That's what the guy spent on his "house". You can buy travel trailers (already assembled and taking up space) for fractions of that amount. I admire the concept, but building a home when you can purchase others for less than half of your building cost is just stupid. Not to mention wasting more raw materials.
shareBuying and living in an RV isn't going to give you the same experience as custom-building your own home. It's easier and cheaper, of course, but when you design and build your own home you get to make it exactly the way you like it, and (if you have the necessary talent) you can make it into an impressive work of art as well. Travel trailers have their place, but I don't think anybody would call them beautiful.
As for 'wasting raw materials', note that during the credits they talk about how they gathered many of their materials from sources that would have otherwise gone to waste -- e.g. wood reused from a barn that was being torn down, pine from trees that were killed by pine beetles, windows reused from other buildings that were being demolished, etc. I don't think you'll find many travel trailers that are made from reclaimed materials.
None of the materials used to build the walls, roof, or floor were reclaimed. The trailer was brand new off the lot. Why not find a trailer frame that had a travel trailer rotting on top of it? This whole show was ridiculous.
share[deleted]
How about live in an apartment and not take up space with yet another small domicile that wasn't already there?
If we're going to talk about wasting more raw materials, how about all these 4 bedroom homes that keep being built, and then foreclosed upon. Just where I live alone, there are what I call "ghost blocks". One home after another abandoned, yet there's always some other company building new homes and crap.
But the documentary has less to do with what *you* think, and more to do with a rolling stone setting up "house" in the middle of nothing.
"I'd beg for some forgiveness
but begging's not my business"
I think a big part of the story was the experience of *building* your own home. Sure, you could go buy a mobile home and live in it, but that's not really the point. Is it really a "waste" of raw material if said material is used to build a home? I think not.
Anyone here mentions Hotel California dies before the first line clears his lips.
* Yes, a travel trailer can be found that is cheaper than $26,000, even a cool looking Airstream.
http://m.rvtrader.com/Travel-Trailer-RVs-Motorhomes-For-Sale--New-or-U sed-on-RV-Trader/search-results?type=Travel%20Trailer%7C198073&sor t=geo_distance%3Aasc&vrsn=hybrid&
But for people building wood trailers in the movie, cost wasn't the only factor;
It was also about the "cool" look of the thing.
It doesn't look like a trailer because it's made of wood.
It's custom built and so on.
* As for the wasted materials (instead of reusing what was already built); almost no one is pure eco friendly.
The people in the film were as close as almost anyone is going to get.
** Some more impressions;
1. No trailer in the film had over 200 square feet. Some were around 100 sq ft.
Even with the lofts that seemed too small.
An Airstream Land Yacht is about 224 sq ft and a used one could be cheaper.
2. I didn't see anyone raising children in these tiny wood trailers.
- If these little wood trailers are too small for children, then for many young people they are a fad.
(One person did have two kids in about a 600 total sq ft living space; a 500 sq ft house and a ~100 sq ft trailer. Houses / mobile homes can be bought in that size.)
* The practical version for this kind of housing is seen in every mobile home park in the US.
Mobile homes are big enough to raise families but use less land than the average house.
- Yet mobile homes as an alternative were not mentioned in the film.
That seemed a bit elitist to me.
BB ;-)
it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈
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