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The Rent is Too Damn High: San Fran Residents Pay $1,000/Mth To Live In Shipping Containers
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
There’s nothing quite like a grotesquely lopsided “economic recovery” in which a handful of cities boom, while the rest of the nation stagnates. Even worse, millennials living in such chosen cities face one of two options. Either live in mom and dad’s basement, or face a standard of living far more similar to 19th tenement standards than the late 1990’s tech boom.
With that out of the way, I want to introduce you to what a $1,000 per month rental in the San Francisco Bay area looks like. Shipping containers:
Don’t worry, there’s a lovely garden out back:
We learn more from Bloomberg:
Luke Iseman has figured out how to afford the San Francisco Bay area. He lives in a shipping container.
The Wharton School graduate’s 160-square-foot box has a camp stove and a shower made of old boat hulls. It’s one of 11 miniature residences inside a warehouse he leases across the Bay Bridge from the city, where his tenants share communal toilets and a sense of adventure. Legal? No, but he’s eluded code enforcers who rousted what he calls cargotopia from two other sites. If all goes according to plan, he’ll get a startup out of his response to the most expensive U.S. housing market.
“It’s not making us much money yet, but it allows us to live in the Bay Area, which is a feat,” said Iseman, 31, who’s developing a container-house business. “We have an opportunity here to create a new model for urban development that’s more sustainable, more affordable and more enjoyable.”
As many as 60,000 San Franciscans live in illegal housing, according to the Department of Building Inspection.
Iseman collects $1,000 a month for each of the 11 structures parked in the 17,000-square-foot warehouse he rents for $9,100. Tenants include a Facebook Inc. engineer, a SolarCity Corp. programmer and a bicycle messenger.
It’s not even San Francisco proper either, this is in Oakland. You could probably catch $2k per month for a cargo box in the Mission.
Iseman used to pay $4,200 a month in San Francisco’s Mission District for a two-bedroom apartment with a slanted floor and mosquito-breeding puddles.
He bought his metal box for $2,300, delivery included, then cut out windows with a plasma torch and installed a loft bed, shower and bamboo flooring. He estimates his all-in cost at $12,000, and plans to sell refashioned containers for about $20,000 through his company, Boxouse.
“What we’re doing is converting industrial waste into a house in a couple of weeks,” said Iseman, who also founded a pedicab fleet. Meanwhile, he doesn’t plan on seeking city approval for cargotopia, whose location he asked not be identified. “I’d rather ask forgiveness than ask permission.”
I want to be clear that I’m not knocking Mr. Iseman for starting this project. He seems to be a well-meaning, entrepreneurial guy trying to make the best out of a bad situation and solve a very real problem on his own. What I am knocking is the criminally corrupt American oligarchy, which left this legacy to our youth due to their unfathomable greed, cronyism and nearsightedness.
Of course, I’ve covered this trend several times over the past several years…
Coming to San Francisco…Tenement Sized Apartments!
Back to 19th Century Living in NYC: Bloomberg Proposes “Tenement Sized” Apartments for $2K a Month
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Soon to be in one of Hilda's fun camps.
Goin to Montana soon...
Those of us out in Flyover Country have all-in mortgages less than $1000 per month in a 5000sq ft house, with 15 acres, a barn, lots of garden space, swimming pool, etc. Telecommuting....it's what's for dinner!
But you don't have the excrement, err, I mean excitement of a modern city.
Right the first time;)
Useless eater.
I bought my house last year for $13,900. To be sure, it needs quite a bit of work, but:
1. Don't they all?
2. It was and is functional (natural gas, DSL, municipal sewer and water [the water is simply outstanding], etc.); and,
3. It is all very inexpensive to maintain ($275 per month for Everything associated with the house [taxes, utilities, etc.]).
Most of the work is cosmetic, and can be done cheap by using CraigsList and one's own labor. There is some serious work, too, to be done, but all that really is just an exercise in tedium and attention. The house did have some pluses: A new steel roof that doesn't leak a drop as best I can tell and PEX tubing, which is nice to have when the pipes freeze, which they will if one is not diligent.
It is in a very nice place. In fact, it is just about six miles from is what is, in my experience (and I have been a Lot of places) the most beautiful place on the planet. (On the other hand, there are also some of the ugliest communities I have ever seen located just down the road, too - leftovers from shuttered mining and that curious rural aesthetic that involves a lot of out and out trash strewn about one's property). But I don't have to look at them from my house, so ... .
It can be cold here in the winter. Not nearly as cold as many places, to be sure, but a lot colder than, say, the northern California foothills. I heat with wood and wood is just about free (the mountains and forest begin about four and a half feet behind my kitchen sink). Massive (and I mean truly massive) wood piles here.
And, it snows. A lot. But I like snow. I have a four-wheel-drive vehicle, paid for, and a 20-foot long 'driveway'. And, I don't have to leave the house unless I want.
Walking distance to the Post Office and library. (Great library. Massively overfunded. They let me bring the dog in.)
Small town. People don't just know your name; they know your dog's name, too. The Mayor's dog comes over, stands in front of the house, and barks for my dog to come out and play.
Quirky, weird place. Like living in an episode of Northern Exposure. About a month after we got here, I'm in the front yard splitting wood when a car drives up. Driven by two little kids (and I'm not talking about teenagers; no, little 8- or 9-year-old kids, maybe). They jump out and give me a piece of paper (notice about shutting down water temporarily) and say, "City Hall asked us to hand these out." (Are you kidding?)
Number of Code Enforcement Officers in our county: 0.
Number of traffic lights in our county: 1 (unused, but kept for historical reasons).
Etc.
There's no grocery store in town, but there is one just 5 miles away (and several others, including a WalMart, if that's your thing, just 15 minutes away). And, to get there, one drives down to the four-land interstate highway about a quarter-mile away where it cannot be seen or heard from my house, and drive 75 miles per hour to the store.
Nice ski area four miles away in one direction and a nicer one 12 miles the other direction.
Remote? Well, yes and no. Only 600 people in town (and there are times when I look around and think, "Everyone has died"), but there are all newly paved roads to my house, and one Federal District Court less than an hour in one direction and about an hour and a half in the other.
People walk around with guns here. Drive vehicles that look like stuff from Mad Max.
People are generous. They give us moose burger. Moose lasagne is good.
My wife hated it here. (We bought the house sight unseen over the internet. Had umpteen yard sales and sent every penny to the seller. Still had tons of stuff to U-Haul here even after taking 6,000 pounds to the dump, donating and giving stuff away, and selling maybe half of the nice stuff).
We nearly divorced, and would have if circumstances had been different. She hated it here. And me for uprooting her and dragging her here.
A few months ago, she looked around and said, "You know, Honey? This is great. I love it here. You're a genius. I never would go back to California."
And, with that, I have to go back upstairs and finish doing something about the roof rafters. (You know how in your house, you have rafters holding up the roof? In my house, the roof is holding up the rafters. Seriously. There are parts of this house that appear to violate fundamental laws of physics, but it's been here over a hundred years, so what do I know?)
And if one saved up just about a year's worth of rent for this shipping container, well, that could be you.
I would live in a tent (actually, I did live in a tent for three years when I was younger) before I'd spend a thousand dollars a month to rent. Anywhere. Are you crazy?!?
For that matter, I would live in a tent before I'd spend a thousand dollars a month for a mortgage.
I don't have to worry about money. I could sustain my lifestyle, which is actually pretty nice, support my family, and set aside some money each month on the lowest paying job in America (i.e., working the counter at McDonalds for minimum wage at 29 hours per week [you do the math]). To be sure, a new Beemer every four years is probably not in the cards, but I really don't care. I guess, too, I can forget about that time share in Cabo, but I actually like it a lot better here than even any of the destination resort communities where I have also lived. (There are no mosquitos here. Or black flies. Or noseeums. Or humidity. Or hot temperatures at night. Or crowds. Or people with more money than breeding. Or urban problems.)
Frankly, the weather here, during the late spring, summer, and early fall, is as good as it gets. For all you people in California, the choice boils down to: Do you want nice weather during the winter or do you want nice weather during the summer?
When I read the articles here about house prices and rents, I think, well, I guess I'm the only one who still reads Thoreau? Or The Richest Man In Babylon? Anyone?
Didn't read it, too long, but plus one for paragraphs.
15 most expensive cities in the world:
http://www.planbeconomics.com/2015/07/15-most-expensive-cities-in-world....
Me other either but I wish I thought of that username. I could have been a contender.
I read every word. The man is living my dream.
Mine too. We have found a few places like this and I almost convinced him. We are capable enough to live like this and growing up on a WA dairy has given him many skills.
He's just too comfortable here to give all up yet and I'm just not pushy enough. Does make one jerk ones chain though.
Miffed;-)
Dear MisterMousePotatoe: it sounds great!!! I'm in the process fo buying more land... about where are you located? Can you give some coordinates? A state? A county?
Forget the steel box for $20K and buy a used travel trailer for less than $5K. Everything is already designed and well laid out for tiny living.
SF was great as kid from Sac going down to see punk shows. That's all gone. It's lost its soul and man did it have one.
And Mouse share you secret skier spots would ya. Doesn't sound like Ketchum or Squaw LMAO.
Oh and I am buying a new badass 4x4 Sprinter van and tricking it out as a mobile sales office slash ski RV slash armagedeon wagon. When the SHTF I am heading out. I have a fear of dying inside or starving inside, at least I won't face that!
Dudes.. get a clue..
..a 40’ container could be a cool place to be if it ventilated, plush and well appointed.
I did 25 years in Ketchum. California annexed it.
yes it did, another extended suburb
"Forget the steel box for $20K and buy a used travel trailer for less than $5K. Everything is already designed and well laid out for tiny living."
I went mobile. A 1991 Toyota mini motorhome as a backup plan in case things get really bad. $6k
the good news is that commodity gas is pretty cheap now and mobility is way more affordable.
..my newest SUV is 15 years old
I am jealous. My newest SUV is only 10 years old. We did the city thing, the corporate thing and jumped. We do miss a bit of culture now and then, but the filth left behind is worth it. I see homes with an acre go for 50-80 grand and can't for the life of me understand who would live in a box the size of a prison cell and PAY for it. Techies need to move rural and start a computer shop. We mock the FSA, but what sane person would amass boatloads of student loan debt and go live in a F-ing BOX for a grand a month? And models show Calidumbass as a contender to win a civil war...righhhhtt.
He has it all but his kids will be in a 1 room school house.
Actually, for historical reasons, the local school, like the library and some other things, is grotesquely overfunded (gifts from the community before the mines shut down). The facilities are a little dated, but extravagant nonetheless, especially when one considers that the local junior/senior high school has but 52 students. In my daughter's class, there are five students, including her.
What is really strange, though, is the amount of time my daughter's class (and others) are left unsupervised; i.e., "I have a doctor's appointment, so you kids go outside and, well, do something." Coming from California, even if it was the nicer, if not the nicest part of California, it is almost unimaginable leaving a high school class unsupervised. As far as I know, there were no incidents, although there was some speculation that a couple of the older kids might have tipped over a Porta Potty nearby after school. That caused quite the scandal, let me tell you.
The state I'm living in caters to home schooling. Our daughter was accustomed to home schooling and, after a few weeks trudging off to school, asked me, "Dada? Why do I have to get up when it's dark and spend seven hours doing what I can do at home in three or five (she's actually a very responsible and diligent student)."
I had no good answer, so the second semester, she switched to a charter school an hour away set up for online classes and the internet. All that. So, she gets the imprimatur of the state on her education, which has more positives than negatives, I believe, but still can sleep in 'til I've warmed the house up, which did sometimes take a loooong time.
There are a number of such charter schools and online academys to choose from. They all seemed pretty good; the one we chose absolutely outstanding. Comprehensive and rigorous.
Curiously, if you decide to take your children 'off the grid' entirely, this state respects that. By law, you do not have to seek permission or report anything or test anything or anything. Anything at all. In fact, the principal at our school told me that he was forbidden by law from even asking questions about a child's home schooling if the parents decided to school the child themselves.
He wasn't a statist at all, but he confessed to mixed feelings about this; viz., while it worked very well for some, it didn't in most of the cases he knew about; namely, the parents simply neglected the childrens' education because they were lazy, too busy, or just didn't care.
So education is not a problem, whatever one's inclination. (although they didn't have enough kids this year to field a football team.)
ADD problems, eh?
You're far from the only one who reads Thoreau. Perhaps one of the few who retains Thoreau...
"You're far from the only one who reads Thoreau. Perhaps one of the few who retains Thoreau..."
Sounds like something Thoreau would say.
The only problem with ponds is mosquitos..
and maybe some algae...
Sounds like a very simple, yet satisfying life. It is obvious you'd rather not say exactly where, but will you let us know which state you are in?
I'm going to guess Colorado or Utah.
Northern tier - Maine, Montana, the Dakotas, like that.
Or the Ozarks - Ky, W Va,
Their ARE places in the USSA tht are really, really cool and affordable if you are willing to work and do not have the illness of needing a big city 'stimulation' and 'culture' - small towns have culture too - just different.
So hoorah to you young man. I've been out 40 years now, and never regreted it.
There is only a few places that have decent sized Moose populations in the US anymore. I have lived in a couple of them. The problem is you have to find someone to go with you or you will get bored and winter baked.
States with moose season:
ME NH VT WA CO UT ID WY ND MN MT
For beauty I'm thinking national park.
Maine might be pretty cheap since they are in a serious slowdown more so then other states. Parts are very beautiful.
i believe the gentleman mentioned no mosquitoes or black flies. that makes maine less likely.
Maine has blackflies that will; eat the flesh off your bones and fly off with your children. OK, so I exaggerated, but only a little. It's far from a paradise.
And the "Potato People" up in Aroostook County are like something from "The Hills Have Eyes".
And they only have two seasons...Fourth Of July And Winter.
Some people have added a fifth seasson-Mud. It takes place between Winter and Spring.
Cheapbastard - Maine is great right now. Compared to other states that are batshit crazy. NH where I am from used to be great this way. Maine politics were just starting to change for the better.
Anyways, Money mag and a couple others had three cities in. NH being the best place to live in the country. Up came the liberals from Mass. Not only liberals but femanatzi ones, too radical to be elected even in Mass.
They had control over the legislature and soon every penis was a target for taxation through family law, police state cops, equality gender bullshit where state got fines (taxes) which encouraged employees to sue, the works. Few know but NH went bankrupt in 2011.
I moved to Florida which is much more business friendly but also police state which its taxation methods dont effect me. A recent study showed the most stressed out place to be was Florida and the least Maine.
I will be moving back up north in a couple years. The fiance just scored a hard won promotion and we decided to let her bask in the glory for a bit. When we move will be to Fryeberg Maine, just over the border of the white mountains in NH. So Ill get to visit my scenic love while I give NH politicians the finger.
Oh NH will someday adopt better politics again but fuck them for ass raling me and ruining my home state. If I told you the tales of injustice I could go on for hours. It would have been better if NH had just implemented a state income tax than building a police state for revenue.
OH, no... I came to the Ozarks from Houston. The best little microcosm southern MO and northern AR has to offer. I did the same thing. Bought an civil war era farmstead and started fixing it up. It was like camping the first few years. I slowly bought some more land while staying out of debt. It really isn't that difficult if you have the notion to give up comforts for freedoms.
It was like camping the first few years.
You remind me ... Folks, I guess I forgot to mention some of the bad stuff: When we got here, all the electric (from the weatherhead down) needed to be replaced. Even I could see that, and I knew nothing about the subject. Since we were on a limited budget and I was doing the work myself, it took five weeks because I am neurotic and had to first read the NEC twice, the PG&E Blue Book thrice, and the Avista Green Book once (to say nothing of my making a nuisance of myself with everyone who even looked like they knew about electricity). And, it was a challenging installation in that there was literally a four-square-inch place on the front of the house where the weatherhead could legally be placed, etc.
So, for a little more than a month, we had only a generator for power. That was kind of a pain in the butt, but the lights, computers, servers, DVD players, etc., all worked. Well, sorta, but good enough.
Too, the power company wouldn't turn on the gas until the electricity was ready, so no hot water. In other words, camp stove and a camp shower hung in the bath. That, too, was, well, not entirely to our liking.
But when it was all said and done, about $300 later, I have an electrical installation that made the inspector laugh and ask me where I'd gone to electrical school. (Knowing what I now know, I could probably do it for $150 buying stuff at The ReStore and CraigsList, but I was pretty uncertain, never having done this before.) I was lucky ... the eight-foot grounding rods went into the soil like I lived in Florida or something. Still need to do the branch wiring, so we're still relying on a single outlet in the bedroom, and one of those moster orange contractor extension cords and a bunch of power strips (actually, high end Panamax line conditioners normal people use for expensive, high end stereo installations) and extension cords. Really can't do the branch wiring 'til I finish the interior cosmetics.
But it all works. Well, unless we use the microwave, toaster oven, stereo out in the parlor, and washing machine at the same time, and the refrigerator cycles on. We've adapted.
The cords are kind of an ugly nuisance, but it does all work. I run a server out of the house for a bunch of doctors and transcriptionists, and it has worked with near 100% reliability.
And, it's temporary. I'm only about three or seven days away from another circuit upstairs (and three receptacles), the bedroom ceiling light, and my two 20-amp circuits to the kitchen. Should be down hill after that.
Too, we sold the washer and dryer when we left California. Next time we move, if we ever do, I will sell everything and buy it back when I get there. Everything except the washer and dryer. Selling the washer and dryer and buying them back actually cost money because until we bought the replacements and hooked them up (several months), we went to the laundromat. Haven't been to a laundromat in years. You wouldn't believe how expensive it is. I'll bet we spent over a hundred dollars there in just a few months. And there's only three of us. On the other hand, the lady who ran the place was really nice, and it was fun to talk to her. We still stop by and say hello when we're near.
I bought a clawfoot tub today. I had two in the last house (built during the Civil War. Grass Valley Historic Resource No. 10 with a bronze plaque out front and all that). The one upstairs was really cute. Very short (my recollection is that it was just three and a half feet long). Just darling. A normal claw foot tub, but about half as long as what you normally see. I did once try to take a bath in it; what were they thinking?
Anyway, as of today, I have another (normal sized) clawfoot tub. Took me about a year to find this one, but I wasn't looking real hard. We did, after all, have a shower and bath that worked just fine. It was just kinda, well, Home Depot, an aesthetic that I, personally, do not find inspiring. (The Libbey Glass Company in it's American Brilliant Period advertisements would intone: "Nowhere is the inspiration of beautiful objects more important than in the home." [I still like that even though it's finally been settled that Libbey used figured blanks.]). A former owner removed the clawfoot tub that was in this house and put that insipid piece of crud in instead. (What is wrong with people?)
To be sure, this tub needs some serious cleaning, but the porcelain is actually in very good shape, even better than the ones I used to have. And, it cost less than a fiberglass bath/shower stall from Home Depot (maybe; now that I think about it, I guess I really have no idea). Better still, about two months ago, I found hardware for it at The Goodwill. For $4.99. The hardware, too, was really nice; in fact, even nicer than the stuff I had in the last house. So, we have (or will have in a month or two after I tear out and replace all the crap in the bathroom; i.e., everything, including the floor) a nice clawfoot tub.
For not very much money. It is my intention to fix and remodel - completely remodel - this entire house for maybe three or five thousand dollars. It can be done if one is patient. And diligent. And ruthless.
Yesterday, we bought a kitchen sink. There was a pretty nice stainless steel one here, but, well, my wife wanted white porcelain. Okay. CraigsList. Six miles away. Twenty-five bucks. Absurdly heavy thing; I'll bet it weighed nearly half as much as the tub. It was a struggle for my wife and I to lift it up to the counter, and we had no problem with the clawfoot tub. Had really, really nice hardware attached to it, too. I know someone paid a lot of money for this thing new. Had to replace two o-rings, but I finally fixed the drain underneath it that had leaked a bit since we got here. When it was all done, I found out the tube to the sprayer has a leak, so I gotta buy another one soon (I taped it with this amazing Superglue product, a tape that stretches and adheres to itself. Really amazing stuff).
So MrsMousePotato is all happy. Cool tub and sink and way cool faucets. (You shoulda seen her face when I installed our one receptacle near her desk and the undervoltage protector in the Panamax things shut off all the electricity except that to her computer and her work in progress. Lotta cheap thrills working with an old house.)
Mentioned that I heated with wood. Well, last fall was just lovely. Indian Summer every day. Until November 2nd, was it? The sixth? Can't recall. But there I am thinking, this is gonna be a piece of cake. Then the temperature plummeted. It was overnight like two degrees faranheit. There is (was) no insulation in the house. The upstairs acts like a chimney because of the myriad holes. Some of them gaping.
The dog's water bowl in the kitchen froze. Not a skim of ice on top. No, I'm talking like a hockey puck frozen.
In a panic (it was impossible to heat the house beyond sixty degrees no matter how much wood I burned or how hot), I ran around and used up 63 twenty-ounce cans of spray foam installation, which helped quite a bit, but all those sheets of foam insulation bought used from a roofer in Montana are still sitting underneath the house waiting for me to finish fixing the rafters. (Online, look up poor man's DIY spray foam insulation ... cut a sheet to fit and put a bead of spray foam around it to seal it. I can attest that it works a charm. A bit tedious, but doable with a little care.) The insulation - more than enough to do the entire upper story and roof, bath and laundry room cost just $125. And, it's about the best one could buy (again, because I am neurotic, I had to read every word of the never ending debates on polyiso versus xeps versus xms versus etc. etc. only to realize that plain old polystyrene (styrofoam) is unquestionably the best if cost is any object. "Just be sure to use a 'vapor barrier' if you use it in a cold climate."
Uh, oh. Vapor barrier? Well, it turns out that plain ol' latex paint is a vapor barrier. Could mean another trip to The ReStore, but, again, I got lucky. Our local dump here (which is, by the way, free for residents, which is just amazing to someone who used to live in California), anyway, our local dump had a pile of free for the asking cans of latex paint set aside one day when I was there, so ... . No, it's not gonna look pretty (although so far, it's all been semi-gloss white), but it's up in the eaves and behind the tongue and groove red fir and cedar I'm putting over it, so who cares?
Oh, speaking of beaurocracies ... our car registration lapsed. I registered the car locally by mail before we moved here, not realizing that the United States Postal Service does not deliver mail anywhere in this county. Then forgot all about it. Well, the local DMV sent a renewal notice, but it got returned because I had used our street adress, not knowing that the USPS doesn't deliver the mail to anyone's home or business. Forgot all about it until it was time to renew the Post Office Box (free, 'cause they don't deliver mail), but our expired car registration was one of the documents I grabbed to prove residency.
Uh, oh. Well, you know what? Went down to the courthouse to renew the registration (way cool old courthouse). The girl says, "No problem. No late fees or anything. Registration is going up next week, though, so you want to do this for two years?" You bet. It was only fifty or sixty dollars. I can't recall exactly. MrsMousePotato did this while I was at the hardware buying yet more sacks of construction screws and nails. I used to wonder why anyone would buy one of those gigantic, heavy boxes of nails. Now I know. In fact, I may have only spent $14,000 to buy the house, but I'm starting to wonder if I'll end up losing money on the deal because of the cost of the fasteners.
The place where I bought the tub had a window. Nice old, six pane, wood window for twenty-five bucks. No rot or deterioration at all. Very stout and true, and just the right size to replace that piece of crap that let all my warm air escape last winter. In fact, it's just slightly smaller so I can now put the window back in the center of the house instead of two inches to the left like the freaking morons who built this house.
The construction in this house is so bad as to strain credulity. It has to be seen to be believed. For example, since I was in, oh, the second or third grade, I have known that if you want a board to stick to something, you drive a nail or a screw through it and (and this is the important part) there has to be something behind it for the nail or screw to attach to. I thought everyone knew that. I was wrong. Apparently, there are a lot of people who don't know that, and they all got together and built my house.
If you got me drunk, blindfolded me, put ski mittens on my hands, and gave me a shotgun to make cuts, I would do a better job. And I say that in all modesty, not claiming any supernatural constructor powers or anything like that. Just, well, make sure there's something behind the board you're trying to nail in place.
In some ways, what I see leaves me utterly aghast, and in some ways, it's very comforting. I can state, unequivocally, that there is nothing that I can do here, no matter how wrong or how bad, that will not be a significant improvement over what is here. Even if it's just tearing all the crap out and taking it to the dump (it's really not doing anything anyway, so it's not like I'd be weakening the structure like in a normal house).
Anyway, the point of all this is that there are challenges (I wasn't kidding about this nearly costing me my marriage, for instance), but nothing so far that hasn't resolved happily. And it is nothing short of a miracle that the floor my chair is sitting on at this moment remains where it is. Part of the house is, well, levitating. Apparently. Or, maybe it's just so ugly that the Earth is repelled by it and is pushing it away. Dunno.
You all have been very kind, and I am tempted to tell you exactly where I am. I mean, how cool would it be to have all the empty houses here in town (about half of them) bought up by ZeroHedgers? Not sure how my new neighbors would feel about that, though, so I hesitate. Too, there's this unintended consequences thing. Not Maine (I've lived in Maine, both on the coast and halfway between Millinocket and Greeneville, miles past Baxter State Park, if you can imagine). Not Oregon. Not Montana or the Dakotas. I did say that it doesn't actually get very cold here. In fact, last winter, other than maybe half a dozen days when it got below ten degrees, it generally stayed teens and twenties at night. We were lucky; it can get to twenty below zero here. We also didn't get much snow, which also is unusual. The locals have told me about the times when the National Guard has been sent here to this town to rescue people from the snow. Remember the pictures of that 'lake effect' snow in New York last winter? That sort of thing, I am told, occurs every decade or so here, and even in a normal year, snowfall averages ten feet. I don't think we had even three feet of snow last year, and it melted away during the winter.
So far, God has blessed me and my family. Abundantly. And I'll be damned if I know why.
Beautiful MMP! Read every word... well done...!
Good stuff! Sounds nice
Sounds great, realistically I have to work in the concrete jungle until I am 65. I am keeping fit and strong so I can find a spot like yours and enjoy 20 years of tranquility before I die.
Wrong. DO NOT WAIT! "Realistically' my ass - I mean EVERYBODY told me I was nuts to leave my 'good job' and 'promising career' to move to the country. Most of them are dead now. Jesus, vullsain, you are only trapped if you think you are. AKA, life is what happens while you are making plans.
Every single day you commute to some concrete jungle job is a day you are dying, instead of living. It is really not hard being (a lot) poorer, if you are on your own land working your butt off to build your place and your life.
Your response just hurts me. Please Dear God, don't count on 20 years of tranquilty. Better to retire now and be poor, but happy most days busting your ass, than retire later, old and sick and unable to enjoy life. I had 40 really good years on this place with my wife before she died 18 months ago - beats the shit out of ten plus years I would have had, while she was already fighting cancer, if I would have waited to 65.
You never know how much time you will have - why the fuck continue wasting time in the concrete jungle if you want to find a place in the country. For God's sake, for your sake, do it now. NOW! Your fantasy is similar to most of my friends in the city - most of them died in the city waiting to retire. FUCK waiting to retire. Retire early and often - you would be surprised at the kind of second life opportunites the country offers. (I became a Fire Chief, amoung other things...)
I have a Nelson Rockefeller for President bumper sticker. He would be perfect. He's long gone.
NEVER WAIT. I am a relatively hard worker, if my name is on it and all that... My brother worked his ass off as an exec. for a global big name and had huge plans for retirement. He traveled the globe and had one of those black card things...and died at 49. He didn't enjoy life until may of 2011 he got 3 months of joy (knowing he will likely die though) and he died in November of that year.
I jumped from corporate prior to this to get out and be poor myself. I still work too hard, when i pay off the other Toyota (Lexus) and the rest of the house (or sooner) i will cut to say 20-30 hours a week. Being poor isn't easy to do, you need to work at it because we are taught to be over productive and burn ourselves out for "the man" and all that crap. I am anti socialist to the core but also anti consumerism and you tend to realize that everything is junk from China or such and pointless in pursuit of being happy. I decided to semi-retire as soon as possible and work until i pass away into God's hands. I still work too hard and am upset at myself for it.
I said Lexus for a reason. Mine is paid off and 10 years old with 81K, the misses is 4 years old with 45K and soon paid off. We intend to run them forever and a day...if using a product for useful life, be comfy about it. I bought a house for 30K cash and fixed it intending to stay in it. I "broke" my back during that and we had to go to plan B and jump into more. Hopefully it will be paid off within 5 or so...it is too big for two but two of the five bedrooms are office and income generators for us and i don't need an outside office rental. TMI but...never wait, tomorrow may not come, or may come with a stroke or paralyzing accident.
One more point. His wife got a huge life insurance settlement and re-married in less than 6 months... and we all know what that means while he was away. Someone else gets to live his plans.
Unless you die sooner. I jettisoned when my best friend died at 51. Retired at 46. Tomorrow is promised to nobody.
Where do you live? I would like to move there.
I'm guessing Sweet Home, Oregon or Dexter, Oregon.
Dude, I just bought 5.7 acres in upstate NY this March.
I've read Walden and the Richest Man in Babylon.
You're due for some John Stuart Mill. And don't forget the existentialists, Sarte and Camus, especially.
Enjoy, my friend. You'll earn it, and you'lll love every minute of it.
Fuck Wall Steet.
BTW: 0 code enforecement officers is my personal wet dream. Too much info? Sorry.
Rock on.
Read 'em. You made me realize that it's probably been 12 years or more since I had a Sartre- or Camus-induced nightmare.
I think it's Maine. Good move. Only down-side is, of course, Big Foot. Each year sharks eat 6 people, lightning strikes down 600, and Big Foot carries away 6,000 in the woods. But out of 330,000,000. it's not many. But don't worry. Big Foot is twice as smart as we are, so there's not much to do about it.
Bigfoot is a good arguement for 30 round magazines... but there are many others with higher rates than 6K per 330M.
Montana?
I don't think it is Montana. As he stated that he received building materials from a man in Montana. I would expect that he is in a bordering state.
I know a location exactly as described...too bad the Queen of the house would veto this idea in no seconds flat....
The Mayor's dog comes over, stands in front of the house, and barks for my dog to come out and play.
This is awesome!
Back in "civilization" - you have to be terrified if some cop drives by and decides to shoot your dog that is doing nothing in your fenced yard.
I am glad it worked out for you and your family.
So does this Paradise have a name?
and think you get to rescue the guys(banks) with million dollar mortgage to boot!
Don't worry. Obummer plans to fix that by building low rent slums in the your neighborhood so you can be diversified.
Don't worry. Obummer plans to fix that by building low rent slums in the your neighborhood so you can be diversified.
lol - I don't think that's going to be a problem - every "inner city" dweller I've ever known was scared shitless of the sticks. When you asked them why, they'd say "Man, there's snakes and bears-n-shit out there!" - lol
5000 sq ft. - check
less than 1K/mo - check
flyover co. - check
15 acres - WAIT!!!
At least i don't telecommute...i walk 15 paces into my office.
Flush the illegals.
Governor Moonbeam too.
gonna be a mental toss flycoon ?
You flycoons are all the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smZA9Jv3qH0
and become a dental floss tycoon.
Are you going to be a dental floss tycoon?
Whats wrong with multiple generations living together? Nothing wrong with a strong family unit, except if you view it from the State's position.
Obozo smiles and sees equality.
Hilda likes little girls.
"As a Bonus, each qualified renter will be issued $25 Barry Bucks/month that can be redeemed at the nearest soup kitchen on Mondays and Wednesdays."
I see a lot of people here sneer about young adults living with their parents. I think of The Waltons. I also think that this is another reason why the Chinese, for instance, will crush us eventually; to wit: They see living together and saving the money that would otherwise be squandered on fifteen hundred dollar a month apartments as a smart financial decision. Save the money. Buy another house. Repeat. Send the brightest kid to med school. The others work at the restaurant to enable that. They work together as a family. Both inter and intragenerationally.
Remember the movie Highlander? (Not a bad movie, but it shoulda/coulda been a lot better.) Anyway, flash forward, and what's his name is rich. Why? Because he was really smart? No. Because he had like 800 years to accumulate wealth. Put just a penny a month away, and, well, 800 years later?
Someone once asked Albert Einstein what the most powerful force in the universe was. "Compound interest."
The Chinese know how to play this game, and, I assume, have the manners so it's more like the Waltons than, what? Family Feud?
"They see living together and saving the money that would otherwise be squandered on fifteen hundred dollar a month apartments as a smart financial decision."
I married a Chinese woman. We lived with her brother, his wife, and our niece for the first two years after we were married. Later, a different niece came to live with us. Most of the family (6 brothers and my wife) shared some accomodations during some stage of their lives. Made a lot of sense.
But western kids are completely different. They don't care about the money - they want the freedom to drink, smoke dope, bang, play loud music, stay up late, etc. "Get out as soon as you can!" is the mantra from 17-23. Then, when the reality hits home that they can't afford the booze or the dope, a car, or anything else, they slink back home to mommy's basement.
1/2 the world has dirt floors. What's wrong with multi-generational housing, other than going crazy. I can barely make turkey day an acceptable family gathering anymore.
"Some might call it -- quaint..."
--NAR
and soon tin shack shanty towns will be considered acceptable, desirable and even fashionable. The propaganda model is working.
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
— Thomas Jefferson
RonPaulItsHappening.gif
And within a couple of years the first administration of the brand new united states enacted its first central bank...
Was bipolar popular back then? or was it just plain BS?
I've been looking at purchasing some mobile homes for senior shelters from a life of abuse from the joos but these shipping containers are a real possibility. WTF, I'll try it
A 40' high cube for $1700? What's not to like...
http://www.equipmenttraderonline.com/Trailers/listing/2004-A+PLUS-40++Hi...
A Plasma cutter and we're in business:
http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/tls/5147608693.html
Doesn't look like cuba?
Jefferson never said that, The terms "inflation" and "deflation" were not in use at the time. Also, in Jefferson's time, the "continent" was not yet conquered.
Good quote though...
You're forgetting the new trendy buzz-word: Sustainable. We used to call it a stone's throw from being homeless, but now it's tres chic.
You live in an actual house? You fucking asshole!! I'm so going to shame you on Facebook.
Daddy, when I grow up I want to live in a storage container and eat $15 plates of Kale.
Hahahahahahahahaha!!! What a fucked up country we inhabit.
... living in a container ... as featured in Better Homes and Gardens ... with a special fold out section, "decorating your container is as EZ as 1-2-3!"
So cool! Furnsihing your 300 sf container has neer been easier!
Gafaw...gafaw...gafaw.....
They deserve Jerry Brown and all the illeagls they fit into the HyperRail from the Mexican Border up to the LA Safe Zone.
Classic case of spin, propaganda, by the noiZ-media to make poverty, the fruit of their masters' plunder, seem fashionable and desirable.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
Does one embrace the fruits of Zion's plunder, or cut down their poisonous fruit tree?
nothing wrong with living below one's means.
the ussa has had a false life of abundance, based on massive expansion of credit, and imperialistic exploitation based on the petro-dollar standard - we've been living a lie, living a charmed life by maxing out our credit. don't hold on to the lie, learn to let go.
the pendulum has been pushed too far in one direction, it's time for it to swing back, whether we like it or not.
hard times are coming. accept reality, or be a victim and chase the past of what was.
I'd rather be poor than enable the Masters of the Universe to live off my labour. Think onto that. Make do, do without, use it up, do without...
No taxable income, no feeding the bureaucrats.
More should try it.
You slightly misquoted this old Yankee proverb my great-aunt used to recite to me:
"Use it up,
Wear it out.
Make it do,
or do without."
What we used to call "Yankee stock" - the people of upstate New York (think Plattsburgh
and Saratoga, not NYC and Long Island) - lived by this, long before, during, and long
after the Depression.
LOL meathammer; you obviously live in the area. Don't forget the $9 vegan smoothies!
I'm in the Sacramento area, Hongcha, but it has crept here from the Bay Area. My wife and I rarely go out to eat any more because this the typical dinner salad description:
Locally grown organic Buttfuck Farms kale, arugula, radicchio, and frisee; Dickface Farms pear puree, local honey-infused organic extra-virgin olive oil & Jerkoff Farms balsalmic vinegar dressing. $14.95
You don't get:
Dinner Salad - choice of Ranch, Italian, or Bleu Cheese. included with meal
anymore.
Dude you don't like Jerkoff Farms? They make the best organic vegan soy cheez substifruit.
Surely you're not complaining about paying on their iPoop tablet POS system. When you present cash, they forget to bring you change. Just want you wanted, to give 'em a full $40 for a $25 bill.
Typo on the price - $24.95
Back in the day I would go out and help the boyz 'bust 40's'. Local slang of unloading ocean 40' high cube containers and sending the cargo out via air freight across the country.
When the sun is out those fuckers cook. I don't care if you have a roof over it and torched a window and door - it's get unpleasantly hot in those. We could only stay in them for a few minutes at a time even stripped down to shorts and work boots.
All they are is 4 walls of cortin steel - and the Bay Area gets hot at times.
What do you expect? Americans are scrotum wiped with charmin soft, anymore. I built a 10x20 building with full 2x8 White Ash studs that I harvest off my neighbor's mountain and milled with his portable sawmill. Used sheets of 2 inch 'repurposed' [I so love that term they use now] torn down turkey house stryrofoam sheet insulation. A handful of sheets of plywood and some nice metal roofing for about 80 bucks a square. [that's hundred square feet]. I turned into a grow room for starting plants in the winter. It was cheaper and more energy effecient than a greenhouse. Mounted it on treated 5 inch round posts bought at Tractor Supply, pole barn style. I'm pretty sure it cost me less than a thousand bucks to build.
Not sure how building with something like a used storage container is not harder than using wood that rots away after a few decades... Living in a metal box seems far more difficult considering you have to find a way to adapt it into something livable.
This has been a trend for a number of years. There are any number of people who will take your shipping container, and (for a price, of course), kit it out with a bathroom, bedroom, living area, and kitchen. They are insulated (many are being built in BC's interior, where it gets quite cold during the winter), and the classiest ones have "heat pumps" that use geothermal energy for warmth and cooling. Solar panels to heat water and make some electricity, and you don't need the grid for much.
Here are some of the wilder examples I've seen:
http://www.containerhomeplans.org/2015/04/what-i-wish-id-known-before-bu...
Sustainable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6mD3ety4X4
It's almost cartoony, lol. I wonder how much of that rent is because of foreign buyers etc?
Lots of properties have been bought up by Chinese using cash, and then rented out through property managment agencies. It is nasty out here. If your family is bringing in less than 75K, don't even bother to come out here, cause you will be in one of those containers.
#41
cargo cult 2.0
San Francisco follows Somalia! Cheaper to live in a 20' container in Somalia...
Don't box me in, Bro!
Does it include shipping?
More than 12,000 residents have been evacuated as the destructive Rocky fire exploded to 60,000 acres across three counties and consumed 50 structures, including 24 homes.
The wildfire, 12% contained Monday morning, was threatening 6,301 structures in Colusa, Lake and Yolo counties as it continued to advance despite firefighting efforts.
Fire activity grew dramatically in an area with "little to no fire history," according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rocky-fire-in-northern-california-swell...
Could be that the metal in the atmosphere, and that that has settled-out, may have something to do with the explosive spread. If so, then it is all over the trees anywhere.
I nominate reTARD @ Mon, 08/03/2015 - 15:41 | 6386258
for Comment of the month™
Hey, it's early. Vote often, like in Chitown. Without the death, of course.
LMAO. Good one. Thanks.
At least their shit can be locked up safe when they go to work....
Not if you have "windows" it ain't
That is what my crack addicted Pit Bull is for...
But i get to feel like a Hippie. It's so kool here they just keep stepping on my throat, i love it.
awesome
Buahahahaha!!! It couldn't happen to a better group of hipster libtards.
Now, to compare insanity with peaceful calm, you can also have this for $1,000 per month https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1208843?checkin=08%2F17%2F2015&checkout=09%...
Yep, nice place. Presently under evacuation threat due to Humboldt Lightning Series fires - about 15 to 30 miles west of me. It is a bitch right now in northern rural CA - drought, fuel moisture in the toilet - the Rockey Fire burned 20,000 acres in 4 fucking hours last night. Yep - 5000 acres an hour - unprecedented.
I ain't bitchin' - part of our environment I was deeply involved in for 21 years as local Fire Chief, but there is not a perfect place in the US of A to live. Right now it is hairy in my neck of the woods, and will be till mid-September or so. I ain't bitchin' - it's part of the deal, and my place is as fire safe as I can make it, and I ain't evacuating if the order comes - I have a plan, and I will execute it, and I'm pretty sure I'll save the place.
Coastal Northern CA is one of the best damn places in the entire planet. Hope it won't get third-worldized and commercialized. I love those redwood forests, fvcking magical places. The little redwood sorrel... hope the little dudes made it out this year.
as much as i hate the gov, i do enjoy the fact that the coastal planning commission has made it impossible to build by the ocean.
my parents took me to nepenthe in big sur when i was 10....it's still the exact same place!
Mmm...communal toilets.
Boxcars to freedom!
Amurika!
Progressives...giving us progress straight back to the stone age.
" Featuring roof-top gardening!"
"There's never been a better tiem then now to live in a box!"
this is a fucking joke, right? and yet these libtards keep annointing these keynsian whack-jobs who don't understand the value of hard-$$$. unfucking-believable. no inflation anywhere. except ALL the place you DON'T want it - as in necessities to get anywhere in life - education, healthcare, housing, food.
this ends great. im sure.
libtars. please.
Well, look at the bright side; it's easier for Barry to ship them off to the FEMA camps. They're already neatly packaged and boxed, ready to be fried.
Their brains are already fried from all that gayass electronic music.
Oh fuck here we go the ditto heads going to blame it all on the liberals.How can you idiots read ZH and still come up with a simple black and white world view that the bankster/political/media oligarchy is the libtards fault only. FUCKING PATHETIC there is no HOPE you conjob conservatives are as fucking hopeless as the libtards, different side of the same fucking pathetic coin. I need to find a puke bucket.
What no puke bucket in your moms shipping container?
Don't waste your keystrokes, trying to understand that there's more than two ways to do something is too difficult for most people.
That Us vs. Them story from both treasonist groups is easier for them to follow; there's no thinking invloved.
Exactamundo, I should know better, depressing that even if given a chance by reading ZH, to see thru the charade offered by the MSM and the establishment one party, the idiocracy will revert right back to their regular programmed identity politics propaganda. The PC freaks are no better.. Pathetic sheep....And yet classic that the ditto heads who talk the talk about responsibility never take any for their wing of the one party and the responsibility it has for this clusterfuck. You will just stick your heads in the sand and repeat the propaganda like it is scripture....same as it ever was..
Vullsain is undergoing hormonal therapy while transitioning (ala Caitlyn Jenner) which explains his/her extreme delusion and hissy fits.
Vullsain is doing the classic libtard move of trying deflect criticism from leftard policies while posing as "neutral". MSM!? Really Vullsain wonder what side of the political spectrum they are?
Since when are libtards a party?
better than 2000 a month.
Umm, we're not supposed to feel sorry for these people, are we?
It's an awful situation, sure. But anyone who would even CONSIDER spending a grand a month for a space in a shipping container is pretty much beyond help...
Stupidity is still legal in all 50 states. Makes you wonder about the companies these folks work for. Do they make these kind of decisions on the job too?
I certainly hope no one ever feels sorry for you, with that attitude.
So what am I supposed to do? Cry for these people? How exactly are they being victimized?
My tears are reserved for the poor bastards everywhere else who can't even afford half that even though they work full-time.
They haven't been trapped there by forces beyond their control. Most of them WORK for those forces, and have helped build this ridiculous neighborhood where living in a shipping container costs a thousand a month...
If you want to cry, why not cry for the poor slobs who were driven out of old, long time neighborhoods when folks like this moved in and created this precious glittering jewel of a place?...
maybe they can't afford $2,000 a month (or more) for a very small apartment.
I looked up the census stats for SF. median owner occupied house unit value- $750k median income $75k If you're not smart enough when you're slinging humus and you can't afford to live in a place where you must pay ten times a year's income to buy a home, sling on. The pride parades are not THAT good there.
and that's with a per capita income of 48k
No one asked you to cry for these people. You made up the (are we to feel sorry for these people meme) because it fits your biased viewpoint, the article did not, it explained how some people were choosing a minimilast life style so they can afford to live and work in SF, a city that has become absurdly expensive as the result of the banksters bubble blowing activities aided and abbeted by both wings of the One Party. You are spinning the facts, basically just lying actually.
The anti progressive comments regarding THIS ARTICLE are pathetic transparent bullshit.
You ditto heads have been brainwashed into spinning anything into the us vs them, black and white, either or paradigm. You are a large part the reason the bankster/state/media can so easily divide us from ever breaking their grip. Congratulations idiots.
BTW, I have no issue with calling out real progressive PC bullshit. but bullshit is bullshit
Vullsain is undergoing hormonal therapy while transitioning (ala Caitlyn Jenner) which explains his/her extreme delusion and hissy fits.
But there's not "both parties" in the Bay.....There's only one and this is their idea of affordable housing. They love to rail on about equality, welp here ya go. Now you're the equal of fuckin Boxcar Willie....But I digress.... Whats the difference between this and the thousands of homeless hippies living in camper vans fucking EVERYWHERE around the bay area. You can't throw a rock without hitting some broken down POS camper with 5 Jerry Garcia look-a-likes in side. I've never seen soo much vagrancy. Or maybe the illegal sublets with 25 asians squatting in the living with fuckin chicken running around. Ahhhhh....the smell of utopia in the morning. Meanwhile, the techy-hipsters in the Misson are sipping $7 lattes and blogging about social justice, stroking their handlebar mustaches while waiting for their Google bus to pick them up. #yeswecan.
Sure, except it is you versus us. You are attacking us here.
Is the person in the second picture "Luke"?
Luke, I love you! Looong time...
They just need to be shipped to the work camp.
:)
+1
Arbeit macht frei.
i actually think they are pretty cool.... If you were to own one. As long as you are in a zone that accepts ground septic. throw up some solar panels, catch rain, dig a well and subsistence farming. As long as you can afford land tax you can sit back and watch everyone else get evicted from their nice apartments to tent towns.
All that aside... yes, rent is too damn high! I can only afford my apt with dual income, frugal spending and no kids.
"He seems to be a well-meaning, entrepreneurial guy trying to make the best out of a bad situation and solve a very real problem on his own"
That's one interpretation.
I see a cunt who wants to profit from the Decline and Fall and is savvy enough to see the future of slum lording.
How many El Salvadorans can fit in one of those things anyway?
Put in bunks you can stack em 3 high, and about 3 deep, line each wall...
so I'm guessing about 18 or so.
tend that garden fast or get boned in the ass.
They'll water their gardens and then shame people on Facebook for having lawns.
She could tend the garden while I bone her in the ass... er wait a minute, Im already doing that...
Please, tell her yourself, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfqunEuw61k
Luke Iseman and Heather Stewart
Favelas for white people. Coming to a neighborhood near you soon.
I don't know why everybody is so down on the economy when there are all of these opportunities in slumlording. It is kind of messy but when you have to throw out that old widow you can just pay for some muscle to do it for you. This is crazy bullish for porta potties too but if you want to be really shrewd you can just dig a hole.
1000$/mo is just the box rent..then theres utilities and parking plus the association fees...
Not to mention the monthly dues from the country club.