Homemaking

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What Makes an RV Liveable?

I found an interesting article today about what makes an RV liveable. The author lists twelve items. Of those, four are items that I loved about Miranda from the get-go, two are things I was able to change, and three are things I’ve been hankering to change. That means that nine of the twelve items applied to me. I’d say the article was pretty relevant!

The four items I loved are:

1) Separate vanity and toilet (#8);

2) An accessible toilet (#10);

3) Real doors (#11);

4) Lots of windows (#12). I recently saw a class C that had no window in the back. I can’t imagine not having my great view… even if it means a chillier room in the winter!

The two things I was able to change:

1) Easy to maintain floors (#1). Miranda had hardwood in some places and carpet in the rest. I replaced the carpet with vinyl. The combination of the two is easy to upkeep;

2) A dedicated workspace (#7). I was lucky to be able to convert a whole room into a computer space.

The three things I’ve been hankering to change:

1) Adding a counter extension (#4), but the only place to put one would interfere with the drawers, so that will probably never happen;

2) The wardrobe (#6);

3) The pantry (#9); improving my food storage is my number two priority after figuring out what to do with all my clothes.

The three items that weren’t relevant to me:

1) A re-configurable dining area (#2) since I find the dinette useful (which is good because it’s not removable!);

2) An island style bed (#3) since I live alone and all I want is an unobstrusive flat place to sleep, so the loft makes me happy;

3) An adjustable television set (#5) since I don’t own a tv. I did have a lapse in judgement when I thought “Gee, I should get one since most parks include cable in their free hookups” and then I remembered that I didn’t watch tv most of the year I had free cable included in my rent AND that the reason I gave away my television was that I hadn’t turned it on in over eighteen months and was sick of dusting it AND where, praytell, would I store such an item?

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Nesting Weather

All this time spent cooped up in Miranda is making me eager to get rid of those fur-collecting window treatments! But before I start investing in the third stage of the great big remodel (new valances, new blinds, new curtains), I need to improve on my organization in here! Everything has a home, but not a very neat one, so I need to work on making things more accessible. My wardrobe, especially, is proving to be a real challenge. I need a full-length closet!!! I’m actually so desperate for a full-length closet that I actually found one that would fit in the space by the shower, which means that I would have to get rid of the bathroom storage tower, which means that I need to rethink my bathroom storage to remove the need for that tower. I’ve got a lot of wall space in the toilet room and I really need to better utilize the upper portions.

I can see that I’m slowly beginning to make Miranda ‘mine’ with no consideration for how modifications could affect her resale value. The more I’m out here, in western Canada, the more I find RV parks where the RVs stay parked long term without ever being moved. I can just about visualize myself, in several years time when I’d be ready to settle down for a bit, setting Miranda on blocks in one of these parks instead of renting an apartment or buying a house.

The day I get out the paint brushes and get rid of these bland speckled wall coverings is the day I’ll know for sure just how long term I’m looking at being in here. 😀

I’m off to remind myself of what I stored in the dinette benches, throw it out (how important can it be if I forgot what it is?), move linens under there, and move winter gear to where the linens were. Eventually the winter gear will end up back in the basement and I’ll be able to breathe again. 🙂

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The Little Discussed Gem of the Class C

I’ve read a lot about Class C RVs. We owners of them are quick to extol their virtues. But there is one feature I’ve never seen discussed: the view from the overhead cab.

Think about it. Miranda is about 11′ tall, not counting the air conditioner and antenna. So, when I’m lying in the cab, right up against the ceiling (since I have a particularly thick mattress), I’m pretty much sleeping at a height that is equivalent to the floor of a second story.

One of my favourite parts of the day is to peek through the curtains up there first thing in the morning and watch the sun rise or the rain fall. I get a long distance view right clear across the park and to the mountains. I’ve had gorgeous views (middle of nowhere Transcanada, Vérendrye Park), views that were okay (Cochrane, here), and views that sucked (Edmonton, any Walmart). What a treat it is to be able to survey my new home or check out the weather before even getting out of bed!

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Propane Is No Fun At All

I went back to Osoyoos yesterday afternoon and finally got the proper hose. I returned home, installed it, checked for leaks, then followed the instructions before trying to light my stove. It got a bit of gas, lit, then conked on. I tried this a couple of times, then went back out. My neighbour saw me poking around and asked me if I needed help. I walked him through the steps I had taken and he confirmed that I did everything perfectly. He said that there was probably a lot of air in the hose and to try to light the stove every couple of minutes until the flame took.

A couple of hours later, he came to see if my stove was firing up. Nope. So, he told me to close the valve on the auxiliary tank, turn on the stove to drain the last of the propane from the hose, and then open the tank sloooooowly so as to trick the flow-limiting valve.

That didn’t help either.

But the flow-limiting valve was something I didn’t know about. It’s a safety feature that prevents a huge amount of propane from getting into your systems and becoming a fire hazard. I Googled that last night and found a suggestion that I simply shut off everything, remove the hose, reattach it, then reopen the tank valve sloooooooowly.

I did that and, this morning, I had a lot more propane coming to the stove, but it still wouldn’t stay lit. Same thing this afternoon.

I decided to try to reset the system one last time before admitting defeat and conceding that I might have seriously screwed up my propane system. I closed the valve on the tank, unhooked the hose, rehooked, then just nudged the valve. For the first time, I heard a bit of a hiss. I waited until the noise stopped, then I slowly and evenly opened the valve the rest of the way. I could finally hear propane flowing!

My stove lit up fine and stayed lit for a couple of minutes, so the next step was the hot water heater. It fired up in one try. Woohoo!

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Shower Snobbery

Having no hot water, I used a resort shower tonight. They’re quite nice and very clean, definitely better than any shower I’ve ever had… except Miranda’s!

Miranda’s shower has several features that make her particularly luxurious to me:

1) The angled design means more width. I can stretch out and turn comfortably. It seems to be a more efficient use of square footage;

2) It has a door instead of a curtain which tends to flap around. I used to find such doors high maintenance until I discovered the squeegee! Now, I just squeegee the doors when I’m done and the doors stay sparkling clean;

3) Storage space!

shower

The caddy has just enough room for all the things I use in a normal shower and there’s even a little shelf for extras. I had never before seen a shower or bath with proper storage!

4) The shower head on a hose is very useful for accessing those difficult to reach parts of the body.

Ah, be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. 🙂