Six months in

We have lived in our RV for over six months now.  I figured I would give you an update on the good, the bad and the ugly.  So far we are really happy with our decision.  There have been little bumps and knowing what I know now I might have chosen a different trailer, but maybe not. 

The Good:

-I got to quit a job I hated!!

-When I decide to clean the house, it takes us only about 20 minutes to get it looking good.

-It's harder to lose stuff...things can only be in so many places so I spend a lot less time looking for things I have lost.

-We spend more time hanging out together.  When you only have one living area, people can't hide in other areas of the house.

-It's been awesome having a pool to jump in whenever we want...and we don't have to clean it.

-We work with each other better.   For example, only one person can be in the kitchen at a time, so we have to ask that person for help if we need something in the kitchen at that time.  We all understand that the space is small so no one minds helping each other out.

-There aren't a lot of chores to do.

-We are always making new friends.

-Adult time still happens ;)

The Bad:

-It's a little hard to keep it cool during the day...but we are now pretty comfy at 83 degrees.  If it gets down to 77 we are all cold.

-There isn't a good place to run and ride my bike without driving somewhere.  I miss running and riding out my door.

-Ice....I miss having an endless supply of ice.  We buy bags of ice, but I do miss my ice maker. 

-The air conditioners are loud...which helps with adult time  (wink, wink)...but gets annoying sometimes.

-Our electric bill is almost as high as when we were in the house.  This is due to the park charging a ridiculous amount for electricity...but I was really hoping for super cheap electricity.  But we don't pay for water so there is a savings for sure.

-I get bored sometimes because there isn't much housework I have to do.  

The Ugly:

-I don't have anything for here...except I look forward to when my view isn't the next trailer over...maybe a lake or an ocean or something. 

Overall I think we have grown closer as a family.  We have developed a rhythm to our day and so it doesn't feel awkward like it did at first.  And most of the bad is due to where we are parked, not the RV itself.  I look forward to being able to travel instead of staying in one place all the time. 

It's funny now when I go to someone's house and their entry way is almost as big as our entire house.  It feels weird.  Everything is relative.  Our trailer is one of the bigger ones in the park and most people remark about how it is too big.  Even for families with kids.  We are seriously considering downsizing once our son graduates next year.  Maybe someday Ken and I will be able to live in a 100 square foot tiny house. 

Building a patio

Our RV resides in a cute little RV resort.  It's older and not high end, but the people are friendly and we have what we need here.  The one thing that is lacking is grass.  There is some grass, but there is a lot of mud.  And it seems like it has rained non-stop since we moved in.  The resort gave us some asphalt gravel to give us a driveway instead of a mudway, but it was still muddy outside our door and the path to the car.  In addition I wanted a place to sit outside that was above the mud.  The rules at the resort state we can build a patio as long as it is low to the ground and not permanent.  So we did just that, and it was low cost too...bonus!! 

Now I fully understand that this post is common sense and not really needed, but I wanted to document it for myself...so if you get bored reading it I will never know ;)

Here is what we started with.  Just some ground.  We thought about leveling it first, but decided against that partly because we didn't feel like it and partly because we figured with the mud everything would kind of sink in and level itself.  I actually forgot to take a before picture, but you get the idea of what we were working with. 

First we obtained 6 pallets.  That was the hardest part of the whole project and what held it up until now.  Luckily I remembered that a friend had access to pallets and not only did she save me 6 of them, her husband brought them home with him so we didn't have to travel as far to get them.  Otherwise I might have gone dumpster diving in search of pallets.  Once we got the pallets home, the rest of the project just took a couple hours.  Seriously...that Saturday we managed to go pick up the pallets and the supplies (2 hours+ round trip), start the project, take our daughter to a Girl Scout outing(hour round trip), continue working on the project, go pick her up from the outing(another hour round trip), go run a 5k race (about 4 hours of our time), come back and finish it all up before dropping into bed with exhaustion.

First we arranged the pallets into the size we wanted.  For us it was a simple 2 x 3 design.  This is what fit in the area and was perfect to fit under our awning.  Then we put plywood, that we had gotten cut at Home Depot to size when we bought it, on top of the pallets.  We had to use 3 pieces and we were going to make the patio into 3 separate pieces, but we decided it wouldn't be as stable.  So we purposely cut the plywood to be wider than the pallets so it overlapped.  Then we screwed down the plywood all the way around the edges and a few in the center.  By the way...when I say we, I really mean my husband.  I just stood around and looked helpful.

Next we painted it.  (This is the part I actually did.)  We got a quart of outdoor oops paint at Home Depot for $2.00.  The color didn't matter to us because it was going to be covered.  Ours was kind of a deep purple.  We purposely bought the lowest end plywood and painted it to help it from warping.  Since this isn't a permanent structure we figure the paint will help the cheap plywood from warping as fast.  After we painted it I was halfway tempted to keep it like that and paint pretty designs on it, but I moved on.  (And by moved on I mean, my husband said no to the deep purple with flower designs on it :)

Finally we bought outdoor carpet and screwed it down with washers.  This ensures it won't blow away or slip.  We had extra so we were able to wrap it around the edges to kind of give the patio a finished look.  Well as finished as a temporary low cost patio can look. 

Cost was about $40 for carpet, $22 for plywood, $2 for paint and $10 for screws and washers.  For around $75 we had a patio that feels so much homier than just sitting outside in the mud.  We picked up some chairs and a glider inexpensively and tada...we now have another space to hang out.  I especially love it at night when the awning is out and lit up.  It feels cozy and vacationy.  (I know that isn't a word, but that is how it feels :)  And now we can walk from the car to the house without stomping through mud.  It's the little things.

Space saving techniques

Because we have limited space, we have to be creative with how we use this space.  It's important to me to have the things I need, but to fit them in the space we have.  Here are some things we have done so far to best use our tiny bits of space.

We bought this really cool set of pots and pans.  It has 3 pots, a soup pot, a frying pan and two lids that fit everything.  It fits into less than a cubic foot of square space.  The handles are removable and they are nice heavy duty pots and pans.  Instead of taking up an entire cabinet, my pots and pans now take up a very tiny bit of space.  Best pot and pan set I have ever had...love this...I wish I would have had this for years even when I had more space.

Here is all our dishes.  Everything we eat off of fits in this little cubby.  We have plates, cups, bowls and even little bowls for dipping sauces and it all fits right here.  And if Ken and I gave up our favorite ceramic bowls with handles it would fit even better.  But we like them too much. 

A few months before we moved we bought these cheap plates for everyone.  I used nail polish to put names on the back.  You could only use your stuff and if it was dirty come meal time you could wash it or starve.  It took about 3 days to get everyone in the groove of washing their own dishes right after a meal.  The nail polish has chipped off the backs, but now everyone is used to washing as they finish so it's not been an issue.  The same goes for silverware.  The drawer is set up by person, not by utensil.  There is no need for extra utensils, but we do have a set in the back in case we have guests.

Here is our command center.  This is where the love seat was.  That got ditched right away because this was more important to us.  It's still a work in progress, but a ton is stored in this little bit of space.  The next goal is to get everyone's computers changed to laptops.  This will create a lot more space and flexibility.

One of the chairs is a charcoal storage box that we use to store cat food.  Right now her cushion is a blanket, but when I have time I am going to make her an actual cushion.  I didn't have a place to store the cat food bin and people started sitting on it before we got folding chairs...so it was decided it would do double duty permanently.

Extra toiletries are stored outside in these bins.  We figured it doesn't matter if toilet paper and razors experience freezing or boiling hot temps.  This way we can still stock up at Costco.

When it gets warmer consistently we are going to make a cute patio area outside the door here instead of broken stepping stones and an empty bird feeder.  Currently we are rocking the trailer trash look :)

We even found flat hangars at Ikea.  This way we can fit more clothing in our closet.  It's all about the little things.

Before we moved we took all our DVD's and computer games and threw away the boxes.  We put them in paper sleeves and now store them in these two black boxes (in alphabetical order of course).  This saves us many shelves of space.  

I feel like I haven't had to give up anything important.  I have everything I need, just a little more compactly. Although I am constantly on the lookout for better ways to store stuff. 

Now I need to go do a deep clean of the RV...I will be back to writing again in about 10 minutes :)

Three weeks in

We have been living in the RV for three weeks now.  It already seems like home and it feels bigger every day.  We have had a steep learning curve as we moved in during a really cold snap, and if we could do it wrong we did.  Things like:

Running out of propane in the middle of the night.  It had gotten down to 18 degrees so I panicked.  I was sure we were all going to become human popcicles.  Luckily my husband was able to switch to the other tank and all was well.  And if it really was that bad we could have gone to the clubhouse to warm up. 

Same night the water hose froze.  We hadn't had time to insulate it yet.  It is now well insulated and hasn't frozen since.

The gray water tank backed up.  We thought we had the gray water tank open.  Apparently not, now we do.  Then we learned (the hard way) that we have two gray water tanks and they can both be kept open because they run out the same line.  Thankfully we learned all this with gray water, not black.  (For those of you not in the know of all the cool RV lingo...gray water equals sinks and shower, black water equals toilets.)

We are getting better at all this now.  It's not rocket science, just different from living in a house.

It's amazing to me how less than 400 square feet is feeling more than big enough to us now.  We all have enough space.  We have more than enough stuff.  We do more for each other as it's easier to just help someone out than get out of their way.  We are getting along as good or better than when we were in a house.  I can honestly imagine living this way for a long time, if not forever.

We are (technically) moved in

Here is a quick rundown of how picking up the RV went.  

We got up super early on my birthday to go to Dallas and learn how to use our new home.  It was so cold, but we got to learn all the ins and outs of setting it up, taking care of poop, keeping it warm and cool etc.  Plus I got to see how the sweet patio works.  The picture is a bit blurry, but that's how I seem to roll when I take pictures.

We spent about 3 hours in training and we were ready to go.  Except the person who was to drive this thing to the campground for us was driving RV's to the Forth Worth RV show.  We waited and waited and finally decided to go home with promises from our sales guy to keep us updated.  Three hours later I called and he was still, "working on it".  Finally got my husband to call and found out we wouldn't get it until morning.  I was crushed...I know in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't matter, but I was ready to start moving in.  

Finally the next morning it got there bright and early.  But they had forgotten to bring the power cord.  Luckily the heat does not need electricity and so we started moving stuff in.  By the time we went and got our second load the power cord was there and we were in business.

We did a total of 3 van loads and 2 car loads of stuff.  And my dream of putting away stuff as we unloaded it from the car vanished.  It got thrown in and we did our best.  What is that game called where you have to get the car out of the puzzle.  You move the pieces around in order to make room for the car to exit.  That is what the RV is right now.  A giant puzzle.  Every time we want to do something, we have to move 6 things and hope to not get distracted before we actually do the original task.

I took these pictures after one or two loads of stuff.  It's worse now.  I kinda freaked out last night, wondering what I had gotten myself into.  I know it always stinks when you first move in to a place because you can't find anything.  This is just a bit more complicated by the fact that it is so tiny.  But my daughter is all moved in and set up.  My 16 year old son told me he really liked it this morning.  And if you know him, that is huge.  He will love something and never let you know.  Chaos doesn't affect him much.  My daughter is not happy right now, but she hates chaos and I expect it will get better for both of us once we can move about properly.  And on that note...I am going to continue unpacking.

I have so much stuff

Monday is the day...the day we get our new digs.  It's my birthday too.  So this year I get the best birthday present ever.  We are so excited, nervous, stressed, and a million other emotions all balled up together.  We went and showed our oldest daughter the RV last week and just sat in there...soaking it all in.  We are really going to do this.

As we sort through our things we are finding it easier and easier to leave stuff behind.  I've loved experiencing the process of letting go.  When I start with 100 things, I think I need to keep at least 50 of them.  When I look at the 50 I see another 25 I can get rid of.  Then I look at that 25 and realize that I was holding onto an extra 15 that I didn't need.  So then I am down to 10 and it might get even less than that after a bit.  And it's really cool to see my children go through the same process.  I love that I am teaching them that all this stuff isn't important.  It will be interesting when they are grown up to see if they accumulate tons of stuff because of this process or if they realize they like living with less. 

I'm amazed at the stuff I have felt like I needed to keep all these years and I have moved it, stored it and moved it again.  How much money has keeping all this stuff cost me...never mind the effort to move it and find a place to store it.  Here are some items I have felt the need to keep all these years:

1.  A box of stuffed animals from my childhood.  Including a giant bear with a missing eye.  I couldn't even find the box to take a picture of it.  That's how buried and apparently important to me it is.  I can remember that bear vividly and even remember his name.  Which sounds like no big deal until you hear his name.  It's Christopher Thomas Robert Alexander Roger Ferguson Porter.  Somehow I can remember the ridiculously long name of my childhood toy, but not of the person I just met yesterday.   But the fact is, the bear is burned into my memory.  I don't need the actual bear.  If I find it I will take a picture of it.  If not, I have my memories.

2.  A bin of old baby clothes.  Most of which I barely remember which child wore them.  I went through it and found 3 items that my grandmother made and I wanted to keep for future grandchildren pictures.  Seriously though, why was I keeping a bunch of stained old clothes?  Like my children are going to be all...oh I wore that and it's all stained, I would love my child to wear that.  Um...no.

3.  While we are on the subject of clothes...let's view this lovely box. Can you read what it says....Jen's smaller clothes.  So I have been hauling around a box of clothes that are too small for me in the hopes I will lost weight.  Because that is exactly what I want as a reward for the hard work of losing a million pounds.  A box of old out of date clothing. 

4.  I've had this big bin of keepsakes for the last 25 years.  It's got stuff like an old jewelry box, a wooden doll that has no meaning to me, a sea shell my grandma bought for me.  Stuff that really doesn't mean anything and keeping it doesn't make me a better person.  This box was full and heavy.  I sorted out what I want to take pictures of or scan.  I threw away most of the stuff and here is what is left.  I would have thrown this stuff away too, but my estate sale person said to save everything.  Okay...I'm sure someone wants that sea shell and that shelf I made in 7th grade woodworking class has got to be worth at least a couple hundred dollars.  I mean....the great Jennifer Smith made it...maybe I should sign it.   :P

5.  I have a shelf full of first aid supplies.  You can't see half of what I have in there.  So if you are over to my house and your leg gets sawed off...I have the supplies needed.  Of course it's probably 20 years old because no one ever had their leg sawed off at my house before....but I'm ready!!

6.  And this is the best...a trampoline that hasn't been used in who knows how long.  It's currently storage for the lounge chairs we barely use...and the hose we don't use to keep it out of the way when my husband mows the lawn.  Such an efficient storage plan.

The best part of all this is helping each other out.  I was going to save a hat my son wore and my daughter looked at me and said...it's a denim hat...what do you need it for.  She was right.  My husband wanted to save our ladder...I said, we live in an RV...what do we need a ladder for...his response was, what if we wanted to hang something up in the tree?  He got the stink eye from me.  It really is easier to get rid of other people's stuff than your own. 

The Grand Tour

I am supposed to be creating Christmas cards, but instead I found pictures online of an RV that is identical to ours and thought I would give the grand tour for anyone interested.  So if you don't get a Christmas card from us you can just read this blog post and know we love you :)

We will start with a lovely picture of the outside.  Not quite sure why RV's have to be so hideous looking, but it seems to be a requirement.  I'm guessing having all those lovely swirls of gold mean something to someone.  I would prefer a cool ocean scene myself.  Or maybe a forest so I could blend in.  Although to blend in I might need to paint it with pictures of other hideous looking RV's.  Kind of an RV inception.

Luckily, that is where the hideousness ends.  Up to a few years ago, the interiors of RV's also had to be hideous.  But thankfully someone somewhere said..."you know what, there might be people out there that would prefer their couches to be all one color, not some giant floral pattern which matches the curtains which matches the wallpaper."

So as you walk in the front door, here is the main living area.

Not too bad looking.  Quite honestly, it's the nicest furniture I have ever owned.  You can see in the top of the picture the loft where my little girl will sleep.  It's big enough for two small children.  We will make it a sweet hideaway with a comfy bed, book shelves, electronics charging station and even room for a stuffed animal or two.  

Here is a closeup of the kitchen.  Yeah, super small.  The fridge is decent.  The oven is miniscule.  We figure we have enough storage for kitchen stuff or food...not both :)  Here is where our creativity will kick in.  We are already making plans for how to continue baking our super yummy chocolate chip cookies.  

Here is another view of the long couch.  Each section is a recliner.  The holes in the floor are for tables.  We haven't decided if the tables will stay up, stay down, or where exactly we will eat, but again...this is a fun puzzle for us to figure out.  You can see the loft again.  It has a curtain that closes it all off if she would like some privacy.

This is the other side of the living area.  We plan on taking out that loveseat and putting it in my new office.  In that space we will put a desk for our computers.  The TV is 50" which makes me laugh.  Why would someone need a 50" inch TV in this small of a space?  In fact the RV comes with 3 TV's.  And we really don't watch hardly any TV.  I'm hoping I can scan all my pictures and use the TV as a huge picture frame.  And yes, that is a fireplace underneath it.  I can't wait to use it.

This is the back garage area.  Officially it's for hauling your 4 wheelers and such.  For us it's a kid's area.  As you can see there is a bed and couches which go up and down electrically.  This area will be my son's.  During the day the bed can be raised to the ceiling.  We will probably take out one or both of the couches and put in a desk.  We will carpet the whole area to make it feel like a bedroom, not like he has been relegated to the garage.  See that stuff on the back door, that folds down to be a super cool patio.  The couches can form into a bed or a table can be put in the holes in the floor to be an eating area.  And he even has his own door if he wants to sneak out at night when we are asleep.  We are going to put up a curtain and make the front few feet of the garage a play area for our youngest.  That way she has a place to play other than the loft area.  I will take pics when it is all done.  I sincerely hope it looks as awesome in person as it does in my head.

This is taken from the garage looking back inside.  You can see TV number 2, storage and the door leads to a half-bath.

A teeny tiny half bath.  It was important to us that the RV have 2 toilets.  This will work perfectly.

This is taken from the sliding glass door towards the front.  You can see the stairs up to the main bathroom and master bedroom.

This is the main bathroom.  The shower is bigger than I have right now.  There is a decent amount of storage, we will just have to plan out our shower schedule a bit more carefully than we do now.

And here is the master bedroom.  It's small, hardly bigger than the bed.  You have to sit on the bed to get to the closet and if we get a washer/dryer it will go in the vented closet.  We chose one with a small bedroom on purpose.  We figured it was more important to have a larger living area than a larger bedroom.  I do wish there were cabinets above the bed and we will have to figure out how to make small little shelves since we have no bedside tables.

This is the other side of the bedroom.  To the right of the vented closet you can see a small cabinet.  This opens and a 3rd TV slides out.  Seriously...why so many TV's?

For those of you who need a floor plan to fully visualize our home.  Because it is so complicated :)

So what do you think?   I'm in love and cannot wait to move in.