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What a Day!!

Today (Sept. 12, 2015) started out on a bit of a high note. Molly slept until 7:45am, practically unheard of in our household. She usually wakes at 6:00-6:30am. After our nice little lie-in, we got up, Justin and I noticed it was very smokey outside from wildfires (#ButteFire & #ValleyFire) to the south and west of us. We put packing up in the fast lane so we can get out of dodge. Unfortunately, Lady Luck was not favoring us today.

After packing up, we try to back out of our nice narrow and bordered with boulders campsite. Did I mention we recently, in the past 3 days, picked up a tow dolly for the Fiat and are still learning the nuances of driving while towing? Yeah. So that complicated things. Justin is a awesome at driving the RV and awesome at towing from years of experience driving delivery vans and towing boats in the Low Country, but this is kind of different for us.

We ended up unhitching the car after trying to back the car/dolly/RV up and having no luck getting it all out without hitting rocks. Well, we hit one rock. Sorry rock. We unhitch the car, but not before I try to take Justin’s finger off a couple different ways. Today was my klutzy day. I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed today.

After we unhitched the car, we pulled out of the campsite, mapped directions to South Lake Tahoe and searched for a nice flat straightaway to reattach the car to the dolly. As we are hooking the car back up, I’m trying to figure out how to lock the Fiat’s steering column so the wheels don’t turn while we drive and I’m still screwing things up. This is one of those times where I should’ve gone and sat in the RV so I wouldn’t take off my husband’s hand. Spoiler alert, I didn’t amputate his hand, but it was a close thing.

The car gets hitched up and we start driving, all of us, in the RV, YAY! Except not yay, the road is a paved logging road with massive potholes, bumps, and washed out shoulders. I think we were lucky there weren’t washed out stretches or joggers on the road. Finally, we got down the mountain to highway 50 and couldn’t turn left because it’s bikers weekend in South Lake Tahoe and there’s a million bikes headed our direction and no break in traffic. We’re slow. We can’t just zip out in any break in traffic and make it, it’s got to be a good long stretch of free road so we don’t cause an accident.

We finally found the break we needed, got on the highway, and headed towards South Lake Tahoe. Traffic is traffic, Justin is the bomb for driving our crazy train. I call and made us reservations at Tahoe Valley Campground, and all is good. Too good…

As we’re pulling off highway 50 onto Road C (a residential road into the RV park) it happens. We’ve driven 30 miles of climbing and descending roads, had several thousand feet of elevation change, transversed switchbacks and bumpy roads, dealt with stop and go traffic on a descent into South Lake Tahoe. We round this turn, and as we do we hear this squealing noise, a clunk, and then double squealing noise. Yup, the car fell off the Mother Fucking dolly. We stopped. In the middle of the road, blocking all the traffic, because the wheels are dragging (locked in park per owners manual recommendations). Thankfully people stopped to help us out since we were right outside the campground’s gate, and our breakaway chain kept the car from falling off in the middle of the road and being left behind. I hate the dolly now. Justin got the car unhitched again, and there was no damage to the structure of the car. Our stress levels have been sky-high today. It’s been an adventure.

But WE’RE STILL HERE!

#adventure fulltiming towing BounderClassic gorving ditchingsurburbia

FINALLY!!

It's finally happening! We are finally hitting the road and leaving the Bay Area. It's been a long 8 months, but I'm excited that the big day is almost here. What day is that, you want to know? Barring any last minute hiccups, we will be leaving the morning of September 8th. Itinerary is still being decided. See you on the road!

#ponypower #MarinRVPark #MarinCountyCA #GoRVing (at Marin RV Park)

#gorving #ponypower #marincountyca #marinrvpark

Molly's first carousel ride. #daddy-daughter #fun #nuttreepark #VacavilleCA #family

#fun #nuttreepark #daddy #family #vacavilleca

Pair of ducks in the swimming pool. It's no ocean, but it'll do! #MarinCountyCA #MarinRVPark #GoRVing #fulltimers

#gorving #fulltimers #marinrvpark #marincountyca

Marin County, CA

Here’s a round up of things we’ve done and places we’ve seen while camping in beautiful Marin County. Where we stayed: Marin RV Park, inc. Current daily rate: $65/night, includes water, sewage, electricity, cable, and wifi. Laundry and pool on site. Quick walk to the Larkspur ferry and Trader Joes. Where we ate: a lot at home, yay! We had breakfast at Rustic Bakery, Boudin SF, New Mexico kitchen in San Rafael, and Le Croissant in San Rafael. We had lunch at Cheesecake Factory and a random sushi place that was ok. We went out to dinner at Best Lil Porkhouse and Marin Brewing Company.

What we did: Justin commuted to San Francisco on the larkspur ferry- it goes past San Quentin, Richmond bridge, Oakland/Bay Bridge, Angel Island, with bonus views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Molly and I frequently went to Alameda to visit friends, but we also went to the Bay Area Children's Museum in Sausalito, Muir Woods (bonus- you can use your national parks pass to get in here), 3 different shopping centers, the Corte Madera Town Park Playground. We especially enjoyed hiking out to the lighthouse at Point Reyes and a remote trail that had a waterfall at the end. Quick recap: there's lots to do and see in Marin County, Marin RV Park is nice and clean, would recommend for a nice 2+ week visit. Live here? God, no!

Molly playing in the fountain for her 18 month birthday! #MarinCountyCA

#marincountyca

How to Baby Proof an RV

When we first decided to commit to full timing, one of the topics I most searched for was tips to baby proof an RV. Sadly, there’s not a lot out there. Probably because RV’s kind of come pretty baby proofed because the have to go down the road and not have doors flying open! Here are some of my tips (sans bed information because I’m going to write an entire post about that!):

1. Put chemicals for cleaning and the black tanks in an outside compartment area that locks. 2. We got a handy strong magnet rail from ikea to store knives on. We mounted it to the inside of an upper cabinet out of easy reach. 3. Make sure your refrigerator locks. If it isn’t built in, consider getting a door lock anyways for the fridge that adheres on. (Like this: Munchkin Xtraguard Dual Action Multi Use Latches, 2 Count https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007A2ZSZ8/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_QJR4ub011THTJ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007A2ZSZ8/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_QJR4ub011THT ) 4. Tension rods are great movable baby proof tools that have a ton of uses. Window lock. Sliding door lock. Lock books into place on a book shelf. Put across the face of an open shelf space to keep things from easily sliding off. 5. A large piece of cardboard or a plastic lid to a storage box has kept our uber curious 18 month old out from messing with the gas/brake pedals. 6. If you have a oven, an oven child safety lock is a nice thing. Remove the knobs from your gas stove, most knobs pop off most stoves. If not, there are knob covers that can prevent your child from messing with the knobs. 7. Bathroom- you can also use the locks mentioned above for toilets. We just keep the door closed or blocked if it's a sliding door.

That's all I've got for now. It's kind of hard for a little person to get into something their not supposed to because they are constantly supervised in the RV (aka can't really get out of your line of sight). Soon I'll post about our bedtime adventures and advice for that! It's a doozy!

Month Número Uno!

1st month in the RV has been interesting. A quick list of things we've learned: 1. Black tank hoses are pretty much necessary from the get go. 2. Cleaning is fairly quick and easy, but a daily, rather than weekly, chore. 3. During a crazy wind storm, having all the jacks and all the tires on the ground gives you the best stability. 4. If it's raining sideways, it's going to get under your slide awning and give you leaks. Put your RV on a slight slant to help avoid pooling and leaks. 5. The grey tank fills up fast when 3 people take a shower. 6. A 6 gallon water heater makes for a quick shower!! 7. Sleeping with the family within 200 square feet of each other is cozy and heartwarming. I love it! 8. In the SF Bay Area, a lot of RV parks fill up in advance, even in the off season of winter, so reservations are necessary weeks in advance. I've learned a ton about baby proofing, but that's a completely different post!

Justin and I alternately posing next to all our stuff we are keeping forever. This is everything we have now (materially speaking). We downsized everything in a 3 bedroom, 1 & 1/2 bath, two story house into this. We got rid of a lot of stuff by selling or donating it. It took us 3/4 of a day to move all this into the RV (we do have a 1 year old, but our wonderful friend L and her husband took Molly off our hands for a couple of play dates with their son). We're still organizing, and I may have another purge in my near future!

"Going Minimalist" or selling just about everything you own

**Sorry for the late update, we've had a whirlwind month since I last posted. I'm going to backtrack a bit in the next few posts to catch you up with some of the highlights. ** Going minimalist is a pretty positive mindset for "holy crap I'm getting rid of everything I've owned for a significant part of my adult life, what am I thinking?!?!". So to expediently get rid of everything we decided to have a yard sale in our apartment. Kind of like an estate sale, but very DIY. Some pro-tips: 1) lay out as much as you can the small stuff. Bundling tiny items together helps to move them out the door. 2) label label label! With the prices of course. Just go ahead and buy a giant pack of yard sale stickers! 3) don't list your exact address on your announcements and advertisements for the sale. Use "corner of main and 1st, look for the sale signs" not "123 Main Street". People like to get to sales early to get a jump on the garage sale and will knock on your door hours before the sale. 4) advertising on Craigslist, Facebook, word of mouth, and using signs got us plenty of buyers. Also use craigslist and Facebook to sell the bits that didn't go at the sale. 5) have fun, and get someone to watch your kid! 6) get Square, accept credit cards for those high dollar items. Seriously. I don't think we would have sold our $450 tv if we accepted cash. It took us about a week and a half to sell everything, and an entire day to move in. I think if we didn't have a kid, it would have flowed faster, but a week's still pretty quick!

We did it! We bought a 2014 Bounder Classic and we're moving in end of January. Full-timer status, here we come!

We Found an RV!

Woot! We got pre-approved for a Fulltime RV loan, and found a new RV the loan will cover and the RV has the amenities we need and want. We are in the middle of purchasing a new 2014 Bounder Classic bunkhouse model. I think we got a pretty sweet deal on the Bounder, as it's the end 2014 and the 2016's are about to start coming out next month, so we think the dealers are pretty eager to move these "old" models out the door! We've put a deposit down on it to reserve it, and since it's in another state, Justin is going to fly out there and drive it back, if he approves of everything in the RV. I'm pretty freaking excited and hope we can be out of our rental by the end of January (it's currently December). We're waiting until we have the RV keys in our hands before we tell all our families, I'm pretty sure some of them are going to think we're insane. Until next time...

The Plan- Financing!

Since we want to be Fulltimers* it complicates things for getting a loan to buy an RV. I feel we are at the beginning of our journey into the world of getting a fulltimer RV loan due to the fact that banks are very reluctant to loan to people who can just move at will and easily disappear off the grid. Not that that is our plan! Because of the financially risky nature of fulltime RVers there are few lenders who will extend loans to individuals seeking to buy an RV to be their residence. Here is my experience trying to get an RV loan, where we went and what the process is like (this is not intended to be financial advice nor an endorsement for the loan providers mentioned below. I don't receive any benefits from the following companies).

So when we first started looking for financing, it wasn't as simple as getting a loan from one of our banks. Yes, we use multiple banks. All we kept reading about was Good Sam. They are apparently the number one name in Fulltimer RV and boat lending. They are also a part of Essex and Bank of the West. To apply for the loan with Good Sam (GS form here on out), you have to have an RV in mind that you're going to purchase. We did our research and made a list of RVs that would work for us. When we applied for the loan we decided to put our top choice down, even though we were pretty sure it would be out of our range, because we thought, "hey if they don't approve us for $X amount, surely they'll tell us we can do something a bit lower". We have high credit scores, great history, and Justin has a dependable high income. Apparently that wasn't enough for GS. They also wanted recent comparable debt (like a mortgage) and thought our debt to income ratio would be too high after RV purchase (our monthly RV payments over 20 years would still be less than what we're currently paying in rent in the Bay Area, but whatever). So they turned us down.

I went back to the drawing board to see if there was any other lender out there that wasn't GS/Essex/Bank of the West. I found Alliant Credit Union, based out of Chicago, but with branches all over the US. We applied with them, they pre-approved us, it was a pretty easy process. For Fulltime RVers they want a bit of extra assurance you won't bail on your loan payments, so they require a couple of extra contact (who aren't on the loan), one years insurance premium to be held for 1 year, and 10-15% down on the loan. Not too bad! After being pre-approved for a reasonable amount, we found an RV within a couple of days, and hopefully we'll be able to pick her up within a week (see next post)!

So I guess thats the gist of how we financed our RV. The story comes out much easier than the whole process was, and it has felt pretty dramatic! Read on for more adventures!

*Fulltimers are people who use their RV as their primary, or sole, residence.

The Plan- Downsizing!

Currently, we live in an apartment that used to be a single family house and has since had a building built beneath it. I call it our Frakenhouse, it's a monster of 1890's and 1970's architecture, but at least its rode out 2 major earthquakes, so it's got that going for it. Our apartment is 2 stories, 3 bed, 1.5 bath, with lots of room to spare.

The plan is to sell just about everything (all furniture, a load of clothes, appliances, etc.). So far I've been collecting and selling things piecemeal on facebook. We have a giant collection of boardgames that Justin has decided on half of which to sell. Currently I have 7 games I need to box up and mail to amazon so we can sell them on the amazon marketplace. I'm not complete in the process of selling things on amazon, but so far the process seems pretty easy. You sign up as a seller, upload your inventory (you can search and add to your inventory by UPC, which is fast and neat), decide on price, decide if you or amazon will fulfill the order. After you have created your inventory you create your shipment to amazon from your inventory, print labels, pack the box, and ship. I haven't completely gone through the shipping to the amazon fulfillment center steps yet since it's sunday, but plan to do that tomorrow or Tuesday when the library is open and I can use their printers. Once I've tested out the selling process to the point of getting it out of my house, I'll probably be shipping 5-10 boxes to amazon, hopefully before christmas since it's a major selling season ;)

Additionally, we're trying to sell some of the smaller stuff on facebook in the various community groups set up for that sort of thing. I think when we're closer to actually moving into the RV, we will have a do-it-yourself estate sale to sell furniture and whatnot. I've barely started selling, but so far it seems to be a good way to go. Back up plan is to hire someone to sell the crap for us, or just donate it all.

To help me get my head in the game and plan this massive massive purge, I've been reading up on tiny houses, lifestyle minimalists, home organizations tips. Pinterest has been a great help in finding me the resources to do such things. I'm still nervous about such a life change, but I'm excited to really live with just the things we need in just the right amount of space that we need.

As we keep downsizing, I'll post more information, in case there's those who want to follow in our footsteps, so to speak.

Our Story

Hi! I'm Anne, wife, mother, and more. My husband and I have been married for 4 years, have a 15 month old, and live in the San Francisco Bay Area. We've lived here for 3 years, living in SOMA (hello 6th and mission!), the Haight, and now Alameda. We love the people and the cultural richness of the bay area, but the corporate culture of Silicon Vally just isn't for us anymore. So, our plan is to sell everything and downsize to just the essentials to live in a class A RV and wander where our hearts desire.

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