Living in the Remodel
If you purchased an RV knowing you’re going to renovate it while living in a house, then this isn’t the article for you. I wish we could have done that! If you’re working, living in your RV full-time, and want to start a massive project you probably don’t have space or time for, then this IS the article for you! This is our story! Regrets? A few… is it worth it? We think so! I can say now that it’s done (mostly done). If you had asked us during the project, you’d have probably gotten a much different and more profane response.
Jumping from apartment to apartment has been our life for the past 10+ years. If you can relate, you can imagine our excitement to make our home on wheels fit our witch-y style. We knew this project was going to be tough in such a small space. I don’t think either of us expected what we were getting into.
Now, I’m going to vent about all of the chaos, so I can
”keep it real” about what it’s like to live in a tiny space during a remodel.
Day 1 - first bit of carpet is up and we’re excited to start!
The Plan, the Action…
The hours I’ve spent on Pinterest are inconceivable. Pintrest-ers have an incredible amount of advice and ideas for RV remodels, it can be difficult to figure out what will work for your family and RV. Rhiannon (our RV) was pretty much perfect when we got her, but still had the typical RV colors, fake wood, and carpet (oh, the carpet…).
We went back and forth on what we wanted to paint - whether we would do all of the walls or just the cabinetry and “wood”.
We finally decided to go all in. We’re going to paint it all!
We are going to replace the carpet… because, ew. I mean carpet in an RV…who does that? Hardwood or some sort of “faux” hardwood… no brainer!
Let’s go!
… is it ever going to end?!?!
Sometimes during the remodel, it seemed like every day brought a new setback… mostly in the form of something random being superglued to something else random! We often felt like it would never be done.
With each of us working 30-40 hours during the week, we could only work in the evenings and on weekends. This made the project drag on for over a month.
Things never go as planned. Just remember that: Replacing the kitchen faucet? Easy, right? No! Now, we’ve removed the old one, so we can’t turn on the water until going to ACE for the coupling.
So for about 5-6 weeks our house looked something like this.
Taking the table out? Yeah, that’s permanently fixed to the wall, so we’re going to need to go get a new table at Ikea. Also, the wall now has huge holes that need to be filled before painting.
The kitchen floor is just going to come right up like the carpet, right? No, it was installed four inches under the cabinetry, so we have to cut it or remove the cabinets before continuing. Oh! The carpet was installed under the slide and attached outside, so we’re going to have to rip it up which will result in lots of blisters and probably some long-term spinal damage.
Some days it was better, some days worse. We kept an unhealthy supply of alcohol on hand at all times to get through it. Of course, if you can’t get to the kitchen you’ll be eating out more too. It’s best to just factor all of that into the remodel budget while you’re planning.
The Result
I can’t leave you on that negative note, so here are some before and after pics. I’m honestly very proud of everything we did! This was such a learning experience, and we love how it turned out. There are still touch ups and things that we need to finish, but it definitely feels more like home. And hey, if we can do it anybody can!
