Chchchchanges

Jeepers, it has been a aeons since our last post!  Much has happened in those aeons, and I'm here to bring everyone back up to speed.  Since our last post we discovered that Katie will have to have her wisdom teeth out, so there went our budget for our great road trip adventure that we had been scheming about.  After that we received word that due to our friend's home owner's association's rules we would not be permitted to even park our RV on their property.  Since we were planning to live there in Camden whilst finishing school, it was a major setback.  Things were looking pretty grim for the ol' Bounder.  We questioned whether or not we should just try to sell the thing before having to resort back to conventional (expensive) housing.  We decided to investigate possible contingency plans, and put the renovation process on hold.

Thankfully, we slowly began to see some hope for our quest, starting with the help of our good friend Keith.  He proposed to our school board to allow us to temporarily stay in our RV on campus.  Katie and I both had our doubts, but MACU came through for us, graciously permitting us to park on campus for a semester at least!  We will have to pay for utilities and parking, however it is still a good deal since we are so close to class and homework resources.  This is especially good news since we used school money to purchase the rig.

Another ray of hope came when we ran into our friends Kim and Erin from the OBX.  Mrs. Kim shared some life experience wisdom with us, recommending that we keep the RV if at all we can since we would probably regret selling it later in life.  This was very poignant advice for Katie and I because we have a marriage where we try to live our dreams (within reason of course), even though it sounds cliche.  I'm already living the dream, waking up to her pretty mug every morning.  Anyways, we decided to heed Mrs. Kim's advice and keep the rig.

Furthermore, we have just confirmed our reservation at a KOA campsite ("kampsite" I am annoyed when people change the letters just to be "cute") in New Bern, North Carolina to celebrate our first year of marriage!  This will be our first excursion in the Bounder so far.  I got really excited and bought a bunch of stuff to make the trip better, like a new sewer hose (Rhino Flex-seems really nice), a new faucet, a new smoke alarm, and some sweet Walmart camping chairs.

This last few weeks, we have been working diligently on finishing our renovation projects:
-New carpet and vinyl is done. (decided to leave the cab as-is)
-New curtains are almost done.
-Trim is down
-Electric water heater conversion is successful
-Exhaust leak has been found and repaired.**  Thanks to Jonathan for the parts!
-Generator problem has been isolated
-Engine belts still need to be tensioned/replaced
-AC and furnace still need to be cleaned and checked out
-Mom-in-law is working on new covers for the dinette seats

In conclusion, we are stoked once more.  Hopefully, we will be posting more updates soon.

Since every blog post needs pictures, here is a before and after of the exhaust leak.  Note that this is on the inlet side of the muffler, also that there is no catalytic converter on this vintage motorhome.  "What does that mean?" you say? It was LOUD.

I used aluminium foil as a sort of gasket and clamped a piece of flexible pipe over the hole.  Works nice.

1988 Fleetwood Bounder 33'

So this is my first blog!  I decided that since Katie and I were deciding to do something out of the ordinary, (imagine that) we might want to make us a fancy shmancy blog so that people could possibly be inspired to also do things out of the ordinary.  We have also been planning an EPIC ADVENTURE that we will definitely posting about once things get more official-get stoked!

So first of all, here's some background information:  Katie used to live in Wilmington, NC and her house for a while was a shack.  In fact, she was evicted from her shack because it was not suitable for full-time living.  It was a sad day for her because she greatly enjoyed living there in that simple little box.

Fast forward a few years-Katie and I got married!  Then we moved to a small apartment here in Greenville, NC where we currently reside quite comfortably.  We are only here for a year, after which we will have to move back to Elizabeth City, NC to finish our degrees.  Being a sailing enthusiast, I thought it would be awesome if we could buy a cheap sailboat and live in it whilst at school.  One of Katie's life-dreams was to own a camper.  Well as you may know, marriage is about working together so we found a beautiful way to combine our dreams and goals!  On craigslist!

I was a big fan of scrolling through interesting adverts on craigslist, looking at neat old cheap stuff when I happened upon an add for a 1988 Fleetwood Bounder motorhome.  Now, usually I shop for things simply by price (lowest to highest of course) and this price was certainly one to catch my fancy.  $3400 would by Katie and I our first home!?  My heart rate literally jumped when I saw the picture and immediately I started thinking of all the possibilities.  Also, I wondered about what could be missing or wrong with this thing to make it so cheap.

As soon as Katie got home from work I told her all about it and she was super amped.  She had been a little uneasy about the thought of living on the water so the sight of the wheels was comforting for her.  The advert said to call OR TEXT the number, which blew my mind.   It was definitely meant to be, as I have a great disdain for using a telephone as a telephone.  I texted the seller and set up a time to meet him and his motorhome.

Katie and I were so impressed at the condition of the vintage motorhome and the honesty of the seller that we immediately drove out to the nearest ATM.  We were forced to pay for it over two days due to the limit for our debit cards, but I would say it sure as mess beats monthly car payments, let alone a mortgage!  I met the seller at the DMV place to hand over the last of the cash and sign over the title.  Just like that BOOM  we were motorhome owners!

So that is the condensed version of how we received the rig.  Here's a quick look at the luxurious amenities that it has to offer:
-Chevrolet chassis with a big block 454 carbureted engine
-Futon
-Sink
-Gas stove and oven
-Microwave oven
-New Fridge/freezer
-Dinette (folds into bed)
-Closet
-Full overhead storage
-Bathroom with shower
-Two single beds (will become one queen for us marriedfolk)
-6500 watt Onan generator
-Coleman Mach 3 Roofmount AC
-Atwood 6 gal. water heater
-Suburban forced air Furnace
-Fresh, Grey, and Black water tanks
-Built-in LP tank
-90 GALLON GAS TANK with a slightly smaller aux tank
-Sweet roll-out awning

Pretty swag right??  Now, remember that all of that is from 1988 and must be cleaned and tweaked for proper full-time living, but I'm the kind of person that greatly enjoys fixing things and having a fun project to work on and look forward to.  I'll post some "before" pictures to give you an idea of how she looked when we first got her.  And, if you read this far, thank you.  I promise this will get more interesting as it goes.  Go go gadget pictures: