RV Review: Modifications!

We get asked about how we live day to day in an RV a lot, so I wanted to put some pictures on here to show you some of the work we've done on our little house on wheels.

Apparently any type of modification on any kind of vehicle is referred to as a Mod (short for modification). Noel and I have done multiple mods on our RV, and here are a few of the more interesting ones!

One of the primary tasks of any RV owner (particularly those who buy a used one, like we did) is caulking. This is thrilling stuff, trust me. I didn't get any pictures of Noel caulking the outside seams, but he did snap a few of me sealing the shower, which was leaking badly when we first moved in.

This also gives you a good idea of the size of our shower. Not huge, but perfectly sufficient.



(Please note attractive head lamp - very useful for this kind of work!)

I had to scrape off all the old caulk before putting new down, and there were layers and layers of old caulk (this RV was built in 1992, so the build-up was pretty thick! And also gross.).



We also decided that we needed more freezer space. Our fridge/freezer is a small one, and the freezer is just one of those little boxes inside the fridge - not big enough to hold anything, and also not cold enough to keep anything frozen. Since we never used the chair behind the passenger cockpit chair, we decided to take it out and put in a 4 ft. wide standing freezer (I don't have a picture - use your imagination!). It's been an absolute lifesaver, that freezer! And the little "freezer" in the fridge hasn't gone to waste either - it's now our drink cooler. ;)

Our beloved kitties decided that they hated the three original valances in the bedroom, and took it upon themselves to redecorate in their own particular scratchy way:




NICE. Thank you, kitties, so much. I'm expecting a call from HGTV any day now.

Noel did the reupholstering on the valances with a gorgeous fabric that is more resistant to picks and little evil claws of doom:



Doesn't that look fantastic? He did a wonderful job!

We also didn't like the wallpaper - it's kind of reminiscent of an old Floridian bungalow: pastels in an abstract, vaguely floral design.



We painted the bedroom, and while it was a bit of an improvement, it still looked really boring. So I got a brainstorm one day to paint a celtic knot design! I looked for designs on the internet and figured out how to develop them for wall painting:



And voila!



Isn't this cool? I really like it. This is still an ongoing project. We hope to paint the living room at some point too, since it's got the same icky wallpaper. Noel also painted the little bathroom/toilet closet in a fun light green with a turquoise door. It looks great. I forgot to take a pic of that too. Sorry!

The biggest and best of the mods we've done though is to make the space taken up by the dinette set (which we hardly ever used) a lot more useful and practical. It was hard to get in and out of, and not all that comfortable for sewing or typing. And that amount of space is a valuable commodity when you only have about 230 sq. ft. to live in!

Here's a pic of the dinette set as it was when we moved in:

Noel and his oldest daughter Katie worked on taking the dinette set out, and designing a desk/sewing table. Katie worked very hard and is a pro with the power tools!

Here they're putting it all together:

And here it is after being painted (I painted and reupholstered this chair - a $10 goodwill find):

It opens up the living room so much, and makes writing and typing (and even cooking!) so much easier! Thanks Katie for all your help!

So that's it! A very brief overview of the modifications we've done so far to make this little house our own. Lots more to do (mainly painting and making slipcovers for the living room furniture), but we're very happy with the results so far!

April 2009 - Our litte house and more inside pics

Here's our little home away from home! (Wait - we take it with us, so it's not really away from home. It's just home!):

I know a lot of you are curious about how we stuff so much into this RV and don't suffocate under my fabric stash or kitten food or whatever. I took some pictures of various storage spots so you can get an idea of what it's like.

Here's my closet, all packed up (note sewing machine in bottom corner - it's tight in there!):

Under the sofa is also jammed with the following: yarn, quilts in progress, quilting hoop, fabric, foam stuffing, at least 1 cat. (Cat not visible in this picture):

Speaking of kitties, ours have taken to this lifestyle quite well. Poe has a blue collar, Loki is in the red. Here they are enjoying their first dinner in the new house (See? They look perfectly at ease!):

The Tale of The Poe Cave

Poe tends to be a bit skittish, and on the first night here at the campground we couldn't find him. We looked everywhere and I was starting to panic. I thought maybe he had found some escape route somehow and was out in the wilderness with the bats and feral cats and yes, wild pigs! After a few minutes of diligent searching inside the RV, Noel scrunches down into the passenger seat floorboard and, looking up at the bottom of the dashboard, asks me for a spatula. I go get one, totally confused at his request, until he jabs the spatula up into the dashboard. At which point we're rewarded with a low growl. Somehow, Poe has found a way INSIDE the dashboard of the RV! We try to get him out but with no luck, until Noel thinks to remove the tv which is situated in the middle of the dash. He takes it out, and we see this:

There are no open wires in the dashboard, no way for him to get outside of the RV, and he can come and go as he pleases into what we now call the Poe Cave. Scared me to death though, that night!

March 2009

Hello readers! We're taking this show on the road.

I wanted to go back - flash to the past a bit - because we weren't able to announce anything about our plans. We've been living on the downlow in our RV for months now. So! I'm going to do some monthly updates here, so that you can get a feel for how our lives have been going, living in an RV full-time and working and looking forward to living on the road.

To start off, we bought our used RV from a nice man a few hours away from Savannah. It's a 1992 National Seabreeze RV, 33 feet long. It only had about 55,0000 miles on it, and runs on gasoline. Don't ask me anything else more specific - I can't help you. It's....got blue stripes. Ok! Enough technical talk.

Here are some photos to get everyone started. Here is our RV before we moved in, in March 2009:

Cockpit and part of the living room:

Dining Room/Office/Sewing Room:

Kitchen (it's a gas oven/stove and a microwave above):

Bedroom:

Bathroom sink/Shower/Closets (the longer mirrored closet is mine - Noel has one the same size on the other wall):

It's interesting to see how much storage you think you have, until you start shoving stuff into various closets/drawers and then realize that no, you don't need 12 shirts (hopefully) because there just isn't room. This is also good motivation to lose weight. Really. Because with smaller clothes, more will fit!

The surprising thing we've found though, is that you really don't need nearly as much as you think you will. I have clothes in my closet that I haven't worn yet, after 6 months!

Stay tuned! More to come!