New Contender?

Hmm… Seems I’m not doing very well with updates lately. Yeah well, so while it’s obviously my fault, I do have a pretty good excuse. I’m saving every possible penny getting ready for the kitchen explosion. So not too terribly much is going on to report about.

House Renovation

I guess the biggest project right now is re-painting the exterior trim on the house. The last several trips to HD I picked up a fistful of those color sample cards trying to decide what color to do the trim. I looked at everything from super dark to colors that were border-line cartoonish. Hopefully by this point in the blog I don’t need to remind you that I have zero artistic ability, so I couldn’t make a decision to save my life.

So then I started thinking about the idea of just painting the trim the same dark blue/gray color. The advantages would be that it would be easy to not worry about missed spots, bleed through, and the biggest being that I wouldn’t have to mess with the HOA getting a new color approved. Just what I would have needed, some old blue-haired lady on the board having a hissy fit that the color I picked out didn‘t complement the color of her Chihuahua’s fur or some such BS like that.

The only problem with this idea was that the trim paint had been purchased at a local paint store like ten or fifteen years ago and I wasn’t holding much hope that they could reproduce it again. But, I figured what the heck, can’t hurt to ask. So off I toddled last Saturday and the guy reassured me that they still had the formula and it would match perfectly. Of course the cynic in me immediately thought that I’ll believe it when I see it.

Turns out I was very happily wrong, it matched perfectly. So with no further procrastination I started right in! By Saturday afternoon I had almost all the faux tile along the front done. Sunday I got up early and got right to it and got almost the whole front of the house completed. I had to knock off early or I would have gotten the front finished. This weekend I’ll finish the front and start on the south side. I’d like to get the whole house done before it gets too brutally hot in the next month or two.

I am toying with the idea of canceling some of the exterior projects for the sake of cost. I think I’ll get to the point after the kitchen where my return on investment will quickly start dropping. So I’m thinking to just do some new sod and some mulch and call it done. Have to think about this some more.

RV Search

Just when I thought I was going to shut down the RV search for the summer, I ran across a blurb on one of the RV manufacturer websites that they are coming out with a sort of unscheduled new floorplan for their luxury line of fifth wheel trailers. They didn’t specify why they were doing this but sure enough the new floorplan showed up about two weeks later. It was very out of season for a new model. The reason I was so interested is that the new model is a rear kitchen plan which I like a lot. Well, this one looks very interesting and there are lots of things I like about it.

Things I like about it better than the 293RK:

• -          Far better kitchen layout and more counter space
• -          Kitchen storage is more centralized
• -          Fridge and dry sink are against the back wall
• -          Bathroom is a bit larger and better laid out
• -          Comes standard with two A/C units
• -          Better cold weather rating
• -          About 85% of the floors are not carpeted (hate carpeting)
• -          The stove/oven is in a slide which I normally hate, but it looks to be elevated a bit
• -          Pantry is accessible when slides are in

Things I don’t like about it:

• -          There’s a funky sort of lounger thing connected to the couch that I absolutely hate and would want replaced with a desk. I’ve already contacted the manufacturer to see if this is possible
• -          The washer/dryer space is in the same spot as some lovely sliding drawers in the master closet. I’d have to delete the drawers to get the W/D and I’m not sure if it would be worth it
• -          It’s longer than the 293RK (but that equates to more interior spaces, so it’s a love/hate thing)
• -          Significantly more expensive (but it does have far more/better features)
• -          It’s heavier than the 293RK
• -          A slide on the curbside, makes the awning significantly smaller
• -          For some crazy reason it has a slightly smaller fresh water tank

Because it’s so new, I haven’t been able to get any official pictures of the interior. I’ve found a couple of dealership sites that have pictures, but they don’t allow copying the pictures (or at least I’m not computer-savvy enough to figure it out). But, I do have the floorplan and here it is.

I did notice that in pictures of units at dealerships that the fridge and dry sink swapped positions so that the fridge is in the back corner and the dry sink and overhead cabinet are in the middle between the pantry and fridge. It looks much better and it centers the rear window very nicely.

Also, you can see the funky sofa/lounger thing that is really ugly. So what I want to do is to delete the lounger part and have the sofa/sleeper finished off normally. Then the space where the lounger thingy was will get a small computer desk facing outboard so the view will be out the window. There might even be enough space inboard of the desk to put one of the chairs which will give a better viewing angle to the entertainment center.

The kitchen is really interesting as the sink/island part is permanently attached to the floor. So when the slide comes in, the counter portion that’s in the slide just comes in just over the island counter. It’s really kind of a neat idea.

So the next step is to wait until I can actually get to see one in person. I’m watching about 5 or 6 dealerships in the southeast that should eventually get one and I’ll go take a look when one of them does. I’m interested enough that I would gladly drive anywhere in Florida, Georgia, Alabama to see one. I know it’s like a new toy and I sort of sound like I’m ready to abandon the 293RK, but I’m not. It IS the biggest contender against the 293RK that I’ve seen yet and could end up being my pick. Although with the significant jump in price, I may have to re-examine my options. I refuse to jump off with any debt at all and that’s non-negotiable.

The Dying Laptop

I did decide to fix the old laptop. Man, what a pain in the posterior that was! I’d heard that in most laptops it’s just a matter of one or two little screws and out she pops! Well, not with this POS. When I had computer pieces laying all over the workbench and had more to disassemble, I really started to have reservations about the success of this little project. I had looked up on YouTube for this particular model laptop and even the guy in the video said it was a pain to do this one and he was telling the truth.

But I persevered and got it all done and reloaded Windows into it. So it’s now working again! However, it’s no longer my main computer and I use it to write software for some other projects that I’m working on.

So that’s it for the moment.