Yep, that’s right. We bought an RV. It had been sitting on a friend’s property since we bought it late last fall. (Thanks, friend! You’re awesome!)
We dusted it off (and out) last week and finally got it on the road for a short jaunt up north from where we are. We visited the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley, Washington. We’ve been going to see the tulips since shortly after arriving in Washington about 4 years ago. I do believe we’ve gone every year, at least once, if not more times (depending on whether or not family was visiting, or just wanting to get out of the house). ((Hang with me, I’m going to talk first about the Tulip Festival, then about the RV itself.))
For the past two of those years, we’ve been returning not only to bask in the splendor of the incredible colors and varieties of tulips that are farmed out there, but also to take photos of our beautiful daughter by them. Her One Month photos were done at the festival, and photos for last year’s just past One Year/Mother’s Day were also at the tulip festival.
We visited the same main attraction of the whole festival (aside from the massive fields of tulips), Roozengaarde Tulips & Bulbs. They have some really spectacular varieties in their very expertly coiffed gardens. They also hold the URL Tulips.com. They deserve it. The weather wasn’t what we were hoping for, but we made the best of it. Sunday was originally supposed to be the worse of the two days, so we dressed Zoe rather warmly on Saturday and went gallivanting around in the gardens. It was quite cold, and the wind was downright frigid, but we had fun. There were definitely some great photos from that day.
Sunday broke to sunshine, so we hauled rear to see if we could make it back out to Roozengaarde in time to shoot some quick photos with Zoe in her spring dress while we had the chance. It was far lovelier on Sunday than we expected in the slightest. Adorableness ensued. Which reminds me, we need to work on loading the pictures and start sorting through them.
As for the RV itself, we took it and our car out this time, since we needed to do some driving. (Can’t wait until we can go pick up our hitch to hook the car to the RV.) I followed in the car with Zoe, and we took the ferry from Kingston to Edmonds to save on gas in the RV. I’m still betting that it costs more to drive all the way around than to take that sucker on the ferry. Not really sure I want to prove that just yet.
Since we left on Friday evening, it was dark by the time we arrived at the camp site. Zoe was already asleep in her seat so we managed to haul everything we needed to onto the RV, get the slides out and get a little bed made for her before getting her laid down. She went down fairly easily both nights we were there, which was really, really nice. But…she’d also done quite a bit of running around both days.
We hit a small snag with the water system, I believe it’s mainly the toilet. A fitting on the water line is a bit wonky, so that needs to get replaced. Hopefully that is all it is, and we can get the stuff to fix it this week so we can use it this weekend. Yes, that’s right. We’re going on another weekend excursion! This time we’re actually staying at the campgrounds and not driving all over creation. Oh, and we’re going with a bunch of people from his job. So at least we’ll have company. And Zoe will have other kids to play with.
My biggest goal is to eventually have all the carpeting ripped out and most, if not all of it replaced with new carpeting. Some of the areas might be done with more laminate, if we can match what’s there. What is there as far as laminate (fake wood looking stuff) actually looks pretty darned good. But in the meantime, we’ll just have to get it professionally steam cleaned. Another huge project will be to rip out all the upholstery and re-do that as well. Oh, and the cabinets. They’re in great condition, so likely we’ll just paint them.
I’m trying to figure out if there is any upholstering that I’ll be able to do myself, or James can do (he’s pretty good with a sewing machine). I’m concerned about the swiveling easy chair that is in there as well as the couch…they don’t look easy at all to reupholster. Might have to resign to having an RV place or an Upholstery place do them for us. I’m a bit concerned with the cushions for the dining table since I’ve never actually done any upholstery before, and there isn’t a wood frame to anchor the fabric to. Anchoring with staples, I can do. Like stool seats, things like that.
There are also upholstered valances. Those I might be able to just take down from the walls and bring home and work on. We’ll have to inspect those to see how that might work out.
Most of the window shades are intact and look to be in pretty darned good shape. The one above the head of the bed in the back needs to be replaced, though. The little window panels on the opposite windows look to be relatively new, or at the very least, in good condition. Though, I might pull them out to toss them in the wash (or simply replace them). I’m definitely thinking about my breathing and allergies in all of this, considering how much fabric is in such a small space, and someone else has lived in it for a handful of years. Kind of itch-inducing, if you ask me.
We’ve already decided on an overall color scheme, which has a handful of colors, and the flexibility to span a few shades of each, most very much on the warm end of the scale, with a couple neutrals and a splash of cool to even things out.
I’m definitely excited to get more of this stuff on the RV and start getting it all organized. The more we do now, the less we’ll have to do later.
Mommy Is An Introvert 