Time For Some Upgrades

Even though Ol' King is in really great condition, we still decided he could use some upgrades. The first upgrade we did was installing new bathroom and kitchen faucets. We purchased the faucets from Lowes, and I was a little hesitant because the kitchen faucet that we purchased is a normal home faucet. Since our rig is older the fixtures are actually quality and not all that cheap plastic crud. Our sink in the kitchen is a double porcelain sink so I wasn't that concerned that a regular house faucet wouldn't fit. As we replaced the sinks well what do ya know they fit perfectly! YAY!!!!! I'm all about the details and I feel that even the slightest details help add to the overall look of any space. These upgrades were long over due considering the fixtures are from the late 80's.

 

 

 

  We went with a brushed nickel color which I'm very pleased with :)

Can you tell? :D

 

 

Click below to watch our video

Let the painting begin

The initial thought of painting our 34ft trailer was, "Oh it wont take that long it is a small space.". Yeah right I feel like it has consumed my life, lol. The painting has done so because I didn't use the correct paint. Basically in short never use a paint and primer duo. I have painted many other walls and furniture but for whatever reason I decided to do the duo of paint and primer which was not the best option. I was having to paint the same surface with 4 coats, that should of been a red flag but I decided to keep painting. Then it hit me, "Stop! What are you doing? You are wasting your time." Not only was it extremely time consuming, but my nail could scrape off the paint. The paint wasn't even adhering to the walls correctly. Talk about a total nightmare. I really did not want a glossy finish look on the walls and cabinets but I ended up just putting a polycyclic protective finish sealer over the paint to prevent any future chipping.  The painting was a process that I mainly did myself, because it is something that I could do alone. Meaning that I didn't need the husbands muscle to complete it. I would usually start the day with primer then go do another task and then come back for more coats of primer and so on through out the day until the area I was working on was completed.

 

Kitchen painting is underway!

 

The kitchen is coming along quite nicely.

 

The master is a work in progress here.

 

The garage is currently the cabinet painting center.

 

The slide with a fresh coat! :)

Here is a painting update video. Enjoy :)
          

<3 Brit

So many projects, so little time

Needless to say we have a ton of ideas and plans for our little home on wheels.  The ultimate goal is to be living in the 5th wheel within the next month. There is no rush to be living in it full time, however why not and save some dough considering that is our plan. We currently rent an older (built in 1925) 2 bedroom home with a 100ft drive way. The drive way really came in handy to fit the King. My husband and I have to decided to get all of the painting and flooring in before we start full timing it. I don't think the laundry list of projects will ever end. I constantly brainstorm of different projects and ideas to modify the 5th wheel. I really need to just turn off my brain at times because I overwhelm myself with the possibilities.

Without further ado......Let the demolition begin!

 

 

Found a little bit of water damage : / Nothing we can't fix

 

Buhhhhh Bye linoleum and fuchsia carpet.

 

Nasty, dirty, sand filled carpet....good ridden!

 

 

Day 1 of Renovation

 

 

The first day was extremely successful. I feel that we got a lot accomplished, but still have a looooooong way to go. We were able to rip up majority of the flooring, as well as remove all the window treatments which included curtains and blinds. Boy was it a dust storm in there! I sure am glad we purchased masks they sure came in handy. We removed all the cabinets and placed them in our garage for safe keeping, and to prep for painting. We also started in on the wall paper fiasco. In some areas the wallpaper was very easy to remove and other areas not so much. There were sections in the 5th wheel that the paper was already loose and sagging, which was more my cup of tea because it was easy to remove. In the sections that it was not loose took a lot more elbow grease to remove. I tried a few tricks and tips to remove the wall paper, but none seemed to put a dent in it. Amongst my research some tips were to use a blow dryer, a rag with hot water, and different spray on chemicals. None of the above worked, which I'm sure is due to the 25 years the wallpaper has been hanging on for dear life. What we found worked best for us was starting to peel a small section with our finger nail or small metal putty knife. Once able to lift a small area of the paper we would slowly work the putty knife in more and more to remove larger sections of the wall paper. The 5th wheel was seriously covered in wallpaper so I would say it took me a week to remove it.



 

We also removed the kitchen dinette. By removed I pretty much mean demolished, lol. The husband got a little demo happy and wanted to break just about everything it seemed, so I had to remind him we are on a budget as well as repurposing the already existing items. We ended the day with a massive dump run and called it a day.

 

Here is a short video of some of the work we did.

 

 

<3 Britnee

 

Before Renovations

Here she is in all her glory, our 1990 King of the Road 5th wheel.

 

Our model had a rear kitchen which I really like compared to the other models that we looked at.

 

Don't you just love the faded fuchsia color ;)  

 

There were more mirror's in this 5th wheel than we knew what to do with.

 

Along with the mirror's, there was also wall paper EVERYWHERE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the before tour video, enjoy!

5th Wheel Shopping

The purchase of our 5th wheel was quite an ordeal. Unlike the purchase of our Ford diesel, where we pulled into the dealer and was already turned on and ready for my husband to test drive it. Ok, maybe I'm over exaggerating a bit to much. The purchase itself was not an "ordeal" let me correct myself it was more of a longer process if you will. One of the reasons why I think my husband went along with the "master plan" was due to the fact that it meant he got a truck. He use to have one and we ended up having to sell it (I will talk more about that later).
We purchased the truck first, which my husband Beto was all about. Constantly looking trucks up, sending me links, wanting to go take a look at them. Needless to say he was in control of the truck purchase. After we purchased our truck I was gung ho about finding a 5th wheel. I'm not going to lie it became a bit of an obsession. If anyone knows me I become easily obsessed with something I'm "into", my mother and sister also suffer from this syndrome. I feel like it needs a name, "the fixated frenzy". We become extremely fixated on that one ideal, we research it and then research it again. We want to learn everything there is to know about it, and become an expert. Granted at times this can be a down fall, and you will never fully know all that there is to know about it. Eventually you have to just dive head in and figure out as you go. One of my teachers called it analysis paralysis. I though that was a fitting term as well. With the help of google just a click away it is just to easy. I know we can't be the only ones out there with this "syndrome", someone else must be able to relate.
I looked into all different trailers, but I was drawn to the 5th wheel for multiple reasons which I will go into in a future post. I was torn weather to purchase a new or older model 5th wheel. We had already established the "must haves" for our rig, which was a rear kitchen setup, separate bathroom quarters, and a washer dryer preferred. We came across a dealer that would buy up the trade in trailers from the big dealers. These trailers were priced very well compared to other prices we had looked at. However due to our financial past the bank simply would not approve a loan amount that large. At the time we were pretty bummed about it, but thinking back to that moment I'm now relieved that we ended up purchasing a rig a bit older and for less money. One sure can get carried away in the glam of it all, but at the end of the day I wanted a rig that was structurally sound and functioned well. Our goal is to be debt free and have that sense of freedom. By having purchased a newer 5th wheel would have just put us into more debt, which is the total opposite of our goals at the moment. Instead we opted to purchase an older model that is in great condition and vamp it up.

I searched high and low, again let's be real it consumed me. I tease my husband, Beto that he had no part in the trailer searching due to the fact that he already got his truck and was happy as a clam with it and was just thoroughly enjoying it. You got to give them a hard time sometimes :) After the excitement of our truck purchase settled we set out to find "the one", and boy let me tell you it is hard to find a well taken camper in our area that isn't gonna cost you.  For myself it was a roller coaster of emotions I would get super excited and then be let down by different rigs that we looked at, but I remained positive because I knew eventually the right one would pop up. Having the patience paid off, and we stumbled across our little gem.

Making a plan for your Dreams

Hello and welcome to our blog! Thank you for taking time to read about our crazy, fascinating, and unpredictable life. This blog will be about a husband and wife's journey to go against the grain and live a bit "differently" some would say. For us this way of life fits into our dreams and goals, and we are totally content. We keep in mind that this isn't for everyone, and keep an open mind in that regard. To each their own I always say. We are opened minded individuals that are in no way trying to pressure this way of life onto anyone else. We just want to share our story and our adventure :)

Welp, I feel like I can talk about this topic for days if I could and give a lengthy back story(which I will probably do in a future blog). We have decided to purchase a 5th wheel trailer as well as a big beefy Ford 250 Diesel truck and live out of the 5th wheel (also referred to as being a "full-timer"). An interesting concept to say the least, but it fits our needs and will allow us to be debt free and have the freedom to travel where we choose.

My husbands initial reaction to my hair brain ideas are usually "No way!" Which in this scenario was his exact reaction, but I asked him to keep an open mind. I asked my husband if he had ever even stepped into a trailer or an rv of any sorts, which he had when he was like 8 years old. Considering it had been 20 years since he had been inside a trailer I asked him if we could just go take a look. Clearly for size purposes :) Thankfully he was open to the idea of "looking".

A few weeks later we went to our local used trailer dealer just to take a look around, and surprisingly my husband thought they were "pretty roomy". Which means a lot coming from him, and gave me hope seeing as my idea wasn't completely shot down. Then about a week later out of no where he tells me, " I want to do it babe! I want to sell all our crap and move and travel."

Where was this coming from? It was truly music to my hears. I honestly thought I was going to have to do a little work on my end you know convince him to jump on board with me. However that was not the case at all. I simply planted a seed, and he really went with it. Needless to say we started truck shopping and 5th wheel shopping and it progressed from there.

Today we are proud owners of a 1990 King of the Road 5th wheel.  We purchased it from the sweetest older couple and hope we make them proud. We have began to remodel the 5th wheel and slowly have started to pare down(basically sale or get rid of all your crap that you don't use). We are extremely excited about this new journey in our lives and appreciate that you are apart of it as well. So sit back, buckle up and enjoy the ride with us!

- Britnee  <3