Day 303/62 Replacing RV Flooring III

Saturday arrived, and the hard job was at hand. This is the day did the bathroom.

While Champ started laying planks in the bedroom, my job was
to demo the bathroom while he worked his way toward it. More tile to pull up in
an impossibly small space. After I removed the box that covers the plumbing
behind the stool and removed the skirt around the base of the toilet, I took
out my utility knife and putty scraper and went to work.

The trick was leaving tile surface to kneel on as I worked my way around the tiny room. Armed with a new blade in my knife I started scoring the tile around the cabinet and shower enclosure. The tiles didn’t come up any easier than the kitchen. ( I wish I had seen the comment from my friend Deb out about heating the tile with an iron first.) As I fought pulling up the tiles around the toilet, I couldn’t help but chuckle. The last time I was wrapped that snugly around a toilet for that long a time I was in my 20’s and suffering the consequences of approximately a dozen Gin and Tonics. I still don’t like Gin to this day.

As hard as my job of the tear out was, it wasn’t half as tedious and time consuming as Champ's job of fitting the new planks around all the angles. I marvel at his stamina and willingness to do these hard jobs. He just keeps working away at things, no matter how hard until he sees the job through.

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  Before

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  After

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  After

The cats lay around and look at us like we are crazy. This isn’t the first time we’ve done this to them. I do wonder what they think sometimes. We move them around, constantly change things. They endured major house renovations with us in our brick and mortar days. I would like to think they are happy we are removing the traces of the past owners’ animals from their house.  I am enjoying the absence of the persistent musty smell of the old carpet.

We finished the job on Sunday. The new rugs are in. There is some minor trim work to do. The dream of getting rid of the icky carpet has come to fruition. We will go to the New Years Eve Party at the Clubhouse tonight with the job complete. Hindsight is always 20/20. The work was hard, but not being able to get the job done last winter in Texas ended up saving us over $2,000. We spent $500.00 on the flooring and trim. It took 5 days and lots of sweat and a little blood from a couple of slips with the utility knife but it’s done now and we love it. The cool part is we didn't fight the entire time. We do bicker a bit over some things but when it comes to a project we do good together. We are smart in very different ways. Somehow, when we work on a project like this we look to each other for our expertise. Between us we always figure it out. it's a good thing since we live in 300 sq. ft. together.

Until Next Time…

Day 302 / 63 Replacing the Flooring II

On Wednesday, after I headed for Gainesville to finish my
credit union training, Champ laid the planks in the kitchen. I had a feeling of
Déjà vu from the days when we were rehabilitating the house in Williams. The
routine for the better part of a year was I would go to work and Champ would
finish another piece of the house. I came home to something new, nearly every
night. Wednesday, I came home to new tile in the kitchen. We both love the
choice. One never knows for sure how new flooring will look once it is
installed. Samples give you an idea, but the real truth comes when it is
installed.

What amazes us is how much bigger it looks in here without
the division between carpet and tile running down the center of the front half
of our house.

Champ was bushed, from a day on his knees and probably close
to 100 trips down the stairs to go outside and cut planks. I on the other hand
needed some activity after 5 hours in the windowless bunker where I am
undergoing training. While he took a load off, I grabbed a carpet knife and
tore out the rest of the carpet. When we went to bed that night the only
original flooring left (accept for the slide outs which we are leaving be for
now) was the tile in the bathroom.

I’ll digress a bit here.  There is a reason carpet places hold up their hand like a stop sign or run out the back door with their hair on fire when you ask if they do installations in RV’s. When these things are built the flooring is laid before the cabinets, furniture and anything else that touches the floor is installed. Flooring runs wall to wall. When it’s time to replace it, you have to cut around everything unless you are doing a full overhaul, of course. If you plan to keep all your cabinets and live in it while doing the work, you have to negotiate an insane number of weird small tedious angels. It’s no wonder the place in Texas was going to charge $2,200 for installation. We don’t regret our decision to do the work ourselves. We never do. We have a new appreciation for the jobs of the techs in the big RV Centers who do flooring replacements for those willing to pay the big bucks and surrender their unit for a week while they do it. I’m sure whatever their wages are it is not enough.

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  Very tight work space in the bedroom.

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  Coming up through the bathroom with new tiles

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  Bathroom demo

After our experience with the N.A.S.A grade adhesive in the
kitchen we decided the bathroom would get demoed and reinstalled in the same
day.

The second phase of this part was of course pulling all the staples, this time in the small, dimly lit confines of the bedroom area. That is where a hanging shop light comes into play. It  helps to see the devil you are cussing while pulling them. Things are taking shape. My new area rugs are on their way. We’ll both be around all weekend to start working on the back half of the motor home. And hopefully finish the project.

Stay tuned…

Day 301 / 64 - Replacing the Floor Part 1

When I decided to write about our adventure replacing the floor, I thought I wanted to write a 'how-to' piece. Turns out I'm too much of a story teller to write something technical like that. You may learn something about the process by reading the next few posts. However, I feel obligated to let you know if you are looking for technical advice I recommend a YouTube video or the flooring manufacturers website. If you want to read our story and our take on the process of doing this while living full time in our motorhome, then enjoy the next few posts.

Before

When we bought our 2006 Itasca Suncruiser, we knew the dated carpet and tile was going to go the way of the Harvest Gold and Avocado Green of the 1970’s suburban kitchens as soon as we could get it done.  Finally, after a couple of delays caused by repairs for frivolous things like refrigerators and AC units, we are knee deep in the replacement.

We looked at several blogs of those who replaced their own flooring. We talked to the experts at Home Depot and Lumber Liquidators and decided on Rigid Vinyl Plank Flooring for everything but the slides. Our motor home has two super slides. One on each side opposing for 5’ in the middle. This poses a bit of a challenge to a floating floor system. We were advised by the woman at Lumber Liquidators, who has worked with many motor home customers to simply apply some adhesive to the outer pieces that aren’t up against a wall.  We decided to keep the slides carpeted for the insulating properties. With a gas engine we decided to keep the carpet in the driving compartment as well, to insulate against both engine noise and heat.  The lady at Home Depot educated us on ordering carpet to be sent in for binding when we are ready to do the slides. That step will come later.

This is the preferred flooring of other RV renovators and came highly recommended by our sales rep at Lumber Liquidators.

We started on Christmas Day. It was a beautiful sunny 70 degree Florida day. We were both feeling down since all the kids and grandkids were 1,100 miles away and we struggle with the fact that the big, chaotic Christmas gatherings we used to host are a thing of the past, due to our own choice. What better way to get rid of holiday blues than to start demo! We decided to do the job in sections, rather than demo the entire house and live in a mess the entire time.

Carpet is easy. It’s barely attached.   Staples and 12 years of grime were all that held it in place. A utility knife and a little bicep action and it came right out. When I say grime, I mean it looked like a beach under the pad. It’s amazing how much dirt works it’s way through the carpet and padding.  The hard part comes after the carpet and pad are in the dumpster. Every single staple that held it down has to come out to prep the surface for the new planks. There is no day quite like one spent on your knees pulling 752 staples out of the floor. The devil really is in the details.

The dirt underneath it all is horrifying

Then, there is the tile. A big putty knife, upper body strength, cuss words and shoulder dislocations, screaming for a chiropractor, removed the 12” square peal and stick tiles that graced the kitchen area. I'm not sure what kind of adhesive is on the back of peel and stick tile, but I'm pretty sure it could hold the Space Shuttle together. The residue left behind will literally pull you out of your shoes if you try to walk across it. The cats were not amused when they came in that night. They did learn pretty quickly which wood was sticky and which wood was smooth where there had been carpet.  

We spent about 4 hours doing the demo from the engine compartment back to the couch. The best part of the day other than dumping the nasty carpet in the dumpster was the Christmas Potluck at the Clubhouse at 2pm that day. We worked hard all morning then took our dish (prepared the night before) and went to a feast!

I headed back to work on Wednesday and Champ laid the first stage of the plankng.

Stay tuned...

Day 298 / 67 Goodbye, dog carpet!

Ocala, FL Sunny- 67 degrees

Those of you who follow me, remember the story of how awful the motor home smelled when we bought it. Some of you even experienced it!  The previous owners had two small dogs and let’s just say they didn’t adhere to the same house keeping standards as I do. I’ll never forget the first time we entered. It was a 100-degree day in July and it had been closed up on the dealership lot baking in the sun. The salesman warned us, but we were up for it since it had the floor plan we wanted, and very low mileage. We fell in love with the online version of it. .  My eyes watered as soon as we opened the door. It was one of the worst things I have ever smelled. Most of the offending odor was lingering in the carpet. As we both looked through the unit, I kept thinking this carpet has to go, and fast. With watery eyes, and still slightly burning noses we thanked the salesman and left. We looked at over 30 other units over the next three weeks and, despite the need for a good deep cleaning, we decided this was the unit we wanted. We negotiated the trade, knowing we had a lot of work ahead of us.

The carpet looks innocent in the picture, don;t let it fool you.

The delivery was delayed for several weeks as they fixed a long list of things we negotiated being fixed before we picked it up. Ironically, replacing the carpet wasn't one of them. This was one of those units that was sound, but lived in hard. Someone would eventually buy it and fix it up. It might as well be us, right? Less than a month before we left for Texas last year, we took delivery and proceeded to clean the carpets multiple times the odor fading a little each time. We vowed to replace it a soon as possible. In the meantime, an air purifier and non-stop Scentsy pots heating scented wax kept it tolerable. I was constantly asking people if it smelled okay in here, afraid I’d become 'nose blind' as the Febreze commercials say.

We had a company set to do it in Texas last winter, but they
had delivery issues with their product due to the heavy demand post Hurricane
Harvey. It wasn’t meant to be. As I sprinkled baking soda each day, and bought
scented wax by the truckload, I vowed to do it first thing when we arrived back
in Iowa. We lost a fridge to a lightening strike in May and our Heat Pump AC
went out in early June. More flooring money going to other things. I began to
wonder if we would ever rid ourselves of this dated, wet dog carpet.

As we sit in Ocala, with plenty of time on our hands and no sleepovers with grandkids on the weekends we have decided to go for it. We read blogs and watched some YouTube videos of the brave souls who have tackled the job themselves. We opted for a floating vinyl floor. For now, we will leave the carpet in the slide outs alone. The rest of the carpet and tile, from the driving compartment to the back wall, will soon be replaced with new, non-odor-absorbing, modern looking vinyl. We ordered our new flooring from Lumber Liquidators and it should be in this week. We are both excited to get going. The demolition will be a bitch, I won’t mince words. We have done it in two houses we bought out of foreclosure and renovated.  In fact, it is one of the worst demo jobs there is. It’s back breaking work and if you think old carpet stinks on the surface wait till you start pulling it up! Unlike the blogs I’ve read of others who replaced the flooring in their RV’s, we are living in it. It will be an interesting couple of weeks as we disassemble things and live amidst the demo in less than 400 sq. ft.

I’ll post pictures of the progress and share our story of
what went well, and what didn’t so others can learn from us as we have learned
from others before us.

With any luck we’ll start the new year with nice new
flooring!

Until next time…

Day 289 / 76 Adventures in Local Food Sourcing

Ocala, FL Rain 67 Degrees

Seven months into my new Paleo style of eating, I can't imagine going back to my old diet. I remember thinking when I started that it would be really cool to travel and eat this way, since I eat a good deal of locally grown vegetables. I thought how fun it would be to travel around and sample the local in season produce and imagined the variety would be limitless. 

My first 6 weeks in the southeast has been a huge disappointment. I quickly found that unless you eat a steady diet of okra and collard greens, you won't get much in the way of good produce. At least not this time of year. The grocery stores have been a huge disappointment. I've felt a bit like a teenager who thinks they are starving because mom let the frozen pizza and chicken nuggets run out. Between the Romaine lettuce recall and being stuck with mass produced and package lettuce that has been hosed down with preservatives so it will stay crisp in the Dole bags for weeks at a time, my diet has been anything but adventurous. It has been down right boring and tasteless. 

My luck changed this morning. My new friend Barb, invited me to go to the flea market with her this morning. As we walked along the aisles of handbags, kitchen knives, boiled peanuts and miracle pillows, I suddenly found myself in a veritable cornucopia of fresh fruits and vegetables! For a moment I thought I heard angels singing! 

This is where all the farmers and vegetables have been hiding! A huge variety of fresh, colorful, aromatic, deliciousness surrounded me. My mouth watered like a college student opening the lid of a pizza box.  Finally, I feel like I can eat real food again. I will miss this place when I go back to Iowa in April. For now I'll go every Friday morning and practice my Spanish with the vendors and load up on my Paleo fuel. 

Until next time...

Day 287 / 78 Why We Work Camp

Ocala, FL Sunshine 60 degrees

If we pay attention, we feel the constant state of personal growth until the moment we draw our last breath. We have learned a great deal about ourselves as a couple and as individuals in our nearly 3 years of being Full-time RV Volunteers. Maybe it is the constant influx of new experience, maybe it is because we are not on the frantic hamster wheel grinding through our years of careers and raising families. One thing is certain, when you live this wonderful lifestyle you become very aware of what really makes you tick.  

The experience in Plains and our subsequent decision to come to this  urban RV Park and live like the ‘other half'  has been a real eye opener for me.

I will start my part time job with the credit union on Monday and fill my afternoons, in my old professional environment full of stimulation and activity. When I left the banking world nearly 6 years ago, burnt out and miserable, I vowed to never return. Here I am going back, albeit in a very different capacity, actually looking forward to it. My motivation is strong. As I have mentioned in past posts, our annual budget with the absence of income from me depends on work camping most of the year. Me working while we lounge at a private park has always been Plan B.  My other motivation is simply that I don’t know how to be retired yet. It’s been three weeks since we left Plains, and I am going nuts with no routine or concrete objective when I get up in the morning. One thing I have learned is that volunteering at the parks not only helps sustain us financially, it sustains me mentally and spiritually.

Another thing I am learning is my deep need to be close to nature. I have always been drawn to the woods, but I realize now it isn’t just a preference, I truly need the physical connection to be content and at peace.   We are both very social and are loving the little group of 4 couples living in our corner of the RV park. As people arrive for the season, we are meeting more people, and going to the clubhouse to play cards or cornhole. What I am learning is these connections are very different from the connections you make with other couples who are sharing your ‘work’and passions when you volunteer for a park or wildlife refuge. Don’t get me wrong we have made some great friends in our short times in private parks and I love our couple of months of downtime each year. We have talked about going back to one park we particually liked as part of their volunteer workforce and I think I would be much happier, bartering time and elbow grease for a site. By the end of this 6 months in this concrete jungle, I will be very anxious to get back to Saylorville and get my hands in the dirt, walk the trails around the lake, sit on the bank and watch birds or just be in the woods and listen to the natural world around me.   In other words I long for Plan A to be back in force. 

We will use our time here to visit several Florida State parks and hopefully return in the future as volunteers at one of the natural areas here. You sure can’t beat the winter weather! We went to 31 degrees overnight. Floridian’s are freaking out, but the sun came up and it is quickly on its way to be a beautiful warm sunny day. By 4:00 this afternoon we will be on the patio of a local seafood restaurant with our new friends soaking up the sunshine. I’ll probably be watching the trees for birds and trying to ignore the sounds of the city while everyone chats.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned this past month, is simple, Yes, we volunteer in parks as a means of financing our ability to travel far and wide. But more than that we do it because our souls need it, especially mine. Even if we won the lottery, we would still do it. You can bet, we'd do it in a bigger, plusher newer motorhome and donate a pile of money to the places we love, but I would still be out there doing our small part to help the natural areas survive in our modern world. I wonder what else we will learn about ourselves before this winter is over? Our life as full-timers will evolve as we try different things. Who knows what we will yearn for 10 years from now. 

Until next time…

Day 283 / 82 St. Augustine

Ocala, FL Sunny 74 Degrees

Yesterday we traversed a sort of senior rite of passage. We took a Charter bus day tour. The park we are staying in has new owners and they are working hard to win new snowbirds, retain certain ones who are here and in general make the park much nicer than I understand it was a few years ago.  Champ and I paired up with our new neighbors, John and Barb, along with nearly 100 other park guests were treated to a ride to St. Augustine to see the spectacular Old Town Christmas Light Display. Our trip included the bus ride, a box lunch, and TrolleyTickets. All compliments of the owners!

At 1:30 we boarded our busses bound for the oldest city in the United States.                   St. Augustine was incorporated in 1565. As we walked through the streets marveling at the centuries-old Spanish architecture, I was sure that Iowa had not yet been trod on by a white man in that year. I tried to imagine what my home state looked like nearly 500 years ago.

Castillo de San Marcos flag at half-staff for President Bush

We had 4 ½ hours there once we stepped off the bus. It seemed like a long time but went very quickly.      We walked out to Castillo de San Marcos Fort on Matanzas Bay. The oldest masonry fort in the continental United States.  It was staffed by NPS Rangers and cost $15.00 each to go in. I had a fleeting thought about a future Volunteer gig here. We decided we didn’t have time to tour the whole thing and get our admissions worth, so we will save that tour for another day.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Scarlett Ohara’s in a building that resembled a period southern plantation house.  I had crab cakes as only they can make them on the East Coast and went off my Paleo regimen and drank a Guinness.  I didn’t stop at one I went crazy and had two!

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  John and Barb Cuny

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  Ready for the light tour in our groovey 3d glasses

Afterward we boarded our trolley for the 45 minutes tour of the lit up old town district. This was no ordinary Christmas Light display. This would have made Chuck Griswold envious. To add to the fun, we were given 3D glasses that made all the lights look like snowflakes, including the traffic lights and automobile lights, turning Old Town St. Augustine into a huge stage of dancing snowflakes.

Tour Video_Trim_TrimDownload

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  Store fronts in old town

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  Your chariot awaits

Sailboat in the bay.

Even the boats in the bay were decked out with lights. There was one sail boat moving through the water toward the channel decked out in blue lights. The camera couldn’t begin to do it justice without a tripod but a quickshot from the trolley gives you an idea.

We did a little shopping and decided we would definitely be back again on our own time and check out the museums and go in the fort when we have our Golden Access passes that will drastically reduce our admission. We were back on the busses headed home by 8:30.  Most everyone slept accept for a rowdy bunch of ladies in the back of the bus who had been drinking steadily the whole trip and provided wonderful entertainment to those of us who were awake to listen to their stories! I imagine they were the rowdy kids on their school busses in their day.  I need to meet these ladies! Something tells me they will be at the various card games or bingo when we start getting in the swing of the activity schedule.

I will say, young people are missing out by not taking the ‘old people’ tours. We had an absolute blast! Maybe it’s cause we’re old, maybe it’s just a really well-kept secret of retirement.

We have a lot of winter left to see more of Florida.

Until next time…

Day 278 / 87 Serendipity

Ocala, Florida Cloudy 82 Degrees

How long has it been since you stayed up all night talking about your dreams?  I was watching an episode of Home Improvement today that focused on Jill and Tim staying up all night talking and reconnecting.

As we watched it, we both remembered two very pivotal nights in our relationship that led us to the life we lead today.  You know the nights. For us the first one was very early when we were just getting to know each other. We hadn’t been on a date yet. I visited some friends camping at a little campground called Spring Lake. I had met him a few weeks before but didn’t know he was going to be there. After everyone went to bed, we sat up till 4:30 am talking and getting to know each other. The second ‘all nighter’ was several years later. We had been married about 4 years and were camping alone at Saylorville (now our summer home and volunteer gig) in Honeysuckle Loop. We sat at the fire, years from retirement, and fantasized about what it would be like to live in our RV and travel about volunteering for various parks. We had just had a conversation with a park host that evening and were intrigued, with the lifestyle. Who knew that brief encounter with a Saylorville Volunteer, would would lead to this!

Serendipity is my favorite word. Not only is it fun to say, but I love the concept of it. The best things in life happen by chance. The full-time lifestyle almost depends on it. We have been very isolated since we left Iowa. Social interaction with familiar people has been limited and savored.

On Saturday two couples arrived at the sites directly across from us.  They too, have been craving social interaction having been sequestered on the road for several weeks. The six of us have become instant friends. Had we stayed in Plains, we would have never crossed paths. That is the magic of the full-time life style. You meet people when you least expect to and start talking and all of a sudden you wish you had known each other your whole lives. It started for us in Texas that first year. We met John and Cathy and Peggy and Lloyd. We made a deep connection with both couples and stay in touch and have seen each other since that first winter. We met Lon and Teresa and Ben and Rhonda last year and by chance they are both in Florida this winter.

Serendipity, a chance meeting with a park volunteer 13 years ago, planted a seed and led Champ and I to this wonderful life we are living today. We know people now that we can’t imagine not knowing. We leave our family and life long friends for a few months a year, but we continue to meet new people who take up space in our hearts. Like Santa’s sack of toys, the heart never gets full, it just expands.

Until next time…

Day 276/89 New Friends and Manatees

Ocala, Florida 77 Degrees – Off and On Showers

We finally got out and saw a bit of Florida yesterday. We’ve been here for about 2 weeks now and haven’t explored much. We’ve been laying low and just enjoying being in a warm place with no commitments on our time.  Well, Champ has been enjoying it, I have been tolerating it.

I have been actively seeking a part time job and have three interviews next week. I expect to be working by mid-December.  In the meantime, we are meeting new people who are arriving at the vacant spaces around us. 

Yesterday was a day to remember. We went to visit our new friends Ben and Rhonda, who volunteered at Saylorville this past summer and have been full time almost exactly as long as we have. They have a beautiful place to park their 5^th wheel right on the canal in Weeki Wachee about 45 minutes from here. They invited us down yesterday to spend the day and go kayaking. What a day it was.

Their place is breathtaking. Everything one would expect from Florida. I knew there was a chance we would see Manatees. Something I have always wanted to experience.  We put their 4 kayaks in the canal from their dock, just feet from their camper, and headed down the canal toward the gulf waters. Within an hour we were in a spring fed cove where 4 adults and a calf were swimming about. Ben said it was fine to beach my kayak and get in the water with them, if I was comfortable doing it. I couldn’t get in the water fast enough. I handed my camera off to Champ, pulled the kayak into the tree line and swam into the 72- degree water out to them. I treaded water and they came to me. One surfaced right in front of me and then swam around my legs like a cat rubbing against may calves. I ‘petted’ it with my feet and marveled at the gentleness and curiosity of the quiet giant that was letting me share its space. Their hide felt like running your hand over the surface of a slick racing tire. Sadly, they all had scars from boat props. I was in heaven, being in direct contact with these incredible water mammals.

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  Ben and Rhonda with Brownie

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  Manatee

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  Coming up to say "HI"

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  Up close and personal

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  Manatee back rub

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  Manatee passing by as we took a break

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  Dolphins

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  It's a guy thing.

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  Inhaling fresh shrimp

We worked our way out to the inter-coastal waters near the mouth of the gulf and were treated to two dolphins, playing in the shallow waters. Perhaps the most unexpected sighting was a Ladderback Woodpecker, drumming away at a Palm tree trunk in the marshy area just inland from the gulf. I’ve always associated woodpeckers with more traditional timbered areas.

It was a memorable afternoon, of experiencing new things in nature and getting to know Ben and Rhonda better. Ben and Champ paddled along together talking about whatever guys talk about. Rhonda and I followed and talked, as we got to know each other on a new level.

The day ended with dinner at a wonderful understated place called PK’s Shipwreck, where we feasted on a pound of steamed shrimp and a beer for $12.50 each. Champ scarfed down the fish and chips and we were treated to live music.

We left with full bellies and memories of close encounters with nature most people only dream of.  A day of firsts and new friends was the theme.  We have all winter to hang out Ben and Rhonda. Something that would not have happened if our gig in Plains hadn’t imploded. Life is full of unexpected joy if we just take a deep breath and let it unfold. A lesson I am slowly learning.

Until next time…