Vacation my foot...

Some updates:

The House (Renovation)

Back into the hall bathroom to get it finished out. I’ve got the shower doors installed and that was a pain in the posterior. Seems the shower walls aren’t what we could consider to be totally plumb. It’s somewhat infuriating to get to the last step and find that somewhere along the line the wall is now off by about an eighth of an inch. Maybe I should tear it all back down and fix it. Nah…

Remember this?

Well it now looks like this.

I’ll get the vanity top on order this week but it probably won’t be in until after the first. I’m not in any massive hurry to complete this room as it doesn’t get used anyway. 

The kitchen is starting. It sort of feels like skateboarding down a hill, very slowly at first but will pick up speed and eventually it will become crazy until the finish. Fortunately it starts out simple enough with demolishing the breakfast nook area. I want to raise the ceiling and add recessed lights above where the table goes. About a third of the kitchen will shortly become a construction zone while I try to keep the rest somewhat clean and useable.

I'll take a bunch of before pics in the next day or two just so I can have a comparison at the end.

I’m still extremely undecided about floor tile, cabinets, countertops, appliances, etc. I’m starting to hear that granite countertops are getting to be kind of passé. They’ve been very popular for quite a while now so it wouldn’t surprise me too terribly much. I’ve been looking at some of this solid surface countertop material and I like the looks and the prices I’m seeing. This could be a good alternative.

The House (Un-Stuffing)

Did some more in the kitchen cabinets in the last week or so. I’ve now got two or three cabinets emptied out and I’m debating about whether or not to consolidate stuff to the east side of the kitchen and demo the west side. Maybe I can do at least some of the work in halves and still keep the kitchen somewhat functional.

I also went through the garage again. I put a huge dent into the amount of stuff out there but still have a long way to go. I can see now that I’m going to have to make at least one trip to the hazardous waste dump. There’s too much stuff that I can’t just throw into the garbage can (paint, solvents, etc.).

RV/Truck Search

Looking forward to the big RV show over in Tampa on January 16^th. It’s possible that this may be my last time of being a browser as there’s an outside chance that I could actually buy my unit next year. Lazy Day’s always has a huge presence at this show and they could have my 293RK on hand. I would LOVE to be able buy the one at the show. It would afford me the chance to great a really good deal on it. I already know what the regular AND sale prices are so if the sales person tries to feed me a line, I’ll know it immediately. Of course there’s no way that I’m going to let them know that I’ve been researching this particular model trailer for more than two years until AFTER the sale is inked.

I’ve also been researching the ins & outs of buying a used truck. I’m finding it helps out quite a bit to know exactly what you’re looking for instead of just being talked into just any truck. Going in without a plan will probably net you that lot-queen truck that they haven’t been able to sell to anyone else or one that their ‘used car lot mechanic’ has done extensive work on (shiver).

Two things I’ve learned so far is that it’s ok to have the truck thoroughly inspected by a third party before purchase and that a recent Carfax report is a requirement, not an option. I’m now studying what the normal mark-up is for a used truck. Seems it’s extremely subjective, so knowing the blue/black/red/green/yellow/pink/chartreuse/salmon book values helps out somewhat (NOT!). I love it when somebody starts talking ‘whatever-color’ book values. Those NADA books are almost completely useless.

Jumping Off

Spoke to a realtor agent the other night that lives up the street from me. She is the one that I was going to contact anyway once I got a little closer in date, but I figure it couldn’t hurt to introduce myself now. Anyway, she and her husband were walking their dog and we got to talking. I told them what I have in mind and what I’ve done so far and she’s worried that I may have already done too much. I asked her if they would like to take a look at where I’m at so far and possibly give some suggestions or direction after the holidays and they agreed.

She did mention that houses are selling unbelievably fast so when I’m about ready to put it on the market, be prepared for it to sell super-fast. Like within a month type fast. That would suit me just fine if that were to happen. She did say to NOT go crazy in the kitchen cost-wise.

On another front, I did spend a good bit of time polishing up the (what I call) push-out plan. I pushed the jump-off date out about 7 months and everything really started to gel much better. I still need to work on the 'changeover' which is the period of time when I basically trade the house for the truck & trailer.

One other thing that helps is that I'll get underway in the springtime instead of fall. The original plan was to head south from here down to the keys and extreme south Florida to spend the winter. While that sounds very nice and all, it's also rather expensive. So by leaving in the spring, I can head out of Florida and chase the winter west and north.

It remains to be seen the actual path I'll take as I'll be making it up as I go along. My researched plans end at the Florida/Alabama border. After that it's 'Any direction is a good one' type of thing. Maybe I'll just do a total diagonal across the U.S. from Florida all the way up to Seattle.

Maybe I'll make a board with a spinning arrow on it and compass directions around the edge. Then every so often I could spin the 'Arrow of Direction' to see which way I go.