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. 

We will be sitting still

We have noticed that people cannot wrap their head around the fact that we bought an RV and we are going to live in it full time at a local RV park.  So I have developed a handy dandy FAQ post to answer the questions we keep getting.

A conversation typically starts like this:

Us:  We bought an RV and we are going to live in it full time.

1.  How are you going to transport it?

We are getting it delivered to the RV park and we are going to live there full time.

2.  But you don't have a truck, how will you move it?

We don't plan on moving it.  We are going to live full time at an RV park.

3.  Where is it parked now, at your house?

No, it's still at the dealership.  They are going to deliver it to the RV park and we are going to live there full time.

4.  What are you going to do with your home?

We rent, our lease will be up.

5.  But then where will you live?

In the RV.....full time.

6.  Where are you planning your first trip?

We aren't planning on traveling, we are going to live in the park full time.

7.  Are you going to homeschool?

Nope, we will be continuing to have our kids go to school here, because we are going to live full time in the RV park.

8.  What if you want to move it?

We will pay someone to move it for us.  We are confident that by living in an RV park we are going to make friends with trucks that will be willing to move it for us.

9.  But if you don't have a truck how do you plan on traveling?

Not going to travel right now....remember...RV park, full time.

10.  How cool, you can just go on vacation whenever you want.

I wish, but we still have kids in school, jobs and traveling isn't our goal right now.

11.  If you aren't going to travel, why are you going to live in an RV?

Because we want to.  

12.  How will you cook?

It has a small but really nice kitchen.

13.  You are going to get tired of each other being stuck in there all the time.

We really like each other, we enjoy hanging out together, and we actually won't be in it 24/7.  We all have jobs or school to attend.

14.  Where are you going to put all your stuff?

That's the point...we plan to sell most everything.

15.  When are you going to buy a truck?

Maybe never, again no plans to travel right now.....RV park....full time.

16.  What if you change your mind. 

Then we will buy a truck.

17.  Don't you have to have a truck if you have an RV?

Not if you aren't going to travel with it.

18.  So where did you say you were going to visit first?

At this point I just smile and walk away :)

Learning About Estate Sales

Ever since I signed on the dotted line for the RV I have been on a mini roller coaster of emotions. Like the kiddie ride kind, not the Texas Giant kind.  Some days I'm so excited and I want to move in right now.  We own it, let's go live in it.  Then other days I look at something I am going to have to sell and think...what am I doing?  I love my vacuum cleaner.

Isn't she beautiful.  

We have decided to sell everything via an estate sale.  Yes, I could dedicate my life for the next month and a half to sorting, posting, craigslisting, garage selling everything myself.  But I have things to do.  Like find office space for my counseling practice, sort through things I want to keep, celebrate some major holidays...and oh yeah...work for a living.  So we decided the cost of hiring the selling of our stuff out was going to be worth it.

See...that's me and like most people, I have a lot going on.

I have learned much in the last week about Estate Sales.  Not near enough I'm sure, but I'm much more educated on the process than I was a week ago.  I've learned things like:

1.  There are many ways to take advantage of the customer in this business.  When you break it down, I'm inviting complete strangers into my home, they are going to sort all my stuff, they get to price it themselves, they will then sell it all and then they will inform me of the total and how much I get after their take.  Plenty of room for dishonesty.  And I understand that I do not have nice stuff, I will not be making a ton of money.  But this is all I have, I would like it to be taken care of in the best way possible.

2.  Even though you don't own really cool antiques, you can have an estate sale.  I expected the companies to come in and laugh at my stuff.  Nope...they tell me even half used bottles of shampoo will sell.  Who knew?

Sadly this is not my house...look at the goldmine they have sitting there...cha-ching!!

3.  Some companies are much snootier than others.  My house is messy.  (One of the main reasons I'm downsizing...keeping a big house clean is not on my priority list.)  You can walk through it without tripping in most places.  I tried to clean up the cat puke off the floor before they came...you know, the basics.  Some companies have smiled, told me to just move out and leave everything messy...they will take care of it for us.  Some have looked around and wrinkled their nose, apparently irritated that they had to step over the pots in the hallway that catch the rain because our landlord won't fix the roof.  Guess who is going to get our business.

"Dahling...your stuff is not worthy of my services."

I actually like this print...I need to research who drew it.

One of the reasons I have so much stuff is because I can always find an excuse to keep it.  "I got that cooler when I worked as a lifeguard at age 16, I've kept it this long, it would be a shame to throw it out."  "You never know when you are going to need purple fabric with orange flowers on it."  "What if someone wets the bed...then I will be glad I have 3 extra sets of sheets in every size on hand."  

It's much easier for me to part with something when I know that it's going to someone who can use it or I can sell it.  So an estate sale is the perfect solution for me.  Everything is going to have a chance to be sold.  And then a donation truck is going to stop by and pick up the leftovers.  I don't even have to throw away a perfectly good half bottle of shampoo I tried and hated.  How awesome is that!!

What I'm going to miss

I'm expecting to miss some parts of living in a house.  I wanted to post about them so I could look back in 6 months and see how accurate or off I was.

Here is what I expect I will miss in no particular order:

1.  My washer and dryer.  I have always wanted a nice set and we got them this past January when we moved into this house.  The RV has room for a washer/dryer combo until that can hold about 3 pairs of socks.  Hopefully washing clothes at the laundry mat isn't too awful.  I'm going to miss being able to "iron" Ryan's clothes in the dryer every morning.

2.  Parking my car in the garage.  Ever since the hail storm in 2011 that demolished both of our cars I have wanted to keep my car safe in the garage.  Plus it's a bonus on cold days like today.

3.  The ice and water in the fridge.  Our fridge will be much smaller.  That I can deal with, but I'm going to miss having ice and water pop out of the front of the fridge at my convenience.  

4.  The garbage disposal.  I can't remember the last time I didn't have one of these.  I wonder how many times I'm going to accidentally put something down the drain that I'm not supposed to.  

That is all I can come up with right now.  Here are some things I won't miss:

1.  My huge rent payment.

2.  Taking care of and storing stuff that I don't need or want.

3.  $300+ electric bills

4.  The impossible task of getting the entire house cleaned at one time.

5.  The feeling that every time I sit down I should be doing something to upkeep the house instead.

6.  Yard work

7.  That feeling that I should decorate my house super cute, but don't have the budget or drive to do so.

8.  The stress of how am I going to pay my bills when my client load is down this month.

9.  Having to go upstairs 6 times in the morning to be sure the kids are awake.

10.  Having to yell up to the kids when dinner is ready.  

I'm sure there are more for both lists.  But it's a good start I think.  What do you think you would miss most if you drastically downsized?

Where are we now?

So here is a quick snapshot of our thought process over the last two months.  

We really wanted that park home.  We checked out the local RV parks.  They vehemently let us know that we could not put a park home in an RV park.  Something about the size, the fact that it doesn't have RV hookups, etc.  But they own the park, they get to set the rules...even if I don't like it.

We looked at buying land to put one on.  We found that the local ordinances will not allow us to do that.  We live in suburbia...we cannot be putting such rubbish on our property :)  

(Hideous isn't it) :P

We forgot about it for a while when we got busy with life.

We thought about moving to an apartment instead.  After visiting several complexes we have learned that after renting an apartment capable of housing the 4 of us and finding me an office we will be spending the same or more money each month.  Unless we moved into the one complex that looked like drug deals were going on all over the place.  I'm not willing to go there.

We briefly considered living in a mobile home park.  When I really thought about the environment of a mobile home park versus an RV park I suddenly realized that I would enjoy the atmosphere of an RV park more.  I think we would get to meet interesting people and learn about living on the road in an RV which is our eventual goal.  

We started thinking outside the box.  How could we make an RV work?  As I started looking at floor plans I got to thinking how this could be possible.  We came up with an idea and talked to the kids about it.  They were of course a little hesitant, but did not object.  We found something that looked like it would work.  

So we went to check this particular RV out.  It didn't feel right in my gut, but we put down a deposit.  It fit all our needs, I just thought I was needing to look around more because that is how I function.  I need to feel like I have done my homework.  

A couple days later we went to check out the exact same model of RV, it was just a lot less expensive.  It was too beat up for our needs.  But....they had new models on the lot and we found the perfect one.  And this one felt much better to my gut.  A day later and we now own (or the bank owns for us) an RV.  The process was scarily easy to complete.

So now...all we have to do is decide what we are going to keep, sell all our stuff, figure out which RV park we want to live in and find an office for me.  By the beginning of January.  Not to mention keep on working and doing all the usual holiday stuff.  It's exciting, scary and overwhelming at once.

What Does Our Tiny House Look Like?

We know we want to move into something much smaller, but what does it look like?  Is it on wheels or permanent?  Do we build it ourselves or buy it finished?  There are so many options out there, I didn't even know which way I wanted to direct my energy.

So we spent a lot of time looking at different options over Labor Day weekend.  First we started out looking at RV's.  We discovered that there are a lot of cool RV's out there, some are really nice and don't cost a ton.  But do I want to live in an RV with two kids?  None of them were suited to our needs exactly.  We were drawn to the fifth wheeler toy haulers.  They all had a room at the back for "toys", but also had beds and couches that lifted up into the ceiling.  They also often had a powder room back there as well.  With some carpet and maybe paint on the walls, it would make a cute bedroom for one kid.  But not for our two.

While out looking at RV's we came across a place that was selling Park Homes.  Homes that looked more like tiny homes, but classified as RV's.  They had two on the lot, both were awesome, but had one bedroom and a loft.  Again, not enough rooms for our two kids.  But we got some information there and found out there were more homes to be toured about an hour away.

 

I think this home is super cute, I love the front porch.  And the other home had a big back porch that was screened in.  And it was affordable, just didn't have enough bedrooms.  These are Athens Park Homes.

The next day we decided to head out to look at the other homes we could walk through.  They were Leland Cabins and instead of being built on wheels and classified as RV's they were built on skids.  I don't know what they were classified as.  We toured a bunch of them and just did not like them.  But they had some super cute playhouses.  I would have loved one of these as a kid.  They had cute little dutch doors and lofts inside. I could just hug it, it is so cute!!

We left there disappointed, but I got back on the web and as I was looking around I discovered a place that had a bunch of the Athen's Park Homes on display.  And they had some with two bedrooms and a loft.  I could make that work, give my youngest the loft until my teenager leaves for college.  Then she could have bedroom and the loft could become our tv/hang out room.

We toured these homes the next day and I found my new home.  It's 399 square feet plus the loft.  I would want to make some small changes to it, but it will work.

Now all I have to do is find a place to park it.  Oh and convince a bank to give me a loan for it.  No problem right?  Anyone have any ideas?