First time I stumbled on this thread. I love tiny houses/bus houses, especially if they are made by someone handy. Hubby's sister and her boyfriend converted a bus and it's looking pretty nice (they may have poured $10,000 into it over time, including buying a junky rv for parts), and they often find things cheap/free on craigslist/facebook that they use and are quite artsy, having some stuff with driftwood and a bunch of other things. I get the feeling that it attracts people who can't afford buying a house/rent and want to be able to travel, although at 5 mpg, she's sounding iffy about that nowadays. I've been tempted to do the rv route compared to expensive rent, but I have noticed that most, if not all, of my friends who did rvs/buses with a family now live in regular houses, and it might drive me batty with children. Also, there are certain states I would not want to live full time in one of those unless I had a friend with a basement. I'd consider something like that in my later years though. I like the idea of renting one first to see how I manage it.
As for the houseboat method, you have to not get seasick, and it sounds incredibly expensive. Hubby's uncle has one that looked almost as big as one of our apartments, and he's also got a brick and morter house in the Keys. Those things are incredibly costly, and the docks as well, not to mention the crowd they cater to (although we've only been to the ones in the keys/New Orleans). What do they actually do during storms, anyway? some of those storms, I would guess, might give you short notice to move the thing, and it seems like an rv would be much more portable and cater more to the lower income people, as well as give you more opportunity to mingle with the common folk.
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