Wandering Thoughts of a Writer: #renovation

Showing posts with label #renovation. Show all posts

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.

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-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

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

It’s been a miserable hot and humid summer here. Even my sunflower has lost its energy under the weight of the brutal sunrays and thick ass, suffocating air.

We haven’t been able to work on the RV in weeks now. However, we have continued to get things for it (flooring to install, lumber to build shelves, etc.), so when it cools off next month we’ll be able to finish renovating the inside.

In the meantime, while we lounge in our perfect climate control abode, we’re practicing to be here now—in the moment.

Tomorrow doesn’t exist.

What exist is right now.

-But the human brain gets in the way. The pestilent child emerges and wants to be entertained.

It loves drama, so worrisome or stressful thoughts run rampant through the mind.

"What if we can’t get done with everything before winter?"

"There’s a lot of shit to still do."

"It figures. We buy an RV, and this summer has been the hottest and most miserable one since we’ve been here (12+ yrs.). WTF?"

"I’ve been tired a lot lately and I’ve had a headache every day. What if it’s cancer?"

"That guy the other day was such an asshole. If he ever crosses my path again and is a dick to me, like he was to the poor cashier at the grocery store, I’ll tell him to fuck off (a scene plays out of that situation happening)."

See what I mean? The brain thrives off of that shit. It’ll create outlandish scenarios because it wants to be entertained, and most importantly, it’s a protection mechanism that’s hardwired into us.

What helps silence the mind?

-Meditation.

-Focusing on the moment and your surroundings.

-And when the pestilent child bombards you with bogus thoughts, recognize them, and then push them aside.

This takes a lot of practice. It's an art, but the more you do it the easier it’ll be and a lot happier and enlightened you’ll become.

The other day Kevin told me he read this quote that I found amusing:

“I have lived with several Zen master—all of them cats.”—Eckhart Tolle

Wow. I’ve been living with a Zen master for eleven years and didn’t even know it. :)

#art, #beherenow, #brain, #cat, #child, #drama, #enlightment, #entertain, #hot, #human, #humid, #master, #meditation, #misery, #renovation, #RV, #weather, #zen, 0 Comments

We made a mistake last weekend when we were sealing things up on the fiberglass frame of the RV that’s going to cost us more work and time.

We used latex caulk instead of silicone.

(LOL I couldn't resist. That my friend is a Beavis & Butthead moment.)

Latex caulk with silicone added is supposed to last 40 yrs.

Cool, right?

-Well, on the back of the tube, in tiny ass font it says it takes up to 7-14 days to dry.

If it rains within that time frame guess what?

You’re totally screwed.

Last Sunday evening we sealed all of the windows, seams, etc. on the outside of our RV.

And then this happened on Monday morning.

We had a major thunderstorm and it poured and poured and poured.

When I got home from the office Kevin told me he wanted to show me something.

We went outside, and he showed me this.

It was a gooey, yucky mess.

Lovely.

-So, we have to scrape all of the sealant off and reseal everything with silicone.

We decided to do it today.

But, we needed a scraper.

How do you walk into a hardware store and say, “I need a caulk scraper?”

That was Kevin’s question earlier.

He bought the scraper, and he scraped the latex off while I picked up the goobage and handed him a paper towel when he needed to wipe that shit off his fingers.

He resealed everything, and now we think we’re good.

-So, learn from our mistake. Read all of the instructions on everything you do, just to be on the safe side.

#fiberglass, #maintenance. #silicone, #mistake, #renovation, #RV, #RVmaintenance, #RVrenovation, #storm, 0 Comments

Over the weekend, Kevin installed this ladder on the back of our RV.

Yes, I know it’s a boring ladder, but I thought I’d show you anyway.

I have it on video, btw.

There was a big gap between the steps after Kevin installed it, but thankfully, his coworker showed up and fixed the problem.

Yay!

Speaking of video. Omg, we watched the video last night and had a good laugh.

I’m Getting Personal For A Moment

Honestly, after watching myself on video, I was having second thoughts about videotaping myself and forgetting about the whole YouTube thing we plan on doing the day we embark on our nomadic lifestyle.

. . . But I think I just have to get over it.

I’m very critical about my looks, and if you read the article I wrote about verbal bullying (see last post), you’ll know why.

I thought I appeared fat in the video, and I didn’t like the way I looked.

It’s something I’m struggling with, but I think my desire to share with the world our journey and inspire people will probably outweigh my insecurities about my looks.

I hope.

Back To The RV Renovation

We weren’t able to install the solar panels today due to the weather being unpredictable, so we did this instead:

Here’s a picture of the distressed cabinet by itself.

I’m going for the gypsy/boho/vintage look inside our RV, and we love how this turned out.

Last weekend we watched a bunch of YouTube tutorials on how to distress your furniture to give it that vintage chip look.

Well, it paid off.

The rest of the cabinets and walls will be a cream color.

We might do one wall a light gray. I don’t know, but we’re excited to see what it’s all going to look like after we’re done.

I’ll show you pictures as we continue to renovate Aesop.

. . . So, if it doesn’t rain tomorrow, we’ll be installing the solar panels.

Wish us luck!

#article, #boho, #cabinets, #distressed, #gypsy, #nomadiclifestyle #insecure, #nomads, #paint, #renovation, #RV, #verbalbullying, #vintage, #youtube, 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