Page 3 of 5 FirstFirst 12345 LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 47

Thread: Could you live in a 12'x12' cabin with no water or electricity?

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    timber missouri
    Posts
    20,314

    Default

    when comfort in a fixed location is relatively easy for a healthy and competent person, why be all cramped up? No point to it.
    now see, we had PLENTY of room.. i never felt cramped.. i mean really, what is a house for? to sleep, eat and spend the very few idle hours otherwise in..

    i guess if someone was a house mouse who rarely did anything outdoors the case might be different, but for a homesteader, i dont see the need for anymore than a place to lay your head and cook your meals during bad weather..

    we now live in a 1000 square foot cabin and all but just under 500 square feet does not get used AT ALL.. and we really dont need that much. but the way the house is laid out we have cut off all we can..

  2. #22
    grower's Avatar
    grower is offline Tree of Liberty Contributor
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    The Silent Planet
    Posts
    17,505

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Desertrat View Post
    Ocala? It got loaded up with Dudes. High-dollar folks with their horse ranchettes. It was bunches better in 1960, when I was at Gatorland. Me, I'd look around the area between Appalachicola and Blountstown.

    I don't see the point in a teensy dwelling. Moving-around folks with a smallish travel trailer is one thing, but when comfort in a fixed location is relatively easy for a healthy and competent person, why be all cramped up? No point to it.

    I guess the main reason I am considering a small cabin is because we have limited funds, and building materials have gotten really HIGH.

    Congratulations, Chicom! I spent a lot of my youth in Florida. We lived in Daytona Beach and my grandparents were in Ocala. Back then (sixties), it was a sleepy, run-down, old-South kind of town. Can't say what it's become since then, but the area around Old Town and Cross City (on the northern part of the Gulf Coast) is really old-style Southern, with a lot of really rural, quiet areas on long, empty dirt roads. It will be quite a change for you, going from the northern Rockies to southern Florida! (Take bug repellent. )
    IF you are willing & obedient , you shall eat the good of the land: But if you refuse & rebel, You shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Isaiah 1:19, 20

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    1,928

    Default

    Chicom, you need a kayak for Ocala! Lots of great paddling places around there!

    Sherry in GA

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    2,912

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by microcarl View Post
    Back in the mid-1970 my wife, my first born daughter and I lived in a 15' x 8' travel trailer for about three years. When my wife became pregnent with our second child, we upgraded to a 28' bunk-house style travel trailer.

    Over the past 39 years, we have lived in several trailers. In fact, in the 1990s, after my wife returned from the first Persian Gulf war, she, my four children and myself, we all lived in a 28 foot bunk-house trailer.

    When the kids got older, we had a 35 foot travel trailer that my wife and I liven in for about two years, until after the kids all went into the service.

    The plan is that, one day soon, we will fall back to living in that 35' travel trailer. And if we have too, we will live in a tent.

    Hot showers, machine washing clothes, big-screen TVs and continuously available Internet, the loss of all these things will be an adjustment that the majority of us will have long struggles with. Withdrawal from modern convieniences will be devistating to those who have made these things the main-stay of their everyday lives.

    Enjoy these things while you still can. But you'd better be prepared to learn to do without them...
    been there, done that in a 32' camper for a year...when you lose everything, you realize you can live without...we did it and we can do it again...it's a long story and too long to go into here but it totally transformed our family...stuff is just not so important anymore but our family is important and Jesus Christ is the most important thing of all...AMEN
    Acts 9:10-12

    In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered. The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."

  5. #25
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Big Bend of Texas
    Posts
    5,157

    Default

    Hey, my hunt camp is two rooms and a path. I started out with a modified 8x12 trailer, but it cost little to add a 12x12 room. And later a roof over the outside sitting area. I dunno. I just like a little elbow room. I don't want a narrow bed. I want a nice comfy chair for reading. I want space for bookshelves. I don't need a huge kitchen, but I want room for a pantry and an indoor sink. Basics are fine, but adding-on is way too easy.
    You're from BATFE? Come right in! I use all your fine products!

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    592

    Default

    Ok, sigh..I could easily do that! I have such simple needs, however, my hubby is not adaptable in any way, it is his way or the high way. He must have TV, Electricity and all the modern conveniences and what that entails as he was a city boy through and through. I seldom leave the island, staying here for weeks at a time without leaving. There are no stores or businesses...I have no issue with this pristine and most treasured quiet...so much so that the birds song resonates as the sound heard through near silence! The air is perfumed by the pines and blooming floral scents..... As he leaves the island, he drives on the mainland to shop at all the stores that I miss not at all. I am so glad he likes to shop...because I get to stay here like today! I was playing with my herbs, transplanting some misbehaving garlic, put in some potatoes, misted my roots and Hydrangea starts, I worked outside for hours and drained the water I needed from my big rain water filled tank....two bald eagles flew over my head doing acrobatics in the sky, the sun was shining on the strong rippling currents below but the breeze was soft...the day was only about 60 degrees but felt so warm.... I stopped to admire the many flowers blooming and thought, tomorrow I will attend to some weeding and mulching....

    I have always been entertained by God's Majestic Natural wonders... I have lived in the mountains, the desert, by the ocean, by the inter coastal waters and there was always something amazing to see and experience. I am never bored and have an unlimited enjoyment of just being! With a simple life, there are simple ways to exist. If you take all the things we grew up without that we have now....only TV and basic phone service remains. I was never bored and think...it is very doable. I would have to be single though, hubby would lose his mind! LOL
    As the sun sets over the water, the air is drenched with the nuances of honeysuckles mixed with other florals, roses plus pines and the waves kick up the deep water scents combined. It is my gift for a time to see this, through the windows of my realm....borrowed and quite treasured with every moment in time.

    Have a lovely Day
    Romy
    Island Girl
    www.romysrealm.com
    www.kefirwellness.com
    www.romysrealm.blogspot.com

  7. #27
    grower's Avatar
    grower is offline Tree of Liberty Contributor
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    The Silent Planet
    Posts
    17,505

    Default

    You paint a beautiful picture of your island, Romy! You're right, it takes two to tango, and compromises have to be made, but it sounds like you've found a good balance.
    IF you are willing & obedient , you shall eat the good of the land: But if you refuse & rebel, You shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Isaiah 1:19, 20

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    USA Zone 8b
    Posts
    3,033

    Default

    Could you live in a 12'x12' cabin with no water or electricity?


    The question is "COULD YOU, not would you want to, or choose to..."

    Yes, DH and I could, but have no desire to move from our property. If we had to, we certainly would. At present, we heat only with wood. We do have running water and electricity, but DH could set up a place like that quickly to work (using Solar and/or Wind, a cistern, or well w/hand pump). Neither of us watch tv, dry our clothes on the line, or on DH's steel drying racks (he built me 2 of them to hang from the ceiling). I can do 2 loads/day. In the warmer months, the clothes are hung on the line. Then, my steel drying racks can be used to hang herbs from! We already grow enough fruits/veggies to keep us fed all year around. In addition, DH hunts, we both fish, go clamming, crabbing, shrimping, etc... We also keep chickens, have raised pigs, etc... As long as that cabin was on acreage, and the weather supported gardening & solar power, we'd be fine. If it was near salt water, that would be a real plus, too!

    Our idea of a vacation, includes a lot of hiking/camping and/or fishing. Our camper is smaller than that, but our travel trailer is about the same size. Recently, DH's DS bought a boat, intended initially for himself. Since DH can do all the work on the motor and out-drive, his DS and DW decided to allow DH to buy the boat from them. They know they can come here and use it. It is a 1973 21' ft Glasply, vintage, in great condition, but needed a fair amount of work rebuilding the out-drive. The hull and interior are just beautiful! It has a deep hull, so sleeping berth, has a little stove, sink, ice box, and will have a porta potty. We will be taking it on fishing trips, and stay on it, for a week at a time or more. We knew a guy who lived on his own sailboat, moored out, for many years. I know the interior living space was smaller than 12 X 12. Other folks we know live on their boats, with smaller living spaces, also.

    I think we could all say we have a lot of wasted space, but if we were to focus on needs, instead of wants, most would be able to live in a 12' X 12' "Where" makes all the difference in the world...

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Iowa
    Posts
    19,374

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by ChristieAcres View Post
    "Where" makes all the difference in the world...
    Yes, that's key.

    I was homeless and living in my car for awhile in my 20s. It's not that bad when it's only a place to sleep. On the other hand, it got small fast the few times I was wrapped up in a sleeping back doing employment applications (it was a holiday and the libraries were closed).

    A prepper does whatever is necessary. I'd rather have a car to sleep in (lock those doors!) than a cardboard box. After that, a 12' x 12' space is amazingly large.

    But I'm now in my 50s, and I have many more resources and skills. I could knock together a shed with salvaged materials, rig a solar shower, etc., etc.

    That's easier done in FL than AK or the upper Midwest in the winter . . .

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    5,839

    Default

    I went to Norway in the 60's...first house we had was about 20 x 20..no inside water but had elec. (And I was from NYC!)

    There was a pump at the neighbour's yard that they let us use.....we had a toddler at the time.

    Boiling clothes and using the pump was NOT fun.

    It was rough, but *love* conquers all..when I was 20 something.

    These days, with what's looming on the future, I would be good to go anywhere as long as I have DH with me. (and now we're dealing with a double hernia)...sigh

    We have a BOP, but it needs a LOT of work to make it useable.

    But rough going CAN be done!
    Psalms 23:1,2 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.



Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •