Heat Wave

Four days in a row with temperatures in the hundreds. Normal high temperature for this time of year is 88 degrees. The next two days are expected to continue to be within the hundreds as well. This has kept us inside running both AC’s. 

Spring Is Here

Our campsite now has the true look of Spring and we love it. 

Headlight Restoration

Over time the plastic covers on vehicle headlights become faded and dull. These plastic covers can be restored at a much lesser cost than replacing them.  The cost of having our truck headlights restored was $45.00 and took about an hour. We found this service on craigslist under Services/Automotive. The advertiser was WWW.CLEARVUEHEADLIGHTS.COM 

                                               Before                                                After

A New Microwave

We have been living the last 18 months without a microwave oven. It’s not that we didn’t want one, we just didn’t have any room for a microwave oven of any size. Our main use would be for baking potatoes quickly and popping popcorn.

To acquire the necessary room for placement of a microwave we removed the passenger seat in the RV and placed a small table in it’s place. This gave us the room for a medium size microwave oven.

Being the fact that our motor home is over 20 years old it will not effect it’s value not having a passenger seat. When we are ready to sell this RV we will sell it as a hunting or deer camp unit.  

Electrical Mayhem

Friday night as Beverly was cooking coconut pies for a family get together on Saturday, she noticed the light in the refrigerator was not coming on. Outside it was dark, cold and misty. Not a good time to go poking around searching for electrical problems.

Using an extension cord I was able to get power to the refrigerator from an outlet I installed next to the breaker box last year. This solution would see us through the night.

Saturday morning I was able to check all the breakers for power and all of them were showing as good. This to me meant that there has to be a short somewhere in the line that powers the refrigerator. With my volt tester I began to check for outlets that did not have power. Of course the refrigerator was the first that I checked, there were six outlets on one side of the RV that had no power. These outlets seemed to be connected one to the other, but then the mayhem of it all.

One lonely outlet with a ground fault on the opposite side of the RV above the vanity in the bathroom. The safety had been tripped. When I tried to reset the ground fault switch it would not hold. Ok, this means I need to install a new GF outlet.

To avoid the holiday shopping madness I chose to stop at a hardware store on the way to the family get together and install the new GF outlet Saturday evening when we return. Wouldn’t you know it, the hardware store was closed. Sign said “Gone shopping”. Short on time I decide to wait until Sunday morning to purchase the GF outlet.

It was getting late, close to bed time so I decided to try and reset the GF outlet one more time. The switch held and I again had power to all the electrical outlets that were dead. I still intend on installing a new GF outlet in the bathroom, one that has both plug-ins  ground faulted. I also intend on changing the way the GF is wired in so next time only the bathroom power will shut down in the event the GF trips.

When the new GF outlet installation is complete I will post images of what I did and how I did it.

Stupidity caused sewer blockage

Yesterday when we emptied our black water tank we noticed sewage water exiting around our connection to the RV park. We then noticed waste exiting from the drain pipe in the next site over from us. The first thing entering our minds was “Did we cause a blockage in the RV parks drain system?”.

We informed the park management of the overflow and were told they had called a septic tank cleaning company earlier in the day to pump out a blocked septic tank at another location in the park and would have them pump out the one close to us too.

Blockage problem solved? No. The cause of the overflow for us was not a full septic tank, or was the blockage caused by our waste tank content.

One of the RV park occupants had inserted their sewer hose into the drain pipe without using an adaptor elbow fitting. The hose was pushed so far down into the drain pipe that it had blocked all the sites above it from proper drainage. Sewer hose elbows are not expensive and every RV park sells them so there is no excuse not to purchase and use the elbow for proper drainage. This problem was cause by pure stupidity. 

MiFi to the rescue

Yesterday we reached our last straw of aggravation with the WiFi at our location. Having to go and reset the WiFi here several times a day had gotten to be just too much of a hassle.

We decided to purchase a MiFi from Verizon. The credit card size unit is sleek, less then a half inch thick. The MiFi creates a WiFi hotspot and is password protected to keep unwanted users from connecting and stealing bandwidth. The cost was a bit high however we are not under a service contract or equipment lease and can stop service at anytime we choose.

We are starting out with 10 gigabytes a month for $80 + tax. The Verizon MiFi 2200 set us back $288.89 and we will be billed for the 10 gigabytes next month.

How it works for us

We don’t have laptop computers like most RV’er do. We have two desktop computers and neither came WiFi ready. To enable us to use a WiFi connection we had to install hardware into each desktop. We did this by purchasing two EUB-362 EXT - High-Power Long Range Wireless G USB Adapters. These would locate any WiFi signal in the area that we could connect to.

To setup the MiFi we just turned it on, let it connect it’s wireless communication to the nearest cell tower and it was ready to use. When we booted up the computers they were able to find the new WiFi hotspot we created. We highlighted our WiFi connection from the list, clicked connect and entered our password and bingo we were online again.

Dark and Rainy Day

The title says it all, dark and rainy today. This translates into a lazy day filled with television, internet activities and napping

We both have the vice of smoking. The cost of smoking continues to climb every year so to cut the cost we decided to start making our own cigarettes. We buy tobacco by the pound and filtered cigarette tubes by the carton then use a small device to cram the tobacco into the tubes. Cost of our brand of ready made  cigarettes is $36.37 a carton. When we make our own cigarettes the cost drops to a whopping $8.22 per carton.

                                   The Tobacco we use                               The Filtered Tubes we use                             The Cigarette Machine we use

Before you start in on the rants and dislikes of smoking take a moment to understand that we are adults. Our choice to smoke is just that “Our Choice”, not yours!  Our liberties to smoke in privately owned establishments such as bars and restaurants have already been stripped from us. As tax payers we can no longer smoke in government buildings although high ranking officials right up to the president of these united states can and do so. We are not uneducated so we know the so called risks involved even though none have been medically proven.  

Our intent within this post is that for those that do smoke there is a way to cut the cost.

Satellite TV

Cypress Hill RV Park does not offer cable television connections for their campsites. This is due to the fact the RV Park sets along the De soto National Forrest on highway 49. The cable and telephone service stops 3 miles from the RV Park. The owner has done everything within his power to encourage the cable companies to extent cable to Cypress Hill RV Park however they will not comply.

We chose to purchase a satellite television service to meet our needs. Local channels were too few with fairly bad reception. We decided to get Dish network and had the dish installed on a tripod so in the event we relocate it would be easy to pack up and move it with us.

The campsites here at Cypress Hill RV Park are quite large as you can see in the photos.

   Each of the back in sites has a concrete patio and some sites like ours has a fire ring.

Getting settled in

We are almost settled in here in Mississippi at Cypress Hill RV Park for the time being. We have not decided how long we are going to stay in this location so it’s just a month to month thing for us for now.

Finding a Doctor has been the most troublesome obstacle we have encountered thus far. Due to the pain medication we are on these doctors want us to see a pain specialist. Their fear is not weather we need the pain medication or not but rather fear of the DEA for them issuing such medications. The one doctor we found so far insisted we take a urine test to verify that the level of medication issued is in our systems and that we are not selling our pain medications on the black market.

Although we had a few problems with our MH on the trip over from New Mexico, we have not had to do any repairs since we parked it here. The sites are large for such a small RV park. Each of the back in sites have concrete patios and there is plenty of room to park a vehicle between the patio and the next RV site. 

Amenities  do not include cable TV. The WiFi is untrusting as it is always getting knocked off line and requires the park manager to go to the center of the park and flip a switch to reset the WiFi . When we are able to connect the strength is “very low” usually one bar. This make surfing the internet a real pain. We are looking into purchasing our own WiFi or MiFi system as well as satellite TV system. This will depend on us making up our minds as to how long we can live without these amenities.

Another day of repairs

This morning when we turned on the AC in our living room it ran for about a minute then kicked the breaker. Ok this means another day of repairs.

We called “The RV Doctor” for help. He arrived around 12:30 pm and inspected the AC unit that was failing. Sure enough we needed a new AC unit in our living room. He didn’t have any AC units on hand and refused to even help install a new one if we were to buy it elsewhere.

We call a local RV sales and service company “Bison’s RV” and they said if we could get our motor home there by 2:30 pm they could install a new AC unit today. We scrambled to get things tied down and stored as we haven’t moved our MH in over a year. We arrived at the RV service place at 1:30 pm.

Being the fact that both our AC units were over 20 years old we elected to replace both with brand new units. This took a huge bite out of our savings however it seems worth it to have both AC’s replaced at the same time.

They were able to remove the old AC units and install the new AC units in one hour and thirty minutes and tapping our wallet a whopping $1,659.47. They were nice enough not to charge us the disposal charge of $40 per AC unit and we thanked them for that.

Long day of repairs

A week ago we contacted an auto repair shop to see if they would come to our RV park and work on our MH. This morning they called and said they were on their way. We wanted them to completely flush the brake lines. They used 2 quarts of brake fluid and was able to get all the old fluid out as well as a few air bubbles. Then they told James to go to their repair shop to pay the bill and get the invoice.

While James was at the repair shop he asked the owner if he would like another repair project. “Sure, whatcha need done” was his answer. James explained that our 1999 GMC Sonoma leaks gas when we fill it up. This has been a problem since day one when we bought it off a used car lot. The repair shop owner said they can get right on it and it would probably only need an O-ring where the pump goes into the tank.

The repairman found several old O-rings in the bottom of the tank, so this means the repair has been attempted several time. The problem wasn’t the O-rings at all, the fuel pump that the O-ring goes around was the wrong pump.

While they were waiting for the new fuel pump to arrive the shop owner gave our truck a 50 point inspection and had the mechanic complete any repairs that did not require parts (such as tighten oil pan and transmission pan bolts, belts ect. at no extra charge)

The repair on our Sonoma took 6 hours to complete however this includes the time they waited on the new fuel pump to arrive at the shop. James was not expecting the repairs on our Sonoma to be done today as it usually takes a week or more to get a service slot at that auto repair shop.

Engine Water Pump Installed

Our 1990 Georgie Boy Motor Home has a Ford 460 engine and was in need of a new water pump. After several months of trying to find a mechanic that would come to the RV park and work on our RV we all but gave up. James decided to pull the water pump out his self and with an ear infection to boot. His biggest fear was breaking a bolt off in the process. He managed to remove the bad pump without too much trouble.

James spent another two weeks trying to get a mechanic to install the pump. Five different mechanics told James they would be happy to install the water pump, however none of them would show up as promised. Guess they didn’t need any extra income.

Yesterday afternoon at 3:30 pm James got a call from one of the mechanics asking him if the water pump still needed to be installed. The mechanic said he would be here in thirty minutes and actually showed up right at 4:00 pm. The job was finished just before 9:00 pm.

Our Motor Home is now mechanically road ready and September is looking good for our departure from NM.

How Did He Do It?

As many of our followers know, we replaced our RV refrigerator with a low cost compact one. Up until today we had not secured it for traveling however that condition has changed. How did he do it?

Being the lazy kind of person James is he chose to make the process simple. He went to a business that sells iron and purchased one 3/16th inch x 3 inches x 23-1/2 inches of flat iron. Next he went to Wal-Mart and purchased a set of 1-1/2 inch shelf brackets, a set of 2-1/2 inch “L” brackets a can of black spray paint, and a pack of 3 inch x 3 inch Velcro pads.

He cleaned and painted the flat iron then installed the shelf brackets to the flat iron using self tapping screws. Next he placed the two Velcro pads onto the top of the refrigerator, peeled off the remaining tape cover and placed the flat iron onto the Velcro pads. Next he screwed the shelf brackets into the side walls of the refrigerator cabinet using wood screws.

 

Next he went outside and installed the “L” brackets to the back of the refrigerator using self tapping screws then used wood screws to fasten the “L” brackets to the cabinet floor.

   

The refrigerator is now ready for travel, neither of us could get the refrigerator to budge by pushing, pulling or twisting it after James had completed his work securing it.

Okatoma Here We Come!

Okatoma Resort & RV Park located a few miles North of Hattiesburg MS will be our new location in September 2010 for an undetermined amount of time. Okatoma Resort & RV Park will have us living within minutes from where we both grew up.

We came to the conclusion that New Mexico has given us as much cold and hot weather as we can stand. We are getting old and require less sudden changes in temperatures which can be quite dramatic here at times. The wind is another factor that we have grown tired of, as well as the dust storms that come with the extreme winds.

This doesn’t mean that we have not enjoyed the past 11 years while living here in NM. We will miss the beautiful sun rises and sun sets in this big sky area of the state. We will miss the beauty of the plateaus, grass lands, mountain ranges and all the other enchantments NM has to offer.

Yep, Stabilizer Jacks Are Working

Yesterday evening a sever thunderstorm rolled through with straight line winds clocked at 70 MPH. Surprisingly we didn’t feel any rocking motion. The winds hit us semi-broadside from the northeast. We watched several other MH owners exit their RVs to wait out the storm in their toads.

Later in the evening people were out gathering their lawn chairs, BBQ grills, area rugs and anything else that had been blown about during the storm.

No More Rocking

Last week we moved the stabilizer jacks to the outer edge of our MH. This stopped the rocking during windy days. We are very pleased with the outcome. Although we haven’t had 65+ MPH winds we did have a few days of 50+ MPH winds and didn’t have any rocking motion in the MH.

We checked all the jack contact points to be sure the beefing up the areas held up. No bending or crimping was found. In our opinion our stabilizing of the MH was a success.

Stop The Rocking

Our Motor Home doesn’t have leveling jacks so when the wind blows our MH rocks back and forth. There are several options however few fit within our budget.

The option we chose were screw jacks that can withhold 6,000 each. We first placed them under the MH frame at each of the wheel locations. This helped somewhat until we had 65 MPH winds. The location of the jacks caused the center of gravity to be smaller making the MH feel as if it would tip over with every gust of wind beyond 65 MPH.

Solution:

Move the jacks to the edge of the MH. This would require beefing up the areas of contact of the jacks. We purchased 2 inch channel iron and 1/4 inch flat iron to do the beefing. This would prevent the areas of contact from crimping or bending.

Materials:

Four 8"x9"x4" Concrete Blocks (cost 10.58)
Set of Four 6,000 lb. Jacks (cost $38.00)
4' Channel Iron 16" 1/4" Flat iron (cost $10.87)

2 inch channel iron inside each bay above the contact point of the jacks.

4”x4”x1/4” flat iron screwed to bay frame below installed channel irons. Jacks contact points.

Jack and 8”x9”x4” concrete block.

Center of gravity moved towards the outer edge of the Motor Home.

The object is not to lift the Motor Home off the ground but rather stabilize the MH against wind gust that caused rocking of the RV.

A Ghost In Our RV?

Last Wednesday (May 12th) we decided to replace the faucet in our shower. The old one had gotten to the point that it had just two settings, full blast and off. The access panel made replacing the faucet child's play being very easy to reach both hot and cold connections. The whole job of replacing the faucet was less than twenty minutes not counting the time it took to go to town and purchase the faucet.

Having the new faucet on site our first step was to turn off the water coming into the RV and open the water access panel for the shower. Next was to open the lowest faucet to drain water from the lines. The shower faucet was the lowest drain point so there was a small amount of water that was in the piping when we disconnected the pipes from the faucet. One sheet of paper towel was all that was needed to dry up the spill out. We removed the two locking nuts that held the old faucet in place, removed the two rubber gaskets, removed the old faucet and cleaned any gunk that was under the old faucet.

We were now ready to install the new faucet which means reversing the steps used in removing the faucet. First was to place the new faucet in the shower, slip the new rubber gaskets into place and screw on the locking nuts. Next is connecting the hot and cold water pipes. These pipes are plastic as well as the faucet pipes and the connectors which means you only need to screw them on hand tight. Turned the water back on coming into the RV, open faucet to remove any air in the pipes, inspect the pipe connections to insure no leaks and close the access panel.

A Ghost?

Last night on our way to bed we found water on the floor next to the shower access panel. What the heck is going on. We removed the access panel to find water shooting out from the cold water pipe connection. After dashing outside to turn off the water coming into the RV we were able to inspect where the water was coming from. The connection which had been hand tightened was loose and almost completely off of the faucet. 

We retightened the loose connection, dried up all the water, turned the water back on coming into the RV, inspected the connections again for leaks and closed the access panel.

Open Post to Rich

Rich said...

Looks like you 2 are good at keeping your costs down. I have two questions: 1) How are you doing in the 1999 without a slide? 2) How does your budget look?? we want to go fulltime, have to decide on type of MH will have under 4000.mo income. Can we do it??

Rich, first of all you need to ask yourself (and spouse) if you are looking for an adventure or a change of life style. Adventures look toward constant travels crisscrossing the nation with or without travel plans. Life style changers down size their cost of living by looking for RV parks that offer affordable sites that offer all the necessary hook ups at one monthly price and usually stay put for long periods of time.

Rich you stated that you will have around $4,000 a month to work with and in our opinion that is quite a bit. Set your budget at $1,500 to $2,000 a month and bank the rest in a savings account that you would have to actually go to the bank to withdraw any of it.

Our MH is a 1990 35 foot Georgie Boy without slides and this hasn’t affected our getting around inside it. In our opinion slides offer more room for foot traffic, slides are mechanical which means it’s just something else that can become a problem. Oh something else, we paid cash for our MH, do the same if possible.

Our budget is as simple as we can get we chose to live on $1,000 a month we bank the rest. We will show our fixed costs first. Our RV park site cost us $300 a month. With that we get water, cable, internet connections, sewer, garbage pick up and 50 amp electricity. We have two cell phones under one plan at a cost of $35 a month. Full coverage on our vehicle and RV runs about $412 for six months so we stick back $68 a month to cover that. Our tags cost us $166 a year so we stick back $14 a month for those.

If you have been keeping up with our expenses so far you will notice we still have $583 to work with. How can we make the month on what’s left? We can control how we spend the $583.

We plan to remain here for a few years so the park owner let us place a 120 gallon LP tank next to our RV. We get the LP tank filled by an off site gas company as needed for almost a dollar a gallon less than the RV park sells it for. Also we don’t have to move the RV when we need LP gas. We cut our LP gas expenses even more by using a toaster oven to bake / broil in and a two burner electric hot plate for stove top cooking. We use one electric heater in the living room and one in the bathroom.  Our average LP cost is $37 a month.

Cloths: We have a rule. If I buy a shirt then I have to throw a shirt out. If she buys a new sweater she has to throw out a sweater. Always pay cash.

Food: Eat at home 28 days of the month. Eat before you go shopping for food. Always pay cash. 

Everything else: Is it a need or a want? Always pay cash.

Always pay cash! Why? There are no fees or interest when you pay with cash!

Good luck Rich.

Drinking and Driving

Don’t get us wrong as we do oppose drinking and driving in every sense of the meaning. Seems every day on the news or in a news paper someone has been arrested for drunk driving. In many cases the arrest makes that persons third, forth or ever nineteenth time. Stiff fines do not seem to deter drunk driving. Jail time hasn’t worked for most either.

Here’s an idea, why not remove all alcohol products from establishments that sell gasoline, diesel, propane or other fuels for motor vehicles. Allowing alcohol products to be sold from the same real estate as motor vehicle fuels promotes the use of alcohol while driving.

City, county, state and federal governments rely on the funds generated by the taxes on sales of alcohol products. What better place to allow the sell alcohol than the same location as the sell of motor vehicle fuels. This way our governments generate yet another source of revenue by means of Drinking and Driving Laws.

Although the law has been extended to include the use of illegal drugs and some legal prescription drugs the outcome is the same which amounts to catch and release. This creates a constant flow of revenue for our many governments with no concern for those that have lost their lives due to drunk driving or drunk drivers.

This post is our opinion based on our own observations and does not reflect the view of others on the topic of Drinking and Driving.

 

It Pays To Compare Prices

We have a 1999 GMC Sonoma that was in need of repair. The “Service Engine” light would come on whenever we added gasoline. We also could not fill the gas tank because gas would spill out the top of the tank. We went to our local GMC dealership to inquire about the cost of the repairs They gave us a quote of $140 plus a $40 diagnostic charge and would require the truck to be there all day.

Not wanting to pay the diagnostic charge due to the fact we told them what the problem was, we chose to shop around for a reasonable repair price. We went to an auto repair shop and they told us the cost would be $140 plus $45 for the O-Ring that seals the gas tank. They also said the repair would take two to three days.

We then went to an auto body shop to see if they would even give us a quote. They said they do not normally do this type of repair which required the removal of the gas tank. However they did say they could remove the truck bed and make the repair without removing the tank if we would purchase the O-Ring ourselves from an auto parts store. They didn’t know what the charge would come to but assured us it would be under $100.

We purchased the new O-Ring and new locking ring for $17.52 at a parts store and took the truck to the body shop the next morning. They told us we could hang around because they were going to start working on our truck right away. They removed the truck bed, replaced the O-Ring and reinstalled the truck bed and gave us the repair cost of $60. The time that it took to complete the job was one hour and fifteen minutes.

So much for higher priced repair shops and days to get you vehicle back. It pays to shop around and compare prices.

New Refrigerator

Today our old refrigerator decided it had worked long enough (20 years). Time for a new one. Not wanting to fork out over $1,500 for a new Dometic brand that would fit smug into to same space as the old one we chose a Frigidaire Compact Refrigerator. The total cost was $299.75 and took about 30 minutes to change them out.

We know we will never boondock or setup anywhere there is no electric service so there is no real reason to purchase a two or three way refrigerator. We were not using the full 7 cubic feet of space in the old one and all our items fit nicely in the compact 4.4 cubic feet refrigerator.

It’s Always Something

Hi, James here. Yesterday our WiFi connection was extremely slow and was dropping packets at a rate of 52%. Not being able to do anything online I decided to remove some of the programs from my computer that I no longer use. My computer is several years old with Windows XP Professional Edition and with all the clutter it had it would take 1 day and 3 hours to back it all up using the Windows Backup utility.

I decided to remove my hard drive and use Beverly’s computer to format mine as a slave drive. Then I put my hard drive back into my computer and installed a clean Windows XP Professional Edition operation system. Simple right! I have done this very thing several times throughout the years.

All went well at first. Moving my hard drive from one computer to another and back took only minutes if you don’t count the time it took for the formatting process. Installing Windows XP Pro was a snap as well. Then loading the few programs that I use either daily or weekly went smooth too. Wow I’m done and I have time to watch one of our 680 movies from our D: drive before supper.

What the hay!!! Why does the movie look mosaic! Pixeled edges and not smooth? Better check the system hardware in the Control Panel. What no Video Controller? Ok, off to the internet to find video drivers, but remember the WiFi connection is still dropping packets which knocks me off line within minutes.

It’s 4:30 something in the am, I’m tired from messing with this computer for the past 17 hours. So off to bed for a few hours sleep.

It took all my energy not to boot up as soon as I woke. Beverly went with me to town for a few grocery needs and she fixed lunch when we got home. I was back working on the computer shortly after noon. Still downloading and trying new drivers.

Most of you know about our big screen TV so I won’t go into that right now. Well anyway while downloading I happen to turn my attention to what Rick Sanchezs on CNN was saying. Something about Twitter and he pointed to a big screen TV and that is where the answer came from. I have a Y cable connecting my computer to both the monitor and TV. No wonder the computer couldn’t find the right drivers. So I removed the Y cable and connected the monitor straight to the computer. The monitor screen was fuzzy so I rebooted and found I had no picture. I remembered that during my quest for drivers I installed a different video Bios so here I go again with another full reformatting and installing Windows XP again.

Two hours later I’m watching that movie I started to watch yesterday.

What Happens When Snow Melts

When snow melts more snow comes along to replace it as did yesterday. Heavy snow at times throughout the day along with light rain. The dumpsters appear to have about two inches of snow on top however this does not account for when the park manager removed over two inches of snow off the tops around 2:00 pm yesterday. During one of the RV chat secessions this week the idea of selling our snow to areas of Canada that have none came up. Although it seemed to be a great idea the fact that snow melts brought up yet another issue, State water rights in which New Mexico would fight to the death over any loss of the byproduct of melting snow.

Why Couldn’t He Be Wrong

Guess there is a first time for everything but we would rather the weatherman had been wrong on his forecast for today.

Let’s Hope He’s Wrong

Let’s hope the weatherman is wrong this time. Here is what he predicted.

Tonight

Windy. Slight chance of rain in the evening...then occasional rain...sleet and snow after midnight. Snow and sleet accumulation 1 to 3 inches. Lows in the upper 20s to lower 30s. East winds 10 to 15 mph increasing to northeast 20 to 30 mph after midnight. Gusts up to 40 mph.

Thursday

Windy. Snow and sleet in the morning...then snow in the afternoon. Snow and sleet accumulation 7 to 9 inches. Highs in the upper 20s to lower 30s. Northeast winds 20 to 30 mph decreasing to 15 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Gusts up to 45 mph.

Time For A New TV

Sunday our RV’s TV said it had enough. Not bad for a 20 year old TV. So off to Wal_Mart for a new one. So many to choose from in all kinds of sizes and price ranges. We are sure we don’t want another 13 inch TV even though it would fit into the dash. 13 inches is just too small, let’s get something just a bit bigger.

How about a 22” or 26” TV, humm that’s not much bigger than our computer monitors. Let’s get the 32 inch Vizio, (he thought). The price is not that much more than a 26 inch TV. Cash in hand James put a 32 inch Vizio TV into a buggy and then on to the checkout he went.

Quick stop at Lowes for shelf brackets, screws and a 1 x 12 x 4.

Back at home, James removed to old 13 inch TV then constructed a shelf attached to the dash to set the new 32 inch TV on. Easy to remove for traveling and easy to set back up when we stop.

Today James went back to town to fetch some cables so he could connect his computer to the new TV. This way we can watch our avi formatted movies on a big screen rather than his 21 inch monitor. The quality of the avi movies are the same quality as DVD movies. We can also watch DVD movies through his computer so we don’t have to purchase a DVD player.

The cables James came home with for the video was a 10 foot monitor cable with a male and female end, a 4 foot monitor cable with male and male ends, a Y monitor cable with one male and two female ends. These cables are 15 pin connection monitor cables. For audio he bought one 20 foot 1/8 inch headset cable with a male and female end, one 3 foot 1/8 inch cable with male connections at both ends.

James connected the male end of the Y cable to his computer then connected his monitor to one of the female ends of the Y cable and the other female end was for the TV. The TV has a RGB 15 pin female connection so that is where he used the 4 foot male/male cable and then connected the male end of the short cable to the female end of the long cable. Video connection completed. For audio he used the short male/male 1/8 inch cable to connecte the back of the TV and the long male/female from his computer speaker jack. Audio complete.

To watch our avi formatted movies all we have to do is open a folder on his computer, locate the movie we want to watch and double click it. Once the program opens the movie we click on “Full Screen” and pause the movie. Then use the TV remote to change the input to RGB and then start the movie. James turns off his computer monitor while we are watching the movie on the TV.

Isn’t life great"!

Refrigerator Update

We checked on the price of a new refrigerator at our local RV parts center. Their quote was $1,597.00 however because parts sales are slow they would cut the cost to $1,300.00 if we buy it this month.

James replaced the electrical outlet and rerouted the refrigerator drain tube. Since these repairs we have had no problems with the refrigerator and see no need in purchasing a new one at this time.

RV Refrigerator on the Blink

Our Motorhome has a Dometic refrigerator that is about 20 years old. Thursday night around 11:00 pm we noticed that the freezer was self defrosting. For a freezer that is not frost free this is not normal. Something was wrong and had to be seen to quickly even though it was 14 degrees outside with 20 to 30 MPH winds. What were our options at 11:00 pm under those conditions?

First we turned the refrigerator switch off then removed the contents of the freezer and finish the defrosting using a hair dryer. We turned the switch back on and set it to a cooler setting then it had been on. We waited almost an hour to see if the freezer was starting to get cold again. Problem not solved at this point.

Ok since the freezer is not working what should we do. Thaw and cook all the meats that were frozen? Run to Wal-Mart and buy a big ice chest and bags of ice in hopes to save the meats that were thawing? Go out into the cold night and try to find the problem?

James bundled up to avoid frost bite and ventured out into the cold. He has his tools stored in one of the basement bays and needed to get his electric tester to troubleshoot the refrigerator from the outside. He unplugged the refrigerator and tested the outlet for power which showed not having a current. James tested the outlet once more and found there was a current so he checked again and there was no current. Ok faulty outlet, maybe some water had gotten into the outlet housing and caused contacts to become out of place.

James plugged the refrigerator into one of the outside outlets that are on the side of our motorhome. Within a few minutes the freezer started to create frost on the damp areas inside the freezer. Problem temporary solved. We will wait until the weather warms up a bit before James replaces the faulty refrigerator outlet.   

Another Blast of Cold

... Arctic cold front to impact New Mexico on Wednesday and
Thursday...

A bitterly cold Arctic air mass... currently in Saskatchewan and
Manitoba Canada... will gradually slide southward and will bring
colder conditions to much of New Mexico by mid week. This air mass
will bring some of the coldest temperatures observed thus far this
season in the eastern half of the state... along with low wind
chill values... and light to moderate snow accumulations.
The cold front will initially spill into northeastern New Mexico by
mid to late morning Wednesday... and will rapidly advance southward
and westward to the Central Mountain chain. Strong and gusty winds
will accompany the frontal passage where occasional gusts up to 40
and 50 mph will be possible. Light to moderate snowfall is also
expected along and behind the front... and therefore some areas of
blowing snow will develop Wednesday afternoon and into Wednesday
night. In addition... low wind chill values ranging from the single
digits to -10 degrees will be possible in north central to
northeastern sections of the state where the impact of the front will
be greatest.

Less impact is expected in central to western sections of New
Mexico. However... as the front advances toward the Central Mountain chain..  some modified cold air and strong winds will likely spill into central canyons and gaps on its way to the Continental Divide. Below normal temperatures and isolated light snow showers will be possible in these areas.

If you plan to be outdoors or travel across New Mexico from Wednesday through Thursday... prepare for blustery conditions. Tune in to NOAA Weather Radio... local media outlets... or the National Weather Service website at weather.Gov/abq for the latest on this upcoming frontal
system.

RV Roof Repair

The New Year has gotten off to an unexpected start. New Years day we found a leak on the ceiling in our bedroom. The leak didn’t last very long at all however a leak is a leak no matter how long it last.

Weather leading up to the close of 2009 was snowy and windy. We could not find an entry point that moisture could have pooled and caused a ceiling leak. The rubber membrane contains several air pockets and we even found some areas of soft roofing. This leads us to believe that we have some wood rot under the rubber membrane.

At this point we have a few options until the weather warms up this Spring. One option is to do nothing and wait for the warmer weather. Another option is to slit the rubber membrane at the air pockets, remove the air and any moisture and patch the slits.

This Spring our plan is to remove all the rubber roofing, remove and repair any bad wood, then cover the roof using EPDM Liquid Rubber Roofing. Our research brought us to the following link that explains the use and application of EPDM Rubber Coatings http://www.epdmcoatings.com/videos_play.php?vid=25

Lazy Day

Today we are spending our time watching college bowl games and snacking on tortilla chips, nacho cheese dip, pineapple cheese ball, crackers and fresh sliced ham.

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Marshall vs. Ohio
Meineke Bowl: Carolina vs. Pittsburgh
Emerald Bowl: College vs. Southern California

Colder than predicted

We checked the weather this evening and saw that it was only going to get to around 16 degrees tonight. Strange thing, it’s 10:30 pm and it’s 8 degrees outside.

Tomorrow if it warms up enough to thaw water lines we can expect to be without water for sometime. Last week there were three broken water lines in the park which left us without running water for just over an hour. We don’t store water in our fresh water tank so we used other containers to fill with water so we can make coffee and flush the toilet.

Too many people in this park do not prepare for cold weather. Over half the RVers here have their sewer hoses laying on the ground. This causes the waste water in the hoses to freeze because the dump pipes are above the ground. Less than half of these people don’t have there inlet water hoses wrapped and of those that do most don’t use the heat tapes. Guess $39 is too much of a cost to prevent frozen water hoses. 

If we have any problems with freezing it won’t be because we didn’t do our best to prepare for the cold weather. It will be something we will just have to deal with and tomorrow being Christmas Day there will be no place that one can purchase repair parts. With any luck and our preparations we will make it through the night without any freeze ups.

White Christmas

Wanted or not we will have a white Christmas. Last night snow fell or should we say blew in with 30 to 40 MPH winds straight out of the North. Drifts are behind every RV in the park. Ours has the highest snow drift at about 3 feet. Our high today is expected to get to 31 degrees however we don’t think it will as it is 23 degrees at the time of this post.

The park manager did drive his tractor around the park creating passages through all the drifts so people could get out if they wanted or dared to. This made it easier for us to make a “have to” trip into town for medications.

If you would like to see photos of the snow and drifts you are welcome to come on over, stand out in 30 MPH winds and the cold and take all the photos you want.

Merry Christmas

James & Beverly

Volkswagen Beetle & Camper

I was surfing through YouTube.com today and ran across an interesting concept for RVing. A camper designed for use with a Volkswagen Beetle.

Volkswagen Beetle and Camper

Another Snow Day

Woke up to find snow covered campground and a temperature of 18F  degrees. Not sure how long the snow will be falling today but it does look nice and fresh though.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was very pleasant as we had roasted turkey breast, mashed potato's, sweet peas and pumpkin pie. The turkey was juicy and tender having baked for 6 hours at 250 degrees in our toaster oven. Left over turkey will be served with steam fried potato’s tonight along with the last of the pumpkin pie.  

Today we went to town and got groceries for the next seven days. Snow is in the forecast for Saturday through Monday night and we don’t want to get out in that kind of weather. We took advantage of the sales prices and were able to get all we needed for $38.43. This means we will end the month below our budget again. 

One of our shopping secrets to saving money is to stop off at one of our local Dollar Stores. We buy things like coffee, cereals, and some can goods that are at least 20 cents cheaper than at other stores. We always make a list of needed items before we leave home. If it’s not on the list we don’t buy it. This cuts down on impulse shopping.

One of our favorite stores to shop at is S & S Super Market. We have a link to there sales flyer on our side bar. We always check to see what’s on sale before we head out to shop. 

Update

Getting ready for cold weather entails making sure your black water tank, gray water and fresh water inlet are protected from freezing.

Our RV has a compartment that is quite small however we did find a way to keep the temperature above freezing without placing so much heat in the area that would cause the holding tanks to melt. We used a small shop light with a 40 watt bulb. If the temperature drops below the heating effect of the 40 watt bulb we can replace it with a 60 watt or even larger watt bulb.

 

We also placed a thermometer in the bay so we can keep track of how well our heating bulb is doing. Next we wrapped our water line with low a wattage heat tape, placed insulation around the line and tapped over the insulation.

 

Considering an RV Life Change?

Are you considering changing your life style to become a full time RV dweller? There are many ideas about the RV life styles. Some have the desire to travel from place to place site seeing the country. Some have the desire to stay in one place long term. Then there are some that are drawn to the idea of the option to come and go as they please.

RV’s come in many shapes and sizes, tow trailers, 5th wheel trailers, motor homes, vans and so forth. Each has their own degree of comfort and amenities. This also holds true to the many different kinds of RV Parks and campgrounds that are dotted throughout the country, be it the United States, Canada or Mexico.

An RV regardless of it’s type or size has limited living space as well as limited storage areas. This brings to mind the pioneer days that our countries were built from. Small one room dwellings to escape the elements. Is that the real factor that draws us to downsize our home environment. Sort of roughing it one might think.

Although living full time in an RV seems simplistic it by no means is less difficult than what may be left behind. Adjustments must be made as to how you once managed your living. This may include your cooking habits, shopping habits, and entertaining friends and family.

For some people once the idea of living full time in an RV strikes them they jump right in. For others it may take years of planning before making the life change. Some even resort to renting an RV to try out the life style first. Each person has their own period of adjusting to the idea for such a life change.

For us the desire to live full time in an RV started out as a dream. A dream of exploring all the areas of the United States that we have so long wanted to visit. Through chains of events we were forced into our full time RV living in order to survive within our income range. Having the idea of living in an RV already planted in our minds helped us to adapt to this life style change with more ease. At the time we had two options, either move into an apartment or purchase an RV and move into it. We chose the RV and are enjoying it more than we could have imagined.  

First Snow

   We received our first dusting of snow last night. The temperature got down to 30 degrees however we remained toasty warm. We only had to run one of our two furnaces. This tell us our RV was very well constructed. More snow is in our forecast for this morning and evening. There is nothing that we know of that would cause us to be out in this weather. Isn’t retirement wonderful? 

DVD Storage, Is It Needed?

Living in an RV no matter what the size there is always a limited amount of room to store items. One must also take in to consideration the added weight of the items chosen to store. Simple items like DVDs can add up in weight, not only the actual DVD but the case although light add up in volume.

We chose to convert all 681 of our DVDs movies to AVI format and place them on a 1TB hard drive. The benefits this offers us is there are no DVD disk/cases to store and locating a certain movie is super fast. We use either Windows Media Player or VLC Media Player to view our movies in full screen mode on our 22 inch flat screen no glare monitor.

How we did this:

First we copied a DVD to our hard drive using a program named DVDFab. This program rips the files from the DVD so they can be copied to your hard drive. DVDFab can be found on the internet for downloading and installing.

Next we converted the DVD movie file to AVI movie format using Prism Video Converter. AVI movie format take up a lot less disk space than DVD format. Example: 3:10 to Yuma in DVD format uses 4.3 GB, in AVI format it uses 0.7 GB and plays at the same quality as the DVD format. Prism Video Converter can also be downloaded off the internet.

Some DVD movies are over 4.7 GB so when converting to AVI format the program will split the AVI movie in to 2 separate files. These two files will need to be reconnected in order to view the full movie without interruption. (starting the second half of the movie).

To connect the two halves of a split AVI movie we use VirtualDub. This program can also be downloaded off the internet. Example: Waterworld in AVI format was split into two 0.7 GB AVI movie files. Using VirtualDub we were able to connect both parts into one AVI movie file that is 1.4 GB

Getting Ready for Winter

The weather has started to turn cold now so we started getting ready for winter. We shortened the water hose that feeds the RV and wrapped it with a low voltage heat tape. We also covered the hose and tape with insulation and duct taped over it as well.

Our water inlet, black water and gray water tank drains are located in a basement bay. To ward off freezing in this area we placed a shop light with a 40 watt bulb in the bay. We may need to change the bulb to a 75 or 100 watt bulb when the temperature gets below 20 degrees.

We leave the gray water drain open and only close it during the time we drain the black water. The drain hose is set at a good elevation so no water is standing in it. This will help stop any freezing in the drain hose.

Our fresh water tank is located under our bed and is empty. It will remain empty until we start traveling.

Update

We spent the morning washing the drivers side of our RV. It didn’t seen to do much good other than remove the top layer of dirt and grit.

There is so much crazing that we think we may have to use a fine grit sand paper to get the dark lines out. We will do some research before we attempt any sanding. The decals will have to remain crazed unless we decide to replace them.   

Later today if the wind doesn’t pick up we may wash the other side. We will wait a while before we apply wax. If it turns out that we can sand off the crazing then after sanding would be the time to put on the wax.

The front and back of the RV doesn’t have any crazing.

Up On The Roof

Today we took time to inspect the RV roof and make any repairs necessary. Repairs were made easy using Thetford premium rubber roof cleaner & conditioner and applying Eternabond Microsealant tape where needed. We feel better knowing the roof is ready for snowfall.

Interesting RV Chat

Last night while searching Google for similar full time RV blogs we ran across an interesting web site that contains an RV chat. The site is RV-Dreams.com , which not only has a live chat, it has over 130 pages packed full of information.

We decided to check out this new found RV chat room and met several wonderful people that are either RV-ers or want to be RV-ers. Some were full time and some were weekenders. Either way all had an interest in RV-ing. We enjoyed the chat room very much and plan to be regular visitors

Thank you RV-Dreams.com for hosting such a wonderful means for RV lovers to gather and communicate in a live chat environment.

We have received several inquiries from people that are interested in our new life style. Many are concerned about the cost of an RV in today's economy. Although the appeal of living in a small environment with fewer monthly costs is the main attraction the fear of the start up cost is a deterrent.

We are very proud of our modest 35 foot RV. It was advertised as a 1989 model, however it is indeed a 1990 model and it is soon to be 20 years old.

The exterior does look weathered and could use another cleaning. The interior was not in the best of condition when we purchased it, however with a bit of soap and elbow grease it was easy to get back in to a comfortable living condition.

Our purchase price was less than $7,000 and at that price we did expect that we would be required to spend some money to get our RV in to a reliable traveling condition as well as make it livable within our own standards.

Although our RV is not be best looking RV in the park, our comfort is no less than those that have better looking or newer RVs. So do not let the age of an RV stop you from pursuing your dream. Your home is what you make it and best of all, it is not a keep up with the Jones' life style when it comes to living full time in an RV.

Regardless of the age of your RV, it is a better life style then you could imagine, if you have only dreamed the dream.

We are also asked, "How much does it cost to live in an RV?". The answer to that is "How much do you want living in an RV to cost?" After the cost of your camp site, how much do you want to spend?

Larger through illusion

Today we decided to make a change to the appearance of our overhead cabinets in the living room. There are nine overhead cabinet doors. Three of the doors had mirrors covered with stencils. Frosted background with gold trim and flowers. These stenciled doors were not in the best of conditions. All had some sort of flaking and deterioration.
Course of action: Take the doors off the cabinets, remove the stencils, clean the mirrors, reinstall the doors.

Tools needed:
Square tip screwdriver
Single edge razor blades
Windex
70% alcohol

We removed the screw on the door support then removed the top screws on the hinges. Placed the door face up to the table and removed the stencil using a single edge razor blade. Next we cleaned the mirror with Windex and used the razor blade again to remove any traces of the stencil we missed. Next we cleaned the mirror again with 70% alcohol which removes any streaks left by the Windex. Lastly we reinstalled the cabinet door.

Maybe it was plain luck or the fact that the stencils were on the mirrors for over 20 years, either way it took less than 30 minutes to complete each door.

Before:

After:

After completing the cabinet doors project the living room had the illusion of being much larger than before. We like the outcome very much and plan to remove the stencils from the overhead cabinet doors that are in our bedroom in the near future.

Water Leak Found

Yesterday we found water on the bathroom floor. Not much water but enough to get our full attention. Being a Sunday and no where to purchase actual RV parts we were a bit worried.


The water leak was coming from the feed valve on the toilet. Each time we stepped on the valve lever a few drops of water would spritz out. The water valve has an end cap on the bottom that contains a spring. We removed the end cap and reseated it which stopped the leak.


This morning we went to our local RV parts shop and purchased a spare water valve to have on hand. Next time we have a water leak from this valve we will not panic, simply replace it with the spare.


The $45.00 we spent on the spare water valve is worth having peace of mind knowing we don't have to panic.

Stand alone heaters

We went to our local Wal-Mart and purchased two stand alone heaters. The first is a REMOTE CONTROL CERAMIC TOWER HEATER with DIGITAL DISPLAY by Lasko, Model 755320. Wal-Mart price $45.00 The second is a Holmes Ceramic Heater, Model HCH4051-UM. Wal-Mart price $18.00.

The REMOTE CONTROL CERAMIC TOWER HEATER with DIGITAL DISPLAY by Lasko, Model 755320 is a very nice heater that takes up hardly any room at all. This heater breaks the early morning chill in a matter of minutes. Actually in less time than it takes to make a pot of coffee. By using this unit for a few minutes in the mornings we can lower our night time settings for our LP gas heaters.

The Holmes Ceramic Heater, Model HCH4051-UM is the perfec size for under our dining table so our feet can stay warm while the RV heats up in the morning.

Troubleshooting your RV

Upon the event of any problem you may encounter with your RV there is no need to panic. The Internet is full of articles about troubleshooting and repairing your RV.

Case in point, We had one of our furnaces that would not operate correctly. We did a Google search using the the key words "RV heater troubleshooting". We found all the answers we needed to correct the problem. The information saved us both time and money.

Electrical Problem

Electrical problems can and do arise from time to time. Our first encounter with loss of power occurred this past Sunday. We were in the process of cooking lunch and when we placed French bread into the toaster oven it had no power. We used an extension cord from an outlet across the room to finish our cooking.

Once our meal was out of the way I (James) proceeded to locate the problem. I did not have any kind of electrical tester so tracing the problem would be trial and error for the time being.
I started at the power box supplied by the campground. The breaker had not tripped so I moved on to the main breaker box that is on our RV. There were no tripped breakers there either although there was no power to half of the electrical box. It was as if one leg of power was just gone.

Ok, this means a trip to the hardware store. Being a Sunday that means Lowes was the only place to go for parts. I knew that any unused parts that I purchase at Lowes could be returned so I decided to purchase all new breakers as well as a voltage tester. I purchased one 50 amp main breaker, two 20 amp double breakers and one 20 amp single breaker.
When I returned to the RV I tested the power coming into the main 50 amp breaker. Power was coming in on both legs however when I tested each of the 20 amp breakers every other one had loss of power. I pulled the 50 amp breaker out and found that the connector tab on one side had burned to the point that the connection was lost.

Temporary fix:
I removed all the breakers and moved them one space to the right.

Permanent Fix:
I replaced the electrical box and all the breakers. I was able to use the old electrical box cover and keep the same placement of the breakers. This way I did not have to remark each breaker as to what they controlled The products I chose to use were Square D brand. Total cost, $140.67

Update

We decided not to travel until Spring so we ordered a 120 gallon LP tank. This will keep us from having to move our RV every few weeks to fill up our onboard tank. Current LP fuel is $2.12 a gallon if bought at this RV Campground and $1.35 a gallon if delivered to our 120 gallon tank by an off site LP company.

Update

Having been in our RV for over a month we are surprised as to how comfortable we are. Getting used to the small cooking area didn't seem to be a problem at all either. It actually takes less time to clean up after a meal then it did in our old kitchen.

We bought a few items of luxury that we did not have in our house. One was an electric flat grill which we store above the couch until we want to use it. The grill fits nicely over the stove burners too. We also bought an electric skillet with a lid, it too fits over the stove burners. We use it for frying chicken and slow cooking roasts.

Getting Your Mail

Vehicle registrations and drivers licenses require a physical address. Just having a Post Office box does not meet this requirement. Also when you travel you may want your important mail forwarded to you and the U.S. Postal Service does not forward your mail for you.

Although you can find mail forwarding services online they are a bit costly so we chose to use a local UPS Store to handle this for us. We rented a box at the UPS Store for a year to start with. We do not have to drive there to check our mail as we can call them anytime during business hours to find out if there is mail waiting to be picked up. We also paid an advanced payment for forwarding our mail should the need arise. This payment covers the cost of postage and fees involved when mail is forwarded to another location.

Using a mail box service has another advantage over the U.S.P.S. You can receive packages and mail sent through carriers other then the U.S.Mail. This means you can still shop online and have UPS, Fed-Ex and DHL deliveries as well as items through the U.S.P.S. Also items not picked up within the U.S. Postal Service time frame will not be returned to senders. Big plus, no more pure junk mail.

From House to RV

Our house was 1040 sq. ft. more or less. It had two bedrooms, a living room, bath, kitchen and den. The spare bedroom was used to store stuff, lots of stuff. Our computers were in the den set up side by side. We enjoy each other and prefer it that way.

For the seven years we lived in our house our meals were cooked in a toaster oven and stove top. We spent our time at either the kitchen table where we liked to talk to each other or at our computers researching things or playing games on line.

For the past year or so we talked about how nice it would be to be mobile, like travel around the country. We researched that idea a lot and decided that staying in an area for a month or more would give us plenty of time to site see the areas. Daily and weekly RV space rent would eat our income before the end of a month, so monthly rentals was the answer.

Before taking the plunge in to the purchase of our RV we researched our own living environment. The actual space we used on a daily basis. How long we spent in each area of our house. We found that a motorhome that is 32 to 35 feet long would surely suit our needs.

Our Residential Vehicle

We found a 1989 Georgie Boy IMPULSE class A motorhome on eBay in May of 2009. The bid was tempting so we placed our bid not expecting to win at all. Fate had other plans for us and gave us the winning bid. At that point we knew the motorhome would be ours come what may.

Was it the smartest decision we ever made, by all means no! Could we have done worse, we would have to answer yes to that one.

Let us start at the beginning. What were we looking for and for what reason.

What we wanted:
1. Full or Queen size bed.
2. Toilet not close to our bed.
3. Booth or table.
4. Enough room for both computers.
5. Gas engine
6. 32 foot or longer
7. Under $10,000

Reason we wanted a Class A Motorhome.
1. Downsize our cost of living.
2. Do some traveling.
3. Save on fuel cost when not traveling.

Back to the 1989 Georgie Boy IMPULSE class A motorhome. It wasn't as described however those conditions were not known until it was ours and over 1600 miles down the road. The motorhome was in Reading PA and we were in New Mexico.

Upon purchase the first thing that happened were the front brakes had blown out the brake lines. We were lucky that it was being driven by the person we bought it from when that event happened. The seller paid for the repairs.

The next thing that happened one of the fan belts broke and caused the rest of the fan belts to brake. This cause the engine to overheat and blew both head gaskets. This happened right in front of a KOA campground near Elk City OK. We were able to make it from the interstate highway into the KOA campground without further damage. At this point we were just 250 from getting it home. 15 days and $3700 later the motorhome was finally parked in our back yard.

Now with the motorhome in hand we were ready to put our plan in action. The first thing was to check out the motorhome to find what was working and what needed repairs. We found that the motorhome had not been winterized as stated. The hot water heater had frozen and split across the top. There went another $549 and change to buy a new one.

We removed the two swivel chairs and the small table between them and installed a 6 foot long table top for our computers. We also washed all the cushions that are on the couch and booth. Painted the stove hood and replaced the vacuum cleaner system. Repaired several places on the roof that were leaking. Repaired leaks in the water lines to the kitchen sink and toilet.

We moved the items we wanted to keep in to the motorhome and waited for the day to come when we would actually move in. That day was July 22, 2009. We drove the motorhome across town to a nice campground where we could pay by the month.

On August 1, 2009 we auctioned off our house and all the contents. Smart move on our part, why pay a house note when you don't have to.