Using a caravan during a house renovation
Hi everyone a friend who recently bought a caravan told me about your club and said it was the best place to look for advice.
We are having an extension on our house in February which is due to last 3-4 months. I was thinking about buying a caravan - it could stay on our drive - and living in it during the worst of the renovations. It's probable that we would then look to resell the caravan. I just wondered if anyone had ever done this and what your thoughts were? Any recommendations? Looking at spending between £5-10k. There will be 4 of us - my husband and myself and our girls who are 11 and 14.
Many thanks.
Comments
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So do you intend to plug it in to the house electricity? Presumably your friend has told you all about fresh & waste water & toilet requirements?
Feb/March could be very cold! Not sure what level of insulation you will get with a van at that price/ age. If your teenage girls have not done anything like camping before, they could be in for a shock re. space, availability of showers etc.
Also I am not sure, but you may need planning permission - I would certainly talk to you local planners - it may depend on the nature of where you are living - middle of a housing estate might be less acceptable that if you are in the middle of the country.
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I have friends who did similar many years ago but with a new build and they brought a 6 berth static onto the site. I'm not sure I could cope with two adults and two young ladies in a caravan on the driveway for 3 - 4 months and certainly not without access to a proper bathroom in the winter. I'm visualising heated exchanges with regard to getting four people showered each morning on the size of a caravan hot water tank. How would you cope with laundry? Cooking would need organising but could be done but you'd have no personal space or privacy and could really begin to get on each others nerves. Have you considered looking for a short term let of a house nearby?
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Good advice there from hja but I’m not sure you’ll find many folk with direct experience of doing what you propose on here. Most people who do this seem to buy old static holiday vans for the purpose.
One other thought. If a caravan is on your drive, will there be sufficient access space remaining for the builders to go in and out and for storage of building materials?
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As someone who's caravanned with teenage children while it was and is great fun for a holiday (we used to do a max of about three weeks) I wouldn't like to spend 3-4 months like that. A bit too cramped?
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We have not experienced it but benefitted from our friends doing it. They were able to park on their drive…a detached house..and were able to hook up to their electricity. They were just a couple but the grandchildren stayed over frequently. I believe they also still had access to a’proper’ toilet and shower, although they did use caravan facilities too. The way in which we benefited was that they then had no intention of towing so we ended up with a bargain Bailey Unicorn Valencia..which we have just traded in for a new caravan 😃👍. Good luck, whatever you decide
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Thanks so much for all of your replies.
We would still have access to electricity and water from the house. We have acess from the back so hopefully that would be okay for access for the builders.
Short term lets are so expensive and a minimum of 6 months is usually required. Also we have a dog which makes renting even more difficult/expensive.
Thanks again.
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Thanks again for all your replies. Hiring one is a good idea. I will look into that.
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