C40's Journal

[BRUTE]

Viktor K thinks smog is his ally?

[jaguarsfan]

Just finished reading all 35 pages of this the past couple days. Amazing journey - inspiring and picked up a few tips and ideas, even if I'm unlikely to buy a van anytime soon. Thanks for the journal.

[C40]

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JUNE 2018
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JUNE SPENDING: $716

• Bought a pen for $260 (one I’ve wanted for a long time and that is hard to find)
• 6 months of van insurance: $189
• Food spending is pretty low because mom is buying most of the food while I work on her van.

CHARTS








YTD savings rate is up to 51%. WOO HOOOO.





VAN FOR MOM
It’s coming along. I have a lot of the main design decisions made and and now I’m getting on to building the stuff inside. It’s kind of slow going because nothing is straight, even, or square inside the van so I’ll be making all kinds of custom wood pieces.

You can see the progress here: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highl ... 066174684/




SOCIAL/~LOVE
I’ve made a couple friends and have a lover with a big ol’ booty. The lover can be annoying when we’re not having sex, so I may look for a replacement.




FITNESS
Going well. I joined a gym and started bulking again. I’m looking and feeling pretty damn good. This second bulking and cutting cycle may get me as big as I want - about 160# when really lean. With my small bone frame, that’s pretty big and strong, looks really good, but doesn’t require a huge amount of maintenance calories.




PROPERTY SEARCHING
I’ve been looking at cities in Arizona lately (mainly in Phoenix and Tucson) since my brother and mom are moving there. Sometimes I also look at Wichita and Topeka. The later two are very cheap and are a good way to compare how expensive other places really are. Houses in Phoenix cost about three times as much as Wichita. And for big cities, Phoenix is fairly cheap.

A big challenge so far with this location analysis is that every place has something big wrong with it. Phoenix is hot in the summer, too expensive, and too dry for a good garden. Wichita is too conservative and square. Portland/Seattle are too grey and crazy expensive. It seems that for the set of characteristics I desire, there will be no “having it all”. So I’ll need to prioritize more.

I still need to do some thinking about whether I want a (relatively) short-term home or a long term one, and whether I want a fixer-upper or not.

In general, I would like to do a good job of optimizing this in at least some ways. Like one or some of these:

• Really inexpensive
• I make money on it when I sell it
• Rent out part of the property while I live there
• It being particularly good for some other kinds of hobby income generation

I did find and get pretty excited about this property in Topeka . It’s really just a workshop, with half of the building sort of converted into a home, on nearly 3 acres, IN THE CITY. The list price got down to $45k and it sold in May for $36k. I’m not entirely sure whether I’d consider the living quarters good enough, but in general it looks like a property I’d like a lot. (small home, workshop, plenty of land, in a city, cheap). I’d like to find more properties like this. It’s time consuming looking through tons of listings though.

If I want to live in a city, especially one like Phoenix or even one that’s more expensive, I’m thinking that I’d like to find a house on a big lot, build a small home on the back of the property for me to live in, and rent out the house. If the money works out well, I could get the same kind of income that I would’ve gotten as dividends if I’d left the money in stocks (or more), but I will have a home. I think I'll start researching the laws/building codes related to building the second home. If you know of any good references for this kind of thing, or you know about it yourself, please share.

Because I can take my time, I’d like to do this in a good way money-wise.

[suomalainen]

We looked at building once. Zoning restrictions vary widely so you'll just have to read/inquire about footprint, density, setback, environmental, site, etc. restrictions in each targeted locale and/or specific zones (same city can have various zones each with their own unique issues), but presumably if you're living there, the small house will have to be permitted, up to code, etc. Maybe not if you find yourself in a very rural or anti-government locale. Maybe if you build a tiny house on a trailer stuck in the back you can get away with less (assuming zoning permits whatever tiny houses on trailers are considered there). Depending on the zoning/building department, you might be able to get questions answered over the phone, but in my area you had to show up in person and/or make an appointment. But they were very helpful.

[BRUTE]

lover with a big ol’ booty.

pics or it didn't happen

[C40]

Ha, nice try.

[Kriegsspiel]

Ben Leybovich on BiggerPockets had a couple articles about a "luxury house hack" in Phoenix, which was essentially him living in a house, and renting out an ADU out back, so I figure it's either zoning-compliant in at least some places, or it was at one point and you just have to keep an eye out for a property with one that's grandfathered in.

[Gilberto de Piento]

The lover can be annoying when we’re not having sex, so I may look for a replacement.

Don't get trapped with someone you don't really want.

[bryan]

C40, have you noticed any big changes to the vandwelling community (online?) in the past year? I'm not on Instagram so don't quite have the insight, but when talking with new folks recently (Bay Area) many are not as surprised as they used to be that I lived in a van for a spell and am planning to do it again soon. Also saw a lady's tweet going viral today that for some reason a lot of guys are driving vans these days.

Berkeley is thinking about segregating vandwellers to specific areas (and offering some van-dwelling specific space.. I think. They have already been pretty strict regarding needing residential permits to park on most streets).

[C40]

@bryan: online, idk.. mainly there is more people/content. There are more people sharing. More 'fancy lifestyle' type content. A couple years ago, the popular van pictures were showing a woman lying stomach down on the bed in the van, looking out the open back doors, with her ass as a focal point. Now, more of the popular ones are of really clean and fancy eurovan coversions, with the people dressed like lifestyle models and the women in full makeup.

Out in the real world, way more people are aware of living in van as a lifestyle design and where I used to get a lot of "wait, what, you really live in a van??" I now get more "wow! that's my dream."

Two years ago, when someone initially said "that's my dream", when we had a conversation, they were going to ask me 20 questions about living and traveling in a van. I started avoiding those folks sometimes because I've had that conversation enough times. But now, when people say that, most of them aren't that interested in it and will only ask a couple questions about it. It's sort of a surface level awareness/interest because now so many more people are exposed to it.



@Kriegspiel - yeah, there are a handful of properties in Phoenix and Tucson with ADUs. (maybe 15 or so for sale when I checked). I spent a couple days looking at them online and running rental income numbers. It would work, but I'd likely have to spend at the very high end of what I'm willing to and capable of.

[sky]

I get the feeling that vandwellers are getting treated more like homeless people. I see a lot more "No Overnight Parking" signs going up.

[Allagash]

Great postin' there C40! Lucky mom to have a talented son.

RE is really hot all over the western USA right now and prices high in the good cities. Be interesting what you turn up. KS, OK as you mentioned... and many other midwest states I'm sure are radically cheaper and easier to buy then the west. I like the idea of a home base + a van for extended trips. I like having a base and some roots in a area personally, for many of the reasons you mentioned.

I share your dislike for Vegas, can't stand that place.

[SavingWithBabies]

RE prices are up in the Midwest too. Starting to think whole country is up or at least any mildly liberal area.

[daylen]

Maybe suffering and selflessness is required to feel meaning? I don't know.

I think meaning is more accurately derived from responsibility. Being responsible for something requires selflessness and suffering as a negative feedback to failure. There are plenty of things to be responsible for besides kids.

[daylen]

I don't disagree that suffering sorts values. I was just saying that responsibility is the underlying mechanism that induces suffering, so fundamentally meaning is derived from the responsibilities we adopt. This is just a thought I had; this thought is not disproved because some people have a preference for one responsibility over another.

[daylen]

Sure, I understand, but from my perspective it makes sense to think that parenting is only one of several triggers that can happen as humans develop.

[Mister Imperceptible]

Regardless of the underlying psychology, I say again that C40 is at or near his peak level attractiveness to the opposite sex, and now would be a better time than ever to find a mate, and not just a lover. Unless he is able to find some other higher task to dedicate himself to. The other things- living in a van, homesteading, heading off to Southeast Asia- will not be so stimulating themselves in the long run, mostly because C40 is a highly competent human being, and can master them too easily. So either it will be a revolving door of novelty experiences, or the pursuit of a Great Task.

Wagner to Nietzsche: You must either be married, or write an opera.

[Mister Imperceptible]

Not the last I heard.

[C40]

From what I can tell, it seems like you have really only focused on one thing: comfort. You go different places, see different things, but you do not appear to have deviated from seeking comfort in these activities.

I'm not sure if you mean 'comfort' in a way other than I take it to mean,... of if I've not written clearly enough in my journal,.. or if you've misinterpreted what I write. Comfort is fairly low on my (unwritten) list of priorities. I think the way I write about myself can tend to be 'flat' in some ways and boring in some ways, and this may cause some misunderstandings.

A static home will be ergonomically more comfortable in a couple ways I'm looking forward to - being able to stand up inside, and having room for a more ergonomic chair.

I think I understand much of your post though, and it's the kind of thing I will be considering more before making any significant changes.

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As for kids, nope. These days I am up to 99% certainty that I don't want to have kids, and I'm also quite sure that won't change over time.

I'm still firing live rounds at the moment. I'll probably check on getting a vasectomy once I have residency and insurance established in a state that I actually live in. Right now, I'd have to either pay for the whole thing for sure, or go up to South Dakota for it. [ok well, I just looked up what they cost it seems like it's not (always) very expensive anyways: $350-$1000. So maybe I should just do it sooner rather than later]

I think it's possible for me - without having kids - to develop more of the kind of 'meaning' (than I currently have) that children often help drive - a connection to mankind/the world/the future. I think I'd have better results overall working on that more directly than finding very long-term mate, having the kids, and then raising/dealing with the kids, (and then pissibly dealing with splitting up from the mother, coparenting, etc.)

[BRUTE]

why the vasectomy instead of just using condoms?