Quirky Places to Live

1. I'm on a Boat

Boats can be made into floating residences with relative ease, and the monthly berthing cost of a slip is a fraction of rent or a home mortgage.

Pros - mobility, cool factor, fewer police randomly showing up

Cons - can sink, not tied into utilities

2. Big Maaaaaan in a Tiiiiiiny House

Tiny houses are an increasingly popular trend,having 200-400 square feet of internal space, super compact appliances, and multi-use living spaces.

Pros - tiny, cheap, easily moved, strong tiny house community

Cons - tiny, often cheaply made, community is made of hipsters

3. Living in a Van Down by the River!

Vans, and by extension, trucks with camper shells, small RVs, and such can be converted over into living spaces.

Pros - the definition of mobility, low profile, inexpensive

Cons - living in a van, non-existent bathroom and shower facilities, glorified camping, requires a friendly place to park and hook up to power.

4. SeaCan Communes

SeaCans are the large steel shipping containers used to move cargo across the ocean. These large and strong containers can be fairly easily modded over into various residential units. These can be parked like trailers, stacked inside warehouses as hipster IT communes or housing corporations, and so forth.

Pros - cheap, sturdy, lockable

Cons - living in a can, stacked inside a warehouse, no social life, likely plenty of crime

5. Nesting

Adoptive family, but rather it is a young person adopting an older established couple, creating an artificial nuclear family. The young and likely poor person has a spot in the family unit, and the family couple has both extra income from low rent, as well as the assistance a young person can offer.

Pros - it's like the family the traumatized character never had

Cons - its exactly like the family the traumatized character had, home invasion, loss of privacy, contractual obligations, the general cons of being an adult living at home

6. Crating

Crating is when a person/family has a literal crate that they lease out to people to crash in. Like nesting, but a more pet level than proxy child level.

Pros - super minimalist, super low profile, often super cheap

Cons - living in 20-30 square feet, no possessions, at the general mercy of the host, living in a box inside someone else's home.

7. Corporate Hot-Racks

During the day it is a conference room, break room, and gym. After hours, it is an employee barracks, mess hall, and locker room. Residents break down and set up at the end and beginning of each day.

Pros - corp perk/no rent, super convenient to place of employment, full work amenities such as they are

Cons - lose your job, lose your home, just a place to sleep and have downtime and not family or socializing, no possessions.

8. Crowd-renting

Crowd renting is a process where a large number of people share the cost of a single large residence. While this would be a luxury residence or mcmansion for a single family, when split between 10, 20, or more people, the cost is dramatically eased.

Pros - gonna live in a really nice house

Cons - can be voted out, share really nice house with a BUNCH of people,lack of security and privacy, in some places this is illegal

9. Undocumented Dormitories

An undocumented dormitory is any building or structure that is discretely taken over and turned into a group residence. The Paper Street house from Fight Club (since they were squatting) would count.

Pros - low profile, likely free

Cons - high crime and or violence, low privacy and security, illegal living space, police can arrest, all possessions can be easily lost or stolen

10. Co-Living

The co-living space has central space consisting of common areas, bathrooms, kitchen space, and entertainment areas, while all the residents have their own 'apartment' style bedrooms. They only lease the bedroom, and the common space is shared among all residents.

Pros - legal, usually civil, decent security and privacy, modest cost

Cons - almost designed to generate personal drama, can be expensive, Home Owner Association like organizations, leaselords can be dicks.

11. Service Apartment

A service apartment is functionally a hotel with guests who stay for weeks or months, sometimes years. Guest services are much lower, no room service or continental breakfast, but likely a food station, bathroom, and bedroom with entertainment system.

Pros - no commitment, legit address, legal, feasible for short or long term, house keeping and laundering services

Cons - its a hotel, communal diseases, rapid neighbor turnover, low privacy

12. Pre-fab Hives

A hive is a prefabricated living module, a little smaller than a tiny home, but a good deal bigger than a crate. These units are attacked to an existing structure to turn it into a human 'honeycomb'. These modules have lockable doors, and a degree of security, and are intended to combat urban homelessness.

Pros - cheap or even free, no utilities to pay, super low profile, easy to hide

Cons - small, only moderate security, hotly contested by gangs, pimps, homeless gangs, and worse

13. Micro-Apartments

Like the personal mini-storage facilities that can be found across most towns, a micro-apartment rents out tiny living spaces for people to live in. The cost is low, but there are almost no amenities, and most non-sleeping activities like cooking or showering are handled elsewhere.

Pros - like Pre-fab hives, but better living conditions and air conditioning, fewer gangs.

Cons - spartan utilities, not free but probably should be, business owned and occupancy time is limitedf