Ocala, Florida 85 Degrees Sunny
When we bought this motor home it was in dire need of some TLC on the inside. The drive train had been well maintained and the miles were low. The inside was a fright. After having bought two houses out of foreclosure in similarly sorry condition and rehabilitating them, the work didn't scare us. After all, someone would buy it eventually and make it nice again, it may as well be Champ and I. The big difference was that with the houses we had a big camper in the yard to live in while we did the big work. This would be a job that would have to happen while we lived amid the mess. The layout was the best of all the motor homes we looked at and the price deeply discounted due to the condition of the inside. Over the last 18 months we have slowly worked at updating the inside and making some other untimely repairs that we didn't expect but come along with the territory of buying a 12 year old unit. I've done posts along the way but decided to wrap it into one post now that the work is done say, for a couple of minor changes we still intend to make.
Lars, the former owner, lives in our imaginations as a 70 something retired farmer with a barn and machine shed full of scrap lumber, coffee cans full of random hardware and no idea how to throw anything away. Every 'repair' he made or shelf he built is held together with 5" deck screws. If he missed he didn't back it out he just stuck another screw next to the badly placed one. All of his handy work has been painfully obvious and as far as we know has been located and done properly with new materials, that match the rest of the motor home and hardware that suits the application. We found all of the drive train maintenance and repair records in the manual folder. Thank God, he didn't touch the motor!
Like many early 2000's RV's, the inside was shades of beige and dark brown. Heavy box valances and dingy vinyl wall covering dominated the inside. The first thing we did was take down all the slatted mini blinds and replace them with insulated panel curtains. I made draw roman style insulated shades for the bedroom and recovered the headboard to match. We painted the entire inside an off white with blueish gray undertones. Grease from the stove had ruined the back splash in the kitchen so we didn't even try to paint that we put up a metallic stick on back splash that matches the cabinet door pulls and handles.
Original bed area 
Bed after 
Original kitchen 
Kitchen w/ new backsplash
We realized a couple of weeks ago that we had replaced all of the electronics and appliances accept the stove. It was an easy decision to buy a whole new cook top when I started having trouble finding grates to replace the aftermarket ones that were on mine and didn't align with the burner heads, making even pan heating impossible. I've been cursing the stove since day one. I suppose Lars, had some old ones from another RV laying around his shed that ended up in here. The 4k living room TV and sound bar quickly replaced the old analog dinosaur that was in it when we bought it. The RV fridge succumbed to a close lightening strike last summer and we now have a nice big residential fridge in it's place that Champ wired to the inverter, so it still runs going down the road. The dealer put a nice new, huge, Whirlpool convection/microwave in before we bought it, since Lars and his wife left some sort of food like substance in the old one when it caught fire before they traded. Our salesman said the smell when they opened it, after sitting on the lot closed up for the better part of a hot Iowa summer, permeated the entire shop for days. The heat pump has been essentially rebuilt this winter and is working fabulously these days after limping along or not working at all for most of last summer.
We threw out the blue recliner the first week, along with the 9 lbs of dog hair embedded in it. In it's place we put a small end table that we picked up at Goodwill for 10 bucks. For another few dollars I bought material and made a skirted cover with an opening in the back. Underneath lives the covered litter box for our two cats. No one knows it's there. I covered the end of the stub wall with matching fabric.
Original TV corner 
New TV Corner
Oh yes, we also replaced the fireplace early on. The one that the dealer said worked wouldn't heat for more than a few seconds. $150.00 and Amazon cured that problem pretty easily.
Perhaps the most dramatic change took place this winter. We finally tore out all the old carpet ( the subject of several posts in December) and got our new vinyl plank flooring installed and added some area rugs from Wayfair. While we were on a roll we went couch shopping to replace the Winnebago motorized jack knife couch that was starting to pop springs and had quite a few dog teeth marks on it from the prior owners. That snowballed into a whole new use for the living dining area. As we looked at couches we found that what we really wanted was much bigger than the original couch. After a lot of discussion and some arm twisting on me, we decided to nix the dining table and buy the big couch since that is where we spend most of our time relaxing if we aren't lounging on the patio. Giving up the table was huge for me. I grew up taking meals at the table. I was that mean mom who made my kids eat at the table as well. I have even been accused of being a mean wife for making Champ, who has spend most of his pre-Britt adulthood eating is meals on the couch in front of the TV, eat at the table with me! After laying on the couch with room to spare, I relinquished my permanent dining table for a couple of nice TV trays and a small occasional table with a pull out tray and a cabinet to store my 'table stuff' like the computer and my various notebooks and crossword puzzles that are always within my reach. When I want a real table to eat at or sew at I now have a card table that stores under the bed. When I'm sprawled out on the couch with nearly a foot of length left over I don't miss the table. Being able to plug my phone into the couch to charge is pretty cool too. The dining area has undergone a lot of change. It had a booth when the previous owners bought it new. They installed the table in the 'before' image below and had four hardwood straight backed chairs that were horribly uncomfortable. We bought 2 bucket chairs at a garage sale and a smaller table to make the space easier to move about in. Last summer I splurged and bought new chairs, that stayed after the last change.
Original Couch area 
New couch 8 " longer 
Original dining are 
Dining area turned coffee nook
We marvel at the old pictures and smile when we realize that after buying this very heavily lived in, seldom cleaned unit for more than 20k less than the value, we have made it into a very nice, updated unit for less than $4,000. The only thing we still want to do is replace the carpet in the slides and the driving compartment which we'll likely do this summer. We've priced that job at around $300. Being able to do our own work has been both economical and very satisfying for both of us.
The day we looked at it with our eyes burning from the smell and me gagging a bit the salesman said, "Someone will get a really good deal if they can do the work to make it nice again." As it turned out those someones were us. It has taken a year and a half but I can finally say with some conviction that I'm glad we bought it and I gave up my beloved 5th wheel. Not something Champ ever thought he would hear me say after dragging me kicking and screaming into the world of motor homes.
Until next time...
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