I have spent the past week at the ranch with my mom and step-dad working on the RV. It has been one heck of a learning experience and a rollercoaster ride of emotions. I’ve wanted to post updates all week, but I honestly felt exhausted at the end of each day and too frazzled to write anything at all. I love a hard day’s work. The hardest part of all this has been the ups and downs that come with a remodel project (or so I’ve learned from watching HGTV).

We bought our rig for $7,000 and budgeted another $1,000 for repairs. I was hoping to come in a little under that to have some money for changing the decor. When I got to the ranch on Tuesday, Skip has already made a list of the necessary repairs with an itemized parts and labor estimate. If we did everything we would be $550 over budget.


So we nixed the power hitch and hoped we could get lucky with some savings somewhere. That evening I grieved a little. I had really hoped there would be money left for new flooring and other cosmetic updates to the interior. I talked to Caleb and we agreed that those things could be done later as we saved more money. Sigh. 

The next morning, Skip went to the RV supply store and got our parts. To our surprise he was able to get a discount and save us over $250! And he bought us a power hitch as a “bon voyage” gift! Things were looking up.

That evening our repair guy, Armundo, came over to clean the roof and get it ready to be resealed. We got some bad news. The roof was in worse shape than we thought. As he cleaned it, he found some cracks that, while not a problem now, could lead to a new roof in the future. To make matters worse, we got a heavy rain that night (just after he had removed all the old dicor sealant from an area the previous owners had repaired). We woke up to this.

The forecast for the next day said more rain so Mom and I had to get some gorilla tape and tape up our roof. Yep, our trailer has a duct tape roof… Keepin’ it classy! Mom did a great job and no further damage was done.

The bad news was that we found two more leaks. One in the skylight in the bathroom.

The other leak we found in the corners of our slide out as we were removing the couch.

As you can imagine, at this point I’m feeling pretty down. With these new leaks, repair cost will go up. I’m wondering what in the world we had gotten ourselves into.

My mom sensed that I have taken a downturn and suggests we do some shopping for inspiration. She assures me that it’s all going to work out and be beautiful. And when she says this, I believe her. She has a proven record of turning trash into treasure.  She got out several Home & Garden magazines and together we dreamed. I sketched out my dream plan for the RV and we talked colors and fabrics. I found this inspiration pillow at IKEA. The next day we hit the shops with wind back in our sails.

   

Mom had already said she wanted to recover our couch and dinette cushions in leather as a birthday gift for Caleb and I. Woohoo! Things were looking up! Next we found some great upholstery fabrics for the backs of the dinette cushions, the new headboard for our bed and some pillows for the couch. All of which were on super-sale at JoAnn Fabrics!


We still don’t know yet what the full cost of the skylight and slide out repair will be, but we will make it work. We trust that God has set us on this path. In the words of my mother, “It’s all going to work out beautifully!”