This all started by us going to MD to visit family for a week. We found out that my father bought a travel trailer to go on weekend trips and vacation’s and they had already planned the vacation for this year in Myrtle beach at a campground. They talked us into going on vacation with them and they said well you would need to get a Travel Trailer (TT) so that had us really wanting to get back to Florida and start looking for the perfect TT. We searched and searched and we were not seeing anything jump out at us. since it was only going to be for weekend getaways and small vacations we did not need anything super big or fancy.
One day I hopped on craigslist (yes you need to be careful buying off craigslist because of leaks and lies but since Todd can do almost anything he always checks everything we looked at over really well) and I saw a 24ft Sunline Travel Trailer and the best part about this it was practically right around the corner from our house. So we went to look at it, the current owner used it for hunting but everything worked on it even the old crank windows. it was listed for $1500.00. We literally looked at everything, checked for leaks checked for previous leaks checked all the pumps all the water tanks and made sure the AC worked and heat.
After checking everything over Todd decides to negotiate the price because the inside needed a complete gut and because of the age we did not see any major leaks but that is a chance we took since Todd could fix any. Todd gets the price down to $1100.00 I am super happy with that. We could not get the money out for 5 days so the guy said he would hold it for us. The day we got the money we called the guy and he said he will deliver it to us and make sure everything works when he gets it there. That made me hopeful that nothing major was wrong with the trailer. As soon as the trailer was in our drive way we were in the thing pulling the old flooring and already putting the remodel plans into action. Pictures of before and after will be posted.
We put in laminate wood flooring, tile counter tops, a back splash that I found an awesome deal on craigslist’s the lady that was selling it did not know what she had because she sold 5 boxes of glass and marble back splash plus 4 boxes of white subway tile for $40.00 you better believe we snatched that up real quick. after we completed all the work, we resold 3 of the boxes for $125.00 yes we made money on these tiles and got a kick ass back splash :-) We wanted to open up the space so we decided to go crazy funky color our kitchen is orange our bathroom is pink and gray and our bedroom is purple it took us forever to decide the colors because we wanted it to be perfect. Todd created a custom bench since the previous owners did not have any seating in the TT so he took wood ,old outdoor furniture pillow’s off craigslist and tore the fabric off and recovered it with fabric we bought to match our color scheme and voila we have a custom bench with storage underneath for things that we do not use on a regular basis.
New mini blinds went up on every wind expect in the bedroom i like dark curtains for better sleeping. in about 3 months time we finished the remodel, yes it took us a while because we both had full-time jobs and yes there may be some things that still need to be done to it but it was ready for a family vacation to myrtle beach!!!!!
As you read in our background about “US”, Todd was researching jobs at campgrounds and we were having problems finding them. One day he stumbled across the word “workamping” and this sparked a whole new outlook for our little 24ft sunline Travel Trailer (TT). For 2 months we researched and read other blogs about workamping and who did it. We realized that anyone could do this you just have to “want to”. With a lot of talking and discussing and realizing that we really did not like working the 9-5 job everyday we decided “LETS DO THIS” on June 1st we started to down size see what we needed and see what we did not need and started a yard sale pile. Of course when we decided to do this we realized that we bought the wrong kind of TT and that is it very small. Had we known about “workamping” when we were searching for our perfect rig. We would have bought a bigger fifth wheel or a Class A. If you are going to venture into this wonderful lifestyle our advice would be get a bigger rig fifth wheel or class A more room and better for living in full-time. As our pile of wants and keeps started growing this is when we really realized that living in our 24ft sunline would be alittle tough at first (also keep in mind we have 3 dogs and a cat a Chihuahua, Chihuahua terrier mixed and a Shitzu) but, we knew this is what we wanted to do so we scaled our pile of want and need back and the yard sale pile grew bigger and BIGGER!!!
So the month of June went by and we had forgotten about the family vacation because we were so excited about of new life style. I had to call my dad a break the news about not going. He was not happy but he was jealous of us because what we are doing is my father and step mother's dream. It started getting real when you look around your house and see nothing except a pile of all your possession to be sold because you have no room for them. I have to say it was an adjustment kinda of upsetting but Todd sat me down and made me realize that we do not need any of this “stuff” it is about US and our pets, not “stuff” so it made it easier.
Yard sale day was here and as read in our earlier post I was in the hospital for emergency Gall Bladder surgery so I was not at yard sale day which made it easier on me not seeing everything be sold. When i got home from the hospital 4 days before we are starting our new life it became reality there was nothing but a sofa that would be on the curb when we left because I needed a comfortable place to lay since I just had surgery our TV and bed and a few things that would go into the truck with us. Todd had packed everything we were taking with us into every space in the TT, which was not much but he made it work ,he was a trooper and did it all by himself since I would not be able to lift anything when i got home. With 4 days of rest June 28th was here and we said goodbye to our house (we were renters so did not have to worry about selling) goodbye to Florida and set out on our maiden adventure as Full-time Rver’s
Moral of the story is if we had known about “workamping” when we purchased we would not have purchased small and would have bought a fifth wheel or class A. My advice to anyone wanting to do this is to find the perfect rig weather it needs to be a fixer-upper just to get you started and buy bigger down the road (this is what we did) or you buy from a dealer just make sure it is everything you want and that you could live in the amount of space comfortably. It is a little small for us but, we would not change anything (except buying a bigger rig but our plans were different when we purchased our’s) WE ARE LIVING THE DREAM!!!!
Before the remodel
After the remodel
Yard sale day
Awesome custom bench Todd made
