Update–1/7/11

It is COLD here!  We did get a few warm days a week or so ago and that melted all the snow, but the Chicago winter is out in full force. 

After all the improvements we put the house back on the market a week ago.  We upped the price a little due to the improvements.  The response has been good so far with 4 showings to date and two more scheduled this weekend.  The feedback has been positive with indications people may come back as they are interested. 

I confirmed that the title on the trailer had been issued by Illinois to our lienholder but the plates never made it to us, so a new set has been ordered.  Does not really matter as I have started the process to get the trailer registered in South Dakota and all I needed was to know the title had been issued.  That will complete all the vehicle transfers.

I went out to the trailer a couple of times in the past week to take some measurements, make sure everything was OK with it and to start the generator.  The door lock was frozen so that took a little work just to get into the trailer, but other than that everything was fine and operating.

What we have found out in owning trailers is that they put storage all over the place but do not go the extra step to make it really functional.  If you look at the pictures of the interior of ours you will see cabinets at the ceiling level all around the inside, but no shelves and no dividers between each cabinet.  This ends up in lost space and significant movement of stuff when the trailer is in travel mode.  We have come up with ideas in the past that we will implement in this one and are also looking around for other good ideas.  One I did find online and hopefully it works out is a roll out pantry.  We have two narrow cabinets (9” wide) that are deep.  This is designed to hold all your non perishable food items.  Problem is how do you get to the items in the back and also maximize the storage.  I found a company that makes a roll out unit that has adjustable baskets.  It does not go as deep as the cabinet but I think it should allow us to store more and get to it easily.  I have not received it yet, so hopefully it works out as planned.

I also was frustrated at the lack of good sound systems for an RV so that we could have surround sound when watching TV or a DVD.  In our previous trailer we had a 5.1 surround system that was nice, nothing fancy but it did the job.  In this trailer they put a very basic system that has 4 speakers inside and 2 outside but is not surround sound and is very cheaply made.  I did some research and could not find any RV specific home theater systems.  Note: RV systems are designed to operate on 12 volt DC instead of regular house current.  I did not want to run speakers and wires all over the place in the trailer so I decided to go with the Bose 3-2-1 system.  This creates a surround sound atmosphere with only two small speakers and sub-woofer type module.    Bose had a great online deal for Christmas so I went ahead and bought it and am very impressed with it.  It should fit nicely in the trailer and will not require the running of any wires.  I figured we will use the existing system to listen to music on the iPod, satellite or whatever but not to play movies.  I find it interesting that the manufacturers put in 12 volt DC sound systems that include a DVD player when the TV is not DC and can only operate on AC power.  I can see having a radio that runs on DC but go the extra step and put in a decent DVD player and surround system!

Update–12/24/2010

We have finished (I think!) the upgrades to our house.  We did new stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, new granite countertops and the last item was new carpeting throughout the house.  We temporarily took the house off the market for the holidays to complete the upgrades and to avoid any showings while family was visiting.  The house should be back on the market around the 1st of the year.  We will see if the upgrades helped.

I was just reading an article in today’s Chicago Tribune about buying a home and how buyers feel paralyzed because there are so many homes available, many with desperate sellers (foreclosures and short sales).  Because of this buyers just keep looking and looking because they want the “best deal” out there.  They are looking for the McMansion at a starter home price.

Another task completed on our checklist was renting a storage unit and moving some items into it.  A big thumbs down to Public Storage on this issue.  I did my storage unit shopping online to see what the best rates are as there are a few companies out there and many facilities in our area.  On their website Public Storage came out with the best rate for the size I wanted and it was only a few miles from the house.  I was quoted $71 per month for a 10’x10’ unit.  I completed the reservation in November.  When I arrived at the facility with my truck fully loaded the manager advised me the rate would be $88 per month and the online quote was only good for 7 days.  The confirmation did not say anything about this.  The manager stated she had no authority to make a change to the confirmed price.  End result, after many phone calls, was that customer service for Public Storage states I will get the $71 rate but the correction has to be done by the regional manager.  The local manager said this should be done by next week.  Meanwhile I did move our stuff into the unit at $88 rate but may have to do some additional follow up on this.  Public Storage, if you are trolling the web, I am not a satisfied customer!

Christmas eve today and we have a snow storm on the way with one daughter flying in and one driving in.  Hopefully the weather does not delay or cancel their travel plans.

Update 12/13/10

Life on the road is still life in the house.  With the holidays we are getting no activity on showings for the house.  We have taken a more aggressive approach to selling.  We lowered the price another $10,000 and bought all new kitchen appliances, stainless steel.  Here is a picture of the kitchen showing the new range and microwave.

The dishwasher is to the right but would be in another angle.  We already had a stainless refrigerator (fortunately!) so it was not too expensive for these 3 appliances.  Next we will be putting in granite countertops.  We hope to have that done before Christmas.  That will probably be it for the improvements.  I hope it helps!

Our daughter Kim moved into her apartment this past weekend so that cleared out some furniture and other stuff in the house.  We then had to do some creative arranging with our existing furniture so rooms would not be vacant.  I think we did a pretty good job.  It does make the house look bigger!

Next up is to move some of the boxes and other stuff we are keeping into a storage shed we are renting.  That is set for next week and will clear out some stuff presently in our basement.  The last thing to do will be to have a garage sale to get rid of all the remaining furniture and stuff we and our daughters do not want.  That will be done when the house is sold.

Merry Christmas!

Just to keep you interested

It has been a couple of weeks since my last posting, so I thought I would write a little something to make sure my followers stay engaged with this blog.  The entries will be skimpy until we actually get close to going on the road.

The house has not sold but we did get our first offer just after my last posting.  The offer was very low and was not even close to what comparable sales have been in our area this year.  It appears the buyer was limited to a maximum loan amount that put our house out of his reach, but he tried.  From this offer we did learn that there are buyers coming into the area for the new Navistar Corp. facility nearby.  From what I read in the papers there is supposed to about 1500 employees at the facility that is about 10 miles from our house.  This buyer was one and we learned at least one other person who viewed the house was from Navistar.  To stimulate interest we did another price reduction, our biggest yet.  Hopefully someone will want a house for Christmas.

We did start the sorting process for all our “stuff”.  This meant taking everything out of the storage space in the basement and deciding whether to keep it, sell it, put it in the trailer or throw it away.  We needed to do this to get all the Christmas stuff out plus our daughter, currently living with us, is moving into her own apartment, so she will be taking a bunch of “stuff”.  I did rent a storage space to begin later this month so I will begin moving some things there to begin clearing the house out a little in preparation for our move into the trailer.

Meanwhile the weather begins to turn ugly for us.  This should be our last winter and it will be one thing that will not be missed.  It has been very nice living in the Midwest except for the winter.  From mid November until mid March it is like somebody covered the area with a gray sock.  You don’t want to go out because of the cold and snow is only pleasant for an hour or so until it turns mucky, dirty and gets all over the place.  Growing up in California it was always neat to go see the snow and play in it, but once you live with it, FORGET IT!  You have never seen a car get so dirty than after a snowstorm, then you go to a car wash while it is freezing outside, go figure!

OK, I have rambled enough. 

Update–November 18,2010

It has been a couple of weeks since my last entry and I feel like I am letting down my followers (all 4 that I know of!), so here is an update to keep me motivated and you interested.

After having the trailer at the house I brought it to the storage yard in Big Rock, Il., where we have been storing our trailers for the past 4 years.  The space that we had been renting was for a trailer up to 30’ so other arrangements had to be made.  We rent by the year and our renewal is at the beginning of December.  I was reluctant to pay for another year as hopefully we will get out on the road early in 2011.  The solution was to rent month to month, at twice the annual rate.  The nice thing though for this higher rent was a very long pull thru spot so we do not have to pay them to put our trailer away and take it out as we did in the past.  So now the trailer sits in storage waiting for the big day!

No we have not sold the house.  The showings picked up this last weekend but no one to date has been serious or placed an offer.  The market in this area is tough as there are limited buyers and a large inventory of homes for sale.  We continue to drop the price every couple of weeks to stimulate interest.  Hopefully someone will be interested.

The past couple of weeks I have gone out to the trailer to do some things on it.  Geek Alert! (I will be talking techie stuff).  Mainly I have been trying to figure out a set up for my DirecTV that will work with the wiring in the trailer.  This has been an evolving issue as I started taking our satellite service with us in our trailer for the past 3 years.  The system has moved from a standard definition dish with receiver and 19” flat screen TV to our current system which is high definition (Single wire set-up, SWM) with two HD-DVR’s in the trailer, a 40” LCD HD TV and a 23” LED HD TV.  Fortunately new trailers are being pre-wired to accommodate satellite systems.  I just had to figure it all out so I could have a separate tuner/DVR in the living area and one in the bedroom.  I think I got it all figured out this time.  I still will have to test it out at a later date.  For those of you asking, how does the satellite service work in a trailer, here is how.  I have a regular dish that I mount on a tripod outside the trailer and then connect the coax wire to an external jack on the trailer.  I get the satellite settings from the receiver and then align the dish.  As the local channels are spot beamed by DirecTV we were not able to get local channels (major networks) when we were out of the Chicago area, however when we move into the trailer we will then subscribe to a DirecTV RV account.  This type of account allows you to receive your network programming from the network stations in Los Angeles and New York, so it should work out fairly well.  In addition the trailer does have an HD antenna on its roof to pick up local channels in the area we are in if needed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Open House

WE PICKED UP THE TRAILER! 

Another checkmark on the fulltimer to do list.  I went and picked up the trailer from the dealer.  Got a little orientation on hooking up and unhitching a fifth wheel as this is a new experience.  Big thing, watch those turns.  This trailer and truck turn like a semi, you have to have a lot of room.

Brought the rig home to do a few things to it and we invited Fran’s co-workers and boss over to take a tour of our future home.  So we started off right, a wine a cheese house warming.

Above is the staff from the office.  The view is to the back of the trailer.

Here is me with two of the other husbands of the staff.  Of course, I am near the wine!  This view is of the kitchen with the dining table and entrance door to the right and the stairs up to the bed and bath towards the center.

It was a fun time and I had a great time showing off the remote for the slides, jacks, and awning.  It’s a guy thing!

Left the trailer on the street overnight and then brought it to our storage yard.  I had warned them that I had bought a larger trailer and it would not fit in my old space.  Fortunately they have some very nice pull thru long spaces for me.  The problem is the fee is about double.  Hopefully it will only be for a couple of months.  So, we got the trailer and now it sits!

What’s Your Plan?

It has been interesting since we made the decision to go to full time RV’ing.  The look on peoples faces when they ask us where we are moving because our house is for sale.  Once we tell them then the next question always is, what is your plan?  Where are you going? 
At first it seemed as though we had to justify that we were going to live full time in a fifth wheel, but if you think about it what is the difference from this and living in an apartment or house.  The main difference is that we can get up an move anytime we want, otherwise we have the same (somewhat) comforts of a permanent abode.  Granted the square footage of our fifth wheel is much smaller that what we are used to, but I am sure we can adapt (have any of you seen my parents condo!).
As for what's our plan - here is a tentative outline of what we see ourselves doing for probably the first year once we start.  From Illinois we will be heading to Texas.  First to Houston to visit my niece and her family so we can see her new twins, plus visit with other friends we have in that area.  From there we will make a stop in El Paso to see my other niece and her family, then onto Phoenix to visit with our daughter and possibly view some baseball spring training.  Next up would be Southern California where we will probably stay for awhile to visit with many friends and relatives.  From there we will work our way up through California and do some sightseeing in Oregon then to the Washington/Oregon wine country.  From there it is into Canada where we want to meet up with our friends from Idaho in Banff.  After that we will work our way back into the Midwest to meet up with our other daughters in Illinois and Ohio before the cold weather sets in.  A stop in Tennessee to visit with my nephew then most likely head back west through the south to avoid any cold weather.
Just to keep you informed, the trailer financing was approved and the trailer will be picked up this week.  Again, to any prospective full timers out there, buy the trailer early as lenders are not lending to full timers, unless of course you plan to pay cash. 
I did some research on this lending issue and it seems that full timers are a victim of the stimulus bill that was passed and the tightening of bank regulations on mortgages.  An RV for a full timer is considered their home so the regulations require that banks must impound (collect upfront) for insurance and taxes.  Well for a full time RV’er they cannot determine where they permanently live so the banks do not know what to collect and are concerned, legally, how they should handle such loans.  So the result is they are just not lending to full timers.