RV Renovation Surprises

Last time we blogged we told you there were some unexpected developments with the new to us 5th wheel. We will now satisfy your curiosity.  

The former owner was a dog owner, how we did not discern this at the time of purchase is a wonderment to both of us, but we know now.  The 5th wheel reeks of wet dog.  Now I suppose if you are a dog owner this is okay, we however are not dog owners so the odor is not acceptable.  We now need to rip out the carpeting and have the chairs steam cleaned.  The steam cleaning is no big deal, the carpet on the other hand will be a major undertaking.  So it is back to craigslist to find an inexpensive high quality piece of carpeting.  Sounds easy right, and thankfully this time it is.  Next step is to remove the existing carpet, not so easy a task.  We thought may-be half to one hour to remove the old carpet and clean the flooring in preparation of laying the new carpet, in actuality it was a full days work.  Next step is fitting the piece of new carpet, which surprisingly went very well.  We have had some bad luck trying to cut and lay carpet in the past so we were pleasantly surprised when this task

No more carpet (Photo credit: .Larry Page) 

went so well.


As with all our moves in our years together curtains must be made, so another chore to be attended to. Luckily I am a seamstress of sorts and have a plethora of fabric that has accumulated over the years.  We have agreed on the fabric from the stash and I will set about sewing some curtains to make the 5th wheel our new home.


All the while downsizing is still a chore to be reckoned with.  We have again reached out to our children trying to pass on the memories (junk), but to no avail.  It appears we will have to give most of it to charity and the rest to a junk man.  This saddens us but we know it must be done as there is no room for the amount of bric-a-brac we have accumulated over the past 38 years.

Well it is back to the sewing room for me, more at a later date.

Well we are at it again today, phoning around Eugene and points north to all the ads we have agreed would be suitable.  Very frustrating to find that people advertise things for sale but do not want to show them for a week!!  We finally get a hold of a seller closer to home, heading north in the hopes of finding the right 5th wheel for us.

We like it!  However, we are going to reserve judgement until we get home.  Not sure if I have mentioned this before but my husband likes to over think things and I am spontaneous, which makes a decision making lengthy.

As we drive home, all kinds of questions come to our minds and neither one of us remembers all the details.  We realize we should have taken some measurements and some pictures.  My husband see things differently than I do and vice versus. Now we have a list started of questions to ask the seller before we agree to buy his 5th wheel.  It seems the process is nothing but questions and details, so take paper, pen, tape measure, and a camera or a smartphone to record all the details.

English: A standard measuring tape. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My husband has had a night to mull over his decision and we have decided to buy the unit we saw yesterday, yeah we made a decision.  Now comes the hard part, finding someone to deliver it to our backyard so we can get it ready for living in.  Great, more decisions.  I am not sure retirement is going to be any less stressful than my former job.

Because our truck is not capable of towing the new 5th wheel we have had to hire someone, we are lucky to find an experienced driver who is able to cross the border into Canada.  Canada has restrictions that are not present in the U.S.A., so finding a driver who meets all the requirements may be a challenge if you buy a 5th wheel in the states.  The trip from Washington to home was uneventful, it was very easy to import the 5th wheel into Canada.  Only took about 15 minutes to get the paperwork done and pay the fees.

The 5th wheel is now in our backyard and the downsizing must start!

More next time on some surprises we did not anticipate!

February 1st was the first day of my retirement so we are anxious to find our new home and start full-timing. So we are on our way to Eugene Oregon to look at some RV's we looked at on craigslist.org.  We are hopeful that we find something, as we would like to take residence at the park we have chosen by April 1st.

birth of the RV (Photo credit: drburtoni)

There is so much to do before that time.  We need to empty our rental house of furniture and a lifetime of belongings that we have accumulated.  As we take this step of downsizing, we ask ourselves why did we keep all these things?  We are divided on what to keep and what to throw away.  I am a keeper of memories, my daughters' first pair of socks, my sons' first glowing report cards and my families photos.  My husband says our memory banks have all that information and we don't need physical reminders.  We will probably remain divided on this subject and therefore we need lots of time to clear out the house.  One would think this task would be easy, but after trying to sell, at rock bottom prices, paintings and framed pictures, antique vases and other cherished items that is proving to be not true.  There is so many FREE items on craigslist that selling things is almost impossible.  We have already given our children anything they wanted, thinking they would want
the memories but no, they just took the practical things that they needed.  Both our children have the same attitude as my husband regarding memories.  The next solution we thought of was we would post signs at my work were there are so many young people, some who are starting life on their own, to see if they would like anything.  It appears that if it isn't new they don't want it.  We wonder what happened to starting on your own with landscape bricks and planks for a tv stand and furniture that the Sally Ann has to offer.  But today's youth are all about possessions and having the best of everything.  That is another blog topic however.

NEW MEXICO 2006 RECREATIONAL VEHICLE plate (Photo credit: woody1778a)

Well we drove seven hours to look at a 5th wheel in our price range only to find it had been sold a couple of hours before our arrival.  Good thing we have a couple more to look at, they are our second and third choices.

That is all for today, we will blog more about our search for the perfect 5th wheel later.

Getting Started With My New RV Blog

With my approaching retirement, my husband and I have decided to try RV full timing!  We presently own a twenty-one foot RV that we go camping in as often as my work schedule allows, but we both know we couldn't full-time in it as it is very small.

Our Home (Photo credit: .Larry Page)

So the hunt begins for a thirty plus foot unit that has two or three slide outs.  You would think this was an easy task, but has proven to be much harder than we expected.  When my husband began searching craigslist he would call me into his computer room and ask me what I thought of a RV for sale.  Honestly I find it very hard to tell from a picture, so I suggested we go to a RV lot and look at some models and see what we thought.  This was probably not a good idea as the ones we looked at were beautiful and new and expensive, we are on a limited budget OAP being what it is.  However it did give us an idea of space and layout of different RVs.

Something we didn't consider when we started this quest was, LAYOUT matters!  We saw some RVs on the internet with the kitchen in the back and thought that we would like that layout until we actually saw one in person and realized that with that layout there is very little living room and seeing as I don't like to cook we didn't need a large kitchen are, what we needed was a large living area.  We also didn't really think we needed a slide out in the bedroom, but again after the RV tour we knew it was a must.  Otherwise there would be no closet space and one thing we do need is closet space!

So make sure when you are thinking of full timing you take the time to go look at numerous size RVs and numerous different layouts.  It really helps to determine your needs in a 5th wheel and it's length and layout.

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