# 436 - Moving to the Country with a Perfect RV

Since we need to quickly find accommodations for our move to the country this coming week, we spent some time today looking at RV's. A LOT of RV's. Rows and rows of RV's parked at a major dealership in Houston in the Texas heat were to meet our scrutiny. And the heat wasn't too bad, until you constantly find yourself standing in an RV housing a 90 degree temperature.

 

Today, I was a red-faced gal.

We looked at all kinds of RV's...fifth-wheels, tag-alongs, weird contraptions that were part RV and part canvas. We saw RV's that were super nice and a few that were super yucky.

One thing we figured out is that RV's have come a long way in their design. Yes, a few are still using the old standard layout, but some are innovative with designing efficient space-saving floorplans.

We know that we'll be in the RV for a few months and we will hopefully use it later for traveling to see our oldest daughter and the GRANDBABY that is on the way, so we took our time looking and opted for MORE space instead of a squished design. Since we are old-hats at being RV owners, this one is going to be the most spacious tag-along we've owned, to date.

Since this will need to be our home for the next few months, we knew that we needed to look for particular preferences:

1. Kitchen counter space, extra inches count and storage is important
2. Floor space must be good enough to prevent having to constantly walk side-ways. I don't want to do the crab-walk every day.
3. Chair...love the dining set and loveseat, but I must have a comfy chair...it's an over-40 thing.
4. Bed cannot be the kind that is accessible by an open doorway and then must be found by going airborne to reach your side. Preferred to find bedroom with bed that has room to walk on both sides, even if by crab-walk.
5. Closet space could not simply consist of the two standard narrow cabinets on each side of the RV bed, we had to have actual closet space and as much cabinetry, drawer space as possible.
6. Two entry/exit doors preferred
7. As much linoleum as possible since carpeting is not practical for our lifestyle
8. Tag-along is needed since our truck is not equipped for a fifth wheel...maybe that will be down the road, but not for now.
9. Bathroom cannot have toilet that won't accommodate a six-foot-plus man and the shower must allow for non-hunched over stance.

I think we must have gone inside at least fifty hot RV's, and that will get your blood pumping on a warm Texas day.

There were three floorplans we really liked, but there was one in particular that stood out better than the rest. It seemed as if the major details were addressed and all of these combined to make a great RV layout.

Since we have been life-long camping kind of people and have owned multiple RV's, we know that kitchen space cannot be under-estimated. Having a lack of kitchen counterspace and cabinetry for storage can make for a miserable cooking experience. Of course, I have always sat at the RV dining room table to do cutting, chopping and mixing, but the RV we fell in love with has enough space to stand in the kitchen area and do everything needed to cook a good meal. There's even room for Deputy Dave's coffee pot!

This tag-along has an additional space added over the tongue which makes for a PERFECT RV kitchen, the best I've ever seen. There is even room for two bar stools to be stored under part of the kitchen counter to make indoor dining easier and food preparation more enjoyable.

After a while, we began to take note as to what features were in our price range and which ones meant the most to us. The above features became priorities and soon we were able to simply stick our head in the door to rule out the kitchen counterspace as being a Yay or Nay. Then, the rest was easy to determine as well.

 

So, now I am going to look on Craigslist for our area of Greater Houston and for the Livingston area to see if we might find someone who is wanting to sell a newer model, such as the one we personally toured, from 2010 upward, for a GREAT price.

I cannot believe, that as of next week, my home will no longer be an almost 3,000 square foot, two-story home because I'll be living in the middle of our forest, in a little RV space, yet we will be surrounded by land and more land.

It's a dream come true. It's a rocky dream full of sacrifices along the way to finally LIVE the long-awaited country experience. Next week, we will be country folk, fully enjoying country life each and every day of our lives...it's all coming together.

We are living an American dream!