Static Caravan...

[Bitpipe]

I bought mine from a local van park (was too tired for them to rent out anymore) £1700 plus £500 delivery to site and positioning in back garden from their local mover. Was a two bed, two bath 40ft x 12ft.

 

Moved in Easter 2015 with wife, two junior school kids and cat. Moved out Aug 2016 to new build.

 

Was a bit nippy during winter (even with the gas fire) until we got a tip from a friend to run a dehumidifier round the clock which removed residual moisture and pumped out a bit of heat. Perfectly comfortable after that. The prob with gas fires is that they emit lots of water vapour which then condensed out at night and makes the floor a bit damp and therefore cool in mornings.

 

Bigger issue was summer heat, no easy way to get rid of that apart from keeping blinds down until east sun has passed overhead in mornings.

 

Tried to sell it on to other local self builders with no luck. Sold it back to caravan mover for £1000 and he took it to a fruit farmer somewhere. Net cost of accommodation for 18 months was £1200, or £122/month.

 

Electricity bill was a bit higher than usual due to de-humidifier but we would have been spending £2000+/month for a local 2/3 bed rental - so an additional £35000 to spend on the build.

 

Also huge advantage to being on site during build from a security pov, see whats going on and also being there when trades need to check something or a delivery arrives.

 

Did we enjoy it? Not particularly.

Was it unbearably awful? Not particularly.

Was it worth it? Absolutely.

Edited November 14, 2020 by Bitpipe

[canalsiderenovation]

We are paying £350 a month on a campsite 4 miles from home which includes water, electric and two half full calor gas bottles (we have purchased two more since arriving in June). We negotiated a long lease and Covid helped as campsites couldn't open.  With us both working from here during lockdown it's been stressful and not particularly comfortable to be honest - too hot, too cold, damp etc. If you have anyone local who has an Airbnb/holiday home it is worth contacting them to see if you can do a long let. Living on site wasn't an open as getting a static on our site wouldn't have worked and we didn't want to move into 'proper rented' with bills on too of a minimum of £600 a month rent for a bedsit/flat.

[newhome]

We had a large touring caravan already so this became the hubby and dogs’ home for 9 months. I had a rental apartment 2 mins from the office but I went back to the site at weekends. I couldn’t have coped personally with living full time in the caravan whilst trying to get ready for the office each day, but my hubby wanted to be on site plus we would have struggled to get a rental with pets. Hubby used to drive me back to the rental on a Sunday night, have a decent bath instead of the poxy little caravan shower, and then we would have a meal out or go to the cinema for a bit of normality. 
 

The touring caravan wasn’t that cold. We had blown air heating, a gas fire and electric blankets. I was however grateful for the rental apartment when the weather was like this!