We are finally moving into the RV. My husband and I decided we wanted to buy land, build a dream home, and move our family to the country. Sounds wonderful right? But we are moving into a 30 foot RV while we do this. Even better is that we bought a fixer upper that needs A LOT of work. EVEN BETTER…we sold our house and the RV isn’t exactly ready. But we are getting things done, at a rapid pace. Here is a little update for you.
When we bought the RV it was dirty. The people before us were not kind to it, and it needed a lot of work. We got the RV for a really good price, and figured we could put a little more in it to fix it. In hindsight, we should have just bought a smaller newer RV, but it is what it is. This RV will work and we will be able to make it through a (hopefully short) home build. So when we were originally working on this RV and getting it cleaned up I ran into a big problem. No matter how much I scrubbed or what chemicals I used, it just wasn’t getting clean enough for me to feel good about my babies living in it. So I needed to paint it. I felt that paint would help cover up whatever I couldn’t get to come off, and just give a level of cleanliness to the RV that I couldn’t get with bleach.
In the fall, I planned to take this opportunity to try out some color palettes that I wanted to use in our house build. That way I could see if I would like them, before committing to them long term. So I went with the color palette above. It was cute, neutral, allowed some pink for the girl’s spaces, and would be a great trial run. I bought all the paint and decided to get to work. Then life hit us pretty hard. We had a really sick winter season, Baby A was very much a velcro baby, and winter was brutally cold. Just not a great environment to bring the girls over, to the RV, and paint. So I postponed until warmer weather. When warmer weather came…ALL of my paint had gone bad. It was really frustrating, and expensive. I still don’t know exactly what happened. I’ve never had paint seize like that before. But we are on the clock now, and I didn’t want to put any more into this RV so I found some leftover paint from our basement and made it work.
It’s a little more blue than I had intended, but it works. The paint in the RV was a total game changer. It made a world of difference, and made everyone a little more comfortable in the space. We finally felt like we could breath, the slightly stinky air, in the RV. I remember feeling comfortable enough to sit down on the floor and paint, and to take my shoes off, or to even let the girls into the RV. (They weren’t allowed into the RV until last week! That’s how bad it was) We also got the girls beds built and ready to go! Which was quite the ordeal! I somehow lost the screws to the loft bed we bought, and the sheets I got for Baby A’s bed got eaten, by mice in the garage. We tracked down new screws, and ordered more sheets and everything is looking up now.
But things are still not exactly perfect. We have hit a snag. We have a propane leak. The RV runs a lot of it’s utilities off a propane fuel source. These things include:
- Heat
- Refrigerator
- Stove
- Water Heater
We have come up with a dozen solutions for ways to make this work. We can honestly work without a stove. We have a grill we can use, and a Foodie to use as a cook surface. It will suck, but won’t be the worst thing in the world. We had planned on getting a “garage fridge” so we had somewhere to store our food that didn’t fit in the Rv. It’s about to be so hot, we won’t need heat, and if it does get cold we have an electric heater to use in a pinch. But the water heater. That is a luxury we just didn’t want to let go. The girls would be fine, I can boil some water on the grill for their baths, or leave some water in the sun all day. But Andrew and I would really like a warm shower every once in a while! We know Andrew can go to the gym in the morning and shower there, and I could do the same, but it is not convenient. So we have someone coming to look at it and hopefully they will be able to fix the problem.
We are still really excited about this RV living that is about to start. We are also soooooo relieved our house sold. We are not thrilled about the prospect of cold showers, but we are going to make it work. We are also still shocked we are actually getting to build our dream house. After all the ups and downs, waits and move forwards, we are thrilled to be making this work. But as promised here are some updated pictures. The afters:
I still have to paint and finish up the work in mine and Andrew’s space, but I’m debating on if we can just go without paint. I know we will like it painted, but I’m not sure I have it in me to finish painting it. So we will see if I get it done, before we move in. To be determined.
Here is the big take away for you. If this is something you want to do, get the RV that doesn’t need work. Or get the RV that does need work and start working on it now, not after you have already listed your house and have it under contract. The RV has been a big stressor, and while everything is coming together we wish we would have bought smaller and newer. We honestly have half way convinced ourselves to sell this RV and just go and get a smaller bumper trailer and then keep it to travel with. We have a lot of friends with RVs and it seems like we may eventually be RV people. I’ll keep you updated either way!
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