Category: Journey

Journey

Christmas in the RV

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We’ve been full-time RV living for a bit over one month now and happy to say we aren’t tired of it yet! In fact, we probably have worked out most of the kinks and have settled into a daily routine. We’re cheating a little bit because we are using the basement bathroom in the house and, after completing the home office space above the garage, Matthew has moved there for his main living space.

Christmas in the RV came together a few days ahead of Christmas Day. At first, since we agreed to keep gifts small or non-existent due (1) to space being a precious commodity and (2) some significant investments already going into the house, we didn’t think we’d celebrate much at all (enter both Scrooge and The Grinch.) But one impulsive trip to Walmart had us getting a small table-top sized living tree and a few strings of lights. Friends gave us an ornament as a housewarming/Christmas gift, so this plus a small set of “fairy” lights were just perfect for the small tree. Laura strung some lights at the front of the motorhome cab and another set over the sofa. For some outdoor ambiance, Peder strung a set of lights around the garage door.

Just those few lights and some Christmas tunes playing really put us all in the mood on Christmas Day — even with a 70+ degree day! Laura and Peder took the opportunity to hit the bike trail and complete a 6.5 mile ride through historic downtown and then around Lake Atalanta. We got back to the RV in time to do a video call with Megan and Evan and then had a quick relax in the spa. Most of our cooking these days is done on the grill, but Peder pulled out his Traeger smoker and made a delicious smoked prime rib and potatoes. A side salad and pecan pie from Sam’s Club made the Christmas meal complete!

Christmas Day Route
Biking Christmas Day
Snow Globe
Our first Christmas in RV – Tabletop Tree
The RV lit up for Christmas
Journey

Scary things

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When you watch the home improvement shows on TV there is always the episode where the host opens up a wall to reveal a big, unexpected problem that now needs to be fixed. Since punching some of the early holes made us realize that we needed to take all the walls and ceilings to studs, nothing is really ”unexpected.” However, we can say there are many things we’ve found that have made us just shake our heads and shiver. The below image gallery is just a few of the scary things we’ve discovered.

How the roof hadn’t collapsed is a miracle. In the images below, you’ll see warped, cut, and floating boards criss-crossing the structure. We can only assume the original builders and any eventual remodelers never heard the words ”load bearing wall.”

And if the framing wasn’t enough, the wiring is for sure scary! Live wires in walls and uncovered junction boxes were the worst of the offenders. Peder spent a full day pulling out the majority of the scary bits.

And finally, a variety of examples showcasing damage from water, moisture, bugs and inexperienced builders!

Design Tips, Journey

First full week at West Olive

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We have been living the new lifestyle of RV life on the West Olive property for one week now. It can best be described as a week of organization. When we moved household belongings from Centerton to the new house, we pretty much did a dump and run. Everything to the garage or the RV. This of course created zero space in which to live or work. We easily could have been featured on an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive!

We prioritized the week in terms of health and safety. This meant getting some field fence up to create a secure place for the three dogs so they didn’t have to be kept in the RV 24/7. We then turned to getting the washer and dryer hooked up and the utility sink re-hooked up in the basement. We created a clean-ish area where we could wash dishes and clothes (see pics in basement gallery.) Next, we got the basement bathroom fully cleaned and painted and fixed the shower so it worked. With new daylight bulbs above the sink and a bright shower curtain, it is a relative oasis in an otherwise scary-ish basement (see pic in basement gallery) as long as you don’t look up! Finally, we installed some motion detector lighting between the RV and the house so that early morning and late night trips to the bathroom or laundry are safer.

Laura spent one afternoon raking leaves from the pool patio area. It was about a mountain’s worth! But this makes for a much better spa experience than wading through knee-high leaves at night in flip flops!! Peder mounted our solar-powered yard lights around the top of the fence enclosure which makes for great ambiance at night. It’s pretty cool sitting in the spa at night listening to the city sounds and looking at the stars. We can just imagine how much better it will be when the pool area is finished. Laura’s and Matthew’s other chores were to organize the RV and the basement storage room. Meanwhile, Peder focused on the garage. It took about 3 days, but there is finally “a place for everything and everything in its place.” We definitely should have bought stock in plastic totes!

We closed the chapter on the demo phase of the house with the removal of the third dumpster! Matthew spent the good part of one day raking all the gravel and dirt around the driveway where the dumpsters were parked and used a magnet sweeper to ensure all of the roof nails, screws and pieces of metal were removed. It is amazing how many missed the dumpsters and were just waiting for an unsuspecting tire.

The room above the garage is almost complete with Peder installing all the trim today. The carpet is scheduled to be installed this coming Monday, so we should be able to move furniture up there either Monday night or early Tuesday. On Tuesday, our main contractor, Carlos, will also start painting the exterior of the house. The choice to paint or not paint was a big one. While we kind of like the old-style brick, it is just that…old. It definitely dates the house and touring other older brick homes in Rogers and Bentonville shows that painting is probably the right decision from an eventual resale point of view. We found an inspiration house and are going for similar colors. We already had the roof done in Rustic Slate and all the trim, facia and gutters in black. The house color Laura chose is Sherwin Williams White Flour (SW 7102). We have the Pella sales rep coming next week as well to measure and give us a quote on black-trim windows.

Inspiration House Colors
Journey

Moving out

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This past week we doubled down on packing up our current house in Centerton. Saturday became a “power day” with getting all the furniture moved to the main floor so Peder could figure out exactly how to go about packing the Pod. He is definitely the “Tetris master” when it comes to how to pack a bunch of stuff into a relatively small space! We divided everything into one of three destinations — Pod, Olive Street garage, or RV. Fortunately, the earlier thinning out to get the house ready for sale had already sent many bags and boxes to Goodwill and Laura was able to sell her large desk and bookcase from her office. By Sunday night, we had 95% of the house packed up and stacked into the Pod or moved over to West Olive Street. We brought the RV home and spent our first night of the next several months in our new “home away from home.” We’ll use this final week to load up the RV with the remaining personal and household effects. As we’ve used the RV for nearly a year for weekend excursions or 1-2 week trips, we’ve commented about ways to make how we use certain storage better. Now is the time to get that all figured out!

Journey

Time flies – 1 month in

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This week marks 1 month since we closed on the W. Olive house. We can’t quite understand where the time has gone, but then, upon reflection, it’s like…oh yeah…a lot is going on!!

We closed on W. Olive on Oct. 12 and spent that first week getting things lined up – turning on utilities, finding a demo crew, getting roofers scheduled and a construction dumpster delivered. We then focused on getting our current home in Centerton on the market having picked a target date of Oct. 22. We didn’t have a ton of things to do to get the current house ready — just the typical “thinning out” and some touch up paint, especially where the dogs tend to bang around chasing balls.

Knowing that we would probably see a lot of traffic over the weekend, we loaded up the RV and made last minute reservations at Horseshoe Bend Recreation Area for Oct 21-24. This was our first time at this beautiful spot, but definitely not our last, especially since it is less than 10 miles from the new house. Laura called a friend to see what amenities the RV sites had, only to find out he and his wife were already there…small world! We invited our dear friends Myank and Shweta to join us on Saturday night to walk along the lakeshore and have dinner around the campfire, and it also turned out to be a celebration of the sale of the house!

Our realtor, Mike Self (@Caldwell Banker) told us we would most likely see a quick turnaround, but less than 48 hours from MLS posting to accepted offer gave us quite the whiplash! The sign outside the house still has “Coming Soon” and we will be closing before Thanksgiving. Fast forward to today, and we have a Pods container sitting in the driveway and a multitude of boxes packed and stacked.

Meanwhile, progress is being made at W. Olive Street. As the Gallary photos show, our focus has been on getting the room above the garage completed so that Laura can use it during the day as her home office and we can all use it at other times as an additional place to hang out. The space is something like 15ft x 30ft with dual skylights and a small outdoor deck space, so no doubt it will be a favorite place to retreat to when the RV starts to feel tiny.

The demo is taking about 7 to 10 days longer than originally planned, but we also increased the scope to include “everything.” But now, with the ceiling and all the insulation out, we are super hopeful that we will be able to raise the ceilings on the main level by at least 2 feet, which will be awesome. It is very interesting as well to see that this house has actually gone through several renovations in its lifetime. We see evidence of moved or added walls, windows turned to doors and doors to windows. From evidence on the central chimney stack, Peder also believes that the house has had its roof raised at one point. On the positive side, we aren’t seeing any evidence of water or termite damage, which is always the risk when you start tearing things out.