Did you sell your house to purchase a van for full timing

thehutchies said:
Home education isn't about teaching. It's about facilitating learning.
I don't believe that two teacher parents couldn't have pointed you towards suitable learning environments, whatever the subject or level.

I hated history at school ( still do!) but if one of the kids wants to study it , we will learn together or I'll point him towards appropriate facilities.
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That's all very well when there are facilities available to facilitate learning. I was at school in the 1960s and 1970s, no internet and I'd exhausted the local library. The only way I could get the books I wanted / needed was through the school interloan service. Things are very different now.

Also the study of science needs some quite specialised and expensive equipment, my parents could certainly never have been able to finance that. I did have an extensive chemistry set (many chemicals I had are no longer available to the public) but even I did not have access at home to fume extraction chambers or the blast screens required for some of the stuff we did at school.
 
Puddleduck said:
Also the study of science needs some quite specialised and expensive equipment, my parents could certainly never have been able to finance that. I did have an extensive chemistry set (many chemicals I had are no longer available to the public) but even I did not have access at home to fume extraction chambers or the blast screens required for some of the stuff we did at school.
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I must take exception to this :)
School-level science doesn't need anything more specialised than a heat source, a sink and a water tap.
Sounds like a motorhome kitchen to me!

And a friendly local chemist - although he did make the kids swear that they didn't want the citric acid for cutting drugs :)
 
thehutchies said:
I must take exception to this :)
School-level science doesn't need anything more specialised than a heat source, a sink and a water tap.
Sounds like a motorhome kitchen to me!

And a friendly local chemist - although he did make the kids swear that they didn't want the citric acid for cutting drugs :)
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The school science I was taught seems to be very much more advanced than is taught now then. We definitely did need fume cupboards and blast screens. We made fireworks / explosives in one class. Also soap which needs fume extraction when making the lye plus some maths which we had to do longhand - and woe if you got it wrong.

Do they still do fractional distillation at standard grade? I remember making oil from peat. We also refined crude oil.

I understand dissection is no longer taught at standard grade.
 
Fume cupboards are now used as improvised greenhouses for the bloody begonias that infest every school science lab.

The blast screens were always a con, just to make the teacher look dead hard!
 
All very well - but not much use in the real world - much like most subjects.
English maths and common sense and you're well set for the world.
Common sense being the most important and not taught at school.
IMHO. ;)

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Puddleduck said:
I understand dissection is no longer taught at standard grade.[/

I think it is my grandaughter was in a class where something was been dissected last week, was promptly sick nearly fainted and we had to bring her home, don't think she will make a scientist :Eeek:
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Well dissection soon sorted out those who would be able to hack medical school and those who wouldn't. I found it fascinating but hated the smell of formaldehyde so would never have made a forensic scientist. It's useful now when I skin and gut game.
 
Don't you hate it when a thread goes off-topic?
Where did home ed come into this?
Originally, wasn't it about Buttons trying to wind up the fulltimers about house prices?

Oh, and that VW Caravelle in the picture above that we bought on Buttons' recommendation doesn't do anything like 99mpg. It's rubbish!

;)
 
In my opinion formal education today is a case of being taught to pass a series of tests. Constant sitting of exams and just stressful for all concerned. Fun is off the curriculum as is individuality or the chance to investigate the subjects you really like to any significant depth. I would be seriously looking for alternatives now. Home Ed or the Rudolph Steiner schools. As for selling up and full timing.....we are looking at the options! :)

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I seen home educated kids in the local shops , they come from the nearby Itinerant transit / traveller camp.
Stand back, keep clear while they wreck the shop:eek:
 
Let's get it back on track then..... Yep I still hate being in the house and I am still glad I gave up work to go long terming. I feel excited every time I think about heading off in Herman again :cooler:
 
Coolbeanz said:
Let's get it back on track then..... Yep I still hate being in the house and I am still glad I gave up work to go long terming. I feel excited every time I think about heading off in Herman again :cooler:
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Yip.. great feeling.. but if you lived in Herman 'fulltime' you may feel different..

my advice is to keep the house and enjoy the best of both worlds..
 
well why don't you try it for a year, before selling up.
 
cruiser said:
well why don't you try it for a year, before selling up.
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good idea.. but it's still not the same as having no fixed abode.. at the back of your mind you know if you get fed up or don't like, you can quit anytime.. It takes the 'edge' off the experience ..
not so if you sell up. .. then you know you MUST make it work..

when we were researching this lifestyle some years ago, someone with a sense of humour told me to throw a mattress on my kitchen floor, put a bucket in the corner.. and live there for a month.. if you survive, you'll love living in a van.. :LOL:
 
We sold our house, because we only went back to make it look lived in, you still have the bills to pay and the house started to look tired and need more TLC :rolleyes:
And while your away for long periods, you are always worrying about it, anything from storm damage to someone breaking in or even decides to move in.:Eeek:
We had to drain it down, because some bugger pinched our heating oil.:crying:

We were lucky with all the property we owned, they all made money, but you have to remember a lot of people have lost money on them.:eek:

When we first sold we thought must get back, buy something low maintenance and find a tenant, well that was a year ago.:eek:

But who knows, if we come across something we fancy we might, but life is good relaxed and worry free at the moment.(y)
We have always said ' when you wish you did something'......Its normally too late.:D Bob and Janie.
 
I really would love to do it. but and it is a big but. my wife will not do it. so I am going to try and see if I can get her to do a long trip. to see if we can make it work
 
cruiser said:
well why don't you try it for a year, before selling up.
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We did. We rented out house out so were not able to come back in that time. Wouldn't do it again:eek:

There's no place like home. (y)

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What suits one person / family will be anathema to another. It all adds to the variety of life and wouldn't it be boring if we were all the same?
 
ScotJimland said:
good idea.. but it's still not the same as having no fixed abode.. at the back of your mind you know if you get fed up or don't like, you can quit anytime.. It takes the 'edge' off the experience ..
not so if you sell up. .. then you know you MUST make it work..

when we were researching this lifestyle some years ago, someone with a sense of humour told me to throw a mattress on my kitchen floor, put a bucket in the corner.. and live there for a month.. if you survive, you'll love living in a van.. :LOL:
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Trying it is very good advice, but if you sell and it doesn't work; is that the end of the world? No pressure to MUST make it work. I know loads of full timers who stopped fulltiming, sold their van and bought or rented a house, you included Jim :)

People make much of it, but personally I just don't get it. Maybe I'm missing something but 3 months, 3 years, a lifetime, owning a house while you live in your van or selling up completely. Its just your house, its not your life.
 
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No. I will keep my house to have place to live and try earning money to purchase a van
 
thehutchies said:
Our home is our van
There's no place like it!
:)
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Lol, do you mean the van in your avatar?:ROFLMAO: I have just realised where the photo came from............ nice(y)

(we are addicts :eek:, waiting for series 5 to arrive on Netflix:()

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We didn't sell to go fulltiming, we fell into the life really.
Sold in 2008 with the intention of buying again but house prices started falling sharply so decided to wait, had surveys done on 3 different properties, all the time waiting and living in our van with all our worldly goods in storage.
2 years later, house prices crashed, 3 surveys came back bad.
Decided we liked this mooching around, few weeks at the seaside, few weeks rural, getting away from any neighbours we didn't like so decided to sell our worldly goods and carry on doing it.
We pay full time insurance so have the assurance that we would be covered for any eventuality.
When we have had enough,or illness or ill health forced us, we could rent somewhere static.Job done! !!
 
Now the owners of a 1 bed flat in Streatham,London.Will refurbish over this winter and let out in spring with this being our residential address for the foreseeable future until its time to find a retirement property .
Will declare to Comfort as full time insurance when let out.
We now have a address for all correspondence,etc in a area 15 minutes train to Victoria Station and a safe bet for property values and no CGT if let out correctly.
P.s Just back from three weeks in Cuba ,driving around and using Casa Particulars (Family homes) .What a great place ,cannot recommend the destination highly enough.With five days also spent in Havana and Salsa lessons we fitted right in !
 
I sold my two houses in march 2013........money is in the bank, since when I been full timing in a trigano tribute 03, still worth the £15000 I paid for it, and I have not looked back........plan to keep on travelling till I cant any more then settle back somewhere settled....steve bristol

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