My mind is spinning with the images of travel trailers, Pinterest remodel ideas, RV park locations, road-school ideas, heavy-duty pick up trucks, packing, planning.... I am a bit overwhelmed. It is hard not to jump ahead in the planning and excitement of the upcoming changes, and skip to the more fun parts of traveling in a renovated camper. So I am now trying to focus on the local parks we would stay in for our first year and used trailers we can expect to find in the 4-7 thousand dollar range.
I have found that $5-6k is a reasonable price for a decent travel trailer or 5th wheel, which has me back to being excited with ideas to remodel it and make ours fresh and bright. Seems the common theme of the older trailers is obnoxious floral prints and dark fake wood. I plan to paint cabinets white, add some fresh beachy paint to the walls and put down faux wood vinyl flooring. We want to get rid of the built-in benches of the older trailers and replace it with stacking chairs and a fold down table to give Liam every bit of space. It seems to me that we would want to be outside as much as possible when we live in the small home. That is part of the appeal, after all!
So while I will enjoy our last 7 months tripping over a million Legos and Hot Wheels in my 2/2 apartment, I think it will be just as satisfying to really make the trailer our own and shed all the belongs. Having so much stuff seems good at times, but it adds up to be dead space in our lives. We want to live a lighter and more conscious lifestyle without the distractions of our junk. The next step will be selling or donating most of our belongings. To be honest, this is my least favorite part, and not just because I want to keep the stuff - I don't. But creating prices, posting online, and dealing with buyers... meh. Not my idea of a good time. It is the next step in the process, though. So here I go. Who wants my coffee table???
Are you ready for an adventure? That's what this will be in case you were wondering. We will be making some drastic changes the next couple years. Some scary, some exciting. All worth it, at least that is what we are counting on. So, what do you say? Wanna tag along as this family recenter itself on what is important? Our goals: focus on our family, save money, find our "place" to call home.
So who are we? Our little family consists of myself (Hi! I'm Rose), my husband Josh, our 2 year old son Liam, and our Shih Tzus Bella and Luca. We live in a modest two bedroom/two bath apartment in Melbourne, Florida. It is fine for a small family and we have been here going on 3 years, but we work a lot and save next to nothing. Our bills are just consuming our income as many could relate. So when we had a discussion about our life goals or even just planning for the next five years, it became glaringly clear that something has got to give. To me, this is not what I call living. My personality needs a challenge, a goal, some change and adventure. I think other than my childhood home, this is the longest I have ever lived anywhere.
The goals we set are not specific because we want room to find out what we what as we go. This adventure is to recenter as a family on each other, while pushing away the material and insignificant distractions. In order to do this, we are going to downsize into a trailer or 5th wheel with the goal of eventually traveling in one to find which city suits us. The rest of this year we will sell our belongings that cannot go with us and save every dime for buying a 5th wheel or trailer. We are not looking for fancy, just simple and affordable because in 2017 we will test out living in it full time but not be traveling with it yet. We expect that by breaking down the costs from our current bills, we can save a ton of money by Christmas of 2017, then we can make the decision: Buy a truck and nicer trailer and hit the road, or use the savings to put down roots by buying our first house.
What do you think? In for a little adventure? We sure are.
