Neat life hack. If you need more space, there is a tried and true solution. Simply declare the apartment next to yours as part of your people's historic homeland. Then proceed to occupy and annex half of your neighbor's apartment.
I'd probably put one of these in a spare bedroom if I had one, or at the very least next to a window in case I need to manage humidity on a short notice.
Sorry about the Google affiliate there. You can make a pretty good container garden on a south-facing balcony. I even had an ok setup on my north-east facing 5th floor balcony.
As far as buying a house goes, if you are in the US, I would wait. People are going to be underwater on their home soon and will be desperate to sell them...into a market that is saturated and few buyers with the cash to get one. Give it 2 or 3 years is my advice, and you'll be able to get a better home cheaper.
I bought my house last year, knowing full well that trump could win and would tank the market and make me underwater on my mortgage, but I don't really care since I don't see the home as an investment that needs to pay off, I just need to be able to afford it.
It is not a casual thing. It took every penny I had, and then some, and then even more from my fam. I'm extremely lucky to be in my own tiny house. Hopefully the market gets to the point where buying a house is an option for you.
Philosophically speaking, the difference between the "haves" and the "have nots" in my parents generation was having a college degree. I think for millennials the defining thing is going to be home ownership, which is why I stretched my budget very thin to get in one. Good luck.
It also feels, perhaps, respectful in a sense: a stranger mentions their small apartment and no one assumes it’s necessarily the same residence they’ll be in forever. Not that it matters either way… not to people who matter. (Obviously having a garden if you want one, more peace and quiet if the neighbors are loud, etc. is still going to be the ideal for any resident)
67.4% of all occupied housing units [are] occupied by the unit's owner
@Bytemeister@lemmy.world, did you realize the ownership situation of your housing unit matches the majority’s? I don’t know what I would’ve guessed, but definitely less or more than 67%.
How cold are your winter temps? I was looking at building a greenhouse that would connect my garage to my house, it would essentially give me another zone of hardiness for my plants and add a month or so to both ends of my potential growing season. Plus, being able to grow without needing pesticides and herbicides (or at least not nearly as much) is a huge boon on its own.
I'd see about a small stand-alone greenhouse for starters. The look like a rack covered in a clear tarp. Monitor the temps in that, and you can probably expect similar, if not slightly better performance out of a larger GH. That should give you an idea of what you can grow and when.