Amazingly, I feel quite ambivalent towards our home now. It feels disgustingly large, and I can’t believe we are paying good money to try and keep such a large space cool. All those years I’ve spent looking through magazines hoping to find the perfect colors and storage ideas to make this place wonderful, beautiful and comfortable seem wasted now. We are all ready to ditch it and live in our tiny new home that sits on wheels. Timmy wants to sleep out there in the driveway, but I told him no since we are hovering around 110 degrees these days. Yes it has a working air conditioner, and a generator to run it, but, no, you need to sleep inside while it is so hot outside.
I started tearing out the thirty year old carpet, but realized I needed a knife to do the job right. It is way too hot to work, but for early morning or after six. We also removed the ‘doghouse’ which covers the engine that sits between the two front seats only to find that it is somewhat burnt out (the cover, not the engine) and in need of new insulation. Spent some time online trying to find what to get, and also found that the engine is very hot because it is missing a heat deflector to channel heat away from the engine (and my leg on the accelerator, which is just a few inches away from the engine while driving).
So we have lots to do, and a new family project, and our heads are full of travel dreams. She gets about 12 miles to the gallon. Not bad for an entire house on wheels.
July 11, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I’m from the WTM boards. Hausunterricht!
We have lived in all kinds of homes. When we had just one child we lived in 400 sq ft. It was really freeing for me. I grew up really latching on to all my things. But, you have to give that stuff up in a small place.
We are considering living in an RV for about a year. I look forward to reading about your adventures and your thrift store finds!
July 11, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I grew up only ever wanting a home and family, a place to make me feel like I had what was needed to be, to create a happy family. I have spent thousands on magazines getting ideas and inspiring myself into making our homes wonderful places. I have always been frugal, so mostly it is all just thrift store stuff. But still—stuff and so much space to clean and care for. We have owned three homes, each one increasingly larger and, of course, ‘better’. Now I am re-thinking all this…and so is the rest of the fam. We are settled in our home for now, thanks to plummeting home prices, but someday, maybe….thanks for sharing, Shangrilewis.