Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Searching for a home

Well, the search continues for a small piece of land to rent, on which we can park our new house. If you know anyone in the NE Mass area who has a little extra space in their back yard and wants to make some extra money, please let me know.

3 comments:

  1. Hello! Just discovered your terrific blog. We live in Springfield, VT, and may be able to help in terms of your land issue--if you are still looking. You can reach me at: hiddenharborretreat@gmail.com
    Aram

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  2. Hi

    Could you post/email about zoning issues and what you did? That seems to be a HUGE stumbling block for us. We want to be able to "park" in a caretaker's yard to make it easier for all of us. And eventually to park at assisted living. Right now, we could buy land and park it ourselves--but buying land seems like such a wasted investment when we know we probably won't be able to live on the land for the long term...

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  3. Hi-

    We have yet to find a place to put our house, so zoning rules are still up in the air. Our plan is to use a 30-day "temporary" clause in my mother's home town's zoning laws to allow us to spend 30 days there atleast, and then just try to stick it out for longer if no one notices, or move to another location.

    It is definitely a huge stumbling block, but there are some good articles in the tiny house community on it.

    Some areas will allow one "accessory building" on a property as an in-law apartment or what have you. This seems like a good way to go, if you can find a proper location.

    I also have a friend who lives in an RV behind a storage center. Normally they just store RVs back there, but he pays 300 a month to live in it, with all utilities included.

    Here is a good forum discussion on zoning:
    http://tinyhouseforum.com/topic.php?id=177


    Our plan is to get as much time as we can out of short stays in the area where our jobs are, allowing us to save money... then we are going road tripping to try to figure out where we would want to buy some land. Of course, buying land that will work is a whole 'nother challenge. :)

    There are areas with no zoning what so ever, which is mainly what I will be searching for. These are mostly in rural areas.

    I know there is a large section of Texas that is unzoned. For instance... John over at the Field Lab - http://thefieldlab.blogspot.com/ - is on completely unzoned land.

    There is also an area in NM dedicated to Eartship construction, which we have also strongly considered for farther down the road.

    We might go ahead and live in our tiny house as "temporary housing" while beginning the long manual building process of an Earthship, which could take several years.

    More about earthships here: http://www.earthship.net/

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