Funny How Things Work Out

Saturday’s horde was supposed to take off with all my appliances. But the deal on the fridge and stove fell through, so I was left with them. About three hours after the horde left, I received a slightly panicky telephone call from my landlords wondering if my fridge and stove were still available for sale…. So I now have both right up until the day I leave and I don’t have to coordinate their departure from the house. AND I got the price I wanted for them. Yay!

I had a bit of a meltdown when I woke up this morning and realised just how little time I have left, so I’ve been using my breaks to chip away at my humongous to do list.

First order of business was to find a place to camp for my last five days. Plan A worked out just fine, YAY!!!

I then cancelled my Hydro Quebec account online, but will need to call the doofuses there to confirm that they’ll be sending my final bill the way they send all my bills, via email.

Finally, I confirmed with my insurance company that the changes I’d asked for have gone through. As it turns out, the company’s headquarters burned to the ground a few weeks back (!), so they’re having major delays, but I should be getting my paperwork before I leave.

What’s left? Oh so much. 🙂

Wardrobe Woes

Miranda’s wardrobe is surprisingly useless for a full-timer. Blame it on the sliding doors. If I had doors that opened outwards, I could have done something like Andy Baird did in his rigs, that is put in plastic drawers to fill in the space. Instead, I have to contend with doors that eat up a surprising amount of interior space. I will put in at least one drawer unit, but it will have to be quite skinny.

When retirees move into a full-timing rig, they can usually downsize their clothing since they know they’ll be doing mostly casual things in mostly warm climates. I don’t have that luxury. I’m still going to go through four seasons and I have no idea what sort of scenarios I’m going to encounter. It therefore doesn’t make sense to get rid of anything I’ve worn in the last year except for pieces that are definitely too big for me now.

I divided my wardrobe into three: winter, summer, and inbetween. Since I’m leaving at the beginning of September, I can expect to wear summer clothes for at least that month, but will want ready access to the inbetween items, which include longer-sleeved tops and heavier skirts. The distinctly winter items–corduroy skirts, heavy knit tops, coats, boots, hats, etc. went into two rubber totes that fit nicely in the basement. I’ll need to figure out how to squeeze the summer things into the wardrobe using the hanging and drawer space I have available to me. As for the inbetween stuff, I want it at the ready for the first chilly morning.

So, I just spent a half hour staring at both my closets (yes, both, I’m in suuuch trouble, LOL!) and realised that I hadn’t figured out yet where I’m putting my suitcases. Yes, I’m taking my suitcases with me since I plan on doing one round trip air flight per year to Montreal to visit my family.

The three suitcases nestle in each other, so there’s only the big one to worry about, size-wise, and it should fit on the wardrobe’s shelf if I measure things correctly. I put the smaller suitcase in it and stuffed it with rolled up long-sleeved inbetween tops.

I then closed up the small suitcase and laid on top the dressier clothes I own that would be suitable for interviews or office jobs. They’ll be out of the way, but stay reasonably unwrinkled.

I finished by stuffing the suitcase with socks and tights.

I will most definitely need to hang some things, so I suspect I’ll end up using up as much of the wardrobe for drawers as I can, and then put up hooks in the entrance and study for hanging the coats and shawls I’m using at the time. I’ll hang the other coats in the wardrobe in the dead space between the drawers where the doors intersect. I’ll need to remove the drawer units to get at the coats, so that will be fine for rotating storage.

An Ending Moves into a Beginning

In a matter of hours a horde will descend upon my house, filling it like hungry little fire ants attacking a prey. When it scatters, the house will be quite empty.

I’ll then have two weeks to continue bringing items to Miranda and get rid of the rest. I really don’t have that much left to bring at this time, though. What’s left is mostly stuff I don’t want to do without in the next couple of weeks, like my clothes, computer set up, DVD cases, and mattress. For the last big haul, I would like to bring Miranda here one day, finish filling her up, and then leave for good. That will hopefully happen on Saturday the 30th. I had planned to spend that weekend at a campground but only just clued in that, HELLO!, it’s the Labour Day weekend! I’ll be lucky to find a campground close by that still has spots left. I’ll make some calls on Monday, but I have a couple of other options in mind.

I will spend my last two weeks in this house the way I spent the first two weeks, with very little furniture and no appliances, and will be coming full circle as I move back into a metal tube on wheels. Had someone told me last March that I would be moving back into such an abode, I would have laughed. Life is the strangest ride.

It’s Not What You Know…

It’s who you know.

One thing that didn’t get done this past weekend is the backup camera installation.

I told a friend that tonight and she told me she was going to make a phone call on my behalf.

Next thing I know, I’ve lined up someone to install not only my backup camera, but also an inverter and a solar panel, and this at an hourly rate that would be absurdly reasonable for an amateur but is a real gift from a retiree who made his living doing this.

I now have a week to do my energy audit thingy to determine exactly how much of an inverter I need, do some research on my solar panel to see if it’ll suit my needs or if I need another one, find both items… and fork out another boatload (erm, RVload) of money.

Please excuse me while I run around the house screaming ‘YIPPEE!!!’ at the top of my lungs.

Extreme Makeover: RV Edition, Part One

My mother and I got a ton of work done on the coach this weekend. I’m fortunate that I was able to get down to her place and that she was available. We had the full resources of her workshop at her disposal. As we raced through Home Depot on Saturday morning she said that she felt that she was on one of those tv shows where you have to decorate on time and on budget and I have to agree!

I’ll start off with a bit of info on the drive down Friday. The weather was awful, alternating pouring rain with bright sun, but I had no choice, I needed to arrive that night, so I took off. The drive was really quite easy; I even felt comfortable enough to pass slow pokes. Montreal was harrowing, but Miranda made it through unscathed.

The most exciting part of the drive was stopping off for fuel. I wasn’t sure if Miranda would fit under the overhang.

Please visit the various room pages linked to from the Miranda page for pictures.

Next weekend, I’ll have more pictures of the back room renovations; I’m just waiting for some sewing to be done to be able to show things off properly. 🙂

Kilometres driven this weekend: just shy of 500.