I continue to work on upgrades in the RV. However, things are slowing down as we are traveling less and getting more used to a more or less stationary lifestyle for the time being. There are things to work on, projects to do, things to put in place, but as is so often the case, finances seem to be the biggest impediment to getting them all done.
This month, we are adding an air conditioner. We had a slight issue with a company double charging us for something a few months ago, and that caused a mess to our finances that we are finally getting under control. Every month we have to buy food, pay our bills, and each month we add a few small things to slowly build things up in our home and make it more comfortable and give us things to do.
We would love to travel, but for the time being, that doesn’t look like it will be happening for awhile. I have a job, so we have somewhere to stay and we can pay down debt, buy some things we have been waiting to buy, save up some money, and get things in order for whatever steps we need to take next. While we’d love to go back to Wisconsin and live there, right now, its just not feasible. Instead, we have to make the best of our situation and make things work here for now and see what the future holds.
As I said, this month that means getting an air conditioner installed. It should be pretty easy, we have the air conditioner, we just have to get it up on the roof, get it installed, and get the ceiling assembly for the inside and make it all work. Since we are using a used AC from a coworker, that saves us a lot of money. I was able to find the ceiling assembly for a pretty affordable cost, so it’ll just require doing the actual installation once it arrives and hopefully everything will cool off in here and be more comfortable.
The next step then is putting a coating on the roof that is waterproof and insulates the roof so it stays cooler in here without wasting a ton of electricity. I think we can afford that next month and it should be pretty easy to just roll on the roof, cover everything up, and make it nice and watertight and hold in out the heat so the AC doesn’t have to work so hard.
I’d also like to finally get a water heater. I found one that will work and we can install it, but it’ll take a bit of work to make it fit, cover the old openings, and connect all the lines. It would be awesome if we could replace all the water lines in here since they are pretty old, but well that would be a large undertaking I’m not ready to do. There are not any leaks, so it isn’t a big deal to just connect a water heater, put in a switch to turn it off at night, and have hot water when we need it once again.
I also need to replace the faucet in the shower at some point. The hot handle doesn’t turn and the cold handle broke off so there is a vice grip on it now to make it so we can turn the water on and off to use it for the washing machine.
I do have computer things I’d like to work on, but those can wait awhile. I’m doing small things at a time, here and there, upgrading what I can or getting the parts I need when I have a little extra money. Nothing major at this point, but I’d like to eventually get a dedicated Ubuntu computer to run as a Plex server as well as some other functions, but right now the Raspberry Pi seems to work just fine for that.
I also would like to get a USB power supply to plug everything into. I found one on Amazon for under $40, but its not needed yet so it has to wait.
The counter top in the kitchen will eventually be replaced too and we will add an induction cooktop. I’ll probably just get a small one that plugs in with one or maybe two burners that can be put away when not being used and clear up counter space. If we can replace the microwave with a convection/microwave, that’ll be great as well and then we can bake things finally. Our microwave is on its last leg though and will need to be replaced soon anyway.
However, the most important thing we really need right now is a tow vehicle. We need a small car of some sort. Something we can afford that isn’t a piece of crap, but works well enough to get us to town, to doctors, to the grocery store. And maybe to the beach on the weekend if we want to get out. We are stuck right now, stuck at the campground, stuck with begging rides from others. Stuck depending on other people to get us places. This is not ideal and we need to change it. I’m hoping we can get a car by the end of the year, or else maybe my tax return will be awesome for once even though I have not worked that much this year. If we can figure out how to get a vehicle of some sort, well then we can go places and not be stuck here all the time and that should help us out a lot.
That’s really all that is going on at the moment. I have two devices to install, I might be able to do one of them this weekend depending on weather and what it all requires to install. I don’t know if I can use some existing supplies or not. The other I might be able to do as well, but I’m not sure. I need to be able to caulk a hole in the roof which I might be able to get enough caulk to do that, but I’m not sure about that either. If I can do that, well then our entertainment options increase and that is always a good thing.
