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Been There Doing That

Our RV Adventures

Oct 11

24

Washer Woes — Part 2

By Gayla & Robert
Filed Under Around Home, Full-timing | Tagged With: , , , , | | No Comments»

It didn’t take long for our $52 part to come.  I happened to be out running errands for work when the delivery arrived.  Robert was so anxious to get in installed, it was done before I came home.  What a wonderful surprise, but I was hoping that he would have taken pictures of the repair to post.  Oh well, it is amazing to have our washer working again.

It’s amazing how much easier the installation is with instructions.  I’m glad that we pretty much were able to open and remove the door without damaging anything before the instructions arrived.  The main thing that we should have done that we didn’t was UNPLUG the power cord from the outlet.  Probably good advice for anyone, and we just happened to not be thinking at the time.

Robert did figure out how to open the door by wedging a flat head screwdriver into the gap between the broken handle and the door hook.  He was able to push on the screwdriver to loosen the door while I held the door and pulled it open.  Then he removed the door by removing the screws in the hinge.  We did this all the night of my unfortunate accident.

When the new door handle came in, all he had to do was remove the door pin out of the handle by rocking needle nose pliers back and forth.  Then he assembled the new handle by placing the latch in the handle and rest the spring on the latch.  Then he lowered the door ring onto the new handle.  He aligned the ring, the spring, and the latch, then drove the pin through the latch.  He then used a small screwdriver to align the latch, spring and ring on the other side and drove the pin the rest of the way through.  He then reattached the door ring to the rest of the door assembly and reattached the door to the machine.

We’d have to say, we had a good experience with the Splendide company and are very pleased that we could do the repair ourselves.  I’d be curious to know about any of your experiences with do-it-yourself repair on your washer.  Did you have good luck with the company?  How was their customer service?

Now every time I use the washer, Robert reminds me about the sticker he put on the washer (came with the repair kit) that reads: “IMPORTANT  This door locks DURING ALL CYCLES and STAYS LOCKED up to 2 minutes after the cycle ends.  DO NOT attempt to open this door until the Status/Door Lock lamp blinks SLOWLY.”

I think I’ve learned my lesson, but I guess I still have several weeks of teasing from Robert left.

Oct 11

17

Washer Woes – Part 1

By Gayla & Robert
Filed Under Around Home, Full-timing | Tagged With: , , , , | | 1 Comment»

The other night, Robert went off to work and I planned to do some office work and hang out with the dogs.  I decided to do a load of laundry while I worked.  All was fine and dandy, the washer was doing it’s thing.  I had set it not to dry as I was going to take the load to the RV Park’s laundry to dry faster.  The Splendide washer/dryer combo units are wonderful to have in the RV, but the cycles seem to take forever, especially drying heavier fabrics like jeans.  The wash cycle was done and that was when things went sour.

I was sure the cycle was done, but apparently not…as I tried to open the door, the lock was still engaged and off came the handle!  I was just standing there staring at the washer with the broken handle in my hand.  How on earth was I going to get the laundry out?  Oh, no…how on earth was I going to tell Robert?  After all, we haven’t even lived in the RV full-time a month yet and I’ve already broken something. 

I just felt sick. My stomach was in knots.  I was angry with myself more than anything.  I went ahead and set the dryer setting so that the wet clothes could have a chance to dry.  I hated to have wet clothes just sit in there just in case it would be a few days before we could get them out.   I did my office work and tried not to beat myself up over it. 

Robert finally came home at about midnight after a good gig at Indian Shores.  After he had a chance to relax a bit, I broke the news to him.  He didn’t get angry at all; he simply looked at the situation and was puzzled at how to get the clothes out.  After assessing the situation a bit, with a screwdriver in hand and some elbow grease, success…the door was opened.  The door face was held together with just a few screws, so he went ahead and removed them so that we wouldn’t have to worry about the door locking again.  He had to remove the glass window in the process, but the door back is still on the hinges.

Ring on door removed showing broken door handle.

 
 

Door face and glass have been removed.

He got online and found everything he needed to know about the machine on Splendide.com.  He figured out the part number and the following day we called the service center.  Fifty-two dollars later, we have a new little plastic handle on its way.  When we get it I’ll post how we install it.

Oct 11

12

Little Friend

By Gayla & Robert
Filed Under Around Home, Full-timing | Tagged With: , , , , | | No Comments»

Our little friend hung out with us while Robert cooked on the grill.

 
 
While enjoying the evening and sitting outside, this little fella hopped up on our table and stayed with us for quite a while as Robert cooked on the little Coleman grill just a few feet away.

Oct 11

10

Oscar, what did you do?

By Gayla & Robert
Filed Under Wiener Tales | Tagged With: , , , , , , , | | 1 Comment»

Oscar looking innocent in his sleep.

 

Traveling with dogs, you want to be careful that they don’t push any buttons or mess with any knobs.  When we first got our RV, I was concerned about the air brake button.  It’s located just above the driver’s side arm rest and to release the brake, you push down.  I was convinced that the dogs would somehow push it down if they got excited and got up there to look out the window.  We set out to look for something to cover the button.  We ended up getting a PVC pipe end cap.  It works perfectly.  Problem solved.

What we overlooked was the other buttons around that area.  Most are harmless like the visor controls, so we didn’t think much of it.  Just the other day, I had taken Tucker and Lucy out to the dog area at the RV park.  I left Oscar in the RV for just a moment because he had just been out.   The pet area is very close to our lot, so I wasn’t far from the RV nor was I gone for long.  After Tucker and Lucy did their business, we all were walking toward the RV when I noticed a wisp of smoke from the front end.  For a moment I paused and it dawned on me…Oscar had started the generator!

The two dogs and I quickly ran the short distance back to the RV where we found Oscar in the driver’s seat laying down calmly.  What a sight. 

You’d think we would learn and immediately cover the area up, but no.  We thought it was just because he was left alone for a minute and he was just trying to see where we went through the window.  Typically when we leave, the dogs go in the kennel, so we don’t worry about them getting into things.  Just the following night, at about 3 a.m. I guess Oscar wanted to leave the bedroom and wander around.  In my semi-awakened state, I hear him up near the front of the coach, then it happened again…he poked the generator button AGAIN!  We’ve learned our lesson.  We placed a little lap desk over the buttons so at least none of the dogs can push any buttons if they hop up and walk in that area.  So far it’s only been Oscar interested in hopping up there and making his way to the dash, but now we’ve learned our lesson so if the other two become curious and hop there, they won’t cause harm.

 

Controls by driver's side window

 
 

Covered Controls

 
 

Oct 11

8

Working in the RV

By Gayla & Robert
Filed Under Full-timing, Working in RV | Tagged With: , , , , , , | | 1 Comment»

I’ve been very fortunate that my job has transitioned to where I can pretty much work from anywhere.  It’s a mindset that I’m still getting used to.  I’m so geared to drive into an office and work the traditional daily work hours.  Actually, it seems as though I’d end up putting in 50-60 hour work weeks. 

Gradually over the past year or so, our company has downsized, and even though my responsibilities have increased, I’ve found that I’m able to spend more time with my family.  I’ve been called a workaholic, so I guess it’s not a surprise that I would feel guilty or feel I was slacking off when I would put in less hours.  In my mind, I knew that I was getting the job done, but for some reason, I simply put unnecessary expectations on myself.  We tend to be harder on ourselves than we are on others.

I soon began to realize, however, that I should not have any guilt to have a balanced personal and professional life.  As my schedule became more flexible and the job more portable, I felt it was a good time to go ahead and take the plunge in living full time in our RV.  It also gives me a great sense of peace to know if this job goes away, it will be easier to pick up and move anywhere in the country to find a new job, after all everything is already packed in the RV.

Not everyone is cut out to work from home, it takes a lot of discipline.  For a long time, I wasn’t sure I was cut out for it.  They say, if you want to work from home, the best thing to do is have an office where you can shut the door.  This way you can set your “office” hours and your family knows that you are at work and cannot be disturbed.  It also gives some separation to your personal life because at the end of the day, you should shut the door and forget about work until the next day.

It’s not so easy to have a separate room in an RV for a home office.  I set up a workspace in the RV and have confined myself to a two drawer file cabinet for current work files.  There are many things that I have to keep, but I simply scan them.  Once my tasks and projects are complete, anything would normally be saved in a filing cabinet is scanned into an external drive.  Actually, years ago, I started having my staff scan our documents for our company.  I hated to buy file cabinets and store so much paper.  All that scanning has paid off.  Now that it’s just me in the corporate office, everything from the past eight years is in a little external drive.  Isn’t technology amazing?

The first week I started working from home, Robert would sit on the couch waiting for me to get done with my tasks so we could do something together.  Now we are getting our routines down where we both can get things accomplished and still spend time together. 

Robert is a musician and works nights.  He typically sleeps in when he works the night before.  I still get up early to work and by the time he gets up, I’ve put in several hours.  Sometimes I’ll spend time with Robert in the afternoon and do around the house chores while he’s home and pick up my work day when he leaves for work. 

There are so many people that think that because you are working from home, you get to slack off.  It’s not the case at all.  To do it right, you do have to be disciplined.  I may not be sitting at my desk for a straight eight hours, like I was in the office, but even though I may take the dogs for a walk or run an errand in the middle of the day, I may be working 3-4 hours in the middle of the night.  It’s a mindset to get used to and finding balance is key.  You’ve got to devote a good amount of time to the job to earn the paycheck (and not loose the job), but you’ve also got to balance out time for yourself and devote time with family, friends, and hobbies.

Oct 11

7

Officially Moved In

By Gayla & Robert
Filed Under Full-timing | Tagged With: , , , | | 1 Comment»

Over the weekend, we turned in our keys to our rental house and parked our Alfa SeeYa at our new home in a RV park in Largo, FL.  It wasn’t a far move, but it’s now official, we are full-timers. 

I’m glad that we took the “training wheel” path and started living in the RV in the back yard of our rental house.  Things were already in place and it seems to be a fairly easy transition, but we are still early in our adventure.  When we were parked in the backyard of the rental house, we didn’t use the shower or bathroom so that we wouldn’t fill the black and grey water tanks.  We would trapse accross the yard to use the house bathroom.  It wasn’t too bad really, but now that we are at the RV park with full hook-ups, it’s so much nicer.

So far, the biggest transition is caring for our three little wiener dogs.  We were used to a fenced in yard and it was so easy to simply let them out anytime the would wine at the door.  They pretty much would go in and out as they pleased.  We all were spoiled in that respect. 

Now that we are here at the RV park, we must make sure the dogs are on leases and take them to the dog area.  It’s not bad really, just an adjustment.  Robert and I both feel it’s good for all of us because we feel we all get exercise.  We have found ourselves making more plans to involve the dogs for outings. 

We are concerned about the dogs hearing noises from cars or neighbors when we are gone and barking up a storm.  We’ve decided to turn on the radio for background noise when we are gone.  We hope it’s working, at least we haven’t gotten any complaints from our neighbors yet. 

The neighborhood seems more friendly in the RV park and both Robert and I seem to have a peacefulness about us.  We both have to work and typically there is a certain amount of stress that goes along with it, but something about the RV atmosphere has made us both more relaxed.

Sep 11

25

A lighter load…downsizing to live in our RV

By Gayla & Robert
Filed Under Full-timing | Tagged With: , , , , | | 2 Comments»

After weeks of sorting, this weekend was our big sale.  We feel like a big weight has been lifted. 

Over the past several weeks, we have been moving into our 38′ Alfa SeeYa Motor Coach and camping in the back yard.  We wanted plenty of time to see what fit and what we needed to get rid of.  We would look at some things and think we had to keep them, then after a week or so, we may look at it again and think, “Why on earth would we want to keep that?”  As the sale came closer, it became easier and easier to let go.

Before Sale

 

Before Sale

 
Robert took some panoramic pictures of our living/dining and bonus rooms before and after the sale.  Things were also stacked on the kitchen counters.  I know we didn’t have as much accumulated as any family featured on Clean House, but it seemed like a lot of stuff to us.  Actually, I would watch episodes of Clean House or Hoarders to help motivate me to clean my house and keep it uncluttered.  Both Robert and I have Dads that like to collect everything and we certainly try not to be weighed down by too much stuff. 
 
 

After Sale

  

After Sale

 
 

I am so glad that we started living in our RV and set up the house for our sale. Even though the weather was great (hot, but great) for our sale, we could set up shop in the house and not worry about dragging things out on the yard, just to drag it back again.  We ended up starting our sale on Friday morning with just a sign down the street and a sign in our yard pointing people into the house.  Traffic was great for minimal advertising and we were surprised at how much money we made.
 
Saturday was the planned neighborhood sale.  When we told our landlord (also our neighbor) of our plan to move and have a big sale, they wanted to coordinate a neighborhood sale.  They did a wonderful job advertising because we were amazed at how many people showed up.  Everyone seemed to do well.
 
We were just left with a fraction of stuff that we started with.  The remainder went to charity, no second guessing.  I can’t tell you how big of a relief it is to be rid of that stuff that we really didn’t need and much of it we didn’t even use. 
 
We are younger than the typical couple that begins their full-time RV living, so to be honest, we felt we needed to keep some things.  After reading other blogs of people’s experiences and speaking to friends, one regret that we kept hearing was saving stuff they never look at again and paying years to store it.  Most things that we chose to keep are pictures, family antiques, music equipment, and tools.  We knew we would have to have to pay for storage, but we want to make sure that was only temporary.  We have no idea how long we’ll be full-timing it, but we’d like to think it would be for several years.

After much consideration, we have decided to purchase a little storage building and place it on my family farm.  We figure it is a much better use of our money instead of renting a storage unit for who knows how many years.  The investment in the storage building helps with the value of the family property and once it’s paid off, it’s paid off.  My parents will be able to use some of the space for their needs as well.  It’s a wonderful situation.  Besides, there’s a good chance we may end up living on the farm to help take care of my parents years down the road, so having the stuff we really like and enjoy to use again will be nice.

During this process, we have some good friends, Dave and Helen, that told us over and over again, don’t sweat it, if there’s an item that is stressing us out to get rid of, keep it.  Don’t stress out during this process.  They told us that when we see or go through things later, we may ask ourselves why we kept some things and thin out even more.  We know that to be true, because as we were getting ready for our sale, we wondered why we moved many things from Missouri to Florida.  I think Dave and Helen’s lesson to us is to not have regrets.  If something means so much to us right now to keep, then simply keep it instead of regretting and stressing about getting rid of it. 

It’s so funny how we get attached to things, isn’t it?  We are glad we can let go and be free to live in a smaller place and travel.  It seems so liberating.

Sep 11

22

Backyard Camping

By Gayla & Robert
Filed Under Full-timing | Tagged With: , , , , | | 3 Comments»

Call us crazy, but in our quest to transition our lives to full-time RVers, we moved into our RV in our backyard before we even moved out of our rental house. 

When we got back from our maiden voyage at the end of June, we had the RV parked in the back yard and we got back to living like we normally do.  We kept talking on when the best timing would be to actually move and finally decided on the date of October 1st.  By the first part of August, we started spending nights in the RV, I guess because we were anxious.  Then we started moving our stuff in.  You know, when you are used to a two bedroom house, complete with a bonus room, two car garage, and large storage shed, downsizing is in order. 

Downsizing isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  Looking around at our stuff, I found so much of it is so unnecessary.  We started staging the house for our upcoming moving sale.  We figured that it would be easier to just let people come into the house for the sale instead of dragging everything out onto the yard.  Our sale is this weekend and it will be such a relief to get it over with.

It may be strange to be living in our backyard, but I’m so glad that we’ve done it.  Over the past few weeks, we are getting used to the smaller quarters.  We decided to conserve water and not fill our gray and black water tanks, so we go to the house for our showers, use the bathroom, do laundry and dishes.  It’s a pain to tote dishes back and forth, but it’s not too bad, especially since I’ve been using the dishwasher while I still have one.   

During this time living in our backyard, I began transitioning to begin working from home.  I needed to make sure that I had enough room to work from home comfortably.  I also wanted to make sure that all the equipment worked fine.  We only live a couple of miles from the office right now, so if something wasn’t going right, I could buzz into the office to take care of it.  Everything is working great and I’m becoming much more productive after a few days of working out the bugs.

So we have a week and a half left of backyard camping and then we officially move to our first travel park.  So far, I think the main thing that I’ll miss the most is simply letting out the dogs to run around the fenced in yard.  We’ll have to get used to leashing our three wiener dogs and walking around with them.  We’ll find a good fenced in dog park close to where we will live so we can run them and wear them out.  A good thing is that they have taken a liking to the RV, actually I think they like anywhere we are.

I know that one thing that Robert won’t miss is the yard work.  It seems that every other day he needs to either trim the bushes or mow the lawn. 

It is so comfortable living in our RV and it will be such a relief to get out of the house.  It will be such a weight lifted once the sale is over, can’t wait.

Jun 11

30

Our Maiden Voyage…10 states in 12 days…

By Gayla & Robert
Filed Under Full-timing | Tagged With: , , , , | | 3 Comments»

Our plan…10 states in 12 days…Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, back to Florida.  Almost worked, it really took us 14 days.

We pulled out of St. Petersburg, FL the evening of June 14th.  Our plan was to move my daughter, Megan, to Missouri while at the same time taking care of some business for the company I work for.  Oh what an adventure it was. 

On our way to Missouri, I needed to stop by Decatur, AL for work.  I was hoping to get to Decatur by noon or so, but we ended up stopping at a rest area just south of town.  We were all miserable because the air in the coach wasn’t working and the heat was getting to us.  We just couldn’t figure out what was going on.  At the rest area, we kept inspecting the generator.  Finally, we discovered that the breaker on the generator was in the off position.  Once we pushed that button, we were set.  Ahhh…air conditioning!!!!  We hung out at the rest area for about 45 minutes.  I had to cool off and clean up before I could even begin to think about seeing my employees.

We made it to Decatur and parked in their WalMart parking lot.  Robert, Megan, and the little doggies hung out in the coach enjoying and appreciating air conditioning.  About 6:30 that evening I was done at the office and we were ready to hit the road again.

We stopped at about 11:30 that night to rest near Jackson, TN.  Neither one of us was in any condition to drive any further.  It is so nice to be able to stop pretty much anywhere and sleep comfortably in your vehicle.  We finally made it to Springfield, MO at about noon on June 16th.

We had a nice visit for a day with family in Springfield and then we were off again, toward Louisville, CO.  We tried to stay as long as we could with family, so we left out Saturday evening.  We needed to get there by Monday so that I could spend three days in the office there, before heading back home to FL.  Storms were rolling in and we wanted to get ahead of them.  After we fueled up and as we were heading out of town, the tornado sirens blared.  We were a little north of town when we decided to pull over.  We cranked on our weather radio and I geared up my computer to look at the radar.  It was best to hang tight and rest.  After a couple of hours, the radar kept showing strong storms and tornadic activity on our planned route of Hwy 13 and Hwy 7 toward Kansas City.  The radar was clear, however, on I44 to Hwy 71 toward KC.  We decided to backtrack a bit and take the I44, Hwy 71 route.  It was a bit longer, but at least we were moving.  Other than some heavy rain when we were parked, listening to the weather radio, we avoided the worst of the storms.  The weather radio is nice, but we love having Internet on the go.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Any time there is a storm going on, Robert and I seem obsessed in tracking the radar.

Things were going well, until we went through construction in KS.  Just on the west-side of Topeka on I70, as we were paying our toll, Robert heard a strange noise.  He kept the window open as we traveled and kept hearing something we’ve never heard before.  At the first opportunity, we stopped at a rest area, and low and behold…a FLAT!  It was Sunday morning in the middle of Kansas!!  Who would be available to help us, and I really needed to get to the CO office by Monday morning.

At Rest Area Where We Had Our Flat

Just a few days before, I told Robert that I hope that we wouldn’t need our road side assistance info, because I thought I left it at home.  It’s Murphy’s Law, isn’t it?  After digging through our stuff, we managed to find enough information to call our roadside assistance company.  I tried not to be too anxious about being stranded.  The rest area was very nice, so I took the dogs for a long walk.

Flat Tire on West Side of Topeka

We were so lucky, because we only had to wait about an hour and a half before help arrived with a new tire.  He did what he had to do, and we were off again.  It was amazing, we made it to our campground at Chatfield State Park just after dark that evening.  I was able to get to do what I needed at the office within the time frame I allotted. 

In retrospect, I’m proud of myself for not getting too anxious or frantic when our timing wasn’t just perfect.  I really thought I would have been more stressed.  I know that driving a 38′ coach has a much different pace than driving our car, and overall I think we did a fine job getting to where we needed to be in Colorado.  Being in an RV seems to change your mindset a bit.  Robert and I took everything in stride.  We didn’t get stressed and take it out on each other.  It was a very good experience and we had learned so much.  We are anxious to learn more and keep up the traveling.  That first trip has also taught me so much on how to work on the road.  I’ve worked so long in an office around people, that I have to change my mindset in working on the go and from our RV home. 

Made it to Denver by Sundown

The trip back to FL was a long one, but fairly uneventful…just HOT!  In fact, we learned about the engine alarms and coolant.  Total miles…4,700.  We’ll chalk this maiden voyage up as a success…when’s the next trip?

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