Accommodation

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There’s No Place Like Home

My office is still set up in The Apartment and I still have some flotsam and jetsam to bring down to the rig, but the hard part of the move is done. WHEW.

Jody and Gary arrived around 6 to help me bring things downstairs. Gary brought the things I’d left at their place all winter, including the propane tank and jerry cans… which were returned to me full! Can you believe him? What an awesome going away present! The hard work done, Jody treated us to a farewell dinner at Montana’s.

My day wasn’t done, though. I made several trips down to the rig to bring the cat stuff and the cats. I then made up the bed. Now, I’m going to have a shower, make sure the iPad is loaded with a good movie, and head down for a good night’s sleep in my home.

Tomorrow is going to be full, too, but Saturday should be a reasonably leisurely departure day.

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Last Night in the Apartment!

I can’t believe that tonight will be the last of sleeping in the same room that I cook and work in! And no more noisy fridge!

I have a few hours of transcription to do, and then I am off for a solid week. I have handed in my final time card for the apartment complex, so I am officially done there. Oh, I am available for questions, but I’m not going to be sitting in the office any more.

Sometime tomorrow, I will pull out and get Miranda prepped, then Jody (who has decided to come after all) and Gary will be coming to help me with the furniture. The Apartment doesn’t look anywhere ready, but I know that everything will come together quickly. I haven’t decided yet when the cats are going back into the rig. They will either be shut in the bathroom here or in the back of the motorhome during the move, but I want them to sleep in Miranda tomorrow with me as leaving them alone in a half empty apartment will be traumatizing to them.

I can’t believe how quickly the last six months have passed!

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On Schedule, But Feeling the Pressure

I have another full day of transcription, so I didn’t start anything in the rig today that I couldn’t finish in a few hours. I woke up feeling ambitious and was going to put on a coat of yellow in the front room and loft, but the amount of transcription ahead of me this week curtailed that enthusiasm. I will paint one wall that is getting on my nerves, but that is all.

So today I redid the entrance stairwell. I cannot believe what a difficult project it is to make it look nice and still be water tight. It’s much, much better than the last attempt to improve it, but still not particularly photogenic.

I also brought down a couple of loads, including some food! Having food back in the rig is really starting to make departure day feel very real. I started the fridge on AC yesterday, and it’s already nice and cold, but I won’t be putting anything into it until I fill up the propane.

With all that needs to be done with the rig, it’s easy to forget other issues I need to tend to before departure. The biggest priority are my taxes and end of this invoicing period’s bookkeeping. I did remember to call the credit card company today to inform them that I’ll be traveling through the US, but declined to purchase my travel medical insurance until I know for sure what date I’ll be attempting a border crossing (it looks like Monday, not Tuesday, at this point!).

Jody has decided that I don’t need her help to get my mattress back in the rig and the borrowed furniture out of The Apartment, so departure will really depend on Gary’s schedule. I asked him for help the last time I went for dinner and he was amenable, so it’s just a matter of finding a matching free time slot. I would really rather do it earlier in the day so that I still have a few hours to square away The Apartment so I can spend just one night in the parking lot here, but if it ends up being a couple of nights, that’s fine.

A week from today, I will most definitely be back home, on the road. This winter, the best of my life, has been an incredible personal and professional journey, but I am more than ready to see what comes next.

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Behind Schedule, as Usual

I was asked to do some transcription this weekend. I’m currently working for my beginning of May pay cheque, so I’m trying to get in as much work as possible as it will be lovely to have some real income in the middle of my travels. But I took my client to his word that he’d sent 131 minutes of audio (9 hours of work) when it was actually 161 minutes (11 hours of work)! I didn’t clue in to this till late today and what was supposed to be one hour at the apartment complex stretched into three. So I’ve been in income mode for most of the day. I’m not complaining. 🙂

This has actually been a blessing in disguise since it’ll give the brown paint an extra day to cure before I start shifting things in the rig. I did put on the three coats of sealant to the bookcase and desk tops. I hope that will suffice to protect the paint job.

Each time I’ve gone down to the rig, I’ve brought a small load of things. Croft asked in a comment how much extra stuff I’ll need to lug down and the answer is nothing. I’m actually going to be giving away a lot of clothing, which will actually mean I’ll be bringing less into Miranda than I brought into The Apartment. This should serve as sufficient proof to the continued doubters that I continue to have a full-timer’s mentality. That said, I brought everything up over the course of six months and plan to bring it down in about two days, so it’s going to feel like a big job! I need to get into the habit of not going down the stairs without something for the rig.

I plan to bookend tomorrow with transcription and move forward with squaring away the rig in the middle of the day. Once everything is away, it’ll be easier to start bringing in loads of things on Monday.

Departure day is really going to depend on what day I can get help from Jody and/or Gary to get things back into the rig, but it could be as early as a week from tomorrow, but hopefully no further away than eight days!

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A Drop of Golden Brown

Miranda’s interior makeover is definitely an amateur and barely skilled effort. But that doesn’t mean that the rig can’t still look pulled together. One of the unifying elements is the oak cabinetry throughout. The problem is that there is also mismatched wood throughout. So starting in the kitchen and then in the dressing room with the wardrobe doors, I used a golden brown colour that matches the honey oak of the cabinetry to make my additions blend in a little better. I decided to buy a ton more of this paint colour and use it in the study, which had no fewer than four different wood finishes.

Now, I suck at taking decent before shots, but here’s an idea of what the bed base looked like this morning:

As you can see, the trim was unpainted. I was going to paint it golden brown like I did with the trim around the sink in the kitchen, but the bed base had a bunch of holes and scratches. Now, it’s all golden brown:

My desk, while sporting a few chips, does match the rest of the cabinetry, so it’s fine, except for the top:

I decided to paint the top as well as my little bookcase and the new top I made for it this morning (it’s been a productive day). Both the bookcase and desk top swill be golden brown and sealed with Verathane to protect the finish. Here’s a sneak peak of that:

Finally, the white door into the toilet room from the dressing room was getting on my nerves. I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Once I was committed to buying more of the golden brown paint, the answer was obvious: match the toilet room door to the wardrobe doors. Ta-dah:

I’ve got two coats of the golden brown on now and will do a third after dinner.

Tomorrow will be a mostly lost day as I need to put in a half day at the apartment complex. I’ll be glad for the extra income and the new manager is glad to not have to come in yet on a weekend. So I hope that three coats of brown will be enough and that I will be able to apply the Verathane tomorrow. Sunday, I’ll be able to get the rig completely squared away, and Monday I will be moving back in 95% of what’s in the apartment, leaving only a functional office and kitchen!