What do you do when you own and RV, are in Michigan and it's Memorial Day weekend?
You Go Camping!
And this is my view this afternoon.
We're staying in the back of a campground in Lakeview Michigan. Becky's parents and brother are in the campsite next to us and across the cul-de-sac is another family with kids very close in age to ours, they also homeschool and we've made quick friends. (as you can see Becky and the Mrs in the picture chatting it up!)
We have a lot to update, we've been posting some hints and stuff on Facebook but we'll be putting more and more stories here shortly. We've taken this weekend to unwind, to relax and to camp with family. This is our first time actually camping with Gracie since we did some remodeling work on her. And frankly camping near Yosemite (no fires allowed) versus camping in Michigan are very very different.
A couple of clarifications: We are still in Michigan, and plan on being in Michigan for a couple more months. We have nothing pressuring us to leave by a certain date. Ideally we would have spent more than 6 months outside of the US to avoid some taxes, but that's not going to be the case for us this year.
We're going to be living up in Newaygo on the family compound where we used to live before we sold 90% of what we own. We're going to be staying there for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that we can stay there for free (at least Becky's parents haven't told us yet how much they're gonna charge us!) Another reason we're going to stay there is that Gracie needs a few more finishing touches before we take off, some of those involve sewing (we don't have access to a sewing machine) for a couch cover and curtains. Other finishing touches need more tools and a place to stay while we paint the whole inside of Gracie.
Becky was advised by another fulltiming RV family to make it less RV and more home by redecorating. (And I agree!) So she's been spending time coordinating fabrics and paint while we were waiting for Gracie to get inspected and worked on by our mechanic.
We'll have more pictures of the remodel process coming at you soon (Becky's the best at before and after photos) but I can tell you this, last weekend we started and finished the bunkbeds in the bedroom. It had taken us a couple of weeks to find the right mattresses for all of us, but once we settled on those we started framing the bunkbeds and then Becky and I looked at eachother and realized that we could live in Gracie the way it is.
Yes we could stay at our Whites Bridge house. But it is expensive and we don't have access to all the tools we would need.
And besides the kids are begging us to move into Gracie.
After finishing the bunkbeds we reached out to our landlords and asked if they would be willing to let us out of our lease a month early. Since we have such wonderful landlords they agreed with no issues. So as of Monday June 1 we will officially be residents of Gracie.
Our hope is to lay low for a couple months, finish some tweaking of Gracie , save some money pay down some debt we've incurred, build up more clients for Connex and get more families signed up for NomadTogether So if you're inspired by our stories and lifestyle or know of families who'd be interested have them checkout NomadTogether as it's the place where we teach couples and families to choose a lifestyle of their dreams (Cruising on a boat, RVing, or flying around the world)
We're still looking to acquire a few things... I'll paste the list here, but it'll be outdated soon... so the full up to date list is here. We're looking for used (yard sale) items. If you happen to have any of these laying around and would be willing to part with it that'd be awesome!
Kitchen
- wisk broom - 1
- dish drain pad & drying rack - 1 of each
- Mixing bowls (nesting) - 1 set
- hot pads/trivets - 3
- kitchen scissors - 1
- kitchen utensils:
- soup ladle - 1,
- flipper - 1,
- peeler - 1,
- large serving spoon - 1
- frying pan - 1, with lid
Tools/Outdoors
- screwdrivers - 2, 1 flathead, 1 philips
- pliers - 2, 1 large, 1 regular,
- Hammer - 1
- vice grips - 2, 1 regular, 1 large
- clothesline
- folding table - 1, for outdoor use
- hot dog sticks - 2-3
- bungee cords
- hatchet - 1
- tarps
- ratchet tie downs
- jumper cables
- Channel Lock Wrench
- Crescent Wrenches - 1 large, 1 small
Other
- beach towels - 2
- binoculars - 1
- pencil sharpener - 1, prefer electric
- rugs - 2, 4' x 5' & 6' x 8'
- small fan - 1, desktop sized
- small trash can - 1, office size, rectangular
- umbrellas - 2 large golf sized OR 1 large golf sized and 4 kids sized (because its just fun!)
- alarm clock - 1, digital, large display
- travel/roadtrip games for kids
- 8' x 12' carpet remnant
Thanks and look forward to more updates this weekend as we get you caught up on the crazy stories we've experienced over the last week. As for me I'm going to go help acquire firewood from the forest surrounding us.
What are you doing for Memorial day weekend?