It’s Beginning to Look Like Home

To our new followers, I say welcome.  Hope you find my musings entertaining.

Our RV is beginning to look like home. This past week, we have been busy moving things into our RV and painting inside the house so it can get listed before 10/31.

Carol has made several quilts and decided one of them needed to be on our RV bed. This is a crazy quilt named because the squares are made from a hodgepodge of fabrics, do not match and has no defined pattern. This crazy quilt is colorful and and defines who we are.

We decided to move into the house is pretty empty.  We have a king sized bed, two recliners, a folding table, boxes of stuff that will be sold in an estate sale mid November. The echo in the house was haunting so it was time to get moved. We do have electricity and water connected to the RV so that makes things comfy.

My brother was here a couple of days ago to pick up a few things that he wanted. It was difficult to see him drive off with some of the tools from the wood shop. Additionally, we moved the last of the major items to my daughters apartment this afternoon.

    

My grandson was given a couple of special things from me (Papa). The bookcase in the photo is one that my Dad made for me when I was a little older than Gage is now.  It is well worn now but I am sure my Dad would be please to know it has lasted over 50 years. The small wishing well was made for me by my grandfather about the same time I got the bookcase. He hand carved the stone work in the piece as well as hand cut the tiles for the roof. As Gage gets older, I am sure he will remember the origin of these pieces.  I made the headboard you see in the background for Gage when he was 3 years old. In the background is a headboard I made for his first bed. He has woodworking craftsmanship in his room now that were made through 3 generations of our family.

In addition to painting and moving, I also added to the list of mods for the RV. We have a tall space above the side cabinet in the kitchen. It is the perfect place to store things that are bulky.The railing would keep things in place as we travel. This replaced a small piece of crown molding that was more decorative than functional. The rail should hold things just fine.

The closet in the RV had a useless cloths rod. We prefer a cloths rod that is more traditional to houses. so out with the old, and in with the new. On the left is the original, on the right is what we now have. With the lateral supports, the rod should hold just fine.

    

I thought I would close this with a goofy photo of my Gage.  He was 4 when he and my daughter moved in with is three years ago. While I am happy for the new life we are all beginning, I am really going to miss him. I will certainly be looking forward to our visits.

RV Mods

The other day Carol said she was ready to move the craft center in to the RV.  That is a good sign because our days remaining in the house are numbered. Moving from 1700 square feet to 400 square feet is not something you do over night.  It has to be done in stages. We are fortunate that we have a little time to complete this move.
When we bought our RV, we decided the couch would have to go. It was nice but was not something we needed when we get on the road.  Yes, it folds out to make a bed for overnight guests.  We did not need the extra seating when considering what we wanted in that spot.  Carol loves quilting and crafting. The idea of replacing the couch with a craft center was the solution.

So, off I went to my woodshop to make a crafter for Carol. I removed the legs from a 6 foot folding table and built a more suitable frame using the same construction technique found in RV’s Here is what I came up with. The only thing I had to purchase was a couple of 4x8 sheets of 1/4” oak plywood. Home Depot had some on the rack marked as “damaged” for $2 per sheet instead of $13.00 per sheet for the good stuff. Since the plan called for cutting the sheets, I was able to find 2 sheets that would work. Now all I need to do is get it into the RV.  

Our daughter took the couch from the RV so that left a nice spot for the craft center.
Yikes! Pretty tight fit. Sure hope it fits through the door.  That sucker is glued together and will not come apart without damaging it. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

      

YEAH! That’s what I’m talking about. Once I figured out how to get it into the door and get it turned, the rest was pretty easy.

   

Now to accessorize it a bit. The bins on the right are on wheels so they roll in or out as needed. Carol has not seen this in the RV yet, but I think she will be pleased.

When traveling, the bins will be stowed with drawers facing in and pushed all the way in. The sewing machine will fit under the center section on the floor. The space on the left will be filled with stackable containers. And it weighs less than the couch.

PS – When you come for an overnight visit, you will be sleeping on a air bed on the floor. Hope that is OK.

Hard Day/Weekend

For most people, today is TGIF. The end of a hectic week. As I write this at noon on this Friday kids are thinking about the weekend ahead of no school. Working folks are anticipating the start of a weekend filled with yard work, projects, shopping, fishing, going to the beach or other stuff. In our household, TGIF should be TIMD (Tomorrow is moving day).

For the past few weeks, our daughter has been busy packing away all of  her earthly possessions and some of ours. Two weekends ago, our eldest daughter came down so she and her sister could go through Christmas stuff. We had a large closet full of it. Now we have one small box. That was a hard thing for DW to do while I worked outside.

Today, I repacked a few overly stuffed boxes so they could be carried and finished packing out the kitchen. Things where going well until I picked up the Pizza Peel that I made in October 2005. I actually made two back then. One for my eldest daughter Michele as a wedding gift and once for me. No room for that in the RV so this one goes to my youngest daughter Laura. The peel is made from Pecan and Mesquite wood. I paused and ran my hand over the wood remembering the challenge of getting the angle just right on the bottom.

Next I moved to Laura’s room to remove the curtain rod hangers and wall mirror that I reframed in 2006. The mirror came from the dresser my brother and I had back in the 50’s. I still have the dresser in the garage but it is all rotted out and is destined for the dump. I wish now that I had taken better care of it since my grandson needs a dresser. It would have been perfect for him.

I finished in Laura’s room and moved to my grandson’s room. Everything is ready for moving day except for removing the headboard from mattress frame. I made the headboard for Gage in 2006. He was ready to move into his big boy bed. Laura sent me a photo of a headboard she liked so I made it for him. There is a matching footboard for the bed also.

As I was writing this blog, DW asked if I wanted some lunch, grilled cheese and soup. Noticing she bought my favorite Cinnamon-Raisin Bagels, I said, “No, how about toasting up a bagel for me.” That’s when I lost it. The toaster had been packed for Laura’s move tomorrow.  The reality of the weekend hit me. After a few tears, I went to the RV to get our toaster/oven.

I am enjoying lunch now and looking forward for this weekend to be over. Our cupboards are bare now. After eight years in our wonderful house, our home is about to change.

More to come as the weekend unfolds.

Tough Days Ahead

Those who have crossed the bridge to fulltime RVing will understand this post.
One more item crossed off the To Do List.  Garage got a major bath today.  Beautiful weather made the work very enjoyable.  We went to the deck after dinner tonight and the garage actually sparkled a bit. You know the feeling. Like stepping of the shower or bath after working hard outdoors. The last item on the projects for this week is to paint the trim. Can’t do that until a day or two after the garage bath.  I’ll post pictures when project is done.
Tonight, our daughter said she want to get started packing up the kitchen.  She and our 7 y.o. grandson have been living with us for 3 years now and are moving into their own apartment this weekend. I thought I would help out a get started on this task. DW and I decided it would be easiest if we just packed all our Fiestaware and move the Corel from RV to house so we would have plates to eat off. So here are before and after pictures of the one cabinet that contained the Fiestaware and glassware.

  

As of today, we have to wash dishes after each meal since there are 4 place settings and 4 people at the table. I kept the important stuff such as wine glasses, 1 Aggie mug, and two Starbuck mugs. Cabinet looks a little bare.
Tomorrow I hit the pots and pans. We will then get to practice cooking and eating as if we were living in the RV.
After daughter and grandson move out, the house will have an echo in it and will be very empty.  Sigh.