I bought a pretty large parcel of land last year (25 acres) and was planning of staying in a small travel trailer for ~5 years while I saved up some money and decided what I wanted to do. It's getting really hard to build around here, in Virginia, now; we even have to have a permit to dig dirt. I can't even put in a driveway without VDOT's permission... but I did it anyway. Anyway, I've been doing a lot of research the past few months but am still kind've foggy if this is going to work. My main concern is winter; I don't want to be freezing my butt off in this thing during a snow storm - I did that while building my first home and staying in a 160sq/ft shed with no power and it's not fun. I live in Rockbridge County, Virginia and the winters here can be mild to pretty bad, not Minnesota bad but still bad. We usually hover around 20-40f in the day and 0-10f at night. I'm trying to get a temp power pole from the power company but I can't get in touch with them at all; they never return my phone calls. I thought of going solar but I don't want to git stuck in the middle of winter with no power. Another concern of mine is the black water tank; I'm not sure how long it would take to fill it if I only use it for solid waste. I was thinking of putting in a large black tank into the ground since it cost >6k to put a conventional septic field in around this area. Wells in my area cost >10k easy, but luckily water is not an issue since I only need enough water so each day I can take one shower, brush my teeth, and shave. We have a fresh water tap right down the road from me that the farmers use to fill their water tanks. I'm just going to drain the gray tank out into the field since there's nothing in it that will hurt anything.
The Jayco dealer in the area is trying to get rid of their SkyLark Model on their lot and cut the price from $26k to $19k. It looks like they just discontinued this model since it's not on the Jayco site anymore. For once in my life being short has paid off big time since I'm one of the few people that can actually stand in the shower without having to kneel. I really like how the RV is layed out with the large dual pane windows and led lighting, but I'm not sure if it could handle a hard winter? I read all the specs of the trailer but I honestly can't tell you it made any sense to me because I have nothing to compare it too. I've never been in a RV during the winter but it seems that it would take a lot to keep it warm since the walls are so thin and the skylights are only a piece of plastic. I've heard horror stories of people spending 1k in propane a month to keep warm but they never said were this was so I have no idea if they were talking about Alaska or Florida. Also, want happens when I need to go to work. Will the lines freeze, does it even matter. If I have temp power this wouldn't be an issue but currently I'm not sure if that's possible since the power company doesn't seem to employ humans anymore.
I've never lived in a RV before so I really don't know what to expect but it couldn't be much worse then what I've been through before in my life and I'm still alive. But I'm reaching an age where I don't want to have to go through that stuff anymore; I want to live at a certain level of comfort - (power and temp control is a must). Since I have the money and no bills I thought that I would give the RV idea a shot and see how it goes; but I would like to know what I'm getting into first and any ideas on how to make this easy as possible. Heck, if this works out, I might not even want to live in a house again.
The Jayco dealer in the area is trying to get rid of their SkyLark Model on their lot and cut the price from $26k to $19k. It looks like they just discontinued this model since it's not on the Jayco site anymore. For once in my life being short has paid off big time since I'm one of the few people that can actually stand in the shower without having to kneel. I really like how the RV is layed out with the large dual pane windows and led lighting, but I'm not sure if it could handle a hard winter? I read all the specs of the trailer but I honestly can't tell you it made any sense to me because I have nothing to compare it too. I've never been in a RV during the winter but it seems that it would take a lot to keep it warm since the walls are so thin and the skylights are only a piece of plastic. I've heard horror stories of people spending 1k in propane a month to keep warm but they never said were this was so I have no idea if they were talking about Alaska or Florida. Also, want happens when I need to go to work. Will the lines freeze, does it even matter. If I have temp power this wouldn't be an issue but currently I'm not sure if that's possible since the power company doesn't seem to employ humans anymore.
I've never lived in a RV before so I really don't know what to expect but it couldn't be much worse then what I've been through before in my life and I'm still alive. But I'm reaching an age where I don't want to have to go through that stuff anymore; I want to live at a certain level of comfort - (power and temp control is a must). Since I have the money and no bills I thought that I would give the RV idea a shot and see how it goes; but I would like to know what I'm getting into first and any ideas on how to make this easy as possible. Heck, if this works out, I might not even want to live in a house again.