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.