Thirty days out

Who knew we would get to the 30-day mark?

We have closed on the house and our youngest daughter has moved to California to finally live under the same roof as her Marine husband.  The newlyweds are doing fine and recently got a puppy.
Life in the RV park is interesting and we're grateful to have a place to live until we go on the road. But we can't help but wonder about the attraction to staying in park all summer in a vehicle with wheels...and not put them in motion until fall comes.  At least we have taken 2 trips this summer.  one to Cobscook Bay State Park and one to Naples, Maine for a family get-together.

 

We're obviously anxiously waiting for our trip to begin, but we really need to still be employed by our company on Sept. 1. Why?

1. The company will pay our health insurance until the end of the month in which you leave. That means "free" health insurance for the month of September.
2. We are heading to the southwest, among other places. August in the desert is HOT.  So September it is.

 

Ok, yes.  Bill is still putting the finishing touches on the interior of “The Cabin.”  The removal of 2 giant CRT televisions in the front and back of the RV left 2 large storage cabinets.  Our flat screen TV is mounted to the right of the front door.

The front cabinet is now outfitted to accommodate the printer and our 2 laptops. 

The faux kindling on the outside of the door is contact paper… easier than trying to match the elusive cherry stain.  The back cabinet is under construction, but I hope to store craft items and extra blankets in the huge space left by the removal of the TV.

Although we got rid of a massive amount of our "stuff", there are still some major pieces to be sold.

Bill had a utility trailer he used to take garbage to the dump, etc.  As luck would have it, a guy who came to our yard sale asked if he could buy it, but we had to say, "No, but maybe later," as we were still using it to haul trash.  The guy left his name and number and actually drove from Farmington pick it up a few days ago.

And there are the 2 cars.  My 2012 Hyundai Sonata is on the market and I plan to drive my daughter's car until we go on the road.  Once it sells, Bill will put the older Chevy Malibu on the market.  If it sells before we leave, I hope my co-workers will give me rides to work so Bill can use the "spare" car.

Hoping!

Go where you wanna go....

This afternoon, Bill and I drove over to the "sticks and bricks" house to make sure we had everything cleared out.  We’ve been living in “The Cabin” (RV) at a nearby campground since April 24.   This allowed us to let potential buyers have access to view the property at any time.  No dog barking, no cat box worries, no chance of clutter.

On Wed. we’ll close on the house, turning the keys over to the new owners.  Our walk through was a little bittersweet, since it is where our life together began 16 years ago. The spaced seemed empty and without life. On the other hand, it felt as though it were waiting to be filled with new life.

Our younger daughter graduated from college, got married 2 days later, and recently moved to California to be with her Marine husband.  Life is very fluid right now.

Our departure date is common knowledge now that we have told our bosses we are leaving on a long trip Sept. 2.  Our plan is to slowly travel across the country, living in our RV, and carrying a limited amount of belongings, having sold, donated, or discarded anything that doesn’t spark joy in us.  The overwhelming majority of people have been very excited for us and expressed that they wish they could do that or know someone who did that or just “I’m so happy for you!”  A very few people have looked at us like we had rocks in our heads.

The exhilaration is breathtaking sometimes.  The unknown path is both exciting and scary. Leaving my older children and 2 grandchildren is saddening.  But the world is a much smaller place than it used to be.  We have video chat, email, texting, blogging, and airplanes that are safer than road travel.  We’ll still be a family and can be close in other than geographical ways.

We have visitors this week in the lot next to ours.  Peggy and John, Bill’s sister and her husband, are here so we can plan a little, but not too much.  We are caravanning with them on our trip.  The only concrete plan we have is Albuquerque on Sept. 29.  A country concert for them and a mass ascension of hot air balloons on Oct. 1.

I have a list of must sees and would-like-to-sees and I’ll elaborated later.  But none of us wants to lock ourselves into a set schedule or itinerary.  This is about letting life take us where it will.

Make it your own

When we bought our 2008 Challenger, one thing I read (I read a lot about RVs) was that you shouldn't change the interior of an RV too much.  Somehow this would make it more difficult to sell in the future. But what if the interior was too ugly to live with?
Our rolling cabin had, in my humble opinion, a very dated interior.  The curtains were a heavy maroon fabric with gold embellishments in the shape of crazy flowers.  Something I would imagine seeing in a French bordello parlor. The theme was carried through the "great room", to the bathroom, and into the bedroom.
The first thought I had was, "Those just have to go."  When I started inspecting the window treatments, I realized this could be a huge project, because each wooden valance was covered with padding and cloth.  Added to that, the window blinds were mounted inside each valance. It would require removing each valance, stripping off the cloth, and stapling new cloth smoothly over each valance.
Maybe I'm lazy, but I decided to simply cover each existing window treatment with curtain material we actually liked.  I tackled the bedroom first.  I covered the existing valences with a cheerful blue spriggy pattern.  I also created a kind of slipcover for the headboard in blue.
In the "great room," I scoured the internet for a cheerful, but earthy material.  This really brightened up the window treatments. 

However, the dinette cushions had a stripe of the ugly maroon/gold fabric in them.  I tried a few different things, but ended up making slipcovers for the cushions out of a neutral colored cloth.
Both the great room and the bathroom had wallpaper borders to complement the old décor.  For the bathroom I found a border with little cabins on it.  When I tried to strip off the old border, it was stuck on there so well, I doubted I could get it off without making a big mess of it.  So I put the new border right over the old one!  (Don't tell anyone!)

It was harder to find a border for the great room that actually blended in with my new colors.  I ended up buying a roll of contact paper (!) that looks for all the world like old farmhouse bricks.  I just love it.... looks like it's always been there.

We have other modifications to do.  I'll keep you posted!