One thousand dollars won’t cover rent in the Bay Area, but it is enough to lease a renovated FedEx truck. For $600 each month, one lucky occupant can get wood floors, a sunroof, a fold-out couch, a mini kitchen and a space that triples as a car, storage unit and home all in one. Disclaimer: It doesn’t include running water — as in a bathroom — and the parking tickets might start to pile up if it isn’t moved nightly. “I didn’t end up putting plumbing in it because I was going to get a gym membership and use their facilities to help motivate me to work out every day — awesome plan right?! — so if you don’t mind doing that then this is a GREAT match for you,” reads John D. Storey’s Craigslist description. As the housing crisis in San Francisco deepens, affordable rental options have become more and more outlandish. A “cozy private room in a prime location” — read cozy as tiny — goes for $450 on Craigslist. And, if you’re willing to rough it, a guest tent furnished with a single airbed in a family’s backyard in Daly City runs for $175 a week.
Highest rents in the U.S. It’s a bargain compared with most pads in a city where rent is the highest in the nation. The median price tag for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $3,670 a month, according to the real estate website Zumper. The seemingly odd — but cheap — Craigslist listings have people clamoring to move in. A man who advertised his shabby living room couch on Craigslist to commuters for $200 a month, “agreeing to cook breakfast for us both,” declined to comment, saying he didn’t feel his listing was odd because so many people had expressed interest in it. Another listing showed a 200-square-foot single bedroom in the Financial District for $1,250 each month. “Twin Bed with NEW Blankets & Sheets!” the ad exclaimed. It barely fit the bed, a mini-fridge, microwave and sink. But it did come with a shared bathroom and community kitchen. Those up for a commute can rent a houseboat, which is currently parked in Brentwood, for $750 a month.
“Live where you boat! Big enough for two, but more comfortable for one,” the ad boasts. You can’t take it out for a day on the water, though, and the bed is a beat-up green couch with floral cushions. Storey, the creator of the FedEx home — or as he likes to call it, BedEx or the “Make It Happen Wagon” — said that some Bay Area residents are forced to go the unconventional housing route because it’s otherwise unaffordable. “It seems silly that housing costs so much,” said Storey, a Web developer living in Provo, Utah. “Especially since you’re only at your house for eight hours of sleep and four hours of chill time. It’s interesting how everything else in relation to living standards has become cheaper and easier to get, except housing.” Storey bought the truck in Bentonville, Ark., for $4,000 in 2013. The original intent was to help move a friend to Utah and then resell the vehicle for a profit. But Storey, a fan of minimalist living who frequently quotes Henry David Thoreau, saw an opportunity.
He installed insulation, electrical outlets, shelves, hanging racks and a kitchenette. A pea-green couch and a folding desk from Ikea round out the space. The renovations took two years, and Storey documented the project on Tumblr. “You don’t really need a big space,” Storey said. “All you need is a place to sleep and keep some of your things. I’ve poured my heart into this thing. But I will say that parking can be tricky.” Cinthia, a student at San Francisco State University, lived in the truck this fall. She would often park it near the school’s soccer fields and move it on cleaning days. But it wasn’t a flawless system — one night the battery died and the truck wouldn’t move. After class, she came back to a rainbow of parking tickets. “The first time parking it was hard because I accidentally left the FedEx truck in a residential area and got yelled at,” said Cinthia, who asked that her last name not be used out of embarrassment. “I only move it at night when no one is around.
The hard part is not being able to be at your house and relax. You don’t have a place to shower, and that can be tough.” She spruced up the space with corkboards covered in photos and concert tickets, car fresheners, a mustard-yellow tapestry and a landscape calendar. Cereal, powdered milk and green tea crowded the kitchenette, and a guitar and a basket of laundry were stored atop the tiny bed. At a repair shop now It was an intermediary living situation, she said, until her new apartment was ready for move-in. She has since moved out of the truck, and it is currently at a repair shop for engine issues. She’s not alone: About 268 people live in their vehicles in San Francisco, according the city’s 2015 homeless count. Living in a vehicle in the city is illegal in some cases, but it’s unclear how that applies to an old FedEx truck. “It seems like a cool idea in theory, but I don’t think anyone would actually choose to live in a FedEx truck for the rest of their life,” she said.
“It’s hard to fall asleep, and my back hurts from the futon. It’s been an adventure staying here.” Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Live and Sleep is an exciting newly launched mattress company that is trying to save the world and your wallet one mattress at a time by offering mattresses designed for better sleep at half the price of a comparable product. The sleep designers at Live and Sleep researched the mattress market and had tough times finding a mattress that lived up to their ideals without having to spend well over $1,000 on it. Additionally, they found that mattress shopping can be an intimidating experience and consumers can easily get taken advantage of. They thought it was crazy…so they came up with an even crazier new concept for a mattress company. Let’s simplify the mattress buying experience by making a great mattress, cut out the high markup middle men, offer it at half the price and give back to those in need. They removed the huge markup that retail stores require and are now offering conforming memory foam mattresses directly to consumers at “just right” prices from $400 for a twin-sized to $600 for a king.
They are able to compress-ship their mattress to easily fit through any door and allow them to include national shipping in the U.S. Live and Sleep is a passionate mattress company that believes in having a good time while doing what they love, and they do love what they do. Aside from saving people from constantly spending a large amount on good mattresses, the company also stands by their founding principal of using their knowledge, abilities and hearts to help those in need. They have partnered with a national charity and give a portion of each sale to them. What makes their services more impressive is the fact that people can purchase the items online, have it shipped in a compressed box to easily move around tight corners and narrow hallways and even have it shipped fast. People spend one-third of their lives sleeping and Live and Sleep is focusing their efforts on creating a better night sleep. Their memory foam mattress is thoughtfully crafted to achieve the targeted “just right” medium firm feel while maximizing deep down body support.
They researched and tested over 20 different types of foams to finish with their own unique formula that achieves the “just right” feel of not too hard and not too soft. Don’t judge a book or mattress by its cover…there are many mattresses with pretty covers on them, but many are using low quality foam or innersprings on the inside that will breakdown fast. Live and Sleep uses only high quality ingredients that have been thoroughly tested and stands by their product with a 20 year warranty. They don’t use fancy mattress jargon to confuse people or sell through high markup retailers, they simply sell their memory foam mattress at a fair price. “Live and Sleep’s biggest challenge has been convincing people to try out our mattress sight unseen. People will find out more about our mattress online rather than going to a packed showroom and being pressured by a salesman trying to maximize his sales commissions,” said Daniel Paul, co-founder. “We saw an opportunity to improve the dreaded mattress buying experience through enhanced comfort and body support, remove the high-pressure sales tactics, and make it easy.”