Ready to take the leap

I’ve never sold a home before. After 37 years living on the same property in Milwaukee county I’m putting my house up for sale and using the proceeds to fund my retirement residence in Tomahawk, WI. I have 37 acres up there… But the housing and building market is CRAZY. I’ll admit I’m kinda scared shittless. Right now upon sale of my house I’ll be living in an Ice Castle with a 40’ container as my new residence until I can build a modest house and pole barn. As much as I’ve planned in advance, this Covid pricing and supply chain issues are causing a lot of anxiety. I’ve talked to two builders and the first thing they said was they are booked into 2024…that’s two years! I’m trying to take advantage of the hyper real estate values and historicaly low interest rates. If I wait two more years to sell, the market may bottom out. Can a person live in an Ice Castle for two years???

no way i could live in one for 2 years. i would be waiting to sell until your new place is close to being built. 2 years of hauling in water, dealing with your toilet and emptying that, hauling out laundry every week, and in the winter time your going to be refilling propane tanks once a week

Just you or a family?

I could do it if it were just me and I had a big steel storage container. 2 years is a long ways out. I’d be talking with other builders

I installed a composting toilet, no black water to deal with, only grey that gets dumped on the ground. The IC has full spray foam and so far complimenting the propane with electric heat my winter electric bill is $90 and a 30lb cylinder lasts 20 days, $24 to refill. Laundromat in Tomahawk is right next to the bar, 😂. It is just me 90% of thee time. If I wait two years to sell my home, that would cost me around $30k in house payment, taxes, insurance and utilities. Plus I risk the housing market depressing like it did in 2008. During that time my fair market value decreased $20K and it took 5 years to recover. Fed is talking of raising interest rates in March. This is my last hurrah has I’m retired. I don’t have the youth, time, and endurance to recover finanylike I did years…decades ago.

Sell now while things are hot and figure it out from there. I saw on the news they anticipate the Feds raising interest rates 3 times in 2022 trying to slow spending. Get yourself a 250lb LP tank dropped and hooked up.

you can get 20 days out of a 30# tank? i guess i need to upgrade to a ice castle

Coletrain27 wrote:

you can get 20 days out of a 30# tank? i guess i need to upgrade to a ice castle

He said he’s running electric heat too.

I thought the same thing when I read it lol

I could probably make it two years in my shack, but no way in hell the family could. Just thinking about it gives me shivers.

I can see it now…..Hank and Ben riding tricycles around and $hit….RED RUM…RED RUM

B-man wrote:

He said he’s running electric heat too.

I thought the same thing when I read it lol

ahh gotcha. how about electricity? you have a place to plug in or you going to run a generator?

I am only 40 so not claiming to be an expert here at all, but in my 40 quick years of buying and selling stuff, I do not have any regrets on selling anything… there are some things I wish I would have bought, but did not, and some things I wish I would have sold when I had offers on them, but there is nothing I can honestly say “I wish I never sold that”. My advise is sell the house, live in the Ice castle… If it get to be too much, rent a place till the new home is built. Even if the home value of your current home continues to rise, and you sell it now and put the money in a low yeilding account you are gaining. If you get 3% on the money the housing market would have to continue to outpace itself historically to make it worth holding onto. (Do you really think it will with interest rate on the rise?) Sounds to me that your mind is made up that you do not want to live in you current home any longer and want to build on your land. Sell it now while you can, Live in the shack if you can, if not rent a place. The interest savings alone may pay rent for you if needed.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Coletrain27 wrote:</div>
you can get 20 days out of a 30# tank? i guess i need to upgrade to a ice castle

He said he’s running electric heat too.

I thought the same thing when I read it lol

I could probably make it two years in my shack, but no way in hell the family could. Just thinking about it gives me shivers.

I can see it now…..Hank and Ben riding tricycles around and $hit….RED RUM…RED RUM

Your swear jar would be full for sure.

After re reading the your original post I was answering the worng question… You have decided to sell it looks like. Congrats!!! Let us know how it goes in the ice castle. I bet you can make it 2 years. Sounds like stress will be low. How much stuff does a guy need anyways? Sounds like you may be living in one of the things I can think of as a need.

Castle rock check your PM’s.

I ran electricity service onto the property and had the electrician install a 50 amp RV receptacle. I have an electric oil filled radiator and run it on medium, 1000 watts. The only sound it makes is the click of its thermostat. The propane furnace runs every 20 minutes or so for about 5-7 minutes when it was zero degrees out with a 15-20 mph wind. Two nights it was -12 and -15 and the trailer stayed toasty warm without the heater(s) running excessively. In the lat month I lived in it 23 days and was quite happy. I even put in a fake wood stove for its ambiance. The electric drop down bed has an upgraded queen size mattress. And I have a 50” TV.

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Most people today need a severe reality check.
2 or maybe even 1 generations before most of us would have loved such a living set up.
I see nothing wrong with your plan, if you think it will work then go for it.

Solo no problem.

With Wife I would probably need two containers for all her crap and then a third for a drinking garage.

Kids no way.

With kids no way, me and the wife I could donit no problem. The tiny house thing is in nowadays

My brother and his wife lived in 19′ camper 14 months. 3 winter months in a VRBO

Go for it. I am retired and currently live in a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house. Divorced and don’t see a relationship in my future. Thinking of selling the house and seriously downsize. Looked at several houses under 900 square feet and actually have thought of living in a tiny home or camper. Go for it and if you get tired of living in your Ice Castle, rent a small house or apartment for a while.

CRC have you thought about a modular home. Waiting list might only be 9 months. Also Design homes have some model homes for sale almost anytime of year. Pour a basement and set it, do the hookups and you are done. Just an option to think about.

DO IT! You will figure it out as time goes on.

Solo, hell yeah, no problem. Your ice castle is nicer than some New York apartments. With a spouse it will be tougher. With kids it will be hell. I lived in a camper for 95 days while waiting for my home to close after I sold my house. It was at least summer and my son and I spent a lot of time doing nothing around the farm. He loved it and still talks about it. My wife worked a ton of over time since she hated it. The only problem I had was the bed sucked and I would hurt just waking up. Think about all the snow birds that fly south and live in a RV over the summer. It is doable.

I agree go for it. I think I could make it a couple years in my castle too. But why not consider a used mobile home you can pick them up pretty cheap and if nothing else you have extra room for guests in the future after you build.

You said plan was to build pole shed anyway. Might be able to get a shed builder quicker than a home builder. Set the castle up in the shed and save on your heating. Or living quarters in the shed.

In the end the decision is yours and you are the only one that knows you well enough. Could I do it, no. Warm weather probably but cold weather would give me cabin fever in a small living quarters. There is only so much hunting and fishing a person can do. Now if there was a garage there something I could work on, it would help pass the time. Good luck.

For the last 6 years my daughter and her family lived with me. They are now in their own house. I built a very nice bedroom/ living area in the basement…I hated it. I realized I need natural light coming into my living space. Even though the IC is half the sq ft of my basement room, I love it because of the gorgeous natural light and views of the outside that makes it for me a joy to be in.

Number one priority after sale of my house will be a dedicated pole barn that will be workshop and storage with no living accommodations….maybe a bathroom.

Most people in your situation looking to sell at the peak and for whatever reason can’t buy their next property yet will just rent. I would much rather rent even an apartment for a year than live in an ice castle. You want to be comfortable. Jan/Feb in particular are tough to get through in a house and I cannot imagine being confined to an Ice Castle. Plus, over time, you are going to fill that thing with all sorts of crap. Food, kitchen appliances, just all the daily stuff that you end up needing. It’s going to end up being a lonely, frustrating time during the worst time of the year.

Check with the amish around tomahawk the just built a nice garage for my sister. Maybe get it built sooner. Good luck.

queenswake wrote:

Most people in your situation looking to sell at the peak and for whatever reason can’t buy their next property yet will just rent. I would much rather rent even an apartment for a year than live in an ice castle. You want to be comfortable. Jan/Feb in particular are tough to get through in a house and I cannot imagine being confined to an Ice Castle. Plus, over time, you are going to fill that thing with all sorts of crap. Food, kitchen appliances, just all the daily stuff that you end up needing. It’s going to end up being a lonely, frustrating time during the worst time of the year.

I lived in a camper for a few months last year before buying a house after the divorce. The thing I discovered was how much of the “stuff” I didn’t need. Ended up getting rid of a bunch of stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I still have to much. The other thing I discovered is just how cheap you can live if you have no payments.

2 years is a long time. Good contractors have work whenever they want it, but I’d still shop around and kick the tires on others. 2024 is a long wait to be in an RV/Ice Castle. Doable? – yes. Ideal? – no. I agree that selling is a smart move, but I would do some hustling to get a builder under contract soon.

We are currently building, and the supply chain stuff is a bit overblown if you are proactive and know the industry. Our stuff is coming almost exclusively from the Midwest. Windows, trusses, floor trusses, and fiberglass surrounds were out a ways…but nothing that couldn’t be planned around. The news, media, and local know-it-alls love to make problems worse than they are. Make your purchases at a local lumberyard that knows the ins and outs of every product and gets daily updates on the whereabouts of orders. Ordering thousands of dollars of home building materials from a Menards or Home Depot right now may be a mistake with keeping track of things considering most would be coming from overseas.

As far as prices go, I don’t see 2022 being significantly different than 2021. All eyes are to 2023 for any sense of “normalcy.” The Covid talk, variants, etc. aren’t going anywhere soon. There will still be labor shortages and inflation isn’t going to instantly halt if the Fed pulls interest rates up 0.25%. What people forget is that material prices are not the only things that are a part of inflation. Wages follow just behind that and regardless of what the Fed does…wages are permanent changes. I’m a firm believer that “waiting” for prices to go down in the construction industry will just leave you waiting to pay inflated prices later. Sure, some building products may go down in a few years…but wages are never going backwards and wages are a huge factor in construction. It’s not a popular opinion, but I truly believe it will be cheaper to build something now than it will be 2, 3, or even 10 years from now.

Best of luck with everything. Keep us updated with how it goes.