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!

Does This Spark Joy?

Well, we have a long way to go, but the downsizing and purging has begun.  We're moving into our RV in 2 weeks.  Our mantra is, "If it doesn't fit in the RV, it ain't going."
The biggest kick in the pants I had was the purchase of a book in January 2015.  It's called "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing"  by Marie Kondo.
I originally bought it to get my clutter under control... a New Years resolution.  But as I followed the simple instructions, I quickly realized it was not like any other decluttering book or article I'd read.  This was a life-changing way of looking at my "stuff."
The very basic premise is that you hold each of your belongings in your hands and ask yourself, "Does this spark joy in me?"  If it doesn't, it is discarded, donated, or sold.
The first wave for me was clothing.  I was instructed to take everything article of clothing out of my closets, drawers, storage bins, etc. and dump it all on the floor.  I sorted the clothing into piles.  Coats, tops, pants, underwear, shoes, socks, etc.  I picked up each article individually and asked, "Does this spark joy?"  It may have sparked joy when I bought it.... but if it doesn't, right now, in the present....I thanked it for the joy it brought me, the utility, the kindness of the person who gifted it to me and placed it in one of the "to go" piles.  Now I have only the clothing that brings me joy.
There are many other layers to this and I recommend you read the book to learn about them. 
I can tell you that a LOT of "stuff" has exited our house.  Even Bill (quite the packrat) is onboard with this.  One week we rented a DUMPSTER and got rid of the larger things that no longer bring us joy.  Lumber from old projects, furniture/electronics that never got refinished/repaired, right down to pens and pencils in the back of drawers.
The most unexpected result of this project is, the more you get rid of, the better you feel.  Lighter. Happier. Freer.
We have a section of the basement that is reserved for "The Big Yard Sale" on Memorial Day weekend.  Once that is over, I think a smallish dumpster will take care of what is left of our "sticks and bricks" life and we'll be on our way to our new life on the road.

Look out! Here we come!

 

We had a wonderful first summer with our RV. We took several trips to campgrounds and state parks. We went to 2 weddings, using the RV as our “motel.” We learned a lot, especially about the electrical system, including the batteries and generator.

 

By the end of the fall, when it was time to store the RV for the winter, we knew that we wanted to make the RV our semi-permanent home. Our PBI (partially baked idea) was now a firm plan. We will take a slow trip in a westerly direction, eventually settling somewhere warmer than here. Hopefully close enough to family in California, so we can visit and celebrate holidays with them. We decided to put the house on the market and move into the RV in May (when campgrounds around here open). This serves 2 purposes.

 

1. We will leave the house available to show to prospective buyers at the drop of a hat.
2. Our dog Snow will not be in the house barking during a house showing. She’ll be in the RV!

  

There are a number of challenges involved in a cross country move such as this.

 

1. I’m not retirement age (yet). So I will have to buy health insurance until I find work out west.
2. We plan to move our belongings from a 3 bedroom house and garage into a Class A RV. Downsizing and purging is required.
3. We will want to tow a vehicle and neither of the vehicles we own is towable. We need to sell our cars and buy a “toad.”
4. Our house is in a town where the largest employer (a paper mill) closed its doors a year ago. The housing market may be soft.
5. Leaving my family here on the east coast is going to be very difficult.

My goal is to take each of these challenges and let you know our plan/solution. Stay tuned to the next blog entry!

Our Maiden Voyage

During our two trips south to inspect and purchase The Cabin, we drove by Lake St. George State Park.  We had never camped there, but it’s less than an hour from home and seemed a nice soft maiden voyage.  Our granddaughter Haylee enjoys camping, so we decided to invite her along.  So the first weekend after we got our RV, we went to Lake St. George.

The sites there are fairly close to the road, but the lake was beautiful.  Parking the RV was easy, as we were out in the open on a flat patch of grass.  The majority of the state parks in Maine don’t have hook-ups and this one was no exception.  Not a big deal for us at all, who were accustomed to camping in a tent right up until we bought an RV.

We got everything set up, feeling elated at being able to level the rig on the first try.  When we were settled, Bill and I agreed that, if we still had our tent, we’d still be putting the poles together and trying to find all the stakes.  We could see, over near the bathrooms, a fancy set-up with an outdoor TV, outdoor fridge, rope lights around the site, and a stereo with 2 large speakers.  Pretty snazzy!  When Bill walked by there, the gentleman introduced himself as the campground host.  Very friendly.  A campground host stays at a campground for free, usually all season, and help campers when the ranger isn’t around. 

We put our food out (carried in from KFC since we were a late arrival) on the picnic table and started our dinner.  As we started to eat, the campground host came out of his rig and began playing music quite loudly. And then he picked up a microphone and began to sing.  This was a karaoke machine!  We chuckled a bit and continued to eat.  The singing continued, with enough volume to be heard all over the park.  Luckily, he had a nice voice, but I’m not accustomed to camping and a serenade at the same time.  When the karaoke had gone on for about an hour, I decided to take a walk down to the reception hut.  The noise just wasn’t at all what I expected in the great outdoors.  I spoke to the greeter at the entrance and she seemed surprised that we weren’t enjoying the concert.  But she said she’d speak to the ranger.  The whole thing was puzzling to me, because I’m pretty sure the campground host is supposed to help with noise control, not contribute!

The concert terminated on its own, but we did see the ranger stop later on and speak to the campground vocalist.  After that, the host wasn’t so friendly towards us, but at least it was quiet.  The evening was calm, although we did hear a lot of traffic noise from the road.  We took Haylee to the beach area and she got to play on a very nice playground structure there.  She even went swimming the next day, even though the water was still cold that early in the season.  We had a campfire (with smores of course).

 Haylee thought the dinette that turned into a bed was very cool, so that’s where she slept.

All in all, it was a pleasant maiden voyage, although we decided it wasn’t really our idea of state park camping.  Not woodsy, too close to a main road, etc.  But we did get a taste of our new camping lifestyle.  Carrying our house behind us.

Meet the cabin

Now that we had made the decision to buy an RV, we had to decide what kind.  Travel trailer?  Third wheel?  Class B?  Class A?  We did our research and decided a used Class A would suit us the best.  Then we researched the different models to see what options and floor plans would appeal to us.   Living in Maine, 3 1/2 hours from the Hew Hampshire border, our options for shopping in person are a bit limited, but luckily most dealers have their inventories online.  After searching online for a number of weeks at dealers within a 200 mile radius, we were beginning to think we would need to take a week in the Carolinas or Florida to find what we wanted.  The selection just wasn’t there.

We hadn’t really been looking at Damons, but I finally stumbled across a 2008 Challenger at a dealership on the Maine/New Hampshire border.  The layout, options, condition, and price were all acceptable. We called and booked an appointment to see it the following Saturday.  Fortuitously, our brother-in-law John was in Naples, Maine, having driven up from Florida a few weeks earlier.  He was willing to come with us to look at the RV.  He and Peggy have own several different rigs and, although we had actually inhabited it for a few days, we didn’t realize/remember that their current Class A is a Damon Challenger, too!  Just a different model.  So he was the perfect second opinion to have along on the trip.

The salesman who showed us the RV was very helpful, but it was really John who gave us the cook’s tour.  He’d put his hand on a basement compartment handle and say, “Now here’s your propane tank…” or “This fridge will run on either propane or electricity.”  He and Bill did everything but kick the tires, inspecting the vehicle from top to bottom.

 

In the end, we went inside and worked out a deal.  In addition to purchasing the unit for a better price, we asked that a new rear camera system with side and rear cameras in color be installed.  The next weekend we drove down to pick up our new baby.

We got a full tour and orientation to all the systems.  I drove the car and Bill drove the RV home.  I must admit it was a bit nerve-wracking to watch his driving from behind.  I could see some curb hopping and at one point he got stuck in a left lane on the highway.  But we made it home in fine shape. 

Here she is on her first day in her new driveway.  Welcome to the Cabin!

 

When the cabin was a sprout

My husband Bill and I have spent the first 15 years of our marriage in sometimes widely varying frames of mind.  These can range from chaos and anxiety to harmony and relaxation… and everything in between.  When we got married we had 5 children between us and did our best to form a new “blended” family.  A few years into this transformation, our first grandchild was born.

At various times along the way, Bill would turn to me and say, “Where’s the key to the cabin?” or “Let’s pack up and go to the cabin.”  Of course, we had no such cabin.  We’d simply struggle through whatever crisis we were having at that time and come out on the other side.

One year Bill found the key to the cabin in his Christmas stocking.  True, it has no “teeth” so it won’t open any door I know of.  But it symbolized that place we could go to when things got tough.

This year we took a vacation in the middle of a really outrageously cold and snowy winter.  We visited Bill’s sister Peggy and her husband John, who had become “snowbirds”, living in Maine during the summer and Florida in the winter.  They live in a sunny mobile home park in a beautiful renovated manufactured home.  They took their motorhome out of storage and arranged to park it across the street, so we could have our own space… a guest suite!  Somewhere during that visit, a seed sprouted and we began to entertain the idea of buying a motorhome.  We could use it to tool around in Maine and environs in the summers and then, when we could finally retire, take it for a long trip across the United States.

All we had to do now was wait to see if the little sprout could take root and grow.