Two Year Anniversary of the No-Name Motorhome

T-1 month !?

Happy New year! This is the year. It has come so very quickly and sometimes it doesn’t feel like we’re much further along on our to-do list than when we bought it two years and one week ago .

The RV itself is just about ready – we’ve finished all of our renovation  projects and modifications – including some that weren’t even on the list! Well, all except for the couch…that ugly (but well made) thing remains to be “fixed”.

The time line has been moving along (as time does – duh!) – and we were hoping to have our house on the market around now. But that part has hit a snag. We still have a few housing repair projects and we’ve been having a heck of a time finding someone to come and work on things, so our to-do list is growing. So we may get off schedule because of that  – which at this point is actually okay – because we STILL have STUFF to clear out. So at this point a little extra time is welcome – sort of.

I officially quit my job at the end of last year (like a week ago! )- but I will stay on to help with the training and year end transition. Tom gave (vague) notice, but will keep working until he can’t afford the time any longer i.e. when we’re pulling out of the driveway probably!

My time has been filled with job and visiting our new grand-baby. And we’ve been making a big push to get this travel blog and our You Tube Channel sites up and going before we hit Quartzsite this month. We also wanted to have our “business” cards done so we can exchange calling cards with those we meet, so Tom had to get our logo done.

So the final push for emptying cupboards, clearing the garage, and getting the yard spruced up have all been put on the back burner.

As I write, we are on our way home from a Tuscon trip with a two day turnaround to get Tom’s daughter back to college after the winter break. That’s 20 plus hours of driving and we expect to make it home before midnight (hopefully). It’s got to be kind of weird for her to leave our home for possibly the last time. With a string of good luck, we could have it sold before she’s out for spring break. Okay – that’s probably wishful thinking at this point but we remain optimistic!

So that’s the future – unknown as it always is.

As far as the past, this is some of what we accomplished in 2016:

We closed the doors to the store on January 31st, and spent another month or more getting rid of the furniture and fixtures that went along with that.

We completely “remodeled” the interior of our coach and improved the look of the outside as well. Inside, we worked room by room, and outside we replaced the slide out toppers and had the top edge repainted. 

There is another blog (Flooring Fiasco) and some videos on those projects. (If you don’t see them, you can subscribe to our You Tube Channel to be notified when they come out.)

Those makeover projects did take up considerable time on the weekends – TWO day weekends last year since we didn’t have to be at the store every Saturday!

There were some more things that got checked off our list:

• Tom found the perfect (pre-made!) folding desk and installed it behind the passenger chair to create our “office”.
• We changed our mobile plans to include unlimited data streaming and Tom bought and installed a cell booster in our “new” office.
• Since the RV repair guys gave us back our RV missing a fantastic fan, Tom had to find a new one that would fit and match our wiring. He also replaced the top covers on the roof.
• We also completed a year long decision on what type of computer/hardware we’re taking with us. That was an accomplishment for us to agree and implement! (We switched to Apple)
• We finally signed up for mail service in South Dakota and registered the RV there.
• And just last weekend we finally parted with a few precious possessions we’ve been dreading letting go. So that was very difficult, but another giant  leap ahead.

About the only thing left to do to ready the RV is to install the solar panels and controller. And to move in with what will be left of our stuff!!

The long list of to-do’s is mainly still having to do with downsizing:

Tom found and then lost a storage container (sea-train) that we will be using to store a minimal household of furnishing. We will put it on my son’s ranch property. So we’re still on the hunt for that.

Once we get that set up we can start clearing out a lot of our current “clutter” that’s related to our online store and vending business. We are tabling plans to take everything on the road with us until we get a feel for how it will work – AND figure out how to haul everything!

I haven’t made much progress on getting all of our old photos and documents scanned into the computer. But I figure worst case scenerio, I will bring the scanner and the boxes of photos  along with us. I figure that will be a great thing to do in all our “down” time coming up. LOL

We also need to get all of the files transferred from old computer to new computer. Ugh.

I hope the house sells quickly, but I know that since I’ll be off work I can get that file stuff kicked out quickly while we’re waiting for the sale. (My optimism kicking in again!)

All in all, we’ve had a busy year, but I can’t help but feel that the busiest is yet to come.

Happy Trails!

Peace & Love, Joy