VAN LIFE

Posted by: chupacabra

Posted by: tungsten

Posted by: Stuminator

. A freind of mine lives on a boat in Richmond & only pays $400 a month moorage. That is pretty cheap rent. 

Little of that in FC and what there is is pricey. Is why people anchor out and end up like above, but that one simply looks like it were abandoned.

Most of the ones that end up on the beach are derelicts.  They are all over the coast but those old timey maritime laws make them hard to deal with because we all have the right to anchor any piece of shit we want.

Those "old timey maritime laws" are sure nice when you need them. Although, if I ever had a derelict I was going to abandon I'd make sure it washed up somewhere like West Van or Lions/Oak Bay or Belcarra. Or during an onshore gale right in front of Chip Wilsons place.

I don't necessarily want to live the van life full time but my dream right now is to buy a  moving truck and convert the box into a stealth home. 

Heavily insulated, secure bulkhead with door leading to the drivers seat, solar panels on the roof and batteries. Tiny bathroom with shower and composting toilet. Basically kitted out just like a full RV minus the windows so to anyone walking buy it just looks like a regular white box truck. Once built me and the Mrs. would take a summer off and drive it around BC. 

Unfortunately I'm the only one of us that has this dream so it'll probably end up being a retirement project if ever. 

Covid really put a wrench in the van life as I think it's pretty dependent on community center memberships for reliable shower access. That would be my main concern with doing it full time.

Sounds like a good idea. Those vans are prone to graffiti attacks, though. Would it only have one door to the cab? You could have "Fast Orange Moving Co." on the side.

Then it have to be painted orange. Or have an orange going fast painted on the side. 

Whatever, I wouldn't want to pay for fueling one of those thirsty devils.

And don't forget Kits beach's newest renoviction!.....

#elephantintheroom  - THAT’S NOT A VAN!

It is complex.  I think a lot start as a "free boat" and people that don't realize the cost of fixing and maintaining one get a romantic vision of themselves sailing around and always having a roof over their head.

Posted by: heckler

#elephantintheroom  - THAT’S NOT A VAN!

LOL

got a scientist buddy has the PHD very learned but down to earth guy who uses small words, whom I asked him how his sailing vaca was his answer "its alot like being in an RV, everything breaks and you fix it"

One thing that's always mystified me about Vancouver is - where the heck do poor people live here? In Vancouver, it seems like you can get quite far out of town and it only gets slightly cheaper. Like in terms of buying real estate, even when you get an hour outside of the city it's still like $1M for a non-terrible house, and even in Chilliwack it's still like $700k. If you wanted to find a house for $400k you'd literally need to get out to like Merritt or something. Similar scale for renting too. And any money saved from moving further out is likely offset either by increased commuting costs or having to accept a lower paying job closer to home. Like aside from a basement apartment in a shitty part of Surrey, where would someone with a household income under $75k that has kids live in the lower mainland?  I've previously lived in other parts of the country and Vancouver is obviously the most expensive, but even Toronto, which is also expensive, still has a lot of cheaper areas where people with lower income/wealth can live (relatively comfortably). Those cheaper type of areas don't really seem to exist in the Lower Mainland.

A couple years back Portland was disposing them for free to get rid of all the abandoned ones in the city. Previously you had to pay to have it disposed of due to asbestos etc.... So people were giving them away. I'm not sure but in some states you don't need to have insurance so they would just sit on the streets forever with no risk of being towed away.

https://www.kptv.com/news/city-of-portland-holds-its-first-ever-free-rv-disposal-event/article_beb90ce7-bd12-57d4-8ad6-2412e6b04e4e.html

Posted by: Bull_Dozer

One thing that's always mystified me about Vancouver is - where the heck do poor people live here? 

East Vancouver.

Posted by: switch

Posted by: Bull_Dozer

One thing that's always mystified me about Vancouver is - where the heck do poor people live here? 

East Vancouver.

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. 

We've been looking at house listings for a while now and IMO East Van offers terrible bang for your buck compared to other areas based on what I've seen. For $1.7M you get a crappy old small house in a dingy feeling neighborhood in East Van but in North Van or Burnaby you can actually get a pretty nice house for that price. Yeah East Van is more convenient location wise, but I don't understand who is paying those prices to live in what otherwise feels like a low income neighbourhood. Not saying all of East Van is crappy, there are a lot of nice pockets... but the not so nice parts are surprisingly expensive to me. I don't get it.

Posted by: Bull_Dozer

. Not saying all of East Van is crappy, there are a lot of nice pockets... but the not so nice parts are surprisingly expensive to me. I don't get it.

There may be crappy neighbourhoods in Van. but there are no cheap crappy neighbourhoods in Van. lol...

Posted by: Bull_Dozer

Posted by: switch

Posted by: Bull_Dozer

One thing that's always mystified me about Vancouver is - where the heck do poor people live here? 

East Vancouver.

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. 

We've been looking at house listings for a while now and IMO East Van offers terrible bang for your buck compared to other areas based on what I've seen. For $1.7M you get a crappy old small house in a dingy feeling neighborhood in East Van but in North Van or Burnaby you can actually get a pretty nice house for that price. Yeah East Van is more convenient location wise, but I don't understand who is paying those prices to live in what otherwise feels like a low income neighbourhood. Not saying all of East Van is crappy, there are a lot of nice pockets... but the not so nice parts are surprisingly expensive to me. I don't get it.

Definitely bring sarcastic, for the reasons you point out.  There are houses there I wouldn't step for in that go for almost 2 million dollars.