Whoa Nellie!!!

We bought our RV!!! It wasn't the 1998 33' Sea Breeze described and pictured in the last post, it is a 1999 31' Sea View with a kitchen/dinette slide out. It's 2 feet shorter, which is good for getting into regular campsites in National Forests, State Parks, National Parks, etc, but with a bigger "basement" and a slide out, it has lots of storage. It doesn't have an open type bath, but the shower is good sized and has a tub - it just shares a small room with the toilet.

We've been really busy cleaning it out, testing systems, fixing and cleaning it the past few days! So far, we've replaced the coach (engine) battery, which has fixed a few small problems, such as the electric step not going out or coming in all the time, the CO and LP Gas detectors going off because of low voltage, and needing the start boost to start up the engine. We also had a problem with the hydraulic jacks - we think the sensor is bad - maybe because they were OVER filled (the jacks down alarm kept going off even though all 4 were up- so Devin disconnected it because it was really really annoying!) We expected the hydraulic fluid to be low, and bought some to fill it up, but when Devin crawled underneath and opened the fill cap the fluid was ~above~ the float sensor, so that wasn't it. So he ordered a new sensor and we hope that will fix it! The jacks work great - it's like having a giant Low Rider with the hydraulics (da da da da da da da, da da da da da, da da da da da, da da da da da, da daaah!) Except it only does it when parked - but they go down, and level the MH (MH stands for Motorhome) and stabilize it so it doesn't rock and roll when we are walking around.

I've been working on cleaning the inside - we found it had a slight odor of stale cigarette smoke (ick!) after we bought it - didn't notice it when we checked it out and test drove it. But it had been opened up, and after it had been stored overnight and was in the heat, you could smell it. So I am taking off all the AC vents and washing them in warm soapy water, washing the blinds, walls, cabinets, and we will have the carpet and upholstery steam cleaned. I've also gone online to find out about getting rid of smoke odor, and there are all kinds of amazing home remedies, most of which I have my doubts about! The worst sounding one involved burning coffee grounds... then how do you get out the horrible burnt coffee smell, I wonder? Ha.

But it's really not that bad - it's very faint, and I HATE that smell and am allergic, so you know it's not that bad if it doesn't bother me that much. Mainly, I want it to smell clean and like US, not someone else, so if the vinegar and baking soda and citrus cleaner and activated charcoal and other solutions don't work, I will try incense and essential oils that I like on the lightbulbs and cedar blocks and maybe some herbal sachets - like lavender or rosemary... or orange-clove pomander balls! I haven't made one of those in years! I think when we are using it full time it will be aired out all the time and not noticable, or just gone, so I'm not too worried.

We had 7 people in it the other day at Devin's dad's house! Devin's dad and his girlfriend Marge, Devin's sister Janet and his nephew Ryan and Ryan's girlfriend Cindi and Devin and I! We were working on it - had tools and cleaning supplies all over, and it still wasn't cramped! The living room has couch, dinette, and the two captain's chairs up front that swivel around. Pretty cool.

Speaking of cool - it's been very hot here and we plugged in and used the air conditioning, which worked pretty well. Kept it about 10 to 15 degrees cooler in the RV than outside. I prefer fresh air and that works too, with the fan and windows. One thing I noticed and would like to fix is that when the front door is open, it blocks most of the screen of a window, so if we could just reverse the direction the window slides open the screen wouldn't be blocked. I'd also like to get a ceiling vent installed in the bedroom, and one of the bedroom windows only has a small torque window opening at the bottom - I'd rather have a sliding window that opens half the window, or a full torque window that would open the whole thing. More ventilation = better. Louvered windows are what you call them on a house. That would be okay since the whole thing would open up for more airflow. So we may change two windows and add a vent, depending on cost. Or maybe just use the fan up front to pull air through the back windows - that might work. We'll have to try it out.

I can't wait to get it more cleaned up and ready to move our stuff into!!!

This weekend we are going up to Wrightwood with it and plan to have a yard sale at our friends Greg and Anita's house - Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends in Wrightwood are one huge community yard sale, which is why we are going up. I've been working on getting rid of excess belongings and have sold some on Craigslist, donated some to fire victims, donated some to "Out of the Closet" thrift store, and now we are going to try the yard sale thing. It will be fun hanging out with Greg and Anita back in my old town. And we can work on the Rv in between sales!

We live in an apartment, and I hope never to again, actually. Well, there are lots of things that are good about apartment life - communal pool, gym, city life right out the door, but no yard, no driveway, no garage, are all pretty hard when trying to divest of excess stuff, or wanting to work on, load up the new RV! Or storing excess stuff, for that matter. We pay big bucks for a local storage, but will soon move what's left to a much smaller and cheaper one. We have to pay for storing the RV since we sure can't park it in the apartment garage! And that place has cheap storage units - in fact, we'll be able to store both the RV AND extra stuff for less than we currently pay for extra stuff! I think storage units are such a scam. I would love to get rid of any stored items entirely, but realized, now that we have the RV, that we reallly aren't going to be carrying everything with us on our year-long sojourn, and it might be nice to have ~some~ stuff to furnish our house with once we decide to settle somewhere. Now that I realize that, I actually wish I'd kept some of what I've already sold or given away. Oh well. Stuff is meant to be used, and should be kept circulating about rather than locked up in storage, anyway.


Well, I'm getting tired - there is lots to catch up on, though! And I need some photos. Oh - I called this post "Whoa Nellie!!" because I think the RV may be named Nellie... I was going to call it Sea Biscuit, but it's not exactly a racehorse - more of a plodding wagon puller, so Nellie seemed like a good name for a workhorse. She's a big Clydesdale - whoa Nellie!!

Buying a house with wheels

Decisions, decisions!

We took our first RV test drive from a dealer this weekend - we found a 1998 National Sea Breeze that we liked well enough to seriously consider, and it is less than our budget, which is good, but it doesn't have slide-outs, which is not so good. When planning to live in one of these for a year, you have to consider space, convenience, where will we put everything - and I mean everything! Sitting in the rain for 3 weeks and having separate "project" areas, coming home from wet adventures - where do we put our coats, shoes, bags, packs? That little extra bit of floorspace a slide out provides could really help.

But we liked this one - even though it had twin beds in the back that we would need to remodel... I've already drawn up plans for how to do it... looked at the exact same model/year with an "island queen" bed, and it didn't have nearly as much storage. We both liked the twin floorplan better, with modifications. The thing about no slides, is they are a lot cheaper, since everyone wants slides now... but of course, that will mean our resale value will be less, too.

But our main concerns are liveability and reliability/safety. This model gets very high ratings on both from RV.org. But it's a little early for us to be buying it - we still have 8 1/2 months to go... and we'll have to pay storage fees for that time. And insurance, registration, etc. But then again, it will give us lots of time to fix it up - have Devin's dad help with remodeling the bedroom, installing solar panels, taking it out for test runs and getting the interior set up the way we like it...

Anyway, here are some photos:
click here to see outside

This is the bedroom with the twin beds that we would need to remodel

It has a small kitchen, but lots of storage: click here to see kitchen

And Devin liked driving it! We are considering it, but it may be gone by the time we make up our minds - ha.