Look at the Changes

In June we purchased our Airstream trailer. At that time, this is what the interior looked like.

By the time we returned to Arizona, we knew the seating in the trailer wasn't comfortable and we needed to do something about it. We connected with RV Renovators in Mesa to remodel the interior. We dropped it off two weeks ago on a Friday. That Monday, they called us to come look at the space after the couch and dinette were removed.

Three days later we were back in their shop, looking at how the work was coming. The cabinets were well on their way.

And Friday, just two weeks after we took the trailer to them, the job was done! Just look at what the interior looks like now.

We love it! We finally have comfortable recliners to sit in and so much more open space. There is more storage space and it is so much more convenient than pulling up one of the dinette seats to get into the space inside.

Good job cabinet maker Curtis and the staff at RV Renovators

April Happenings

The month of April is two-thirds gone. What has been happening here? The first Sunday of the month was Easter. The altar area of Epiphany Episcopal Church in Tempe was beautifully decorated and the worship service was even better. John assisted at one of the services.

This is the month when the snowbirds begin their flight north. Just look at these nearly deserted areas of our resort.

Since so many people are learning, one of our neighbors had an end of the season party.

We had our RV washed an waxed early in the month.

Ever since we moved out of our house in 2009 to live in our RV full time, we have had stuff in storage. We went from five crates of stored items, plus on U-Haul storage unit, to a smaller U-Haul unit after getting rid of most of the stuff. Last spring we drove to Denver and brought the remaining storage items here to Arizona. We pared that down to one 5 ft by 10 ft unit last fall. Now we are going through lots and lots of paper filed in boxes. This is what is looked like in our living room one day this week.

Here is a picture as we loaded the truck in March last year. Notice the 3 black file cabinets. That is where all the paper was located that we are trying to get rid of.

We are pushing hard so we can empty the storage unit and have everything that is left stored here in our winter home. We hope that we will finish that work and the construction on our addition will be far enough along that we can leave here about May 1.

Creating New Storage

On the whole, our RV makes very efficient use of the available space with shelves and drawers wherever a small bit of space can be found. One spot there was wasted space was in the cabinet behind the dining room table. There were no shelves in that space, so I had to pile things one on top of another. We also bought a small metal shelving unit that gave me two shelves in one area. It wasn't very stable and wasn't as deep as the space, so things could fall off.

When we were at the factory last summer, they gave us brackets to hold adjustable shelves, as well as some shelving material. We bought a compact jig saw to use in cutting the shelves. Here is John inserting the blade and beginning to make the cuts.

Isn't that nice wood? Unfortunately, it seems I flunked measuring class and the resulting shelf was too small--in both directions! We were off to Home Depot for a piece of plywood.

We both measured this time and the resulting shelf fit.

The factory also gave us the wood to make a lip on the front of the shelf. John attached the lip to a small square dowel, then spread some glue and put it on the front of the shelf. The space under the table is really awkward to work in.

He added clamps to hold everything together till the glue dried.

Here is the finished shelf. It will really make that space more convenient to use. And, like I said in the last blog, it isn't a mistake unless you can't fix it.

Storage of Stuff

We are continuing our battle against "stuff." I have blogged about our battle with "stuff" since January 2009 and again in February of the same year.

The subject came up again in September 2010 when we decided to get rid of a lot of what we had in storage. Last March we decided to bring everything that was still in storage in Colorado down to Arizona so it would be easier to get to and sort out.

Now, since we have bought a house in Arizona, it was time to pare down even more. In April, we will have an addition built on the house to provide a workshop and storage. The goal is to get rid of enough "stuff" that everything will fit in this house.

We were renting a 10 x 10 storage unit. We have been bringing boxes to the house and/or RV and sorting and throwing. This is what the contents looked like a couple of weeks ago.

We reached the point we could switch to a 5 x 10 unit.

We were happy to see the larger unit EMPTY.

That feels good (and saves us money). Now we have over 5 months to reduce this to what we can store at the house. Wish us luck.

Have you seen the RV reality show "Storage Wars"?  The day we moved to the smaller storage unit, one of the parking aisles was full of cars.  Two or three abandoned, unpaid units were being auctioned off.  But it wasn't like on TV.  We did hear the auctioneer.   But it only lasted a few minutes.  Then everyone left.  No drama there.

It Works!

The TV, that is.  Five years ago, when we bought our last new 5th wheel trailer, we had a technician come out to where we were parked at Chatfield State Park to help us install our Dish Network satellite service in the RV.  He did get that working, sort of, to the main TV but not to the set in the bedroom.  When we got to Mesa, we had another technician come and he fixed it so we could see the Dish service on both TVs.  He also showed us how to change the connections and use the roof-top antenna.  We were never able to hook up to cable TV, which is available in most RV parks. And in the past year, the antenna signal also failed to work.

With this new RV, we have had excellent reception with both the antenna and cable.  However, the rig is wired to use a roof-top Direct TV satellite antenna and we have a Winegard carry-out Dish antenna. So, we called around Mesa until we found someone who would come to the RV and install the system for us. That wasn't easy.  Dish wanted to guide us over the phone to set it up ourselves.  I called the technician recommended by Dish and never received a call back.  The local Radio Shack couldn't recommend anyone.  Finally, we found someone willing to help us. Were we ever lucky!

Doug of Components Electronics in nearby Gilbert came.  They install home theater systems, among other things.  Doug is very thorough and a perfectionist.  He had never seen a system like ours.  That big TV I showed in a previous post is on an electronic lift and raises and lowers from a cabinet.  There is virtually no access to the back of the TV.  There is an electronic box in the cabinet where each component of the system is wired to so it communicates to the TV.  He knew what all the parts were, but it took him a while to figure how to integrate our Dish receiver into the system.

John explained the problems we had in the past and asked that he please not take apart anything that was already working.  It took him two hours, but he got everything working!  That means satellite, cable, antenna, CD player in the bedroom and Blue-ray player in the living room.  Wow!  We are delighted.  When we told him how hard it was to find someone to do this job, he said lots of people won't come out on a job that is less than $1,000.  As much as we like our TV, it certainly isn't worth that!

After Doug left, we headed to the Container Store in Scottsdale. Many of the cupboards in this new RV are large but don't have any shelves. We needed lots of stuff to make those spaces more useful and to keep items in place, especially when we travel. Look at what we came home with.



Once installed in several different places, our storage space is much more useful. Maybe in another week or two, we will finally feel like we have a place for everything and everything in its place. Right now, we are always looking around, asking where did I put the "________" last time (fill in the blank).