that are not full timers and not doing it with a family. I know of quite a few very happy full timing families. Find the blogs of a few full timing families and get in touch with them. They will tell you the ups and downs of the life.

Living in an RV is not easier than living in a s&b. There is still a lot of work and maintenance that comes with it - you can't escape that. But, right now, I would not trade my RV and my life for any s&b anywhere. I am a wanderer by nature and to be tied down again (I did that for 20 long, painful years) would be overwhelmingly depressing.

The first thing you need to do is make sure the rest of your family is up for it. Not everyone is cut out for this lifestyle. DH took some convincing (six months on the road) before he agreed - this is way better than being tied to a house.

X2. Working on year # 4 for me calling my Motorhome, "Home" I am done with sticks and bricks. I can relate to the 20 long and painful years.

[arhayes]

I'm also in the " figure out WHY you're unhappy" camp. You will encounter just as many if not more maintenance issues in an RV, things like refrigerators, HVAC, are less efficient and more expensive. I see many that are doing this, but we would not have. We love the full-time lifestyle for the two of us in retirement, but I cannot imagine this being fun with kids on board.

[Naio]

It sounds to me like part of the problem is that you have not been successful, so far, in predicting what will make you happy. You get into situations and then you find that you do not like them.

That's a difficult skill. I suggest that you focus on developing it before you make any changes that cost money or a lot of effort (buying an RV, moving to a different house, changing hubby's job). You could consult a professional in order to speed up the process.

Once you are able to predict what you will like with more accuracy, it will be easier to know what to do :).

[dahkota]

Quite a few people have replied that are not full timers and not doing it with a family. I know of quite a few very happy full timing families. Find the blogs of a few full timing families and get in touch with them. They will tell you the ups and downs of the life.

Living in an RV is not easier than living in a s&b. There is still a lot of work and maintenance that comes with it - you can't escape that. But, right now, I would not trade my RV and my life for any s&b anywhere. I am a wanderer by nature and to be tied down again (I did that for 20 long, painful years) would be overwhelmingly depressing.

The first thing you need to do is make sure the rest of your family is up for it. Not everyone is cut out for this lifestyle. DH took some convincing (six months on the road) before he agreed - this is way better than being tied to a house.

[ncrowley]

I have a house and a RV, and I spend more time on RV maintenance than I do house maintenance. When I built this house, I landscaped it so I would have minimal outside maintenance. I would work to make your home easier to maintain or love to another house, and then get a trailer and do some RVing to see how you like the lifestyle.

[coolmom42]

gemsworld wrote:

kohai wrote:
I would focus on why you are unhappy and not so much on the RV being the end-all solution. In my opinion, you'll find the same unhappiness, just in a different way.

X2

Good luck!

Ditto.

[2gypsies1]

This site will give you lots of information of living in a RV with children:

http://fulltimefamilies.com/