Week 1

So a week has passed already? Wow.

We kind of started full timing “accidentally”. I mean we had planned to sell the house and move out in an orderly manner with friends taking furniture etc. as pre-arranged. Then Salvation Army would be taking the rest as the house closed. Finally we would move to a local RV Park for a day while the formalities went thru and we would depart gracefully to the sound of trumpets and the cheers of the crowd.

In our dreams that is!

The actuality was that the house was supposed to close on the 27^th so we called our friends who took what they wanted, then we called Salvation Army who could only come on the Thursday before. So we would have too live in the RV in the drive as the bed would be gone between Thursday and Monday. But then they said they couldn’t take all the furniture as some was “Stained” so we made arrangements for that to go.

 We talked to the escrow company and they said we could do the closing from the road so we left Friday afternoon intending on staying at the Escapees RV park in Yuma.

The park was closed for the summer! (It gets over 100F every day in the summer and Yuma is a big wintertime “Snowbirds” winter resort area). We finally found a park that was open and stayed there for the night.

Saturday we headed north aiming for the Escapees North Ranch park in Wickenburg AZ (after checking it was open). We checked in for 3 nights figuring we would be there for the closing on Monday seeing that we had a reasonable phone and internet connection there.

We had fun exploring Prescott (20 degrees cooler than Wickenburg due to altitude) and meeting the nice people who spend the entire year in the park. 

Monday came and went with no closing due to the buyer’s lender being late with their paperwork. It spun out to Wednesday when it seemed that things were finally approved. Then we decided to head north.

We met some folks at the park who were headed up to Rapid City about the same time as we were and gave them our details so we would hook up again up there. We headed up SR8 thru Prescott and climbed and climbed up to 7000 feet in Flagstaff AZ where on arrival the temperature was almost HALF what it was in Wickenburg! 57 degrees verse 101.

We found a national forest campground in Coconino Forest called Pine Crest that was dry camping but very nice at only $11 a night with our senior National Parks card.

Along the way our realtor told us that the buyer’s financing had come thru at last.

It got darned cold up there the first night, we had a blanket on the bed again and all the windows closed to keep in the heat. Running on batteries and propane wasn’t a problem and we’d emptied the black and gray tanks before leaving North Ranch. We carry a half tank off water with us as a matter of course so we were all set.

Time for bed, but when we got in the mattress was rock hard! What the heck? We have a Sleep Comfort mattress, kind of glorified air mattress. We had come from basically sea level in San Diego to 7000 feet in Flagstaff. The difference in atmospheric pressure made the mattress seem rock hard. But when we tried the remote control we got an “Error” message. We diagnosed a dead battery in the remote but after changing it we discovered that the pump for the mattress has to have 110v to work and we were working on 12V. 

Live and learn.

We are on the road

So the house was supposed to close Monday, Salvation Army could only pick up the furniture on Thursday which meant that we would have to be camping in the rig in the drive until the house closed.

BRAINWAVE!

We called the realtor who called the escrow company, who said we didn't need to be present for the closing so long as we had an internet connection.

So we decided to leave either Thursday evening or Friday morning depending on when the drapes we ordered for the rig arrived as they were supposed to be delivered Wednesday and of course weren't.

The Salvation Army said between 10 and 1. The place we ordered the drapes from said 10 days plus 2 days shipping.

Neither of them were accurate. Salvation Army showed up at 2pm and the drapes never arrived at all. Irate calls to both resulted in the truck for the furniture showing up and a vague "We'll call the manufacturer of the drapes"

The drapes couldn't be shipped until Monday which didn't help so we asked our friend Marsha to call at the factory and pick them up and we'll call when we're in a place for a week or so and she can ship them to us.

We left.

We could be in Yuma in 4 hours. I had to stop after 50 miles and re-tighten the wheel nuts after the tires were replaced. We thought we'd stay at the Escapees RV park in Yuma but when we got there they were closed for the summer! As it was 100+ degrees maybe it was a wise decision. We found an Encore park that was open and just hooked up the electrical so we could have the AC on. It was a hot sticky night.

Saturday we set out for Congress AZ and another Escapees Park. Just North of Wickenburg. Nice park but 105 degrees!! Luckily it cooled off around 8pm which coincided with the end of a game of "Hand and Foot" with new friends in the clubhouse. 

We'd never heard of it either but the 4 nice ladies who helped us learn were a real treat. They were delighted that we'd been full timing for a day and a half. They'd all been full-time for at least 10 years.

We found we had  5 random TV channels. To make up for it the park has a terrific book and DVD library. The suggestion is "take what you want and donate them to the next Escapee Park you stay in.

What a cool philosophy 

We explored Wickenburg (Although we have been here before for RV Boot Camp last year.). We took a drive up to Prescott and tried to find the components to make another lighting cord for the "Toad" after we tore the last one up doing a U turn thru a convenience store and grounded out the tow bracket on a sharp curb, We've been there done that already so we need to come up with something better.

Whiskey Row Prescott AZ

Monday came and we hung around all day waiting for the closure on the house which never came. By 4.30 I was calling the realtor and the escrow company. Turns out the seller's mortgage company hadn't completed their paperwork in time so it might be Tuesday or even Wednesday before the thing gets done.

We went to the office and extended our stay for 2 more days (Hey we're retired right no hurry) and went back to Prescott to explore some more. Then back to camp for the evening.

"Methuselah a huge Suguaro Cactus in the RV park that dates back to around 1600

When exploring the 5 TV channels we were getting I discovered that I'd unplugged the amplifier for our antenna at some point. When I plugged it back in we had 27 channels! The wonders of modern electronics!!!

Up and down again

Our dream has been to go full time in our RV. We've been working towards it (perhaps unknowingly at times) for about 10 years.

The last step has been to sell the house in San Diego.

We selected a realtor based on a neighbor's recommendation and the fact that he only took 2% commission. Most realtors take at least 21/2% and on a $400,000 sale that 1/2% adds up!

Enter David Kornbluth of Pledge Realty www.pledgerealtygroup.com

David's approach was somewhat different. He had the house appraised BEFORE putting it on the market, then listed it $500 below the appraisal. We were a little leery as the appraisal was $25K below what we'd seen on similar properties.

David also listed it with ZERO commission to other realtors which we assumed would mean nobody would be bringing clients from other agencies.

Our fears were soon washed away when we had the first open house and we had 6 offers straight away and only 1 below the asking price.

The one we chose was a "Flipper" who offered a cash deal and no realtor fees. That brought the effective selling price up to 427K. 27K above the listed price.

We were over the moon especially as he wanted to close in 10 days and did his own home inspection immediately and expressed delight in the condition of the house.

Unfortunately he then spent a week and a half asking all kinds of questions about a plumbing leak we'd had 7 years ago and finally backed out on a technicality the day he was due to sign the paperwork.

To say we were depressed is not an exaggeration.

David held another open house the next Sunday and we immediately had an offer for $427,500. This one would involve another realtor but he accepted 2% as commission and that would be as good as the cash offer we'd almost landed the week before. The way they work their commission is to find out what the seller wants then they add the cost of their commission to it and get the buyer to pay that total as the buying price.

The new buyer had a lot of cash and wanted to move in by August 1st. That gave us 21/2 weeks to finish the clean up and furniture sales we'd started frantically when we got the cash offer. 

The previous deadline was going to be really tight so we'd pre-arranged the disposal of a lot of furniture/motorcycles/vehicles. All we had left was some art stuff, a TV stand, sofa, bed and headboard and my Goldwing motorcycle that hadn't sold yet. Everything else we'd moved back into the house from the RV.

We signed the escrow papers and they wanted to close July 27th. We had a home inspection and termite inspection. The buyer didn't require any repairs based on the home inspection but the termite report showed termites and some rot in the patio structure and a little in the eaves of the house totaling about $3800 per the termite company. We agreed to pay for those.

I placed an ad on Criagslist for the Goldwing and after a few false starts a gentleman bought it for my asking price. He got a good deal I believe, The our friend Ken who had taken a lot of our stuff already and wanted my truck asked if we would give it up before the end of the month as his wife had lent her car to her daughter. So we ended up selling the motorcycle and truck in 2 days. We also got a nice dinner with Ken and Gloria and an invitation to a party next Saturday!!

We made a day by day calendar listing things we needed to do and what days we needed to do them. Then I got the printer/scanner out and we started scanning all our old photo albums that we don't want to lug around in the RV. The special ones will go to our daughter in UK when we ship a trunk of family mementos to her.

2 new tires for the motorhome an oil and filter change, chassis lube followed by re-balancing the tires on the Fiesta got us up to date on vehicle maintenance.

We're waiting for the buyer's finance company appraisal of the house and their confirmation that the loan is thru then we can get on the road.

First travel blog

So here I go for my first TRAVEL blog.
That is a travel blog where we aren't going to an organized event anyway.

To me the travel type blog is what it's all about. I just like them.
They let you into the "secret", share the places we'd all love to see and the things we'd like to do.
I've been an avid blog reader while dreaming of becoming that full-timer myself.

Not that we're full-timers just yet, but it's getting durned close. In fact today may well be the day that determines exactly when we hit the road. The potential buyer of our house has until tomorrow to make up his mind then we move on to the next offeror. A flurry of offers and counter offers should see it done one way or the other.

Which brings us to where we are at the moment. Lake Moreno County Park in San Diego County. Located about 80 east of San Diego not far from I8. Take the Buckman Springs exit and follow the signs on "Old 94" towards Campo. Lake Morena Village and Lake Morena County Park are about 7 miles down the road.

Reservations are made at: 
http://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/parks/online.html

Cost is about $30 a night. It's partial hookups with a dump station in the center of the park. The big news is that they are in the process right now of adding sewer connections for all sites and 50 amp connections too, so perhaps in 2016 it will be full hook ups. The ranger says it will cost an extra $5 a night once the facilities are active.

The lake used to be much larger but a decision was made to keep it at about 5% of it's capacity. The rest was drawn off to feed Otay Lake which is San Diego's major reservoir. 

There are still boat ramps and good fishing here, one of these days I really must break out my fishing stuff and make use of it!

Fairly flat and with shade trees, the park is simple and I think appealing. We're here June 29th thru July 3rd and it is very quiet right now. I expect it will be a lot busier for the July 4th weekend. We stayed here last year for the Labor Day weekend and it was at capacity but still quiet.

Within walking distance of the campground, in Lake Morena Village, is a little store that packs in everything you can think of and has a HUGE selection of beer and booze. They also do sandwiches etc if you need them. There's another small market about 1/2 mile down the road with a gas station, but there isn't much else close by so stock up before you get here.

One story associated with the park is of Charles M Hatfield a "Rain Maker" who was hired to make it rain after a 4 year drought in 1916. If he filled up Lake Morena he would be paid $10,000.

His rain making skills were apparently amazing as they had 35" of rain and 14 people died!!

He didn't get paid either.

We went walking this morning to the corner of the park where the Pacific Crest Trail comes thru. Quite a fascinating trail which leads all the way up to the Canadian border. Some walk. We met a couple up in Oregon a couple of years back who had walked from here in around 6 months. They were determined to do it end to end. Their most urgent priority on reaching a store after weeks in the wilderness was to recharge their cell phones!!

Having set foot on that trail I can now claim to have been on the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail.

While we were walking I heard the distinct "Put. Put" call of wild turkey, and right in front of us between two trees was a big Tom calling his hens. We watched as four hens came out and he spread his tail and puffed up his chest to display for his "Harem". They weren't in the least skittish and we watched from fairly close up for several minutes until they wandered off into the trees.

Not far from Lake Morena is Campo where there is a railroad museum and you can take a train ride. It's a diesel not steam but the carriages are old so there's a good atmosphere. The train used to go to Tecate in Mexico but a tunnel failure prevents that trip now.

Bathroom renovations gone wild

The house bathroom needed renovating prior to the house sale due to a leaky toilet that wet the old floor resulting in the vinyl sheeting coming up with the underlayment. The problem was that the last time the floor was redone the underlayment had been put down over mosaic ceramic tile. A formula for disaster if there ever was one.

The previous owner had done that because of the difficulty in removing ceramic tiles from a concrete floor

I took the bull by the horns and rented an electric jack hammer from Home Depot and in the space of a couple of hours I had it all torn out. Hot dusty work but it had to be done right.

While we were in Home Depot we bought "Pergo" type wood plank flooring that looks just like tile to put back down on the floor. We got enough to do the RV bathroom at the same time because the carpet in that bathroom was very tired and faded.

The house floor came out great and a new sink and vanity plus re-grouting the tiles around the tub made a HUGE difference.

While the bathroom was torn up we used the other bathroom in the house and the RV in the drive to take showers. Handy!!

Once the house was ready to show we moved the RV to a nearby campground and lived in it until the house sold.

The toilet in the RV had been leaning a little but now we were living in the rig the toilet sank into the floor.

I tore the carpet out and found that the floor was rotted under the toilet due to an old leaking seal (is this beginning to sound familiar?).

While I had the bathroom torn up we used the bathroom in the campground and took showers at the house (It IS familiar isn't it?)

The biggest problem was the floor flange which had been installed at the factory 16 years ago. They used 8 BIG screws to hold it down. They also set it down over the carpet and underlayment and drove the screws thru everything into the wooden floor.

Doesn't sound too bad except the leak let water soak into the carpet which held the water so that the screws could rust. The threads of the screws had grabbed hold of the carpet and pulled it tight to the flange. When I tried to remove them they were jammed tight. After a certain amount of deliberation and a LOT of bad language. I settled on soaking the top and bottom of the screws with WD40 and cutting as much of the carpet away from the screws with a box cutter. I used vice grips to hold the bottom of the screw (the flooring had disintegrated leaving the screws in the flange), and to give some leverage, I worked them loose. It took me the best part of an hour to get them all out.

I cut a patch for the floor, put a hole in it for the drain pipe then sawed it into 2 pieces centered around the hole so I could slip it under the flange. I made cleats out of the ply I used for the patch to reinforce the edge of the hole and to give the patch something to rest on then glue and screwed the cleats to the underside of the floor then screwed the patch to the cleats and caulked the joins to stop little critters getting in from underneath.

The flooring system uses a thin foam pad with aluminum foil on one side as a pad to insulate for noise and heat. That also lets the floor "float", Being a wood product it will expand and contract with changes in humidity. The foil lets it move without buckling.

Finally the flooring comes in 12" wide planks that look like tile. Ideally I would stagger the "Grout Lines" like I did in the house but to do that would have required a joint in the length of the plank which I wasn't keen on as more joints mean more places for moisture to get in and this stuff is compressed fiber board that probably isn't very moisture resistant. The bathroom in the house was big enough that I had no choice but to have a joint.

The first board was the hardest with recesses for the door, a kick for the wall and a semi circle for the drain.

The other 2 boards had a 45 degree cut for the shower pan and various cut outs for the drain and a little pipe recess for the flush valve supply which though tricky were less trying than the first board. I had my arsenal of saws out for this job with a big hand saw, a tenon saw, a coping saw for the round cuts a circular saw I used at the campground, the big table saw and a scroll saw at the house. Then finally a hacksaw to cut the steel base for the threshold in the doorway.

That first board with the fancy cuts is closest to the camera

You can't even notice it's not just square

I really messed up the last board, I measured it right and cut the angle right, what I didn't see until I dropped it in place was that the "Grout" line didn't line up with the other ones. At that point I had 3 choices, either go with what I had or use the one I'd cut for a template to make another with the lines correct. We'd been without a bathroom in the house for a week and in the RV for almost as long and I folded and left it the way it was.

If lunacy should strike you and you would like to attempt something similar here are some tips:

 Before you start empty the black water tank and wash it out well to stop smells in the rig. We had zero bad smells during the several days it took to finish. Stuff a rag in the waste pipe to keep debris out of the black tank and also to help keep smells out. Don't let the rag fall into the tank!!

If you are living in the RV find a spot to camp close to the bathrooms.

Measure the space and rough cut the boards a little oversized with power tools to minimize the amount of hand cutting.

Don't set your circular saw too deep when you cut into the existing floor. The black water tank is right below the floor and you don't want to cut into that. Check how much clearance you have beforre you cut. My black tank had about 1/2" clearance at the front and 4" at the rear I set the cut depth to barely go thru the 3/4" floor.

Plan out which board needs to be first according to the way the boards click together. You want to have room to lift the last board at an angle then press it together on the adjacent board. I worked from the door in - mainly to get the toughest cuts done first while I was fresh, but also because I would be able to get the last board in easier. I hadn't figured on the cabinet doors getting in the way so I had to remove the doors to get the last board in and replace them afterwards.

Use the "Wood" transitions between the carpet and floor they look great and are easy to install. 

Be courteous to your fellow campers and don't use power tools when it will disturb other people I used hand tools mainly and saved the circular saw for mid afternoon when most people were out.

Update 2 years on. The floor never really was satisfactory. After abut 6 months the "Wood" floor swelled up where the sink and shower splashed water on it. In addition the difference in height between the carpet/backer and the new floor left the toilet wobbly. I shimmed it to steady it but after about a year the shims got loose and it went wobbly again. We finally had the floor replaced with vinyl professionally and ended up having them replace the toilet and down pipe too.

What a thrill

We expected the open house to be next weekend but the realtor asked if he could have an impromptu one THIS Saturday.
We were out camping and the house was ready so we told him to go for it. 

He had it from 12 - 4 pm and messaged us that it was "Wildly successful and he expected offers soon.
At 4.30 pm he messaged us that he had an offer $10K over our listed price, all cash, close in 10 days.
Oh my! We could be out of here by the end of June!
we are going to meet with him Monday to discuss things.

Of course the RV bathroom needed fixing but by careful measuring I managed to transport the wood back to the house where I used the BIG power tools to cut it to approximate size and make things easier when we get back too the rig. The right tools make things so easy. I'll miss that.

The toilet was sinking into the floor.

Here's why.

Cleaned up the hole

\That's the demolition done!

Meanwhile we have a dinner invitation from our neighbors Don and Joan. Thanks Guys! 

And they are off!

Let the adventure begin.

We’ve finally knocked the house into shape and now it’s about to get listed for $399,500. A little lower than we’d planned but this realtor likes to get it appraised first and list it at appraised value. As long as it sells we’ll be happy.

We’ve actually moved into the RV so we don’t have to keep cleaning up and hiding stuff daily, this way we can be our usual clutterbug selves . We’re using our 30 nights a year free camping with Thousand Trails and staying at Pio Pico which is about 25 minutes from the house. We are going by the house daily as we finish off little things we missed. Yesterdays task was refinishing the kitchen countertop. Which although I say it myself looks pretty darned good!

We have made arrangements to stay at a County Park Lake Moreno for 4 nights. After there, we plan to dry camp at our favorite casino Viejas for the July 4^th weekend and then move back to another Thousand Trails park north of here for a couple more weeks while hopefully the house sells. We can commute from there while we empty the last few things out or even camp in the drive if we need to.

After that it will be the BIG ONE and we can head for South Dakota.

That is the good, there has also been some bad. Our friend Wayne has been struggling with pulmonary fibrosis. 

His struggle ended. It was a big shock for Barbara and I even though we only met Wayne and Rhonda  a couple of times we felt very close to them . I think it was because they were the first actual active full timers we’d spent time with. May your journey continue on the other side Wayne. Our prayers are with Rhonda. http://turnwhentheroaddoes.com/2015/06/02/bon-voyage-captain/

On a different note our toilet in the rig has been sinking into the floor! A while back it started to lean a tiny amount, then it leaned more and now it’s sinking. I’m guessing a water leak has rotted the floor under the carpet. I bought enough material when I did the floor in the house to do the rig floor too so my next job is to tear out the carpet and see how bad the damage is. Stay tuned.

This page of the blog is being written at 3am. in the rig on my computer with no internet connection so we’ll see how saving it as a word document and cutting and pasting it to Google works when we get a decent signal!
It worked!