Downsizing

                         


Wow, I started this blog in April and fully expected to keep it up, however, in early May we sold our home in Alabaster, AL and moved into our 31' class C RV. We placed the RV in a park in Pelham, AL. Downsizing from a 24oo sq. ft. home to a 240 sq. ft. motor home turned out to be quite an adjustment. The motor home, which was excellent for 3 day vacations, turned out to be inconvenient for permanent living. So, about 2 weeks after moving in, we started looking for something bigger, since we anticipated living in it until the end of July. Finally on June 26th, we brought home our new 39' Jayco Eagle 5th wheel. The difference between the two has been like night and day. I love my new little home. It is so cute, tastefully decorated, and roomy!

On July 2nd, we took the next step in our journey and moved to an RV park in Cumming, GA. We took back possession of our former home which is about 14 miles north. The house was in disarray and so began a solid week of 14 hours days pulling up carpet, linoleum, carpet tack strips, staples, and wood flooring strips, one at a time. We've had to replace all of the doorknobs, the doorstops, a door, and had painters repaint the entire house. After we get the carpet and the hardwood flooring laid then we need to buy all new vents, toilet paper holders, towel racks. Every light bulb has been replaced, I've been dusting and cleaning everything I see. What an undertaking. The best thing about remodeling a house is that I get to put in everything that I always wanted. I wish I could afford to replace all the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms, but that will come later, for now we are thinking about painting them. We do need to replace the french doors and we want a prettier front door. The painters did a fabulous job and I got to pick my colors.

The house originally had silver, gold, and bronze fixtures, so we are making everything match to bronze, so that means we need new sink fixtures too. Craig tiled my laundry room and will tile the 3 bathrooms. He bought me a new washer/dryer set. When we sold our house in AL, we sold most of our furniture. That means we have to spend money, but I also get to buy new things that I really want. My favorite furniture store is AL Furniture Market in Calera, AL, so whenever we go back for Craig's job, I want to go furniture shopping.

Now I am focusing on weeds. The two flower beds are awash with them. When that gets done, we will purchase new mulch and plant new flowers. Craig has started power washing the house, the garage, the driveway, the front and back porches. The house is really starting to come together. Although we lived there for 3 years previously, the house has become as if brand new.

We need to get our furniture out of 4 storage units back in AL. Then my parents are coming for Peyton's 3rd birthday, the 24th.

Shopping Nightmare

I have the hardest time understanding why, whenver I take the boys somewhere in public, that they decide to act like crazy people. I truly adore my children, but sometimes I wish I could replace them with little robot look-a-likes that would behave when we get around new people. Chase informed me that that was not going to happen (the robot part) at least.

Sleeping Beauties

Well, here I am after reading the blogs of friends, finally deciding to blog myself. It is late and the boys are both asleep on the new couch. We bought a new couch thinking it would help the house sell, because the old ones didn't match the style of the house. The day we brought it home was the day we got a call from the realtor who brought us an offer a few days later. We have been under contract since Easter day and will close in 2 weeks. The stress of packing, storing, and living in a house that looks like it belongs on hoarders is a lot to handle.

Can you believe we will be living in our RV? It is only 31 feet long and has one slide-out in the living room. It is great for camping, but for living in full time, I can only imagine what it will be like. I wish I could redecorate it. The theme of the day (back in 01) seemed to be BLUE BLUE and more BLUE. Now blue is my favorite color, but the blue they chose is tacky and over the top. However, beggers can't be choosers when the RV only cost 30 grand and only costs 250$ a month to make excellent vacation and traveling (with Daddy while he works) memories.

My family took a 5 week vacation every year when we were kids. I enjoyed it so much that I long for my kids to have similar experiences. When I was 5, I skipped a birthday party I had been invited to just so I could go with my dad to pick out our new motorhome, a very old school bus he later jokingly called the ODGE because the D had fallen off. I remember it had bench seats everywhere that were no longer affixed to the floor. My dad kept the best 4 to use as seating at our dinette and also as living room furniture. He put in a port-a-potty, crafted a chest of 6 drawers, cupboards, put up walls, and bought 3 sets of springy bunk beds from an Army surplus store. The beds were the greatest, every time my dad drove over a bump, the kids lying on the back would fly up to our delight and amusement. My dad used to get all of our friends and cousins and spend hours drivng around our hometown in search of bumps (which wasn't hard if you have any idea what Utah roads are like). We suffered many scrapes and bruises when we hit the ceiling or the above bunk beds but who cared, we were having a ball.

The ODGE was that horrible school bus yellow. I used to spend hours trying to peel off the paint, in hopes that if I peeled enough off, then my dad would finally get it painted the color that RV's were supposed to be. If you entered the bus, and stood in the enter aisle facing the windshield and then lookd up toward the ceiling you would see permanant footprints. My sisters and I used to hold on to the two posts up the front of the bus, put our feet on the door opener, walk up the windshield and across the ceiling right before we would flip over and land back where we started. My favorite memories are of sitting next to my dad on the entrance steps and watching the world go by as my dad and I would shoot the breeze. I remember many a morning waking up and my dad would have already been on the road for hours. He used to get up while his 5 'girl-illas' were asleep and just drive. My dad earned the nickname "Iron Bladder Bill" because he hated to stop to let 5 women go pee, which seemed to be quite often. Now we did have the port-a-potty, but you know those things only hold so much and then they don't smell so fresh.