Tag: RV Purchases

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RV Life – Month 6

We have enjoyed our life in Ruff Road for six months now!  Incredible.  This month is special because it was one year ago that we took possession of Ruff Road.  In that time, we’ve enjoyed several trips and finally moved in full time in July 2017.

So how has it been after six months of living in an RV and not in our sticks and bricks home?

In one word- GREAT!  We don’t mind the space at all.  Even though we haven’t officially hit the road yet, we enjoy short trips and even our weekly dump run.  There is plenty to do in our county.  Gary continues to be involved in our church music ministry and has been writing some great music.  I have reunited with the Florida Trail Association in our area to hike and volunteer.  Of course, having family close by is a bonus right now.

Do we miss our sticks and bricks home?

No, we do not miss our sticks and bricks home.  My daughter and her family have done a beautiful job of decorating it and making it their own.  We don’t even think of it as ours anymore, it’s theirs.  We don’t miss the upkeep and the constant cleaning that went with a larger home or all the stuff that went with it.  Truthfully, we only lived in our bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom anyway.  As the children left home, the rest of the rooms were just there and prone to collect clutter.

How are RVs and stick/brick homes similar?  Different?

I thought about what it was like before living in Ruff Road.  Much of what we do in Ruff Road is similar to what we did in our house.  Rearranging, decorating, purging, cleaning, and organizing took place in both homes, however in Ruff Road it is on a much smaller level which is nice!  Rearranging and organizing seems to be the two that we have worked on the most as we continue to “squeeze” into our new space.  Most recently, we removed the pedestal table from in front of the couch.  We had contemplated this for some time but where would we eat or work?  We finally had enough and bravely unbolted it from the floor.  We put our long rug over the area in front of the couch and now use the top of one of the dog crates for our table.  No problems!  We talked about adding a hinged wooden table top for more flexibility but for now, this works!

Before
After

 

The biggest difference between life in a house and life in an RV, is that everything in the RV is magnified due to the smaller space.  For example, dirt gathers more easily in the small space of an RV vs the larger space a house offers.  Things can accumulate more in a house but in an RV, the clutter becomes screamingly evident and you have to deal with it.  In the house, if I wasn’t sure about tossing or donating something, I’d put it away in a closet to decide later.  In the RV, space is limited so this is not an option.  Even as I write this and everything is put away, we are aware that we have too much on board with us and we have a little RV purging to do.  We have too many clothes.  The dogs have too many toys.  We have too many linens.  So we’ll whittle these things down.  Finally, we don’t have the anchor of a large yard to maintain.  Anywhere is our yard.  This was more freeing for me than I realized and there are no arguments from Gary about this.  Here’s another bonus:  We interact more in an RV.  We like that.  If we need our space, we have outside, one can go to the bedroom or to the coach area.

 

What has happened this month?

If you read our previous post, we sadly said good-bye to one of our ruffs, our 15 year old mini poodle Phoebe.  We miss her and she will always be in our hearts.

We attended the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa, Florida.  This event is huge featuring many vendors, seminars, RV types, models and manufacturers.  You can view the bare chassis frames that are on display and learn how to maintain your generator.  If you are exploring the RV lifestyle, attending an large RV show like this one provides the opportunity to see everything from pop-ups to large class A coaches and everything in between.  Of course, if you are already RVing, you can see what’s new and how space is used in the different units.  Also, I’m sure the dealers were looking to make a deal with new owners and with those willing to trade in their current RV.  We spent most of our time looking at the vendor stations and attending seminars.  We especially appreciated the seminar about maintaining your generator and diesel engine.  We also attended a couple of seminars for RV newbies and full-timers which was helpful.  If we were going to look at RVs as well, we would have needed a second day which was included in our ticket.  Visitors with RVs could stay on the site with no hook-ups for a fee.  Learn more about RVing in Florida by the group that sponsored this event, the Florida RV Trade Association at http://www.frvta.org.

What RV supplies did we purchase this month?

As trivial as it might sound, we were in the market for new pillows so we picked up two bamboo pillows at the Florida RV Supershow.  They are super soft but can be used to prop up so you can read or work.  Also, we found some stick on lights for a few of our dimly lit cabinets and bins.  These were our two Florida RV Supershow purchases.

Other purchases were:

DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid):  This is required for all diesel coaches to ensure that the exhaust from the engine is environmentally friendly.

Leveling Blocks:  These are long overdue but we’ve only had one major problem not having them.  Wood planks from a nearby dumpster provided the solution.  In all other cases, we were able to maneuver the coach so all four tires were firmly on the ground.

Tank Tech Microbials:  Gary says this is like RidX on steroids.  This is the second month we have used this to minimize tank odor and ensure the right bugs are living in our tank to work on decomposition.  All it takes is two ounces per dump.  After using this product, we don’t have the pungent odor when our black tank is almost full and improves our tank’s health.

What’s next?

Watch for a link to be posted soon for our newly launched Ruff Road RV Life You Tube Channel.

Also, coming soon-

  • What are our plans for 2018?
  • Torreya State Park Review

Share to help grow our community and subscribe to be notified of new content.  Comment to share your knowledge, ask questions, or recommend topics.

 

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Ruff Road RV Life Resources

Our Ruff Road RV Life Resources Page has been updated. Check it out!

http://ruffroadrvlife.com/resources/

You will find a list of items that we purchased or brought from our house to outfit Ruff Road.  Remember, I am an overthinker so all of these items have been researched and pondered before hitting BUY.  We have reflected honestly about them and will update as we add new purchases.  Of course, this list doesn’t reflect all of the items from our hobbies that we had on hand such as guitars, speakers, mini sewing machine, art supplies, backpacking gear, bicycling gear, kayaking gear…but we’ve made room for these and did not include them on our list.

Your list will look different based on your RV, your preferences and needs.  Use this, or any list, as a guide.  It might jog your memory regarding something you may have forgotten about or that you were not aware that you needed.  We looked at multiple lists found on the internet and listened to countless vlogs to help us with our plan to set up Ruff Road.  We then made our own list prioritizing items we would need to purchase first.  We took it step by step, one bite at a time.  Little by little, our RV turned into a home.

We hope you find these resources helpful.  Share some of your helpful resources.  Was there anything that you discovered you needed but didn’t have?  Was there anything you purchased thinking that you needed it only to find out you didn’t afterall?  Comment, subscribe and share.  We are looking forward to building this community.  Thank you to our subscribers.  

 

 

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RV Life – Month 5

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

This is our first holiday in Ruff Road.  It was almost one year ago that this dream began.  My Facebook timehop popped up with One Year Ago today…my friend and I were taking pictures of RVs at a local dealership.  This time last year, we had no idea we would be “looking at freedom” everyday.  So here are our tweaks, tips, and trials at Month 5, as well as some general observations.

General Observations:

  • It’s cold even in Florida, but Ruff Road has stayed warm and cozy.  Temps were chilly, but not freezing.  Stay tuned for Month 6 reflection to see how we’ll do in much chillier weather.  However, so far so good.
  • When you retire, you don’t have to be the one to cook and host.  We enjoyed going up to the big house and eating our Thanksgiving feast with my daughter and her family.
  • This leads me to another observation.  We love being with family.  What a difference it makes when the cloud of a stressful job is not hanging over your head and you can enjoy your family mornings, middays or afternoons.  This is something that was difficult for us to find time to do in our past life.  We know not everyone reading this is retired.  We were there.  My advice that I tried to follow while I was working was to work towards a work/ home balance.  It was an ongoing goal.  Sometimes I was really good at it and sometimes work just took over.  However, as long as you set it as a goal, your chance of success are higher than if you don’t.

    • Christmas with the family in St. Augustine, Florida
  • One more observation, a retirement bonus that I noticed.  Christmas shopping and events were so freeing because I didn’t have the work load I did in past years.  My budget was smaller-retirement budget-but we all still had a great Christmas and I loved looking at freedom this time of year.

Tips:

  • Make a plan to balance work and home.  Hang in there and know that the day will come when you can look at freedom everyday.
  • Need space?  Rethink it.  Even though we feel like we have ample room here, the use of space needed to be improved.  I was using the table for an office but that meant it was always cluttered with the computer and papers.  We were also busy digitizing home videos (part of our downsizing process) and the video and second computer were always on our limited counter space along with copied and to copy VHS tapes.  Clutter, everywhere!  We also observed that the passenger chair, when turned around toward the living room served mostly as a catch all as you came through the door- ugh, more clutter.  What was our solution?  We have a very roomy cab area.  There is a small table next to the passenger chair and the dashboard area is quite large.  I already had office supplies and photography equipment stored there, so…naturally this became our office.  We left the passenger chair turned forward and the space is quite roomy to work in.  We were also able to gain some room by moving one of the dog crates to right behind the passenger chair giving a more closed off look to the space.  We like it.  Expect that tweaking space and rearranging will be the norm when you begin RV living.
  • Protect your RV floors.  We made a huge mistake when we moved in.  We were leaving behind ceramic tile floors that seemed to be indestructible no matter what you pushed across them.  Ruff Road has laminate tiles.  We now know, they will scratch easily.  When we moved in we took baskets, boxes, and crates of belongings to Ruff Road and, like an assembly line, shoved them in the door and pushed them inside to add more.  All of this pushing of weighted items put fine scratches all over our floors.  You can’t really tell unless you are on the floor so that’s the good news.  Then I wondered, were they there all along?  No, I think we did it.  To further protect our floors, we stopped sliding things on them.  The dog crates rest on rugs.  In addition, we put felt on the bottom of our ottoman and free standing chair.  Lesson learned.

Tips relating to dogs:

  • Keep nails trimmed.  We should know this but we let it slip.  Our girls’ nails grow long and sharp if not trimmed.  We wish we were part of the group of folks who know how to do this, but we aren’t- yet.  Our dogs’ nail trimmings require a trip to the vet after a calming pill.  They are overdue and our dash paid the price.  We now have one little pinhole from an excited Terra who jumped up before she could be stopped.
  • Set boundaries for pets.  This should go without saying but…sometimes this doesn’t happen.  Our girls are allowed in the driver and passenger chairs, the ottoman, or the floor.  They are not allowed on the couch or the bed.  They also know to “stay” when we are coming and going through the door.  Consistency is the key.  Make sure both pet parents are on the same page.  If one allows a rule to be broken, pets become confused and, like children, will push their limits.
  • Use Velcro to keep covers on furniture.  When we purchased our RV, the coach seats were already starting to flake.  We keep them covered with blankets and that works well.  Our ottoman is looking a little worn as well so it is covered with a quilted piece of fabric.  I used Velcro to attach the fabric to the ottoman.  I plan to use Velcro to help keep blankets on the coach chairs.  I’ll let you know how that works out.  Until then, we will just rearrange them after the pups mess them up.

What are some trials we’ve had this month?

  • Our onboard water tank filled up twice this month.  The first time water was actually leaking out of the fill tank area.  We thought we had the switch flipped over to city water, but it still happened twice.  After draining the tank twice and rechecking, we haven’t had anymore issues.  Maybe it wasn’t all the way over.  It’s still a mystery.
  • This is tragic!  We purchased a Powilling Dehumidifier from Amazon to take care of excess moisture in the air.  It rode on the built in side table next to the couch.  We had no problem in all of our travels.  However, on one fateful day, as we turned into our driveway, it took a tumble and fell to the floor never to work again.  We recommend this unit.  It has worked great for us.

We are just days away from our first full time RV Christmas.  The tree is up.  The lights are hung.  We are warm and cozy and happy.  Peace to everyone.

 

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We Bought an RV – Now What?

When we ended up purchasing an RV sooner rather than later, how did we set it up?

Our original plan, of course, was to move from our house to our RV.  However, we fell in love with Ruff Road and ended up with a house and an RV.  So now, we need to set up our RV as our second home since we will be taking some trips in it.  There are many RV lists on the internet to help you in this process and that’s exactly where we went to research what we would need to set up Ruff Road.  Here is the process we followed to outfit Ruff Road and some of the items that we purchased.

Our Moving in Process:  Before Retirement

  1.  We measured every bin and cupboard to find just the right storage containers and baskets.  These measurements were added to rough diagrams I’d drawn of Ruff Road, inside and out.  This helped us to decide what would be stored in each area.  Be flexible- We made changes as we went along.
  2. We watched other RV You Tubers and poured over Pinterest to learn about the best, lightest, most efficient items for our new home.
  3. We made our own list of what we needed.
  4. We took inventory of what we already had on hand.  For example, I had 20 year old plastic baskets from my early days of teaching and they fit perfectly in our cupboards.  No purchase necessary there.  Many items, such as our bedding, pillows, pots and pans, we already had so we used them to stock Ruff Road.  Bonus!
  5. Then we got to shop!  Amazon Prime was our primary source.  Below is a list of the items we purchased.  Coming Soon-Check back to our Resources page for links to these items.
  • Correlle Dinnerwear Dish Set for 4- It’s lightweight and is resistant to chipping and cracking
  • Silverwear and cooking utensils
  • Cotton Bandanas- great for hiking, cleaning, dries quickly
  • Turkish Towels- lightweight, quick drying
  • PetMate Dog Crates- They have since outgrown!
  • Fabric Storage Cubes for storing clothes, they work like drawers in our closets- Walmart, inexpensive
  • Plastic containers for the basement
  • Spill-proof Water Bowl – from Lazy Days Store
  • Pet Food Storage and Feeding Station
  • Pet Playpen Fencing
  • Large RV Mat for the under awning area
  • French Press – fail, we couldn’t get it right
  • Sharp Steamer Mop – we had on hand but ordered extra pads
  • Go Pro Hero 5- Got to take pics!
  • Replaced our cheap toilet seat with a better quality one
  • Water Bandit- excellent little gadget to use when connecting to water at a campground, works on stripped faucets
  • Dehumidifier- listing details here, it worked so good!
    Powilling 1500ML Portable Quiet Dehumidifier for Home, Basement, Bedroom, Bathroom, RV, Garage – For Single Room Approx 300 sq.ft – This worked great for us but just recently took a flying leap from its home and sadly is toast.  Now we have to purchase another one.  We recommend it!
  • Command Hooks, Command Shelves – this is how we personalized our new home and hung pictures.  Be careful of wallpaper but so far we have not had any issues.
  • Rugs- memory foam rugs feel great!
  • Water filter
  • Toilet Sealant
  • Water Hoses- a grey one and a white one at first but then we found easy collapse hoses that saved space
  • Sewer Hoses- a necessity
  • Electric Plug- 30 Amp and 20 Amp adapters, not cheap!
  • Grass Mat for dirty paws!

6  Finally, we organized it all.

This organization was for Ruff Road as our recreational vehicle for trips.  We were pleased with our organization.  On our March trip to north Georgia, in freezing cold weather, we were able to welcome my daughter and her family into Ruff Road for a couple days.  We had four adults, three children/ teenagers, and FIVE dogs!  It worked.

At this time, we were still living in our home.  However, in just a few short months, we would be making the transition from 2,000+ square feet to full time living in our Ruff Road with our dogs!   Follow along and see what our process was to downsize.

Comment to share positive suggestions, experiences, or even lessons learned to help others outfitting their RVs.