Wandering Thoughts of a Writer: #RV

Showing posts with label #RV. Show all posts

Kevin and I created a video today about what minimalism means to us.

As you know we’re total newbies, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?

I’m totally out of my comfort zone when it comes to pictures of me and now being in a video, especially close-up shots.

Why?

Honestly, it's because how I was treated during my childhood. I had a huge overbite and was teased a lot.

. . . But I’m working on overcoming my issues with my looks and what better way to do that than put myself out there on YouTube.

I’m stepping out of my comfort zone.

I have to say, though, Kevin is pushing me to just do it.

He said today, “Fuck it. Let’s just do it. I have two missing bottom teeth that I need to get fixed and will. So what? We’re newbies, and this is how we learn. One day we’ll look back on it and see how far we progressed from our earlier videos."

He’s totally right.

We’ll know what shots work and what doesn’t.

-So, we made a video today on what minimalism means to us, and I mentioned a totally weird thing we’ve been doing that is totally out of our comfort zone.

It’s live on our Dare To Live Youtube Channel. Here’s the link . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2mz2qE58_Y

If you like it, please click the thumbs up and subscribe. Also, if you click on the bell, you’ll get notified every time a new video goes live.

. . . Anyway, as I said before, this is totally out of my comfort, but that’s good because growth and opportunity will breed from it. Also, life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

I’m daring to live. 😜

#comfortzone #opportunities, #daretolive, #minimalism, #minimalist, #motorhome, #RV, #video, #weird, #youtube, 0 Comments

As you guys know, we’ve been renovating our RV. We’d be totally done by now if the weather wasn’t so miserably hot and humid last summer.

Those of you who have been following me know that Kevin and I were going to start a YouTube Channel to document our journey.

. . . Well, Kevin started it, posted up some content, and today we filmed an About Us episode. We’re totally newbies, but hey, every pro was once a newbie.

Growth begins and magic happens when you step out of your comfort zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLqF4ixPdDU&t=2s

#adventure, #books, #daretolive, #digitalnomads, #etsy, #exploring, #nomads, #ownyourlife, #RV, #RVrenovation, #website, #youtube, 0 Comments

You should always have a backup plan—a plan B.

We have a furnace in our RV (Aesop), however, we still need to get it fixed, which we decided not to do until spring.

Btw, we’re not completely done with the renovation, but we’re getting close. I’ll get to that in a minute.

. . . Anyway, even when our furnace does work, we’re still going to want a backup heating system.

(This page contains an affiliate link which means I may earn a commission if you use it, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I love.)

You guys, I found the perfect backup heating system for us.

Mr. Buddy.

I’m sure some of you have heard of Mr. Buddy, but I haven’t until I got involved in the RV/nomad community.

Mr. Buddy is perfect for warming up RVs, fish houses, garages, shops, etc.

Here’s the link if you wanna check it out. https://amzn.to/2OXum4x

Last night when we got back from our date, the temp. was 38 degrees, which was perfect for us to test out Mr. Buddy.

Kevin grabbed a one-pound propane cylinder, hooked it onto Mr. Buddy, and set Mr. B near the cockpit area.

A half hour later, our RV was nice and toasty.

Seriously.

We were amazed because even our bedroom in the back was warm.

-So, we hung out in our RV, listened to some music (powered by solar), drank some wine and brandy, and had a good time without being cold. It was great.

We did discover, though, that a one-pound cylinder only last for 3 hours if we have the setting on high. We might end up purchasing a propane adapter and hose that we can attach to a twenty-pound cylinder.

I don’t know.

Mr. Buddy is for backup heating, and so far, we love it.

Now, back to the renovation part. We’re not done yet, but we’re close.

Honestly, if we wouldn't have had a shitty summer (hot, humid, and mosquitoes), Aesop would be done.

-So, now winter is coming, we need to winterize our house-on-wheels, and once again, wait until spring to finish what’s left of the renovation.

It seems like this reno is taking forevvver.

. . . But, things are how they should be.

We’re not the only blade of grass in the prairie.

This winter, we’ll get our house ready to sell, and then put it on the market. In the meantime, I’ll finish the rewrites and edits to my Legends of Deceit book #2 as well as work on other writing/creative projects I’ve been toying with.

Oh, btw, since it’s October, I’m thinking about writing posts about my books and Halloween stuff. I think it’s fitting and will be fun for all of us.

Have a wonderful week!

#books, #edits, #furnace, #Halloween, #heat, #houseonwheels, #mrbuddy, #nomad #writing, #projects, #RV, #RVrenovation, #spring, #winter, 0 Comments

A month ago we purchased this wood flooring, and I told Kevin to be prepared for it to be a pain in the ass to install.

I’m generally a positive person, however, when he had decided to replace the front seats, he thought it would be a piece of cake to install.

It wasn't.

It was a freaking nightmare!

-So, I didn’t want him to get his hopes up because it seems like every time we think something is going to be easy with the RV it never is.

. . . Well, guess what. I was wrong, and I’m glad I was.

We were totally surprised.

The flooring is easy to install, but he’s not finished yet. Almost.

Hopefully, next weekend he’ll be done. All that is left to do is the bathroom and cutting pieces to fit in awkward places.
(This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission if you use it, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I love.)

Here’s a before and after picture.

We’re loving it, and last night I ordered a couple of throw rugs to make our home on wheels even more homey. Here’s what I ordered if you wanna check it out.

https://amzn.to/2OPWS8k

https://amzn.to/2xAUqvw

Yesterday, we took a trip to South Dakota and went to Menards. I wanted a backsplash for behind the stove. I saw this retro style one and grabbed it.

What do you think?

I’m not sure what to think about it yet. I mean, I totally love the copper look, but the thing is it’s not real copper.

Will the heat from the stove melt it?

Kevin thinks it's going to be fine.

. . . Anyway, last night, Kevin and I had a couple of drinks in the RV. We hung out and listened to some 80s rock—powered by our solar.

I'm so excited! Solar rocks!

We had fun and are looking forward to living a nomadic lifestyle.

Our home on wheels is already feeling like home. The more we make it our own, the more we want to take off and live in it full-time.

. . . But we have to wait until everything falls into place and the time is right.

We know this, so in the meantime, we’ll continue with this renovation, minimizing our lives, getting our house ready to sell, and me working on my books and freelance writing.

In the end . . . it’s all good.

#floor, #homeonwheels, #lifestyle, #nightmare #rugs, #nomads, #RV, #RV #renovation #installation, #RVrenovation, #solar, #surprise, 0 Comments

I have a confession.

We’re curtain challenged and always have been.

In fact, in our spare bedroom we have a blanket over one window and a faded towel over the other one.

It’s so ghetto, but it is what it is. It wasn’t like we haven’t tried to find curtains to go on those windows.

. . . But, we failed to find the right ones and gave up on it because to be honest, it wasn’t that important to us to continue hunting for the right curtains. Besides, we’re the only ones who goes into that room—us and Church that is.

(This page contains an affiliate link which means I may earn a commission if you use it, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I love.)

-So, last month I bought two of these boho patchwork curtains, and I love them.

However, as you can see, they were way too big for our RV windows.

Epic fail?

Not quite.

Kevin took one and bunched it up above our kitchen window, and it worked!

Don’t they look adorable?

Here’s the link if you want to check out these cute bohemian patchwork curtains. https://amzn.to/2xgHB9I

Now, what the hell do we do with the other one?

Thankfully, I have a creative husband who can think outside the box and has an imagination.

I’ll show you what he did with it in a minute.

. . . Anyway, we finished painting the inside of our RV yesterday.

Since we’re both visual and creative people, we started decorating the inside to fuel our excitement on what our house on wheels is going to look like after we’re done renovating it.

Here's what the inside looked like right after we were done painting and before we did a little decorating.

Here's a picture of what Kevin did with the other curtain.

Here's another picture to give you an idea of what our house on wheels is going to look like once we're done renovating the inside.

We still need to install the wood flooring, and we can’t wait to see what it’s going to look like after it’s done.

-So, yesterday, we accomplished another goal. The painting is finally done, and it looks good, even though painting isn’t our favorite thing to do.

So far, this journey has taught us patience, endurance, knowledge, and wisdom.

We’re being molded and rewarded in ways we never considered or thought about.

A whole new world has opened up to us in ways a year ago we couldn’t even fathom.

It goes deeper than becoming a minimalist, renovating our RV, and eventually traveling the US full-time, living a nomadic lifestyle as a digital nomad.

Maybe one day I’ll write a post about it, but for now I’ll leave you with this as a hint of what I’m talking about.

#accomplish, #accomplishment, #boho, #curtains, #decorating, #endurance, #goals, #houseonwheels, #knowledge, #painting, #patience, #renovation, #RV, #RVrenovation, 1 Comments

Sunday was an awesome day to work on renovating our RV (Aesop) because the weather was cool enough for us to get shit done.

-And we’re making progress!

We’re not finished yet, but check out what we’ve done so far inside the RV . . .

Kevin had to install the padding and carpet in the cockpit area.

I think he did a fine job.

-Then we painted. We still need to finish painting the bedroom and part of the bathroom.

The booth cushions will be covered in a mandala pattern, and the couch will have a brown slip cover with bohemian type pillows. The two windows you see will have patchwork curtains and blinds or a shade.

This is a closet and pantry we redone.

I love the vintage look.

I showed you the following in another post, but I'll show you again.

Kevin distressed this bottom cabinet to give it that vintage gypsy theme we wanted. It was one of the first projects we'd done.

Anyway, I wanted to share our progress with you. I know I love seeing before and after pictures because it shows me what a difference paint and new fixtures make to a boring cabinet.

If you want to continue reading about our progress on transitioning from a conventional lifestyle to an alternative one and about my books—which I need to write a post about in the near future—you can subscribe to this blog on the right-hand side here under "follow me".

Have a wonderful week!

#alternative, #blog, #book, #future, #gypsy, #love, #paint, #progress, #RV, #RV #renovation #installation, #vintage, #weather, 5 Comments

We made a lot of progress today on our RV renovation. I’ll write a post on it soon.

Right now, it’s late, and I don’t have time to write the post.

-So, I thought I’d share my own personal quotes that I live by.

Feel free to share them.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

#happiness, #happy, #life, #lifestyle, #post, #quotes, #RV, #RVrenovation, #society, #write, #writing, 0 Comments

We’re all about simplicity and being as self-sufficient as we can.

When the concept to be digital nomads and travel the U.S. came into fruition in our minds, I discovered the composting toilet. I mentioned it to Kevin, but he wasn’t onboard with the idea right away.

(This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission if you use them, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products that I love.)

During the months of watching Youtube videos of other full-time RVers living the lifestyle we were working towards adopting, Kevin warmed up to the idea.

At first, he thought about building one for us.

Thankfully, I talked him into getting the Nature’s Head composting toilet. https://amzn.to/2PIxC4v

It’s all about embracing the minimalist’s mindset.

With a regular toilet in an RV, we’d have to deal with the black water tank, putting chemicals in it, attaching a hose to dump, and finding a dumping station. Not to mention, the possibility of having something go wrong while dumping our waste and having it spill all over us.

Nasty.

That happened to a fellow Rver, and he was not a happy camper. No pun intended.

With the composting toilet there are no chemicals, and it’s good for the environment.

Here's what ours look like and an explanation of the simple mechanics behind it.

We're still in the process of renovating our RV (Aesop), and we haven't worked on the bathroom yet, except for tearing out the carpet.

We bought this CoCo Coir to put in our composting toilet.

It’s all-natural.

Your poo turns to compost, and instead of your toilet smelling like shit, it smells like damp earth.

-So, with a composting toilet, we won't be reliant on the sewer system, and it's good for the environment.

It is costly, but worth it in the long run. If down the road (again, no pun intended) we decide to get a new rig, van, or a cabin, we can take the composting toilet with us.

The next thing we had to think about was our refrigerator.

I briefly talked about it before in another post I wrote:

-It's not a 3-way fridge

-3-way refrigerators are expensive. They cost between $1,500-$2,000.00.

We pondered over this situation for a while, and then one day it hit us.

We were thinking from a sticks and bricks mindset, not a minimalist one.

We don't need a big fridge.

All we need is a week's worth of food.

. . . Let's be real here. Most people buy too much food and waste it.

I'm guilty of that, and I hate wasting food.

-So, yeah, at the beginning we weren't thinking correctly. Our thoughts weren't aligned with the minimalist lifestyle we were embracing.

One night, Kevin came across this little badass refrigerator.

The Dobinsons 4X4

https://amzn.to/2odoJmQ

When it arrived at our house, at first I was like: I don't know about this. It's small.

. . . But, after examining it and putting some food in it, I realized it's perfect for our needs.

It'll totally hold a weeks worth of food.

No problem.

-And it runs on solar power as well as 110, and it's portable.

Here's what Kevin did with the space that the original refrigerator was in. He's not done yet, but this is what it looks like at the present moment.