Building and packing and packing and building

We picked up our RV and parked it in front of Nana's house (the house we are living in now) a couple of weeks ago so Eric could fix some minor things that needed attention. Eric and I walked in and looked at the dining table and couch. The thought of the onions having to take down everything to make their beds at night and then put everything back before breakfast seemed extraordinarily daunting. I was not looking forward to having to help them and all the commotion and the lack of space to put things away in a designated space.

We met a couple (the Thomas Family) through our home school group that live in a bus RV (like what a band would travel in) full time with 7 children. You can check them out here.  We told the onions all about it.

So …...... When we were pondering our dilemma of sleeping arrangements, Amelia suggested that we rip out our bedroom and put bunks in there. I was driving to and fro, so Eric waited for my return to propose the idea to me. LOVED IT! It was a Monday night and we decided to do a little demolition for our family home evening. Within 90 minutes of deciding we all liked the idea, the back room was stripped down to the plywood sub floor.

Eric designed, constructed, and even painted the bunks. There are 3 one one side and 2 on the other. Scott on top, Naomi in the middle at the window, and Elanor on the dark bottom. Seth on top and Amelia on bottom. Each bed has a cubby and an adjustable shelf for personal storage. Elanor wanted more storage, so Eric built a shelf over the foot of her bed.

The beds are 30 inches wide. We were hard pressed to find a mattress solution. Thanks to some dear homeschool mom friends, they knew where to get the best deal Home Depot sells camping foam pads. Yay!

We do not know how long we will be living in our RV. I am so grateful we could provide each onion with a space of their very own. That they have a place of their own and designated place to put their belongings. To add to their ownership, I decided to take them to the fabric store and choose fabric so I could make them a personalized blanket that would fit nicely.

The onions were so excited that they moved right in. They are already sleeping in the RV. I’m grateful they are enthusiastic about our new family adventure.

We went shopping for a new couch. It has to be less that 76.5” wide and 40” deep. It needs to be big enough for Eric and I to sleep on, but it also has to fit through the 24” door opening. Not an easy task.

We thought IKEA would have something that we could assemble. There was a funck futon that pulled out in one direction, but it was anything but attractive or sturdy.

We found the PERFECT couch at our least favorite furniture store. It is beautiful, meets all specifications and is super super comfortable. But the price tag is a deterrent.

We found only a couple of other possibilities, but the typical pull out bed bars in your back is not what I want to have to endure.

As for Eric and I, we are not sure what we will do long term. We will be sleeping in the front. Our new “master bedroom” now includes a bathroom, kitchen, dining table, couch, and the TV. We decided to rip out the couch and stack a couple of the onions mattresses in the space. Every night we will lift my bed off of the stack and place it on the floor and Eric sleeps on the other one in its place.

I am grateful that we have two weekends of “Springville city Spring cleanup” and access to dumpsters just a few blocks away. What a blessing it has been to just drop our huge items off and not have to pay to go to the dump.

Auntie Heather (my cousin) came to visit on her way to see her daughter, Rachel. It was fun to visit for a little bit.

The onions moved their beds into the RV. They brought the drawers that were designated theirs into the house and transferred their clothes. That was about it for a while.

I was concerned about the progress we were making…..

 

 

I seemed to be the only one seriously packing and purging and making any progress. Library/massage room - clear. Laundry room - clear. My closet - clear. Front room - clear, then stuff shows up, then clear, then stuff again.

Yesterday, Grandma dropped off cousins Miles and Hunter to help us with moving our stuff. We moved our food storage to a friend’s house. It took us all of 15 minutes to unload it and get it into the basement. ( I didn't think to time the loading process.)  Many hands = light work! While there, we recruited more child labor, two strong girls.

We decided to get the heavy items into our storage unit while we had extra help -

books, beds, and bureaus.