Trailersteading – book review

How many of you would like (love?) to to have your own place and live for just what you’d pay in taxes? Assuming you already have a piece of land (hint, look for so called “junk” land and you can often have it for a song)… Well that’s precisely what Anna Hess and her husband Mark did.

Anna started out by having a piece of land, she wanted to live on it but didn’t have a house, they quickly figured out that it would cost more than they wanted to spend to build a house, it would mean having to take on a lot of debt, something neither of them wanted to do. Her husband Mark suggested they look into getting a trailer or mobile home, not a new one though, that would put them into debt, but an old one, they planned on spending less than 2K to get one.

A little footwork later, they had a free mobile home, all they would have to do is move it to their property. The trailer was old, in what most would consider pretty bad shape, there were no windows, just gaping holes where the windows once were, it needed quite a bit of TLC. Once it was moved they began working on making it a liveable space.

This starts the tale of Mark and Anna life homesteading with a trailer, trailersteading. Trailersteading: Voluntary Simplicity In A Mobile Home (Modern Simplicity)Anna writes about how they found their trailer, how they renovated it, made it their own, the really neat thing about working on an old mobile home is since they aren’t worth much money in the first place, you generally aren’t as intimidated to tear into it and do things you might hesitate to do in a stick built house, it’s a good way to learn how to do simple carpentry, plumbing, electrical and such.

Anna discusses the pros and cons of trailer living, since they didn’t spend much on the trailer itself, they were able to focus their money and energy on making the trailer functional, liveable, this made it possible to free up time and money to put toward the things they really wanted to do.

This isn’t just from one person’s point of view, Anna interviewed other trailersteaders, she shared their perspectives on living in a mobile home. Whether you choose to make your trailerstead your permanent dwelling, or you use a trailer as a temporary living place while you build a more traditional home on your property, this book will give you the ins and outs of trailer living, finding cheap (and sometimes free) trailers, what you can look forward to when remodeling your inexpensive place, ideas on how to make it less “trailer” like and such. Hint, even if you plan on building a traditional (or not so traditional) home, the trailer you live in now can easily become a guest house or mother-in-law home.

This book is a bargain filled with lots of information written by a couple who have lived the life, walking the walk not just talking the talk, this is the real deal.

Click the image (on the left) to get this book.