Anyone lived in a caravan?

We own a piece of land quite far from where we live now (3 hrs) and are hoping to start building on it soon. But we don't want to pay rent and are thinking of buying a caravan and living in that for a while. Half the week we will stay at my parents house (where we live now) so that DS can go to the same kindy and I can stay with my soccer team. But does anyone have any suggestions about how to stay sane in such a small space? Or recommendations on caravan types? We are going el cheapo and are thinking of a pop top so the floor is permanent.
Thanks in advance :)

I lived in a caravan when I was a kid, all up for about 6 years. We had a fixed annexe. I don't know how big the caravan was, but it was big enough for me, my brother, sister and my parents. After living in the caravan my parents bought a large block of land on the Sunny Coast and they build a huge shed which we lived in while their house was built.

Double check with your council if you are able to live in a caravan and if so how long. Some can get a bit funny about these things.

Another option to look at is a relocatable home. These can come in different sizes and you could look at selling it afterwards.

We may have to go down this path when we rebuild. I know for storage we were looking into getting an old shipping container on site for long term storage.

We lived in a caravan for about 6 months when I was 14. It was 26 foot from memory. Would've been much better with an annex, but we managed. I wouldn't do it with my kids that old though...14, 12 & 8. The older ones know way too much.... TMI! Eventually we moved the van out to a block with shearers huts & my brother & I couldn't get out of there & into a hut each fast enough!! lol

Friend of ours built a shed (because they were going to have a one anyway) and partitioned off a section of that and made a small unit to live in. They bought the kitchen and bathroom things second hand and did most of the work themselves so it only cost a few grand to set up. They ended up living in it for 4 years while building the house on weekends.

Living in a small space drove them kind of mad though ;)

Well I didnt live in a caravan but we owned one in a caravan park for 20 years. We had a hard anex. Which was so helpful. It was great. Thats where we had the lounge, dining table and tv. We also had a few cupboards which we kept all the cleaning products.

In the actual van, we had to keep it clean all the time or we just went insane.

I think you can do a van up so its homie. Put some pictures up etc.

i lived in a camper trailer for about 6 months. No kids at that stage, but i was pregnant twice. Running to the loo in central victoria in the night wasn't fun, but other than that it was fine. :D You get used to what you have and do what you have to to get ahead i say. ;)

Oh......I also lived in a caravan for 2 years as a kid while mum and dad built a house. The only bad thing anyone talks about was the mice plague, but that was fixed easily enough! As far as i remember it was fun. I was about 5.

Well we now have our caravan! Wow it is full on to think we will be living in that! We got a 16ft with a decent annexe. It has a bunk bed and a double which are there all the time and then another double bed if you convert the lounge. It is pretty retro LOL but we are happy with it. The council where we are going don't care about us living in it and so once we clean it up and pack it we will move it to the land. Pretty exciting! Thanks for all of the advice guys!

This is DH and my last resort, we often sit back and think how we should just sell everything and buy a van (ideally mobile one...but a van either way) and be gypsies...would love it!!! (if i wasn't so attached to my stuff)
Enjoy your van =)
and all the best with the house building!!! never done it myself but a few friends have and they always have some story about delays or stuff not being as planned. Hope it goes smoothly as possible for you!!!

Oh wow - how exciting! You will have to keep us up to date with how you go.

So very cool! Enjoy it!

Pretty exciting...I lived in a number of different caravan arrangements as a child, that was in Darwin so we ended up with a big shed/annexe which functioned pretty well as an outdoor lounge. I remember my parents made like a semipermanent floor using a heap of pallets laid down side to side with carpet over the top which worked pretty well keeping the floor dry in the annexe so that's something you might think about too. Good luck with it!