The RV truths

So I will be the first to tell you I was overtly naive about RVing, there are things that are just outside the normal thought process.   Noise while driving, I spent the first 30 minutes with stick cabinet cushions finding and eliminating rattles as we drove down the road.  Dishes need to be separated with some form of cushion so they don't rub and rattle as you drive.

 The bed/mattress.  Well that thing SUCKS, we slept on it one time and it had to GO.  It is a 3" thin POS that is worse than the sofa hide-away with the bar down the center. 

 RV mattresses are not the standard length, so if you are tall your feet are going to dangle off the edge. Our unit was the slide to the back so slapping the "real" length over the opening left us with more than foot off the platform.  Which caused sagging. So I had to rig it.  Also I had to prop the bed up  when not in use, the hinges are not strong enough for the "real" mattress.  

Slide-out motors are WEAK, they are not designed to pull/push any real amount of weight.  The wonderful engineers are just looking to catch your attention with the shock and awe of the expansion.  Rather than the long term function of the slide.  Do the research slides are the #1 issue/complaint of RVers.  The industry knows there is an issue, hence the very limited warranty.   Keep them clean and check them often. The heavier mattress means we have to two person the bed slide, we need sleep so that is what we have to do.

No matter what you paid for the rig, they are built fast and CHEAP.  There are things that make you rub your head, they are that archaic in thought.  Seriously there is some older than dirt man in charge of the floor plans, and functionality of the rigs.  ALL of the companies are in the same lane so your floor plan choices are actually quite limited.  Really think about how you are going to use the unit, be honest about your lifestyle, as well as the price when selecting the model.  A major negative with the rear bed slide is that we have to take the motorcycle off the ramp to move the bed out.  And we lost the back ladder which we would use to mount a bike rack for our bicycles.   Which is an issue when traveling for an entire day and you just want to sleep.  Nope you have to take down the bikes.

Storage is a perplexing issue.  You can get very "tight" in a very short time just living in the unit.  The walls are hollow so towel/coat hooks have to be installed with rivets not screws. The cabinets are open hollow spaces that allow movement and shifting as you drive.  Grip shelf liner helps but doesn't solve the issue.  Small storage baskets are your friend.

The impossibly small RV frig.  Get creative here.  I froze serving size meals that I could toss in the instant pot.  Worked like a charm.  I will totally keep doing that.  Nothing better than chili, jambalaya, stew, various soups from frozen to warmed in minutes with no prep mess.

The kitchen is TINY so meal prep needs to be well thought out.  Also cooking and cleaning the mess.  You are on limited water usage and used storage.

The black and gray tanks.  They stink after only a couple of days.  I have tried EVERYTHING,  And the gray water gets a soar foal odor completely different from the black sewer tank.  We now know that twen we travel we plan on hitting a dump station or an RV park with full hookups every 4th day, at the max.  I am never doing a dump tank on wheels AKA a honey pot.  Nope that is never happening.  I am also very smell adverse so I do best with 2 day dumps.

RV toilet paper, well that is a REAL think I have only used "septic" safe one time, and it took me forever to get the tank completely clean the paper clumps and STICKS to the sides of the tank.  So NEVER again.  The RV paper really does dissolve.  Northern did not. Makes me question even using that in my house septic system.

SO learn from our lesson, Go as big as you can afford to go.  Be honest about the usage you will really do.  We have used ours 3 times in 3 months and plan on more trips when we get a bigger unit.  Yup you read that right we are going bigger.  I want opposing slide in the living room area.  The space gets real tight when you get rained in and trapped.   We are selling and as soon as it sells I'll let you know where we go from here.  But until she goes we have more trips planned.

Happy Rving

RV

I looked and looked for a Murphy bed RV, well they are outrageous, and impossible to find.  We narrowed the search down to these two.

The Thor Axis 24.1

this model is a class A unit that is on a Ford gas 450 chassis.

Cost $75,000

And this model

The  Citation Sprinter 24 ST class C diesel Mercedes chassis

Cost $99,000

First Thor makes both models so there were lots of things that were very comparable.  The fuel type, tank sizes, drive feel, and price are the major differences.

We both preferred the drive of the class A.  I was very much in favor of the price of class A.  Here's were it got crazy, after lots of conversation of the twins convert into a king size bed, which we loved. We went off the rails when we actually bought the thing.  We ended up buying this floor plan.

Axis 25.2

Cost $72,000

The reason that we decided on this plan was after thinking about actual living in the rig for extended periods the larger living space and shower were big deals for us.  While we enjoy our king size bed we can fit just fine in a queen.  But the thought of my 6'1" husband trying to shower in that 2x2 corner shower that he could barely fit in was not an actual reality we could live with.  Not to mention the sofa area feels way bigger.  We are minimalist so losing the under unit storage wasn't a big deal.  We are picking up the rig next week, I've been researching like crazy on the "must" haves and will post our trips and what I learn as I learn them.

Happy Traveling

Window tint and solar screens

We all know how "frugal" I am so I had to get solar screens on this house to keep out that Texas sun.  The moment I had the solar screen put on the upper balcony doors for the front bedroom stuck out like a sore thumb.  I decided the only way to get a cohesive look was tint.  From the yard it looks fantastic.  But if you have never installed tint, it is HARD.

Here is the noticeable difference mid installation.  I did not like seeing the drapes. 

Here is the brand of tint that I used, I got it off Amazon.  I love just a click and it is on my door step.

Tint is considerably harder than the window film that I love to use. 

Make sure your blade is VERY sharp and on big jobs you may need a second tip.  This is a quest bedroom that am only in when cleaning it for company so I can live with the imperfections.  But if this was on a window that I had to see all day I would totally have to redo this.

The tint not only gave me the look from the curb that I am after, it also helped keep the heat and sun out of this room without taking away from the view.  During the day can't see into that room even if the drapes are open, which is wonderful since that is a bedroom.

Happy tinting.

  

Sewing cabinet

We all have these.  An out dated TV hutch that we paid big bucks for back in the day.  Well, I tried to sell it and got no bites.  I wanted a sewing area on the main level of my house and then it hit me.  Turn this into a hidden sewing cabinet.

I had the movers put this in the office area then I crammed the sewing stuff that I came across while I was unpacking inside this.  So it was full.  I have to get the closet organized with all the "stuff" that was in my last craft room.

I went to home depot and purchased one sheet of sanded plywood.  It was 50 bucks.  I had them cut it to the measurements that I needed.  The table top could be 34.5 inches long per fold and still close in my cabinet and I was okay with 27 inches wide worth of working counter top space.  My legs were 32 inches tall and 24 inches wide.  I cut a little detail in them for a little bit of fluff, but also to lighten them a tad.

So I drew the cuts out on a piece of graph paper. I got the four pieces of wood in five cuts.  They are usually pretty good about five or six cuts and not complaining too much as long as they are not busy.  I have some scraps left over from the 4x8 sheet as well.

Then it took me a good day to figure out the folding and placement of the hinges.

I had a strange size so I could not get one solid piano hinge, so I used two 12 inch hinges per fold.  I needed four total. I got those at home depot as well. They were $6 each.

I used two packages of these little hinges for the legs, they were $4 per package.  I set the unit in place to see where it needed to be place.  I needed to use the base of the black existing shelf unit about 4.5 inches in to clear the doors.  I wanted to be able to close this and have it look like just a hutch.

The first set of legs needed to be place even with the boards and hinge outward from the opposite direction of the folded table tops.  That created a problem keeping the legs from swinging to the back of the cabinet when the table was folded up in the closed position.  I solved that with a simple turn "pin" made from a  couple chunks of the plywood.

Just drill the hole larger than the screw and when you screw the board into place the top chunk is not using any of the screw threads, hence swings open and closed easily.  You screw the screw down tightly into the bottom board and that holds it into place.  You will need to raise the chunk even with the leg.  So I actually needed two small scraps.

To stop the table from leaning to far back in the cabinet and stripping the hinges.  A simple L bracket.  I had this laying around the house.  I am not sure why.  But they are cheap and also available at any hardware store.

A simple junk of plywood allowed me to put a simple pin lock to hold the table in place, so that when I open the door the unit can't fall out.  I also want if my granddaughter's were to open the cabinet door the table can't fall out and hurt them.

Because this was a TV hutch there is a built in outlet.  Which is great.  I did remove the cable line, that was super easy just wire cutters to cut the metal end and it pulled right out.

It folds down in two parts, the first table and leg.

Then the last half.  Fully open it is 69 inches long and 27 inches wide.

I have more details to add and I am going to paint the table black.  But I was super excited to post today's work.  I turned this unwanted cabinet into a functioning unit for under $90.  I will post the finished cabinet when I am finally done.

Happy Reinventing.

Box Valances

These box valances were already up in this room, the room was blue and had curtains down just the ends of the bay.  I didn't care for the look and I hated the blue walls.  SO I knew I was painting this room, and I am cheap as we all know so the valance boxes were getting reused.  Plus I knew they were most likely just plywood boxes and why did I need to remake them, I was okay with size of them.

They look fantastic redone.  I forgot to take a photo of the horrible blue walls.  Now the room is a light tan and the boxes are actually a light green with a tan scroll pattern.  I am very happy with the new look.  This is an office/sewing room.  I am turning that armoire into a sewing cabinet.  I will post that build.

There are five boxes I am reusing the back covers so I had to take the staples out of that very carefully.

Here is a close up of the holes left by the brackets that were holding up the curtains.  Two of the boxes have these holes.  I was not worried about this showing through the new fabric.

I cut the new fabric for all five boxes the length needed.  I am leaving the existing fabric and batting.  Why replace that?  There was no need for that added expense.

Getting ready to recover.

See just plywood boxes.

I own this wonderful little thing... Well, it was actually a gift I gave my husband, but I think I use it more than he ever has.  I love this thing.  Under $40 at Harbor Freight.  The stapler came from that store too.  And it was also cheap.  I got it when it was on sell and it was under $20.

Just pull into place and staple down.  Note where your corners should fold so that they are unseen.  The fold over on these boxes was to the tops, NO one will ever see the top of the boxes.

Once I started recovering it went super fast.

I took the boxes down by myself but installation was a two person job.  Had to get "man" help.  So my husband had to rehang them my arms were just not long enough to attached the boxes back to the L brackets.  I left the brackets hanging and just painted around them.

Happy Recovering.

Fairies

Getting rid of some fairies... These people had four children and they had the house decorated for the kids to say the least... There is poorly done stencil throughout the house, but there is also some amazing art.  The person that did the fairies did some great work, hopefully that is not the same person that did all the smudged stencil.  Oh well, either way it has got to go.  I love my grandbabies but this is terrible.

This is the first ceiling fan I have ever installed by myself.  I have put many together.  I have painted gold ones black, bronze and white.  But I never have touched the electricity.  I even put in the switch that went with this little gem.  It oscillates for directional venting, it is perfect for the bathroom that it is in.  

After painting the ceiling I am very pleased with this part of the room, and I am totally digging this ceiling fan.  When picking lighting for a bathroom a great ceiling fan is a wonderful idea in a large bathroom.

Happy Bathroom Circulation.

Bench time

I have been busy, we moved twice in three months.  My husband retired, we purchased a small fixer while we looked for a lake home.  Well our luck is that 45 days after we moved to the little house he would find the lake house.   Another fixer so I barely got the first one finished painting before the moving trucks loaded my stuff for the final move.

The lake house needs tons of work too, but I decided I was tossing in fun projects along the way.  Not just painting walls and trim.

This bench has been in my family for over 30 years.  It has set at the end of beds, been used as a sofa table, foot stool.  It has been in the master closet as a dressing bench for the last 10 years and previous two houses.  So I didn't care what the covering looked like.  But in this house it was going in the bathroom and going to be visual.

I lugged it to the garage, because it was the 4th of July weekend, we had only been in the house for 10 days, I had unpacked two moving trucks to be able to have a 1/2 way set up house for the family to come for the holiday.  FYI bad idea, you are so tired that you are not a good host.

So hiding in the garage I rolled it over and removed the bottom felt.  A rescue kitten had destroyed the lining.  I also removed the staples that held that and the decorative piping.  Once that was removed the padding was in remarkable shape I decided to leave the floral fabric in place and I opted against adding any additional batting.  I was using a heavy upholstery fabric.  I got a yard and a quarter because I forgot the measurement when I was at the store.

I like the geometric pattern.  I opted to leave the legs the original color because I didn't want to add another dark wood to the room.  The cabinets are a very dark color.  I knew I wasn't ready to paint them yet.

New life in an old bench.  I am very pleased with the results.  So for thirty dollars I have a modern look on a family piece.  It really is a great use of something I love and can't seem to part with.

Happy Upholstering.