John Cox

Blogs · @wyome · Now · Shelf

Tagged off-grid · everything

Interesting

The Best Prefab Homes of 2025

Marie and Kurtis Saldivar transformed a $24,000 steel Quonset hut kit into a warm guest suite on their Oregon property by layering contrasting materials—concrete, wood, marble, and brass fixtures—to counteract the structure's inherently industrial aesthetic. Working with Skylab Architecture, they proved that prefab steel kits can achieve residential coziness through deliberate material choices, a concept now informing the architectural firm's commercial prefab models. The project demonstrates how thoughtful design can overcome the functional, "bunkerish" reputation of metal building kits.

Permalink

RVs – Cool Tools

This roundup pairs two vintage guides to living untethered from fixed housing: a boondocking manual covering off-grid RV logistics (batteries, solar, water, mail-forwarding via Escapees) for full-timers who camp in Walmart lots and casinos rather than paid RV parks, and a Cheap RV Living website documenting shoestring van-dwelling, from stealth-parking a beat-up van behind your workplace to gear hacks like a dedicated "pee bottle" and DIY kitchens. Together they're a practical field manual for nomadic, low-cost living outside conventional housing, worth keeping for anyone curious about the mechanics of that lifestyle rather than the romance of it.

Permalink