Did you sell your house to purchase a van for full timing

[thehutchies]

Not really an insight as to how you are spending your time full timing, I for one would be interested in a week or two full timing. Do you still leave your van for a holiday each year or have you given them up now. What are you doing just now. I am sitting outside Waitrows at southend. What are you doing.

Lying in a hammock with a cold glass of wine

The kids have earned an hour on the Xbox, after a hard morning at the open-air swimming pool with home-ed mates.

I'm watching the sweating crowds walk up Glastonbury Tor (why would you, in this heat), but some friends and family are due to arrive soon to spend a few days with us, so I really should get up.


Don't think I will, though

 

[MHVirgins]

From our point of view we feel we have the best of both worlds
As joner8888 has said the idea of living in a mh all year round is not for everyone and it's certainly not for us. Yes, we love to get away in the van and enjoy the freedom to get off in it whenever we can. But it's equally good to come back home to the space to spread in out for a while, organise the next trip away in the van and then get away again.

We're lucky enough not to have any neighbours to worry us and feel fortunate that we have the mh, but really wouldn't want to spend Christmas in what someone has described as a "fibreglass box".
Yes, home can mean many different things to different people, but for us home is in the country with a log fire and central heating over the winter and that's not in a "brick box":thumb:
Each to their own really.

 

[vwalan]

my neighbor at home is usually out with us in his truck conversion . we may even visit another fr m across the road at their villa in portugal . one year another flew out and we had a street party in another country . but thats life . good job we are all not the same .

 

[olley]

Sitting here with a cider, no grass to cut, no borders to weed, nothing needs painting and no list of jobs from the wife. Just an expanse of grass that someone else has mown.

Do many fulltimers wish to get back into bricks as Alan suggests? No idea but I don't think so, but I have as much proof of my opinion as Alan does of his I suspect. Why is it that some people seem so keen to tell me how to live my life?

Turning Alans opinion around maybe most people who live in bricks wish they could fulltime but are afraid of the future? So denigrate fulltimers through envy? Do I really believe that? No of course not.

We all live how we can within the limits of our dreams and reality. I have the plans for a 40' steel ketch that I have had for 40 years, that's a dream, reality says I will never build it, :Sad: fulltiming was a dream that's become for me, at this moment a reality; the future? Who knows, bricks? Park home? Tent? coffin? No idea but one day I will find out.

Ian

 

[thehutchies]

Still in the hammock! :thumb:

The kids have filled the paddling pool and are cooling down in the shade of the awning.

The visitors have arrived and are planning a barbeque for this evening.

Tomorrow, I will go to work while the family do all of their everyday things.

It confuses me why some people think 'motorhome fulltiming' is about giving up work or retiring or spending your life travelling from one place to another every few days.

'Fulltiming' just means you come home to your fibreglass box, rather than a brick box.

Very little changes.

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[buttons]

Sitting here with a cider, no grass to cut, no borders to weed, nothing needs painting and no list of jobs from the wife. Just an expanse of grass that someone else has mown.

Do many fulltimers wish to get back into bricks as Alan suggests? No idea but I don't think so, but I have as much proof of my opinion as Alan does of his I suspect. Why is it that some people seem so keen to tell me how to live my life?

Turning Alans opinion around maybe most people who live in bricks wish they could fulltime but are afraid of the future? So denigrate fulltimers through envy? Do I really believe that? No of course not.

We all live how we can within the limits of our dreams and reality. I have the plans for a 40' steel ketch that I have had for 40 years, that's a dream, reality says I will never build it, :Sad: fulltiming was a dream that's become for me, at this moment a reality; the future? Who knows, bricks? Park home? Tent? coffin? No idea but one day I will find out.

Ian

Like the sound of the 40' ketch, loads of accessible space around my brick dwelling we could halve the workload.

 

[thehutchies]

but really wouldn't want to spend Christmas in what someone has described as a "fibreglass box".
Yes, home can mean many different things to different people, but for us home is in the country with a log fire and central heating over the winter and that's not in a "brick box":thumb:
Each to their own really.
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Chacun à son goût.
Absolutely! :thumb:

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(Isn't that photograph refreshing on a day like today?)

 

[vwalan]

mind even in morocco you go from desert to snow in a day .

 

[olley]

Like the sound of the 40' ketch, loads of accessible space around my brick dwelling we could halve the workload.

Hi buttons its a Roberts design, steel multichine, i sent a cutting list to kings at Norwich about 20 years ago, 20 grand in corten. Steel. :Sad:

Ian

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

Chacun à son goût.
Absolutely! :thumb:

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(Isn't that photograph refreshing on a day like today?)

That's a fantastic picture all the kids and the snow. Love it.:thumb:


I could get the same thing in the back garden at home though, or on a trip over the winter months.
I'm still not convinced

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[thehutchies]

That's a fantastic picture all the kids and the snow. Love it.:thumb:


I could get the same thing in the back garden at home though, or on a trip over the winter months.
I'm still not convinced

You don't need to be convinced.

If it's right for you, you will just know it.

Motorhome fulltiming is not some mysterious, arcane system of supplication to the gods of the motorised wheel.

It's just about choosing to live in this box rather than that box.

We have friends who own a house but choose to live in a 20 foot diameter yurt at the bottom of the garden. :thumb:

We have friends who own a farmhouse and fields and they live in a large caravan on the back of a recovery truck.

It takes all sorts to make a world

 

[tick59]

OUR MORGAGE WILL BE PAID IN OCTOBER. WE DON'T OWN A BIG HOUSE IT IS ON A COUNCIL HOUSING EST. I HAVE WORKED HARD TO PAY THE MORGAGE AND I AM THE ONLY ONE IN MY FAMILY WHO EVER OWNED PROPERTY. I HAD A DREAM OF SELLING UP AND GOING FULLTIMING WHEN I RETIRED BUT NOW WITH A NEW GRANDSON IT LOOKS LIKE MORE TRIPS WHENEVER POSSIBLE SO NO WAY WOULD I SELL MY HOUSE. BY THE WAY THE NAME OF MY HOUSE IS "CASSA DEL SUDO" WHICH MEANS " HOUSE OF SWEAT" AS IV'E SWEATED MY BOLLOCKS OFF TO PAY FOR IT.

 

[thehutchies]

I HAD A DREAM OF SELLING UP AND GOING FULLTIMING WHEN I RETIRED BUT NOW WITH A NEW GRANDSON IT LOOKS LIKE MORE TRIPS WHENEVER POSSIBLE SO NO WAY WOULD I SELL MY HOUSE. .

But why would having a grandson stop you fulltiming?

I have two granddaughters.

 

[thehutchies]

That's a fantastic picture all the kids and the snow. Love it.:thumb:


I could get the same thing in the back garden at home though, or on a trip over the winter months.
I'm still not convinced

Our 'back garden' at the time was 2.500 acres of forest and lakes.
And, like Olley said, I don't have to look after any of it.

Oh, and the photo wasn't all of the kids; there was a 12 year old boy stomping around inside saying 'Dad won't let me go on the 360. I hate Dad. He's such a loser'.

Is that just a motorhome thing or do they do it in brick homes as well?

 

[Minxy]

I'm quite happy with our 1.68% fixed for 5yrs that we can find here today.

Our mortgage is 0.74% above base rate, so currently only paying 1.24%!!!

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[Peter & Elaine]

Having read though some of this lot
I now think full timing is a state of mind love it hate it or just put up with it
Every body has differant expectations that are leaps and bounds apart
This is my take on it
Would I sell my home to full time in a van NO
Could I live long term in van maybe but for a max of 3 months
Would Elaine full time never! she would never give up bricks and mortar

Now would I sell up and down size yes agreed by both of us but not to Invest in a bigger van or longer trips away
But to make life easer for us as we get older
to down size would not release more cash we would be lucky to break even on deal

In our ideal world we would like a smaller more manageable house low maintaince
And 2 or 3 extended trips away in to Southern Europe but at home though summer months
But things change and who knows what will happen in a few years Time
With wealth health and family
What I do know is WE will never full time but that's our choice and I would never critise anybody's choice I don't have the right

 

[haganap]

Our mortgage is 0.74% above base rate, so currently only paying 1.24%!!!

your being ripped off too then,,,,

we fixed at 0.5% above BOE base rate,


result = 24 payments to go:Cool:

 

[tick59]

But why would having a grandson stop you fulltiming?

I have two granddaughters.

DAUGHTER WORKS FULL TIME SO WE LOOK AFTER HIM FROM EIGHT IN THE MORNING TILL SIX AT NIGHT. THIRD TIME LOOKED AFTER GRAND KIDS SO DAUGHTERS CAN KEEP WORKING. SURE IT WON'T BE LAST TIME BUT THAT IS WHAT FAMILY IS ABOUT,

 

[Pat and Trish]

DAUGHTER WORKS FULL TIME SO WE LOOK AFTER HIM FROM EIGHT IN THE MORNING TILL SIX AT NIGHT. THIRD TIME LOOKED AFTER GRAND KIDS SO DAUGHTERS CAN KEEP WORKING. SURE IT WON'T BE LAST TIME BUT THAT IS WHAT FAMILY IS ABOUT,

Now that's what I call full timing

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

Oh, and the photo wasn't all of the kids; there was a 12 year old boy stomping around inside saying 'Dad won't let me go on the 360. I hate Dad. He's such a loser'.

Is that just a motorhome thing or do they do it in brick homes as well?

one of our sons went through a call of duty and mine craft faze when he was 13. it only lasted about 10 months mostly over the winter months. we had to ration him or he would have been on it constantly. Ralph fitted a master switch in our bedroom . It turned off the wall mounted tv's in their room ( but left ours on )and the internet connections.
When its was time for bed , we'd give the 10 min warning , then off

They hated it

We have just got back to home sweet home , after a fantastic few days away .We went on Friday. Looking forward to a soak in the bath. Love my showers but would miss a soak with a bath bomb.
Its great having teenage kids at home , who cant for whatever reason come away ( who you can trust ! some of our friends balk at the thought of leaving theirs)
All the bedding plants and hanging baskets have been watered . We got rid off the grass 3 years ago. Gravel , decking , stone patio , with raised beds are in its place. No more grass to cut , and for the dog to kill with wee wee:Blush:
Washings out , nearly dry.
Im sunbathing on the decking , Isaacs fixing his BMX , Jacobs at the Cinema, Izzie is at Thornes Park , Ralphs out pricing a job. Peace and quiet , prevails.

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[JockandRita]

Full timing in a MH, is not for Rita and I either. :Sad:

TBH, I think we'd probably end up slitting each others throats before long.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[MHVirgins]

Chacun à son goût.
Absolutely! :thumb:

Link Removed

(Isn't that photograph refreshing on a day like today?)

We had weather like that two months back in the south of Scotland.......sorry, still not convinced, we still have the best of both

 

[MHVirgins]

Full timing in a MH, is not for Rita and I either. :Sad:

TBH, I think we'd probably end up slitting each others throats before long.

Cheersf

Jock.

Ha, ha, love that!! Eh, same here, it's great to spread out after being in the van for a while, we're in Lower Wensleydale at the moment. Found new Ayrshire tatties before we left and brought them with us........haven't had them for a while:thumb:

 

[Gromett]

We had weather like that two months back in the south of Scotland.......sorry, still not convinced, we still have the best of both

I have come to the conclusion that fulltiming is something that either suites you or doesn't. At the moment if you were to force me into a brick house it would be kicking and screaming and I would be looking for a way to get on the road again as quickly as possible.

Some people it suites for a while (then back to brick house) and for others not at all.

I am fortunate in that I am single and don't have any kids or other responsibilities. My only tie is my mum who will hopefully be fit and well within another 3 months so I can start travelling again as being stopped in one place really doesn't suite. Even while looking after mum I am parked outside her house. I live in the van, cook in the van, shower in the van and toilet in the van. It IS my home and I love it. I am just a bit fed up at the moment that I can't use the new rubbery bits I have just fitted to each corner and move.
Mum has offered to let me stay in the spare bedroom, hook up my main computer in there, use the shower and other facilities. She has finally grasped that my own house is only 5 meters away and I am happier going home each night.:thumb: By the time I move on I will probably have been parked here for 9 months. It is not why I went fulltiming but having said that if I wasn't fulltiming I would have to work 40 hour weeks and couldn't have come down to look after her.

 

[Deckard]

A boring couple of weeks in the life of a brick box dweller, Today sitting in glorious sun shine looking out to sea and topping up the tan at south end on sea (dont knock until you have tryed it). Last week, spent in 5* luxury on thr island of Cyprus, just 5 hours from my brick box to the hotel.
Tomorrow catch up on a bit of work before spending next weekend camping in the beautiful county of Suffolk. Followed by a couple more weekends away then a week in the villor in majorca followed by a couple of weeks in the US. Etc. Etc.:Cool:
Any one of these pleasures would be a majour undertaking if not impossible if I Was full timing.:Sad:
How about a week in the life of full timing. What are you doing this week.

So what? You're having fun how you see it and how you can get your head around it.

I dont want to make judgements, but you seem to have a large disposable income to do all that, thats your choice and good luck to you.

That doesnt mean youre right, different strokes for different folks.

If you could remove the patronising condescending tone to your text I might have given it more credence.

Those going fulltime are generally "opting out" of the rat race for a lifestyle change and more often than not do not have a large disposable income. Poking your tongue out (metaphorically) does nothing for your point at all.

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[vwalan]

theres one thing for certain you cant hop out of the rat race as you call it . there isnt one . only the people think it is . you cant hop out .you still have to abide by the rules ,laws etc . it does open up other things you may not think about like address,s etc , even parking can be a problem . as for costs many pay more for parkups than you can rent a flat or buy a house for . the only rat race is the one they create . .you only have to visit campsites abroad where many are now alcholics . yes loads of them . spent too much now rely on soup kitchens etc . they are there ., many cant cope in their world so jump into a camper and think its going to be easy . it can be but for many it isnt . over the years i have watched friends of my family get it wrong . shame really they struggled here for no reason and struggle doing their dream .
lots do make it work though . they are having a good time .but they probably were before as well. may not have wads of cash either but were happy here and now in their campers good for them .

 

[Deckard]

theres one thing for certain you cant hop out of the rat race as you call it . there isnt one . only the people think it is . you cant hop out .you still have to abide by the rules ,laws etc . it does open up other things you may not think about like address,s etc , even parking can be a problem . as for costs many pay more for parkups than you can rent a flat or buy a house for . the only rat race is the one they create . .you only have to visit campsites abroad where many are now alcholics . yes loads of them . spent too much now rely on soup kitchens etc . they are there ., many cant cope in their world so jump into a camper and think its going to be easy . it can be but for many it isnt . over the years i have watched friends of my family get it wrong . shame really they struggled here for no reason and struggle doing their dream .
lots do make it work though . they are having a good time .but they probably were before as well. may not have wads of cash either but were happy here and now in their campers good for them .

Cant argue with most of that to be fair; the rat race is "percieved" to be the 9-5 no escape - and unless youre already financially secure, its no different in van - you still have to generate an income.

I do understand about the addresses etc, but those things can be overcome with relative ease.

Fulltiming isnt a panacea, it wont make earning an income any less important or the state of mind required to make living in a tin box work for you.

Some folks will always find life a struggle and end up in the bottom of a bottle, some have addictive personalities that are prone to it, others just struggle - bricks or van, they will find "their bottom" just as surely.

 

[Deckard]

If you have sold your house to purchase a van for full timing in the past few years then I think your bridges are now well and truly burnt.

House prices up by £750 a month for the past year. I wonder what your investment in your home on wheels is now worth.
Great news for some but do you have any regrets.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/388419/House-prices-set-to-soar

Why would any sane person "invest" in a motorhome?

Very few vehicles acrue value, even then only after many years will it increase in value. Its like comparing apples n oranges - two very different things.

If you sold your home to fund a van - then why are bridges burnt? Maybe home ownership is not achievable - but tbh - it isnt anyway - no bugger can get a mortgage!

This however doesnt stop them renting something - assuming they retained their jobs etc - but even so - you can still get a another job...hopefully!

Thing is not everyone is fixated on how much the bricks n mortar are worth, but if thats how you measure your worth, congrats you have a theoretical increase in value of your property.

 

[Peter & Elaine]

Invest in a motorhome that's a laugh
Mines sat on drive devaluing at about £50 a week
Not a bad Investment

I bought the bloody thing to enjoy it not brag about

But
It's mine mine mine mine mine
Slap from behind
Ours ours ours ours

 

[Gromett]

Replace depreciation with mortgage interest over 25 years and I would hazard a guess which will be better. Yes with a house you have a increasing asset but it is my view that the gap is not that far apart.

For example. I buy a motorhome for £20K, keep it for 10 years then px it for another and get £7K back (just making figures up here). You have lost £13K.
If I had a house at £175K on a 25 year term. I would have paid £50K in mortgage interest. Add onto that domestic bills and council tax etc...
Recarpeting, decorating, new furniture etc. I know for a fact I spent a lot more on "stuff" when I lived in a house. Now I am not tempted to buy anything initially because payload and storage were issues but now I am just out of the retail habit.

These are just back of the fag packet calcs which mean nothing in the real world but depreciation for a fulltimer is not a lot different than the mortage interest.

Obviously if you have paid your mortgage off then you are in a much better position. I have gone fulltiming much younger as I wanted to do it while I still had my health and after seeing 3 people under the age of 50 just keel over I decided to just jump at it. My mortgage was £500 a month and still had 17 years to run.

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