Reflections From the Fence: The Estate

Showing posts with label The Estate. Show all posts

Friday, July 20, 2018

The Estate, Some Hacks

And, now, some more hacks or attempts at hacks, to make living in The Estate more comfy or more quiet or more dry.

Let's start with Man's favorite hack. His storage area hack. There are wells where he has stored gear not needed frequently but that he needs. He spent a few hours putting plywood (attached with hinges) to cover the wells and provide flat surfaces. And, we have discovered that this flat area can serve as part of his outside kitchen. Some days we surprise ourselves with the unintended uses we discover.

This is the bathroom cabinetry. Basically it is a joke. First, it is really small, REALLY SMALL! Second, corner cabinets can be problematic. Square stuff is hard to store in them. Other notes before we move on, that hair dryer was moved from the stick built to The Estate, and we purchased a new one for the house. We actually purchased the new one for The Estate, but, it was just toooooo large. So, switcheroooooo. It all worked out so well you might have thought we planned it that way. HA HA HA.

The hack, the current way I am keeping stuff ON the shelves and from falling out when I open the door, and heaven forbid INTO the toilet which is right under this cabinet. One thing about this bathroom, you won't be taking any extra cosmetics and personal care items along. Bare necessities. The room under the bathroom sink is minimal as well.

Next, the sink/bed/water hack. As you can see the bed is immediately beside, under and next to the sink. Now, I'll admit it, when I do the dishes, I have been known to splash water around a bit. And, water from my wet hands drips to the counter top when I turn the faucets on and off. I have never been know as "Miss Grace". Just sayin.

Yes, it is that close. On our "break down" cruise, we were low in the back, the water ran right off the counter top onto Man's master suite bedding.

The hack, microfiber dish drying mat(s). It takes two to span the required width to keep Man's bed dry.

When I am done with the mats, I double duty them and use them to wrap the cutting board so it does not rattle/snap/make snarky noises while running down the hard road.

And, slip it under the sink, multi purpose hack complete.

The attic, the bed over the cab. No one except children under the age of 5 will fit up there, so we converted to storage, called "the attic". You will note the correct length of privacy curtain. Sir W's cage goes up there while in camp. So do my two pans for cooking, for when I must cook. Dog food, gear, supplies. I even hacked, quite by accident, a chip box. When we go to eat outside, I just grab the entire box. Some hacks ya just get lucky.

Now for some decorating, my fav. LOL

Man's master suite:

The guest suite (Carol's bedroom). It is the dinette in the bed mode. The electric cord is a hack Man did for me. There is no electric plug above the dinette/bed, it is UNDER the seats. Climbing down there to plug in my iToys just was not appealing, and frankly, just would not function with the sleeping arrangements. So, with some time, sweat and a bit of hack and drilling Man permanently installed an extension cord/plug for the iToys. Not all hacks are beautiful, remember, function, function, function.

It comes Sir W approved:

And, when the work is done, relaxation is all that is left to do, again, Port Crescent State Park.

The "break down" cruise was very successful, we tweaked, we found a few more issues, we learned a lot about living in 108 square feet. We discovered that there is a "Tweetie Bird" living in the back side of The Estate, living quarters still to be determined. That chirping noise CHIRPS me off (yes, I said that. LOL) Hopefully I will be able to discover the source. And, mmmm, sorry, but, kill off that Tweetie Bird.

Living in any RV is a art and a science. We came back to the stick built with another list of hacks and fixes to address. We are enjoying the built in generator. The maneuverability of the unit is just plain ole NICE. U-turns are easy! LOL Overall, Man's months of research and contemplation, thinking of how we live our lives, the use of the rig, our needs and wants, it's all GOOD. The issues we thought would be an issue, are, but, we had already accepted those before purchase. Oh, I am sure something will pop up that we overlooked, but, so far, it's working out right nice.

The Estate, A Few Tweaks

I have not shopped this much in years. We have hit so many internet stores and just about every major big box store in the within 50 miles of the stickbuilt. Man keeps a running list of items we need, want, must fix or load into the unit (cause we forgot something) on his phone. That list has grown, been fulfilled and grown again. LOL

One of my first purchases was this sign, it seemed to fit this change/new direction in our lives.

An early change was taking the ladder to the "attic" out of The Estate, it is now in the pole barn attic. LOL Another fast change was removing the door to the bathroom. Gracious, that doorway WITH a door was really horrible. The privacy is reduced this way, but, we can get in and out of that tiny room. Man still cannot go straight out with his shoulders square to the door way, they hit.

Two other early changes were removal of the metal venetian blinds behind the stove and I hung a curtain there. That cut down on dirty and loud noise by a huge factor. See photo with the coffee bar photo (below). Man found online and purchased this stove top cover, as the unit did not come with one. With the extremely limited level counter top, every extra square inch that is flat is appreciated:

It works, it REALLY works! Do not want to entertain the thought of living in here with out it. There is a lift up shelf just to the left of the counter top, meant to be an extension of the counter top. I have never liked those lift things. I suppose at some point I will find I need it, but, I know me, that dislike of that thing will cause me to try to find any way to NOT use that thing. LOL

Noise is my enmity. (Enmity means intense hostility, the state of being an enemy.) A lot of my energy these past weeks has been in "quiet" projects. One was the silverware. Along the way, I decided I wanted the silverware on top of the counter in this box thingy. I hoped I could stuff enough in there it would not rattle. I hoped wrong.

Soooooo, I came up with the hair brained idea of silverware sleeves. Ya, I did. That is the left over fabric from the curtain project. Break out the sewing machine and a day and a half later I had enough sleeves to fit my 4 piece silverware set. It does work tho. Will this be the last rendition? Who knows.

You know I am really meaning business and/or desperate when I line the frig doors and shelves with slip-not shelf liner stuff. Ya, I did that too. Seems to have helped, especially in the doors.

Now, I am not much for cooking, in the rig or at home. I do so when necessary, but, it is not a "sport" I enjoy much. However, on our "break down" cruise, I did make spaghetti. It is possible to cook a meal with two pans, on this little stove top. Next post I'll share Man's outdoor kitchen hack.

All that grief, errr, cooking, set aside, the stove tops becomes my coffee bar in the AM. This photo shows the curtain that replaced those noisy metal venetian blinds.

And, again, in closing, a photo of The Estate at Port Crescent State Park on the "break down" cruise. Yes, we are parked sideways in the lot. It was supposed to be a "flat" campsite. HA HA HA. Flat, mmmm, a 6 inch drop (at the minimum) is not what we consider to be flat. LOL So, we took advantage of the size and mobility of The Estate and thinking out of the box, we parked sideways. We were still not level, but, we were in and other than a few minor issues, like the water running down the sink towards Man's bed when I splashed doing dishes (yes there is a hack for that, see next post), we survived quite nicely, thank you.

The Estate, An Update

Copyright 2018, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

It's been a bit over two months since we brought The Estate home. Here is a bit of an update.

Man has been busy adding electrical stuff, tweaking this, that and everything. I have been busy "decorating" and attempting to come up with creative hacks and organization.

Part of the length of the delay/time was that we needed a privacy curtain, which I neglected to note was MIA on delivery day. You know the routine, the dealer takes a curtain from another rig, mails it to you and you discover it was from a big ole Class A, not your tiny Estate, Class C. Doesn't this look silly?? Man got on the phone and called the manufacturer and a week or so later, the correct curtain arrived. You will see it later in photos of the "attic".

The other long delay was in getting a replacement mattress, the original came with a 6 inch long (give or take, I did not measure it, I guessed) section on the seam that was never sown.

Taking a step back in time, Man re-discovered this photo on his phone recently. This is Jolly in the front, and another Freelander behind. This is NOT our Freelander. We saw this in Sante Fe New Mexico, in April of this year. We were looking and researching hard at this time and when we spied this rig in a parking lot, we decided we would get a visual on the difference in the length. The Estate is about 5 inches less wide than Jolly and as you can see maybe 1.5 to 2 foot longer. I have no trouble wheeling that Estate around parking lots or doing U-turns. LOL

Last week we took The Estate back to the dealer to pick up our mattress and to have several small issues addressed. We were there over 7 hours, maybe longer, I stopped counting as exhaustion and frustration set in. Yes, this is expected, service in the majority of US RV dealers is worse than poor to middlin. SIGH. So, this water pump/water service area was finally replaced (they took the part off another rig on the lot when we informed them we HAD to have water the next 5 nights). This seemed to fix three issues, water flow, winterizing and a kink in the black water flush. But, we did go camping, and we had water!!

During the time between delivery and now, we have shopped and internet surfed/shopped and changed things, all in between rain for 4 weeks and lots of lawn cutting and then heat so bad/hot that we could not stand to work out there. Man found this one day while adding the Progressive electric management system. I can only imagine how much noise that was making down in that area under the closet, bouncing around the plastic and metal and such. UGH.

When finally we got to go camping, we went on what we called the "break down" cruise. Looking for function, noise, equipment failure, you know, normal stuff you look for with a new rig. I was cleaning the mirror in the bathroom when I discovered it was NOT attached to the wall very well. Next thing I know - -

By the way, that double faced sticky tape stuff, it works really well, IF it is stuck to the wall. Nope, it was not!

Yes, Man took it down before I could get back inside! LOL

This little clip from the top is supposed to hold it in at the top, it does not stay tight.

Man tightened all the screws he could find, reinstalled the mirror and we hoped for the best. The best was, the mirror did not fall off on the way home, but, it was rattling around back there by the time we backed into the drive way. This will require more tweaking/repairing.

I'll bring you some more photos, comments and hacks we have attempted on The Estate in another post - - it might take 2 posts. LOL

But, first here is Sir W's travel situation. We were a bit apprehensive how he may react to the difference in noise level and traveling direction (this is turned 90 degrees from his normal situation in Jolly), but, we are so pleased, he did not whine or pant uncontrollably. He actually just laid down, head and all. I think he might have actually napped!