Wandering Thoughts of a Writer: #solar

Showing posts with label #solar. Show all posts

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.
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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

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.

He made shelves for our books or for whatever.

I have to say, the more we embrace this alternative lifestyle, the more liberated we feel.

#allnatural, #alternative, #compostingtoilet, #liberate, #lifestyle, #minimalist, #nature, #nomadiclifestyle #insecure, #refrigerator, #renovation, #RV, #self-discovery, #solar, #travel, 2 Comments

The solar panels are installed!

We took the week of June 25^th off to install our solar panels.

Of course, it didn’t take a week to do.

. . . But the weather was atrocious, so we had to wait until the humidity wasn’t so high and the temp. bearable.

Wednesday morning was when Kevin installed them.

I had to tie a rope to the back of each one so Kevin could hoist it up on top of the roof.

Do you notice the covers on them?

We didn’t want the sun on the panels until they were installed.

After Kevin placed the panels where he wanted them to be, he got busy mounting them.

He made a mistake, though.

He had mounted one of the panels close to the edge of the roof to prevent us from having to walk there.

Vertigo tends to mess with us.

. . . But what ended up happening was the wires from the other panels wouldn’t reach the one close to the edge, so Kevin had to redo it.

Shit!

However, I’m sure you guys know from your own personal experiences that when you renovate anything the process always comes with challenges.

We’ve been challenged this past week, and I’m not talking only with the solar panels, but with other things as well.

I’ll talk about that in another post.

-So the solar panels are installed.

Guess what comes next?

Wiring!

Not fun.

Kevin needs one more part in order to complete the project, which he’ll get tomorrow.

Once he hooks it up, we’ll have solar power.

WOOT!

Our goal for the month of June was to install our solar panels and get it working.

We basically accomplished it.

Our goal for the month of July is appliances.

We have a furnace and hot water heater that doesn’t work, and we know nothing about them.

We need a 3-way refrigerator, which cost between $1,500.00-$2,000.00.

I’m not shitting you.

I’m serious.

It’s frickin’ expensive.

We also need to find out if our a/c works, but before we can do that, we need to get our generator (our mechanic friend is rebuilding it) back. We might end up just buying a new one (I'd like to have a Honda generator) which I think cost like $2,000.00.

-So this month will be interesting and costly.

I’ll keep you up to date on it.

Honestly, I know all of our hard work and the money spent to do this project will be worth it in the long run.

For some reason we were meant to have this RV (Aesop), and I do appreciate it and love it. I'm also looking forward to seeing how it looks once we’re all done with the renovation.

Before we know it, we’ll be off on a new journey—a journey of self-discovery, of being in the now, truly living, and hopefully, inspiring others.

#camper, #journey, #mistake, #RV #renovation #installation, #solar, #solarpanels, 0 Comments

Over the weekend Kevin and I were finally able to start renovating our RV (Aesop).

Yay!

The following is what we discovered and what we'd done so far.

A Small Leak.

We know there are no leaks in our RV . . . so we thought.

There was one hidden beneath the window in the living room area.

We already knew there was an old leak there because of the small bubbles in the wall, so Kevin took the front part of it off.

It revealed old water damage from a leaky window.

The prior owners fixed it, but what we didn’t know until yesterday was the seal between the outer body panels wasn’t sealed properly, so water was still able to dribble between the wall.

. . . Well, that sucks.

As you can see, Kevin fixed that problem. No big deal, but now we have to figure out what to do with that part of the wall inside the RV, since we need to fix it and then cover it back up.

Any ideas?

It's a cosmetic issue.

The whole wall needs to look the same.

I'm open to suggestions.

A Rotting Step

On Saturday, Kevin discovered beneath the bottom step the metal part was rotting.

Instead of fixing it, the previous owners covered it up with a block of wood and nailed the shit out of it.

It was a pain in the ass to pry out . . . er, hack off.

But Kevin prevailed.

I had no doubt.

He built a new step and will fix the rest of it this week.

He did a wonderful job.

Nasty Carpet Be Gone

Also, on Saturday, we started ripping the carpet out.

Btw, I filmed parts of it.

Once our Youtube Channel goes live, parts of this footage will be integrated into one of our shows.

Yesterday we finished tearing out 95% of the carpet.

Woot!

Good news.

The floor is in great shape.

Double Woot!

We’re going to put fake wooden floors in. I forgot what they’re called, but they look real and clean up well.

We still need to pull the carpet out of the bathroom, but first we have to take the toilet out. We’re going to get a composting toilet.

There’s also strips of carpet along the walls that has to be cut out. I tried cutting it with a box cutter and had no luck. I don’t know if it’s because my hand strength is poor or I’m just not doing it right.

It’s Time For Solar Panels