Getting a tiny bit closer

There weren't a whole lot of things to talk about, so that’s why I haven’t updated in a while. Just sort of been 'nose to the grindstone' sort of thing. I did hit a period in there where I started considering just selling the house ‘as-is’ and let someone else deal with this boat (RV?) anchor. I’m just getting itchy to get the house finished and get the next chapter of life started.

Then I hit a stretch where I started thinking that maybe keeping the house might be the right idea. That way I would have a landing zone if or whenever I get my bellyful of being on the road. Luckily that thought only lasted about 5 seconds.

House (the renovation)

The crashing, thrashing, bashing, smashing, and hashing are still going on. I finally do have progress to show for it though! I was able to move back into my bedroom & bathroom right after Christmas. It was VERY much like moving into a new house, albeit just two rooms of a new house.

There’s been lots of tweaking/adjusting and I decided to get all new stuff for the bathroom and mostly new stuff for the bedroom. I figured I may as well make this a complete new start from day one. Besides, I just couldn't bring myself to put beige towels into a bathroom that has a blue/white theme. Yuck. Well, that and I’m on a ‘no-beige’ kick right now. Sort of a beige = boring type of thing.

Currently I’m just finishing up the back bedroom right now (the one I moved out of). It was totally stripped out and started over. Not a huge surprise that I’m finding picking out colors to paint walls to be really difficult. Most of you know that I have absolutely zero, zip, nil, nada artistic ability. I can’t even say that classic line of, ‘I don’t know much about art, but I do know what I like’. I don’t even know what I like. So far I have been able to steal ideas from magazines and such. Hopefully that can continue.

Jess’s room is next and it will be the last of the easy rooms to do. After that it will be the hall bathroom, living/dining room, and then the big kitchen gut-out. Somehow I’m really not looking forward to the kitchen. It’s going to be a huge mess.

I did finally have to relax my schedule for renovations quite a bit. I had it so tight that it was unworkable and I was turning into a hermit trying to stay on track. Relaxing the schedule helps in a couple other ways also. It takes a good bit of pressure off my budget as things are now more spread out. It also allows me to take days off to go do fun things like go fly my kites and work on my body surfing skills at the beach. I’m trying to get my fill of beach days because after I jump off, it could be a very long time before I see the beach (or at least this beach) again.

House (Un-Stuffing)

I’m essentially down to three rooms that haven’t been emptied out yet, Jess’s room, the family room and kitchen. I've done some small stuff in those rooms, but haven’t really tackled them in full force yet. The biggest problem is that the stuff that was easy to decide about is already gone. I’m down now to stuff that has a history or some personal attachment. I’m holding firm to not having a storage unit when I leave. Only going to get tougher from here on out.

One of the things that I’m going to REALLY hate to dispose of will be the ‘entertainment center’ that Rick and I built all those years ago. That thing has survived 2 or 3 ‘re-configurations’ and even once or twice being taken to the curb, only to be given a reprieve. I know it has totally zero re-sale value, but it has a massive amount of sentimental value.

RV Search

I am making excellent progress in this area. I went to the Tampa RV Super Show a few weekends ago. Wow, it was huge! I went in knowing that I wanted a 5^th wheel trailer, so I pretty much didn't look at any other types. I spent the entire day there and went through probably the bulk of the 5^th wheel units, but may have missed a few. Probably not a big problem as they all started to look the same after a while. In fact, they all looked almost identical. The floor plans were amazingly identical between manufacturers. The biggest variable is exactly where they put the couch/lazy boy/TV in the rear of the units. I did however find one that I just fell in love with. Here's some pictures I took.

I really like the rear kitchen floor-plan. It lends to far more storage space than the mid-ship galley plans.

I also noticed in most units that for whatever reason when the range/oven is located in a slide-out, it made the range-top height lower than when it is mounted on the hard floor. Don’t have any idea why that is, but it would annoy the stink out of me.

If I was a little further along with the schedule I would have very seriously considered going forward with purchasing it. It pretty much fits every requirement on my list. There are a couple of very minor things about it that I don’t like, but none that would be deal breakers.

It’s not the huge 40-something foot type of unit that I was originally looking at. I’m hearing that a lot of state & national parks are starting to draw the line on RV sizes. Plus, I’m going to be doing a lot of boondocking (dry-camping) so a big monster trailer just doesn't fit very well for weight and maneuverability.

Today I went to the Jacksonville RV show and the Central Florida RV show. Like to froze my backside off, as it was cold, windy, and raining. I did find a 5'er that I fell in love with. It's a LOT bigger than I was looking for but the floor-plan would be perfect. The factory rep was there and she & I spent the better part of an hour talking about all sorts of things. I even got her to agree to some wall changes that I want. Of course the poor sales guy was having kittens during this whole conversation, but I didn't care. Of course, I completely forgot to take pictures. I'll post some of the factory stuff in my next post.

While I was at the Tampa RV show I did stop and talk at great length with the folks that handle the work-campers for Yellowstone National Park out west and how it all works. It sounds like it would be a really good fit for me as I would only have to work for part of the year and have the rest of the year to travel. I had previously researched the contract company that runs about half of the operations at Yellowstone so I kind of already knew how it works. This will need additional research.

I also talked to the people representing the work-camper force that work seasonally at various Amazon locations around the country. While it sounds like some very good money could be made there, it also sounds like they basically own your ass while you’re there and the job would require me to be on my feet all day long and working 6 or 7 days a week for the season. Good money, but an all-in short-term commitment.

So that’s where things are at the moment. Certainly not glamorous but I am finding that I like getting rid of stuff that was weighing me down. Now when I go to a store I've always got the thought in the back of my mind of do I really need this thing and what am I going to do with it when it comes time to leave? Is this just going to become yet one more thing I have to get rid of? Is it really a ‘need’ or just a ‘want’? I’m finding that a pretty good acid test is to not buy it right then. I wait a few days and re-assess and if the need is still there then evaluate it at that time. Sure does cut down on the amount of junk I buy.

Next post I’ll throw up some pictures of the renovations so far. Of course that means that I will have to make the bed and pick up my dirty clothes. On second thought, maybe I won’t post pictures.

Sorry, this post got long. Didn't mean to do that.