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Do you want to live in a lighthouse?


Garga
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Everyone wants to live in a lighthouse!  

95 members have voted

  1. 1. Everyone wants to live in a lighthouse!

    • That’s right! Everyone wants to live in a lighthouse, including me.
      31
    • Hogwash. I’m an everyone and I don’t want to live in a lighthouse.
      23
    • I want to live in a cozy converted barn.
      13
    • I want to live in a cabin in the woods.
      30
    • I want to live in a house boat.
      13
    • You guys are all nuts. Give me a regular house!
      22
    • Other
      6


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I’m watching a tv show with some people who live in a lighthouse and I said to DH, “Is there anyone who doesn’t want to live in a lighthouse?”  

So, let’s forget about practical things like “my job is here in Kansas” or “I don’t want to leave my family,” and let’s say that the logistics would all line up, would you want to live in a lighthouse?

You can choose more than one choice.

 

Edited by Garga
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Although I can’t say I have sought one out (ever), I would love (at least the idea of) living in a lighthouse. I read a couple of fluffy books about a young woman who bought a lighthouse with a bakery in it, on an island only accessible for part of the day before the tide covered the causeway. Honestly, something about that has strong appeal...

I also think it would be neat to live in some unusual place like a former church or tiny schoolhouse or whatever. 

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Can we move around?  Like live in the lighthouse for 2-4 weeks and then move to the cabin in the woods for a month or 2 followed by the forest fire observation home on top of a mountain in Montana?  Then follow up with a few weeks on the beach, some time on a house boat, etc.  I might even take a month in downtown in a big city.

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I think I saw that show a couple of years ago.  I like the idea of living in a cozy lighthouse, but not the ones that were in the show I saw (fixer-upper types).  I also voted for a cabin in the woods.  That would be my preference.  I'm not too excited about living through a storm in a lighthouse.  

 

 

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No way. I like walkable neighborhoods, being able to walk to town, having neighbors close by. I would feel trapped living in an area where I couldn’t walk on sidewalks out my front door. I feel claustrophobic even thinking about living in the country or the woods or heaven forbid down some lonely  beach road to a secluded lighthouse. Omg just no. 

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There are two lighthouses I won’t mind staying in, especially if I am paid to stay there for a year or two as the “resident matron”.

The first link is a Santa Cruz lighthouse that is near to Santa Cruz Beach Broadwalk and is probably bigger than my current home. The view is lovely https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=87&fb_comment_id=10150089038588905_29228567

The second link is a lighthouse hostel so people do stay there. It is more rural but still near enough to healthcare and groceries by a long drive. That would require a lot more planning regarding doctors appointments and stocking up groceries. https://www.hiusa.org/hostels/california/pescadero/pigeon-point-lighthouse-hostel

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From CNN https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/san-francisco-lighthouse-job/index.html

“California island offers $130,000 for new lighthouse keepers

Francesca Street, CNN • Published 8th January 2019

(CNN) — New Year, new you, new job -- looking after a lighthouse in California?
On an idyllic island in the San Pablo Bay, the East Brother Light Station, a lighthouse-turned-inn, is seeking a pair of new keepers. San Pablo Bay is part of the larger San Francisco Bay.

The position offers $130,000, split between two people. For the money they'll be expected to keep this historic tower up and running.”

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My husband has this crazy plan that when we someday build a house, there will be a light house included as part of it. He and his best friend from the army had a deal that the best friend would come live as a recluse in a light house, so there will be no easy access to the living quarters, just a dumb waiter to send up provisions. So, I don't really wish to live in a light house, but who knows. I may have one attached to my house someday, complete with a hermit who is my husband's alter ego. By the way, we don't live on the coast.

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22 minutes ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

Nope, you couldn't give a lighthouse to live in.

I want an off grid cottage in the woods with cleared land,  electric power from a nearby creek and windmill back up, food forest, harvested water system, and fish stocked duck pond with water irises, not cattails.  

But...you can eat cattails! 
As for the OP, I'd live in lighthouse for a short period of time. (Actually, my kids and I just read a picture book about a lighthouse. And yes, I did think, "boy...this would be fun for a week" while reading it.)  I also voted for the converted barn option, which shouldn't surprise anyone based on my screen name.

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31 minutes ago, MEmama said:

No way. I like walkable neighborhoods, being able to walk to town, having neighbors close by. I would feel trapped living in an area where I couldn’t walk on sidewalks out my front door. I feel claustrophobic even thinking about living in the country or the woods or heaven forbid down some lonely  beach road to a secluded lighthouse. Omg just no. 

The lighthouse in our town is on the end of a pier....just a short walk from the beach/state park, and a very pleasant walk down the boardwalk to downtown.  Not isolated at all....in fact there would be thousands of people nearby all summer.

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Sure - for a time. The romantic ambience, the thought of endless ocean to see, perhaps fish :).  Somehow I think we all picture excellent food - I think of salmon - ginger squares - and lots of La Croix or whatever you prefer.

The lure though I think is not dissimilar to the cabin in the wood, the houseboat, etc because we all see ourselves in blessed solitude, with wonderful books. When I toured the Crescent City Lighthouse as well as Point Arena, I was struck by how hard the lightkeeper's life was. The endless stairs, having to get out in the frigid wind, fog (Pacific coast here) and driving rain to gather some wood to get your stove going, milking the cow, feeding the donkey,  running back and forth making sure the light was on - not to mention when there was a shipwreck, the lightkeeper often launched a boat to rescue the sailors.

The Crescent City Lighhouse is cut off from the mainland during high tide. Sounded wonderful to me. I giggled to myself when I visualized dh and ds missing the crucial point in time to get the dingy across and having to stay on the mainland while I was spending a blissful evening in a hot bath, then with a blissful book sitting by the roaring fire while a storm approached...

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1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

From CNN https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/san-francisco-lighthouse-job/index.html

“California island offers $130,000 for new lighthouse keepers

Francesca Street, CNN • Published 8th January 2019

(CNN) — New Year, new you, new job -- looking after a lighthouse in California?
On an idyllic island in the San Pablo Bay, the East Brother Light Station, a lighthouse-turned-inn, is seeking a pair of new keepers. San Pablo Bay is part of the larger San Francisco Bay.

The position offers $130,000, split between two people. For the money they'll be expected to keep this historic tower up and running.”

Our friends have stayed there several times and rave about it!

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I'd love to live in any weird home, really. Assuming practicalities were meaningless, anyway.

Most of the time I love being a city girl. At this moment you've caught me dreaming of being in nowhere. Sometimes people ask if we're going to cash out and I really do think about it. I guess we'll see.

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10 hours ago, Seasider too said:

Never a lighthouse, they’re all haunted by murderous lightkeepers who went insane from the solitude. 😂

 

That was EXACTLY my thought!  They are eerie, cold, vacuous, echo, creepy, and HAUNTED!

Nope, nope, nope!

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11 hours ago, barnwife said:

But...you can eat cattails! 
As for the OP, I'd live in lighthouse for a short period of time. (Actually, my kids and I just read a picture book about a lighthouse. And yes, I did think, "boy...this would be fun for a week" while reading it.)  I also voted for the converted barn option, which shouldn't surprise anyone based on my screen name.

Yeah, but I won't need them with my food forest. Cattails are ugly and shaggy much of the year.  I pick out fruit and nut trees this week and will plant them in my food forest when they ship later this fall.  The duck pond is on the back burner right now.

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I met a guy a couple years ago who spends a couple weeks every year as a volunteer lighthouse keeper. I think it’s through a national park, but don’t remember for certain. Here’s a link to lighthouse accommodations by state: 

https://uslhs.org/fun/lighthouse-accommodations

I’m more of a mountains and forest girl, but I still think a lighthouse could be a fun place to live. 

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I LOVE the ocean and I LOVE the water. But I don't want to live in a lighthouse. It sounds cold, brutal, and small to me - with oddly shaped rooms, lots of tiny staircases, and poor lighting. 😂 Give me a house on nearby oceanfront property with LOTS of windows and I'm your girl.

I then voted for a cabin in the woods, but as soon as I clicked "Submit," I knew that was not true. A cabin in the woods would be pollen-filled, insect-filled, and I wouldn't get to pick and choose when bears, raccoons, etc would get to make an appearance. I don't need that stress.

So, apparently I'm an ocean minus the lighthouse sort of everyone.

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58 minutes ago, Margaret in CO said:

Isn't cob just adobe?

 

Just looked it up: adobe is bricks and then cob over it. 

 

I don't know. Cob is from Great Britain. Isn't adobe from Mexico? I would imagine the building materials and technique wouldn't be exactly the same. With cob homes and buildings they create a solid structure with the mud and straw/other biological material, and then hollow out the inside. 

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On 10/13/2019 at 8:40 PM, Arcadia said:

There are two lighthouses I won’t mind staying in, especially if I am paid to stay there for a year or two as the “resident matron”.

The first link is a Santa Cruz lighthouse that is near to Santa Cruz Beach Broadwalk and is probably bigger than my current home. The view is lovely https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=87&fb_comment_id=10150089038588905_29228567

The second link is a lighthouse hostel so people do stay there. It is more rural but still near enough to healthcare and groceries by a long drive. That would require a lot more planning regarding doctors appointments and stocking up groceries. https://www.hiusa.org/hostels/california/pescadero/pigeon-point-lighthouse-hostel


Oooooh!  I stayed there when I was in college! It is hands down The. Best. Hostel. Ever.  Big puffy hearts.

This was waaaaay back in the 90s.  The tidal pools were pretty darn cool, too.

That’s the only lighthouse I’ve ever thought liveable.  

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58 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

Actually most cob homes go up just like adobe - pounding cob/straw in with mud from the ground up and then plastering/rendering over, in most cases.

The one I saw on TV was built inside a wooden, circular form. They put in the mud and stuff, then walked all over it to pack it down. I forget how long they said it would take for it to dry completely. Probably months and months.

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On 10/13/2019 at 5:26 PM, MEmama said:

No way. I like walkable neighborhoods, being able to walk to town, having neighbors close by. I would feel trapped living in an area where I couldn’t walk on sidewalks out my front door. I feel claustrophobic even thinking about living in the country or the woods or heaven forbid down some lonely  beach road to a secluded lighthouse. Omg just no. 

Exactly. The idea of having to drive everywhere has absolutely zero appeal to me. I don’t consider any amount of privacy or land worth that trade off. Where I live now I can walk or bike to almost everything I need, including major parks. Yet with 15 minutes of driving we can be out in the country with our dog with no one else around.

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I used to want to live in a lighthouse, and then I started visiting them and had a blinding glimpse of the obvious, lol--they are all in places with Really Bad Weather Much Of The Time.  

So then I said, OK, I want to MOVE a lighthouse to a clearing in a lovely forest.  And it all fell apart at that point.

I do really like towers.  A Victorian, a big rambling one, with a tower, is pretty much my all time dream house.  With a little land but still 'in town' but quiet.  Ha.

So, really, I love the forest, and I love the water.  I love wild nature.  I love the idea of living on a boat, and the idea of living in a treehouse.  But with a 'real' house available as a fallback for comfort and for all my books.  And it turns out that there IS such a place, and it's for sale!  Check this out--a biggish house on 5 wooded acres, with its own pond, and with a treehouse yurt bedroom, a floating yurt bedroom out on the pond, a yurt meeting house, and a writer's retreat.  Plus little trails and campfire areas.  Too crazy!  And not in a buggy area either.  http://twobearsdancing.info/

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I would love to live at the beach. 

I would not want to live in a lighthouse. 

I would consider living in a lighthouse if the residence part was all downstairs/one level and I didn't have to climb a zillion stairs to get in & out every day. (And if I didn't have to actually go up to the light all that often. That's a LOT of stairs). 

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I don't want to live in a lighthouse because the stairs would terrify me every time I had to go up or down. Plus I'm at the age where I just want to live in a one story house.

 

On 10/14/2019 at 6:10 AM, DawnM said:

So, not a lighthouse, but my friend built and owns this treehouse.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/11973782?source_impression_id=p3_1571047759_3Zf7seK6zoy6l81M

That looks like the treehouse hotel where Princess Elizabeth was staying when her father died and she didn't yet know she was the queen. It was in Africa of course.

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Nope, nope, noppity nope. Not even when I loved the Pete’s Dragon movie in the early 1980s.

One of the scariest things I have seen in recent years were the logs thrown up against sea walls and the flooding that occurs over those during storms.

Speaking of which, high seas are projected for this weekend. I should try to figure out how to safely post pics.

I’ll take one Spanish tile California eclectic house rancho style home with hardwood floors and a center courtyard with pool with waterfall and cara cara trees in pots or one English cottage fully updated with good insulation, airtight windows, a large library with huge windows and a kitchen with a back up woodburning, cast iron stove.

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3 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

I don't want to live in a lighthouse because the stairs would terrify me every time I had to go up or down. Plus I'm at the age where I just want to live in a one story house.

 

That looks like the treehouse hotel where Princess Elizabeth was staying when her father died and she didn't yet know she was the queen. It was in Africa of course.

 

Yes, although that treehouse holds a lot of people and has multiple rooms.  I have stayed there several times.  It is called Treetops and became much more famous when this piece of history happened.

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