What's the simplist/crudist/most unconventional....

[steve-in-kville]

.... home you've ever lived in for more than a few days?? Camper? Tent? Car? Rustic cabin?

My wife and I are seriously considering going off-grid completely and living in a yurt until we build a home.

[nvmommyx6]

I've lived in tent's, RV's, you name it!
I think the worst place was a lil shack we lived in while we were in line for base housing, radiator heaters that did not work! A shower that was about as big as a shoe and windows that were so old and leakey, we had to fill them with insulation and board them up lol...OMG I had forgotten about that hell hole!!
Thank god we were only there for a few months!!

[rainbowgc]

A roach infested apartment for a few weeks til we could get back from GA to FL
UGH don't remind me!

[G'MaDebbie]

What is a yurt?

[TexasPeanut]

I've stayed in travel trailers and tents only for camping, but I would welcome a yurt or even a leaky tent over what DH and I spent the winter in back in 97. We were in need of a place on short notice and there wasn't too many options out there. It was either this place or our truck, thinking back maybe the truck would have been better. It was a small (maybe 100 sq ft) shack that was built during the WWII era when we had an air base here. (Think tiny tiny TINY base housing back in the 30's and 40's). Let's just say I don't think it's ever been repaired much since those days lol other than the roof having newer shingles. Keeping in mind we stayed in this thing from November-January and down here on the coast of Tx during that winter it really got cold and we had a major ice storm. Yes...an ice storm.

The lists of lovely amenities it had that we enjoyed that winter include....

There was no air conditioning or heating of any sort in there except using the oven which warmed an area of about 2 ft around the stove and that's it.

The bathroom was in the bedroom/sleeping are. It had a toilet and a tub with a hole in it so you couldn't really take a bath, but it had pipes running on the outside of the wall back in to a shower head above. Did I mention there was no hot water, at all. No hot water heater. When you took a shower you were gambling on getting pneumonia.

The kitchen consisted of a tiny (think old travel trailer size) stove, a small bathroom size sink, and a tiny old frig that had the freezer inside behind a separate door. You had to defrost that thing weekly.

The living area would fit a small 2 seat couch and a tv on a end table.

The whole thing leaned to the left. I'm not kidding. It was about 6 inches shorter on the left side. It was sinking into the ground lol.

As I mentioned it got cold and icy that year and the windows were so drafty we put some plastic on them, then a layer of thick contractor trash bags, then a layer of a long bath towel, then a layer of a bed sheet doubled over, topped with another long and thick bath towel. (We didn't have any spare thick blankets) Through all of that you could still see all of it moving with the wind. It looked like the windows were breathing lol.

We had to sleep in our complete jogging sets under an electric blanket turned on high and 4 other thick quilts on top of that and still froze.

Living there during that time is when I found out I was pregnant so that just made it even better! We moved just as soon as we possibly could and to this day when I drive by it (yes it's still there but leaning even more to the left) I see people living in it and the other 4 little shacks identical to it that surround it, and a part of me thinks to how bad things were then and it makes me even more grateful for what I have now.

[mickee311]

I'd say in a friend's garage at his mom's house. She didn't know I was there, so I had to sleep under her car. This lasted about a week. I was 17.

[Cricketlegs]

One place dh and I rented when we were first married....I think the only thing holding the place up was the roaches holding hands....

We got out of there fast..and the sewer backing up down the hall sure helped me pack FAST!

Ugh!

[peanut]

Hmmm...for me it was spending 3 months of the year living in a tent. My dad was a wildlife biologist and was required to be 'in the field' 3 months of the year for work. All 8 of us (including Mom) would go out in the middle of nowhere and tent for that time.

But it sure wasn't deprivation! With 8 of us, and 2 students that were assigned to him, Dad had enough manpower to set up quite a little station. First order of business was to dig the outhouse hole and put up an outhouse. Well, they just moved the outhouse from year to year.

As soon as the tents were up, a makeshift dam was set up on a small creek nearby to make sure we had easy access to lots of water. We set up turns carrying water and finding wood.

Dad always took two things with him to the bush: an axe and a rifle. The axe was to get out of the tent in case of fire, and the rifle was for the bears. I only ever heard him use it once.

Mom would see to it a big keyhole firepit was dug for cooking. Plus she had her Coleman stove. She'd crank that hummer up the day after we got settled in and would churn out dozens of doughnuts in an afternoon - the sure sign we had arrived and settled in. She claimed the Coleman kept the oil for deep frying at a more constant temperature than her stove at home.

My brother used to inaugurate our stay with a big batch of molasses popcorn popped over the campfire the first night. I hate molasses popcorn to this day! But only because he never stopped making it after the first night!

We had a government truck issued to Dad. It was a one ton open back. Around August 10th or so we girls would load our sleeping pads and bags into the back and spend a few nights there watching the meteor showers. It got to be a tradition. Mom and Dad were just happy to have the tent to themselves I think!LOL

The boys had to sleep in another tent as they were older. They spent time helping Dad with field work. As did some of the older girls. My younger sister and I stayed around camp and helped Mom some, but mostly it was just lazy days reading, walking, dreaming, drawing. A great experience for a teenager... And it kept us out of the malls so we didn't learn to shop for entertainment, like our peers.

So yeah, that would be the most unconventional I guess. but it was also among the happiest times for me and my siblings.

Jean

[ladykemma2]

when i was in sequioa national park for one year, i lived in a two man backpacking tent. my food was flown in. when it got too cold to camp i got to stay in the pear lake ranger cabin. there i was introduced to the composting toilet. absolutely doable and amazing.

here in texas i have lived in a 20x20 panther center pole pavillion. you can get them with a hole for a wood stove. 7 foot high walls for claustrophobia prevention.. . yurts are too small.
my exhusband and i used to camp in decadence. a real bed with feather beds and down comforters. lots of wool blankets, furniture, oriental rugs, candle lanterns. (coleman lanterns or anything modern were not allowed)

he got all the gear in the divorce....

here in texas we have fire ants and wild dangerous pigs. so your food tent/dining fly/cooking area needs to be somewhere else. no food in the sleeping/living tent.

if i were to do this again, to permanently live, i would run a garden hose and a black drum for hot water to a third smaller tent for showers. i would make a raised floor of plywood with oriental rugs. sawdust toilets.

you can store your clothes and such outside in huge covered plastic tubs.we covered our up with custom sewn burlap covers to make them look more period.

i highly recommend panther primitives 20x20 square center pole pavillion. you can get bigger as well.

[ladykemma2]

me again

the kitchen area consisted of a large civil war dining fly with a ridge pole. cajun cooker and a 60 quart stainless pot for hot water for bathing and washing up.

dish pans or 2 large galvanized tubs for washing up. coleman stove with the large tanks, picnic table to eat off of. coleman lantern hooked up to large propane tanks so don't go blind. garden hose with a splitter for running water. large trash can with tight fitting lid.

the panther civil war hospital tent works well for a kitchen tent. get the one that is open on both sides.

[tbs727]

In college I lived in a camper. It was old and leaky and the shower didn't work. It wouldn't have been too bad if it was in decent condition. I like small spaces.

[nandmsmom]

When I was 10 we lived in a tent for a few months. My sister was 7 and brother 4. I can't imagine how stressful it was for my parents. They never let on though.

[treeluva]

Building 1615... my first barracks at my first duty station with the Army. It could have been perfectly fine - old but fine- if the roof didn't leak and the water didn't run down on the exposed electrical wires. Or maybe if out of the three showers 75 females had to share more than one shower head worked - and if in that shower the drain worked as well and perhaps if it weren't right next to the broken window when it was 13 degrees outside.....

I remember my mother coming to visit me and seeing my barracks.... she was on the phone with our congressman in about 5 minutes. The unit was moved to different barracks while those issues, among others, were fixed.

[Pianolady]

pop up camper for a few weeks, it wasn't bad. It had AC, LOL.

[Greebo]

When I was 18 going on 19, I had been thru 1 semester of school and decided I wasn't ready. I was going to go into the Navy reserves, but had a medical delay (due to my big mouth about a foot problem that wasn't).

So while that was cleared up (took a year), I looked for other things to do. This included a few months helping a "friend" who had bought a bar (well, an after hours, BYOB club), to run it.

Being after hours, and byob, you can imagine our clientele.

We slept in the club, on the pool tables. We ate pb sandwiches pretty much exclusively for a while. we played a lot of pool, and of course, free video games (i mean, they were in our "house").

Not the best few months of my life, but a hell of an experience.