Getting the Countertop Done

I was excited when I realized I had everything I needed to do my resin countertop about three days ago. Because of the design I finally decided on, it cost me about $50 more than I had originally planned for. The entire thing was about $200. I suppose I could have just gone to a Menard’s or Home Depot and ordered a laminate countertop or I could have installed the charcoal roll of laminate the previous owner bought for the dash and counter, but it wouldn’t have been all that customized and it wouldn’t have looked like stone.

In the end, I got to choose my colors and I customized the design to look exactly like I wanted it to. Not to mention that it is 100% unique and I can say I did this myself!

The entire process didn’t take long. I think I spent more time taping everything off than I did on the coating. The coating itself only took about 15 or 20 minutes. The rest of the time is waiting for it to dry. It does need to dry for 24 hours before you can put a final clear coat of the resin and hardener mix on (I plan on doing that tomorrow).

I first had to paint the wood countertop with a paint/primer mix from Home Depot called Sued Grey. I don’t have a Home Depot close to me (there is one about an hour from where I live), so I ordered some product online. This was before I realized I was going to be near that Home Depot a couple days later and could have just gone into buy everything! As it turns out, I could not find what I ordered in the store, shipping was cheap and so it turned out well anyway. On the website, you can order a sample paint, so I think it cost about $4 for a sample of Sued Grey. The smallest containers of that color in the store were around $14 to $17. I had a very small amount of counter to do (approximately 3 to 4 sq. ft.), so the sample worked. I even had paint leftover.

I started by taping everything off, including taping on plastic drop cloth I bought from Dollar Tree down the front and side of the cabinet, because this stuff does drip over the edge when you use it. I also used Dollar Tree tape (hope that doesn’t prove to be a mistake later).

I painted 2 coats of the paint/primer on the wood, sanding with 220 sandpaper in between.

I then “fogged” some of the black spray paint over the grey. Fogging pretty much means that you lightly mist areas of the surface (randomly).

After the black spray paint dried, it was time to to apply the resin/hardener mix that I got from Stone Coat Countertops. This was easy. You mix equal parts of the Resin and the Hardener. Because I had such a small amount of countertop to do, I was able to order their sample kit, which costs $50 plus shipping. I believe it does 10 square feet. I’ll have some leftover if I want to do the same treatment to the very small outdated countertop for the bathroom sink. At some point, I probably will, so they match.

Now comes the fun part. I got to play around with the spray paint and the metallic sprays. At first I followed the instructions in the video I’d watched for this particular design (LIQUID EPOXY with a paint stick), but in the end I just did what I wanted until it looked the way I wanted. The color recipe for this particular design is called Lace Blue.

I bought three spray paints for this color recipe: Gloss Black, Gloss White and Gloss Dark Blue (on the video they say to get Cobalt blue, but I couldn’t find that, so I just pulled up Cobalt Blue on my phone and held it up to the paint can caps until I found one that was pretty close).

I also purchased three metallic powder colors from Stone Coat Countertops: Deep Silver, Bright Silver and White. These little guys were $15 a piece and from Walmart I bought three empty spray bottles and rubbing alcohol to mix them in. I eyeballed the alcohol and put approximately 6 to 8 ounces in each bottle, marked the bottles with a permanent marker and added each metallic color. You have to shake these really well before you use them. I put the spray on these at the finest mist I could.

I started by fogging in the black spray paint, followed by the blue spray paint and ending with the white. I did these one more time in random patterns. I then came back with the metallics, alternating between them.

After the colors had been added, I used a paint stick to kind of pat or chop certain areas in a random design. This created a very cool circular effect. We did this, playing with the colors, until it looked the way we wanted.

I was very pleased with the end result and left it alone to dry. This is what it looked like when it was done:

Everything has to dry for 24 hours, so tomorrow after work (I work until about 11), I will stop over and put the final coat on. The guys from Stone Coat Countertops recommend buffing the finished product after it has cured. I will probably do that. I’m not using the RV right now, so this was the perfect time to get this done. If I remember correctly, you can’t use the countertops for something like 7 days.

I absolutely loved this process. For the dramatic effect I got, it really was not all that much work. One tip about taping everything off is to make sure to tape off the backsplash. I only did a line of painters tape and unwisely did not tape plastic up over the wall, so when I sprayed my metallics it splattered. It’s okay, because I will either touch up with paint or I may cover it with a backsplash, but now I have to do something with it.

Also, make sure you wear gloves! I got a 12 pack from Walmart’s paint section for $3 or $4. It’s worth it.

Now my big fear is that with as fantastic as the countertop looks right now, something will be messed up when I pulled the tape and plastic away! I hope not, but I am dying to know. I won’t be able to do this until Sunday. *sigh*

I will post final photos once the tape is removed, so you can see how it looks with the sink and oven, etc.

Here is one final photo of my daughter, Graywyn, chopping areas with the paint stick:

May 26, 2018 0

Progress Costs $$!

I feel somewhat accomplished this week. I ordered the stone coating for the countertops yesterday, as well as some other supplies I need. Tonight I intend to go pickup the rest of the flooring and some plastic drop clothes and tape for taping off edges.

I wish I’d gotten my act together and ordered sooner, so that I’d have it. It would be nice to get the primer painted on the countertop tomorrow so that on Sunday I could do the coating. Instead I’ll plan on spending one or two days over there next week.

I will also have to buy what’s necessary for re-coating the roof, because I noted a leak over the mattress when I was there last. Luckily, I am replacing the mattress, but now I can’t do that until the leak is fixed. It’s a real bummer.

The biggest issue I’m having right now is with trying to be patient for repairs. I can’t move forward with certain things until they are done. Once it’s safe to drive it again, I’ll need to take it to have the propane tank re-filled (also waiting on the sanding and painting of that tank) and then once that is done, I can determine if everything works. I am sure I will have to have the AC recharged. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t have to replace any appliances or other water-related parts. I can find things for a reasonable price, but it all adds up.

I have made no progress in emptying my house. I made progress last weekend with my garage and I got rid of a ton of garage garbage in a bulk pickup that they do around here just once a year. They weren’t even supposed to take everything I put out, but were nice enough to do so. I still have a ton of garbage to pull out of the basement, because it floods and a lot of things got ruined.

Meanwhile, there are tons of boxes and bins to go through in the garage–or that’s how it feels. I’d like to empty the dining room and office this weekend, but I know I cannot do it all.

Other things on my list include getting my Great Dane current on his vaccinations and begin going through the food in the kitchen.

Once again, I’ll say it: my dream/goal is so close, but still so far! It’s a lot of work to try to carry out on your own when you only get one day a week off!!

I will post pictures after I re-do the countertop and install the floor. I’m very excited!

May 18, 2018 2

Things Are Progressing!

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a moment to write, but I really wanted to update those of you who are following.

At first things were at a standstill due to the winter. As the weather got cold last fall, I really couldn’t paint or do much in it and then in February I moved the RV to a repair shop where it sat until recently. Unfortunately, there was no progress made. The mechanic I had working on it made a lot of promises about the RV, my Firebird and a Mitsubishi Montero I bought. It’s a long story about how ALL of my vehicles ended up in one place (I’ll save it for another blog entry) and why no progress was made. The good news is that I have people helping me who actually are making progress!

The countertop, oven and sink have been installed. The last owner actually build a new lower cabinet frame for the small kitchen area and built a wooden countertop. He was going to cover it in dark laminate and gave me the roll. I thought that was too much effort and decided to do a Stone Coat Countertop. I can only hope that my version turns out as good as the video I’m trying to copy, but this is the look I plan to go for: LIQUID EPOXY with a paint stick. I plan to order what I need this week and I’m very excited. I’m also going to be picking up the flooring, which will be a vinyl plank in a light grey.

If you’ve been following my blog, you may have read where I make small investments each week out of my paycheck. I decided to sell the stocks I had, which wasn’t much. I’d been giving $5 here and there once a week for about a year and 3 of the 4 I was giving to were doing well. I cashed about somewhere around $950. It just so happens that I figured I need about $1,000 in things for the RV to leave, so that was very helpful and once I get moved, I will start re-investing again. In case you’re interested, I do have a referral link. You can do it for just $5 and you can control when it comes out. I had mine set up to automatically come out weekly, because I get paid weekly. I started with two and when they were doing well, I added one or two more. Here is the link: Stash Invest.

The countertop will cost about $70 for what I need to order from the site. I can get away with a sampler kit because I have such little space to cover. I believe I will have enough leftover to do the small countertop for the bathroom area too.

I have a case and a half left of the flooring already. I put the same flooring in my bathroom earlier this year and that’s what I had left. I believe I only need to purchase 2 more cases, but I will purchase 3, because it is not available locally and I have to drive about an hour to get it. I’d rather have one too many that I can either return later or keep for repairs then be one less and have all the stores be out. It will cost me about $150 to finish purchasing the flooring and since I’m buying it from Menard’s right now, I’ll get a 11% rebate.

Other things I need to purchase include a new step for the entrance, a new mattress, and curtains (I’m purchasing some curtains from Walmart and cutting them down to the right size and sewing them. I believe I can get 3 curtains out of a panel and each window needs 4 short panels. I already have one set I use in my bedroom currently, so I’ll recycle that and since there are three big windows to cover, I’ll need to buy just two more panels at about $13 each. I’ll work on something for the front windshield later on and am focusing on just the side windows. The back windows by the mattress already have shades I like and so does the doorway and the small kitchen window. I also have a divider between the bedroom and bathroom area and the rest of the RV, so for now, changing can be done behind it.)

I am keeping my fingers crossed that all of my appliances and things work. Things like the refrigerator, oven/stove, microwave, water pump, water heater and the air conditioner.

Mice chewed through the built-in power cord, so that has to be replaced, but the current mechanic was able to find a 40 foot replacement for FREE (my favorite word). Also, one of the vent covers on the roof has cracked and is broken since moving the RV and the other guy working on it was able to bring me an extra one he had for FREE also.

I have decided not to move my TVs. First of all, my 55 or 60″ TV is about 3 or 4 years old and was a cheap brand when I bought it. I think I paid $350 for it from Walmart’s website. The sound is terrible on it and last year I finally purchased a soundbar so I could hear it!! I have to move my stuff (eventually) 2200 miles. Chances are, the TVs might not make it. Smaller TVs I have in other rooms are older and heavier. I’m looking for a thin, lightweight TV that is good quality. I can buy something reasonable at Walmart and figure if I sell what I have, I can repurpose the money for a new small TV and then when I move into a house again some day, I’ll just have to buy a TV.

I rented a 10 x 20 storage building last weekend and began putting things in it. The process for emptying my house is very difficult with my 6 day a week work schedule and being the only adult working on it! My 10-year-old daughter is a huge help, but there is only so much she can do. A second adult helping would be great!

The best plan I can come up with was to pull as much garbage/throw away stuff as I could out last weekend. This week is the “bulky” pickup for my city. They only do it once a year and claim that only certain things can be picked up; however, each year everyone throws out whatever they want and they seem to take it. Now watch, this will be the year I do that and they leave most of it! We will see. So I piled my curb pretty high with stuff and paid $25 for two old couches and a baby mattress to be hauled away. I took two loads over to the storage building on Sunday and I actually can see a difference in the garage.

I wanted to have a garage sale last weekend, because it was also the big garage sale weekend for my city, but I realized much too late that I was not prepared. I was up until 1 a.m. Friday night working and could not bring myself to be up at 6 to set up a garage sale. Also, the weather had turned cold (in the 40s) and was raining and so I decided to just put it off until I am ready.

In order to make all of this work, I have to sell two vehicles AND about $1500 worth of my stuff before I leave! Ha, doesn’t really sound like it’s going to work, does it? Especially when I’m shooting for being out of here the first two weeks of June.

Worse case scenario I will have to hang around WI in the RV in order to come up with the gas money and one month’s site rental in OR, but the important thing is getting out of this house and making sure it is empty and clean for my landlord.

My goal this week is to take down the dining room table set and baker’s rack in the dining room and to move those thing into storage. I also have random things I can take now (such as a fake knight and armor – short human sized – that I have in the living room. The goal is to get anything out of the house that I’m not currently using. I’d like to get the garage and basement cleared out first, as well as use the empty dining room (once it is empty) store a pile of boxes and items ready to go to storage. I figure if I work on it a little bit each evening, I’ll see some real progress.

One massively obnoxious thing that has to be done before I move is to have help literally pulling apart the staircase leading up to the second floor where my bedroom is. When moving in, all the steps but one had to be removed in order to fit the queen box spring up the stairs. I’m not about to leave my Sterns & Foster box spring and mattress behind, so the effort will have to be repeated.

So a lot of progress is happening, but I am still so far away from being ready! I just have to keep plugging away at it. The more I do over the next two or three weeks, the less of a burden it will be when it’s time to go.

One thing I’d like to do is have my RV outfitted with about 300 watts of solar panels before I go and have the help. I don’t want to get the kind that I have to set up each time, because I am worried about theft. It’s about $300 to buy the three panels online and $15 for the mounting brackets for each panel, plus there is a handful of stuff I have to buy to hook it into the system. I’d like to be able to boondock if needed. Between the solar panels and my holding tank, it should be possible.

One other issue I ran into is that because my RV is older, my propane tank is actually built-in. Many places will not refill them if they are built-in, because they don’t realize you can. If they are built-in, I discovered, they do not have to be re-certified and can be re-filled as long as they are in good condition, so we are going to sand the rust spots off and repaint mine. I bought three cans of a primer and paint mix from Walmart this morning.

I was lucky enough to find a gas station in the same town where the RV is being stored that is willing to refill the tank for me. In the future, I will have to find another place like that or will have to get an adapter that hooks my current system up to a refillable tank like you’d use on a grill. That’s not ideal for me, so I am hoping that since I am going to an area that has a high amount of long-term RV residents, I won’t have a problem getting it filled.

The current goal is Waldport, Oregon. After a lot of research, I decided this is the place I want to go to. It’s right on the ocean and seems to have a lot of the qualities we’re looking for. I was hesitant in choosing beach life over city life (worried I’d get bored), but my dream is to be by the water and this is how I can do that.

The ultimate plan is to buy a piece of land (in about a year) that I can move my RV too and then work on putting up a tiny house. Eventually I want to build my dream house, but this is how I want to start. I’m tired of renting and at the moment, cannot get a mortgage. A lot of that may change in the next year as I reduce my bills and live a simpler life. As long as I keep the mortgage payments up on a piece of property I use as a rental and continue to make repairs on that rental, in a year I should be able to finish repairs and sell the home. I actually have equity in the house, so that would be huge in helping me achieve my dream home.

This post has been long. I thank readers who are following along and hope to have more time to blog about this experience as we go

May 16, 2018 0

My RV Journey: Things Are Moving A long….Aren’t They?

In some ways things are moving along for me. Tomorrow is the day my RV is supposed to be towed to the mechanic who is going to work on it for me. I was pretty proud of myself when I was able to pay for a Good Sam membership (roadside assistance). It was cheaper to do that for a little more than $100 than to pay for a tow.

If that weren’t exciting enough, I received the new kitchen faucet I ordered on Friday. I’m very happy with it. The faucet pulls out and doubles as a sprayer. It’s hard to see in the photo, but the faucet is a dark bronze type of color. On Saturday, we received the bone colored sink. I ordered both on eBay for about $110 for both. I’m excited to see them installed with the newly painted white cabinets and the faux stone countertop I plan to refinish the wooden one to.

I also ordered some king sized sheets I plan to use for the ceiling instead of continuing to paint it. I hate painting ceilings and things a soft design would look much better. If I change my mind, the sheets will be nice on my bed.

Once the re-wiring is done in the RV (and I buy the second battery–so far I’ve only replaced the one that runs the motor), I can start working on painting the inside again. I’ve realized that I will need the top cabinets painted before I can put my fabric on the ceiling (it may sound strange, but I promise it will look cool).

Off my checklist this:

Sign up for Good Sam
Purchase an Interstate battery for the engine
Ordered and received new sink and faucet for kitchen area
Ordered fabric for the ceiling

Here are decorating purchases I have left to make so far:

The flooring – I’m going to get vinyl plank flooring, because it’s easy to install and only requires a carpet knife and a snap cutter. I don’t need to plug anything in to install it. I’m thinking of going with grey, but will see what the paint and countertop looks before I decide 100%.
I am sure I will need more white paint for the cabinets.
Something for a back splash behind the sink. I’m thinking of using decorative tin tile.
Replacement mattress – I found one I want that in theory should fit from Overstock.com. That is an expense I plan to make sooner to using it, because you are supposed to unwrap the mattress right away and let it puff up itself and I don’t want to put it in there until the construction is done.

There are some other things that are more mechanical that I will have to pay for (parts and labor):

Brake lines
Fuel lines
U-Joints
Replacement steering column

Beyond that, I have grandiose ideas of having the entire outside of the RV painted black. I also want chrome wheel hub covers, an air horn, new steps put in for the main door plus more steps on the driver’s side because there are none, and a variety of other things that I may or may not need, but want. Things like solar panels. I also want backup cameras, an air horn, to re-do the roof and I need to find a good used generator.

Looking at this list, I am pretty sure I will not be able to get all this done before I have to leave, but we’ll see what can be done. Where there is a will there is a way!

My next dilemma is that I have no drive to work on the house I am in anymore. I have tons to do before I move. I have things in the basement, garage and my daughter’s room to go through. Not to mention getting rid of pretty much anything I can.

Meanwhile, I know that Sunday is my only day to do anything and what did I do today? I spent a lot of the day sitting around watching TV. I did some dishes, made dinner, got grocery shopping done and I worked on this post, but I didn’t go through laundry with my daughter and sift out old clothes that neither of us wants anymore, or help her fill at least one or two big bags with things she wants to get rid of from her room. I didn’t even take the three boxes out to the garage from the dining room. *big sigh*

Sometimes I am more productive with cleaning and organizing during the work week. It seems like weekends I just want to sit and relax. I think it would be better if I used Saturday afternoon/evenings to run my errands, so I did not necessarily have to go anywhere on Sundays, my full day off.

I know I am overly stressed. One thing is weighing heavily on my mind. Next Friday I go for a PET scan and a cat scan of my sinuses. It started when I went in because I was sick and had started wheezing. They did a chest x-ray and saw two rather large spots on my right lung. They sent me for a chest cat scan and discovered that my lymph nodes in my chest were also enlarged. Last Thursday I went to see a pulmonologist, who said he is concerned about these lymph nodes and they scheduled me for these new tests next Friday.

In the mean time, I am freaking out about how long I will be able to stay in my rented house. I know my own rental property will be empty in the next couple of months and that house needs a ton of work also. What I really want is to be on the road without all these worries. I’m feeling confined. For now, I just have to keep doing as much as I can on a daily basis.

One final thought that goes back to the sink. When I ordered it, I ordered it so it came with the cover for it, so I can have more work space, but also so I knew it would fit.

February 19, 2018 0

5 Ways You Can Make Money With Your Cell Phone Now!

There are several ways you can make money with your phone and doing it won’t cost you an extra penny. Payouts are generally small, but if you allow them to accumulate, they can really add up.

I have been using S’more for over a year now and I’m very happy with it. S’more is an app you can download for free. Once installed in your phone, you answer a few questions (to determine your interests) and then the app is ready to use. S’more makes money by posting ads on your phone. What does this mean? It only means that you will have to swipe the add aside whenever you want to get into your phone. This may be slightly annoying to some people, but for me, I’ve gotten used to it. Sometimes the ads are of interest to me and it’s something I actually want to see. Over the course of a year, I have earned over $50 in points, which you can trade for things like Amazon gift cards and gift cards to other places to shop and eat.S’more gives you 10 points (1 point = 1 cent) a day just for having the app and using it, but they also offer surveys, so if you have some free time you can take some surveys and earn more. I’m not sure if they are still doing it, but for a while they had deals in which you got a good deal and earned points. For example, last year I got Norton Antivirus through S’more at a very discounted rate and I also earned $10 in points.
If you think S’more sounds right for you, click here for more information: S’more. If you want to help fund my RV adventure and you think you want the app, please use referral code MQKXTZ. By doing so, you’ll get an extra 25 points to start!
Are you trying to count your steps? Maybe you just have your phone with you all the time. Sweatcoin is pretty neat. Not only is it a built-in pedometer, but every 1,000 steps converts to 1 dollar in sweatcoin. Sweatcoins can be turned in for things like PayPal and Amazon gift cards. Be sure to connect with if you do join Sweatcoin! I’d love to see what you are all doing you can find me @beth539091!
Pay Your Selfie is fun and you can earn anywhere from $0.20 to $1.00 for doing different things. For example, you can earn $1.00 for posting your profile shot, another dollar for telling your story, and $0.25 for taking a picture of your breakfast. You can connect your PayPal account to the app, so it’s easy to get paid.
Stash is a way to cheaply invest in many different types of companies. I’ve been doing this for several months now and I’ve already made some money. I do just $5 a week for each business I want to invest in. I hardly notice the money is missing from my account (it automatically comes out). You get $5 to start investing with Stash!
Ibotta is easy to use. Simply install the app, set up an account and start scanning your receipts. You can also link your loyalty cards to Ibotta. Cash back for your purchases is deposited in your account within 48 hours.

February 10, 2018 0

The Real Beginning of Lightening My Load

My life began to change 3 1/2 years ago (roughly). I’d been living in Ireland with my daughter and (then) boyfriend for a couple of years. We’d been informed at the beginning of July (2014) that we could no longer stay there. Our lack of a visa had made us illegal, which was not news, but now someone had noticed. 2 1/2 more years there and we could have applied for citizenship.

We had less than 3 weeks to pack our things, unload as many personal belongings as we could from what we had accumulated and head back to the states. We’d been living in furnished homes since leaving for Cairo in August, 2010, but we had a small child with us and had accumulated toys and things like that.

I remember we were running so late at the airport the day we flew out (my birthday; July 16th) that we were literally running as we unloaded the golden lab (called Crixus) in his carrier and I met the buyer of my car, who gave me a quick 400 Euro in the airport parking garage. I quickly apologized for the dog hair and we raced inside. From that day forward, my life not only would be different, but it would be an uphill battle.

A lot has happened between then and now, but last year I found myself single, stuck in the state I grew up in (Wisconsin), which I loved, but no longer wanted to be/live in, so hated. It was just me, my daughter and our small zoo of animals. I never wanted to stay here. I wanted to go right away, but it wasn’t in the cards for us, so we re-settled in the area.

I realized last winter that I can’t handle the Wisconsin winters anymore. Well, I’m doing it, so perhaps I can, but really don’t want to. Dealing with the snow is too much. It pushed my over the edge of being able to tolerate my existence here and feeling like I was going to crack. I realized that I was walking in place again, like I’ve done so many times before. It was time to get my shit together.

I formulated a plan in my mind. My small zoo now consists of the golden lab (Crixus), a Great Dane (Shaggy), a tortoise (now 1 1/2-years-old), Blue Ears, the rabbit, and Shakespeare, my parrotlet. How would I ever find a place to rent? This would especially be hard because I wanted to relocate across the country to Oregon, or possibly Washington. I was looking for either Irish-similar weather I’d grown so accustomed to or the western dessert I also knew and loved. Oregon seemed like a place to find exactly what I was looking for.

It hit me one day. By now I’ve had the plan in the back of my mind from so long that I don’t even know how I thought of it or what I was doing when I thought of it. I just know that before last year’s taxes, I’d decided I was going to buy an RV. I went back and forth between buying a travel trailer or and RV. I’d settled on an RV (despite people who care about me telling me the trailer might be better), because I can drive it with or without pulling behind a vehicle. Either way, it is a small home on wheels.

With an RV, I could load up my animals, drive to where I wanted to go (preferably at the beginning of a summer) and we could check out different places. We’d find a suitable place to rent/live over the summer, hopefully before school started in fall, so we’d end up in a safe place, unrushed. It seemed like the perfect plan and if I wanted to be totally unrealistic with myself, I thought I could do it last summer (ha!).

I tried and tried to find an RV, but found nothing. Finally, out of desperation I posted an ad in a Facebook group asking if anyone knew of or had an affordable RV for sale? It didn’t have to be pretty or updated, but it did have to be functional and affordable. A woman contacted me nearly right away telling me about her 1986 Gulf Stream Sunsport. I now know it is 30′ long. At the time, I was told it was a bit bigger. She said the cabinets had been replaced and that a lot of work had been done to it. She said all the flooring (tile, she said) had been purchased already and would come with it. It ran and drove, but her husband had been working on remodeling it for years. They had purchased a new one and she wanted this one gone. They wanted $2,300 for it.

I had my tax return, which was around $3,100. Excitedly, I rode with my dad to Cambria to take a look at it. The seller had driven it to a parking lot to meet us. The interior was much different than described. More had been done to it than I’d been told, but also less. The “tile” she’d been talking about was vinyl tile. As someone who has installed all types of flooring and used to own a construction business, I can say that I was not impressed. Her husband insisted he had fixed the roof. I could see that he’d replaced the subfloor, but the cabinets were ripped apart. The 80s were very apparent inside, but it wasn’t gross or disgusting, just a bit in shambles. The cloth interior was a teal and green design and I instantly thought it looked dark inside with the fake wood and the wicker design in the center of most of the cabinet doors. The lower doors for the cabinets had no hinges and I could see it had not been well thought out. There was a brand new, never-used toilet…sitting uninstalled in the bathroom. Old wallpaper covered everything and the ceiling had turned icky with age.

For some reason, the old owner had pulled apart the dash. I guess he thought it was important to replace, but in doing so, he’d pulled apart all the wiring. Nothing was hooked up. I’d immediately put money down on the RV to hold it until I could get a cashier’s check from the bank for the remainder and we’d signed something. After I’d put the money down, they contacted me and said the brakes had gone out and they would repair them before handing it over to me. This repair took weeks and I wondered if I’d ever truly take possession of it. I eventually did sometime in May. I believe they delivered it to its storage location around the 8th.

My then 9-year-old daughter and I spent every extra minute all spring, summer and fall (while the weather was still warm) working on it. We made progress, but not near what we wanted. Paint was the cheapest beginning and we set off painting all the cabinets white and the wallpapered walls a very light grey. We may have gotten half of it done.

Not long after I got the RV, I was lucky enough to find two cream colored leather captain’s chairs and a fold-out brown leather couch from a newer RV for free on craigslist. I was lucky enough to get them. Slightly worn, but much improved from the seats I ripped out. Those were installed (by me) in the summer. At one point, I also found replacement dinette cushions off of craigslist. I think I paid around $100. They were used, but were like brand new, in perfect condition and were a brownish color that went well with my cream and brown furniture.

By the time Halloween rolled around, it was just too cold to do much more and by then I saw what I’d accomplished, but also how far I had to go. I shook my head at myself, wondering how I would be able to accomplish all I needed by the summer of 2018, which was my new goal for leaving. By December I’d made it up in my mind that I was leaving by then no matter what. While I’d been spending all this time working on my RV, I’d also been trying to finish the house I was renting. I’d committed to installing flooring in the living room, kitchen and three bedrooms. All was done except the kitchen. I’d also painted two of the bedrooms and the living room and had partially painted the bathroom. My dog had ripped up the brand new bathroom flooring my landlord put in the winter before, so I also have to replace that.

By the first of the year, I had this feeling like things were going to work out for me this time. I realized I may have to let go of things. Over the summer I’d paid a guy to organize my over-flowing garage so I could find things. After he’d done that, I could actually get two vehicles in it and could walk through it and see what I had. I realized 85-95% of it would have to be gotten rid of. I already knew I’d sell my couch for what I could get for it before I left. We were taking no bedroom furniture of my daughter’s, per her request, and she wanted to get rid of the majority of her toys, because she is getting older and no longer wanted to play with toys. That left my bedroom set, my grandparent’s dining room set, one single leather rocker/recliner I felt I had to have with me, electronics, tools I wanted to keep and possibly a solid wood and very heavy (and unmanageable) long dresser I have in my living room that I use as an entertainment stand. I can’t forget all of my kitchen appliances and things I do not want to part with or have to replace.

I found quotes online for various things: moving pods, moving trucks (like U-Haul and Budget), storage buildings, moving companies–whatever you can think of. It all came down to a need for a few thousand dollars. Somewhere along the line I had it in my head that I would need $6,000 to move. I would need gas money to get there, money to rent a place to put the RV, full coverage insurance on the RV and roadside assistance, food money and “oops” money for things I could not foresee.

I was happy to see my taxes were going to give me about half that. I was even more happy when I took my Explorer to a local mechanic who said another customer had offered $2,500 to buy it. I’d purchased it 2 years before for just $550. I thought that was a nice profit and that $2,500 would almost get my to what I felt comfortable leaving with.

Then something shitty happened. My Explorer was parked outside of the shop waiting to be repaired and some guy (high and/or drunk out of his mind) stole it, committed another crime in it and totaled it within just a few hours.

Luckily, I’d had full coverage insurance on it. Progressive moved quickly and sent me a check for around $1700-something (after my $250 deductible). Something clicked in my mind and I sat down and re-figured some of the expenses I thought I’d have in leaving for Oregon. I realized I could lower my numbers by quite a bit. I’d had it worked out with that same mechanic to pay him a deposit and a monthly amount to fix my vehicles and do repairs on the RV. He’d looked it over and determined it needed brakes, fuel lines, u-joints, he could do the re-wiring, and it needs its roof re-sealed again. He said we could store it at his shop and I could work on it there. With heat in it, I could get things done in cold weather. He said he could have it done by June, but after I re-figured, I asked him if I just paid him for it, could he do it faster. Of course, he said yes.

I re-arranged the plan in my mind. I would rent a storage building near where I lived and commit to bringing as many boxes and tubs as I could each weekend. My daughter and I would go through them and take only over what we intend to move. I’d number each one as I put it in, so by the time I was done, I’d know how many I had. This information is important for various moving quotes. This would also be helpful, because I’d received a letter in early January from my landlord that he was going to put the house I was in up for sale around March 1st. Of course, there would be the opportunity to stay, but also I may have to move. The stress was all too much and that was when my problem-solving mind went into overdrive to figure a way out of my problems. Bad thing after bad thing kept happening, but many things seemed to be leading me out of the state, where for some reason, I felt this black cloud I seemed to be under would be lifted.

I started looking through craigslist searching Washington and Oregon for RV sites. I’d been thinking I would go to an RV park and had found one as cheap as $350 a month plus electricity, but then I came across an ad for a single family that had an RV site with hookups on their property. I researched their area and really liked it. I’d emailed them and had received a voicemail from the husband the next day. I called back and got his wife, who I had a really nice conversation with. I instantly liked her and could tell she felt the same. Unfortunately, they were prepared to rent to me and I was prepared to rent, but was not ready to go. They said they couldn’t wait until June, but had not had an good prospects yet (except me). We agreed they would let me know if they rent it and I would contact them when I was ready to go to see if their spot was still open.

I realize now I may not get to rent their spot, but the rush is driving me to push harder to get out of here faster. Even if the opportunity slips away, the more I can get done in the shortest amount of time will put me in a better spot. If my landlord sells my house while I am still here and I decide I have to move, it would be nice to be able to just go to the RV. It would save me money.

So that is where I am at. My next step is to put insurance on the RV, so it can be driven or towed to the mechanic and he can begin. I also need to rent that storage building, which I think is going to cost me about $50 a month. I’m waiting for my Progressive check to clear. I put it in a relatively new bank account and they are sitting on it for 5 business days. My first purchases will be insurance and roadside assistance and then the rental unit, which I plan to pay at least two months of. I still don’t know if I will rent a pod to put my stuff in, store and move to Oregon when I go or if I will leave everything in storage here and rent a moving truck later. It makes more sense to me to do the pod and I feel more comfortable about having my things in the same state. That way, if something goes wrong and I need to remove the items, I can. If I am in Oregon and for some reason cannot pay the rental in Wisconsin, all of my things would be lost to me. Not just some of my things, all of my things.

This was a pickle I’d have to conquer once I get ready to move. A lot will depend on the amount of money I have available to me. The good news is that I work from home and so my income will move with me and will not change. I get paid weekly, so even if I am running low on funds when I first get there, I’d get paid pretty soon right after.

Tiny home living and unconventional housing is becoming more popular. The more I read about other people’s lives, the better I feel about my plan, which to some people, sounds crazy. Sometimes I’ve laid awake at night asking myself I am crazy, taking my now 10-year-old daughter and our small zoo across the country to live in a tiny space. I realized, though, that it’s a very sound decision in a life that has become too expensive. I may even stay in the RV for a year instead of finding a place right away. If one year of slightly uncomfortable living would get my debt paid up or off and provide me the opportunity to buy my own home or make a step toward where I want to be in life, why not? It seems like a small price to pay. I even think about buying a piece of land to build on. A place where I can plunk my RV down while I continue onto the next step of my plan. It’s a race to provide my child with a relatively normal childhood before we both miss out on the stuff that makes it fun.

Meanwhile, I plan on detailing my steps here for anyone who is interested. Perhaps this type of choice would be right for you or maybe you have your own experiences to share with me. If you’re interested in reading more about alternatives way to save money in rentals, check this article out: 30 photos show the extreme lengths millennials will go to live in cities instead of suburbs

February 8, 2018 0

Cheap Family Date Night

Let’s face it, it’s hard to feed a hungry family these days. It’s easy to feel like we don’t have enough money to take our families out to eat, but there are places we can go that offer free or extremely cheap kids nights. If you’re willing to go out on a school night (usually between Monday and Wednesday), you’ll find there are several places to choose from. Keep in mind that the days and prices offered by these places may vary from area to area. Here is what is available in my area (Fox Lake, WI):

Applebee’s (Beaver Dam): Up to 2 kids eat for 99¢ Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Ponderosa (Beaver Dam): Kids 10 and under eat for 99¢ every Tuesday between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. (one child qualifies for each adult entree that is purchased). Kids 2 and under eat free all day every day of the week.

Benvenuto’s (Beaver Dam): Kids eat FREE every Monday (up to $5.50 a meal) with the purchase of an adult entree.

Pizza Ranch (Waupun): Kids eat FREE every Monday (with the purchase of an adult entree).

Activities

Don’t forget about free and cheap activities (depending on the season).

Rogers Cinema Beaver Dam: Sometimes they offer customer appreciation days. Usually you can get in by donating a canned food item. They’re not that great about advertising this, so you have to keep watch on their Facebook page.

Tower Lanes: In the summer, you can sign your kids up for KidsBowlFree program. Every week they will email you a coupon that allows your child to bowl free each day. They also offer discounted family programs too, so you can bowl too.

Crystal Lake Park: Crystal Lake is great. There is no lifeguard on duty, but there is a little free beach in the summer. They have some umbrellas and tables; also bathrooms, showers and changing rooms. Kids can go to Crystal Lake camp 5 days a week for under $100 a week. They do arts and crafts, swim, play games and take a field trip every Friday. The camp is open to residents and non-residents, but there is a price difference.

YMCA of Dodge County: They offer all sorts of inexpensive events. For example, right now they have a fall and winter Flick’n’Float. Non-members are just $3 each. Enjoy crafts and swimming with Santa December 4th. Members are free and non-members are $5 a family.

There are many things free and inexpensive for families. Make sure you keep watch of Facebook pages and check for future events on websites, so you know what’s going on. If you have anything to add about this area or your area, please leave it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

November 15, 2017 0

Solved: I can’t login to my Yahoo email from my phone.

The Issue: I have a Samsung Note 5. I’ve had it for a year and have had it logged into my Yahoo email address for months. Last November it suddenly stopped logging in, telling me that I was using the wrong password. After months of failed attempts and password changes, I was very frustrated and had decided I would have to live without being able to login to my email through my phone.

Solving The Issue: I did some research on it and others had the same issue. They were told to uninstall and reinstall the app, clear the cache and so forth, to no avail. I finally solved the problem and it was simple!

Step 1: Login to your Yahoo email from a regular browser.

Step 2: Click the pull-down “Help” menu in the upper right-hand part of your screen and choose “Account Info”. A new window will open.

Step 3: Click on “Account Security” on the left-hand side of the screen. Please Note: It will ask you for your password again.

Step 4: Make sure that “Allow apps that use less secure sign in” is on.

Step 5: Try logging into your email through your phone. If you are 100% sure that you are using the right login info and this option had been previously turned to off, you should be able to login now.

That’s what worked for me. If you are having the same problem or issues on different phones or with different emails, feel free to post your solution in the comments!

February 5, 2017 0

“Mom, that girl is here again…”

“Mom, that girl is here again.”

That’s what I woke up to in the middle of the night. My daughter, in a sleep state next to me, telling me that this girl is here with us. I have never heard of this girl. I don’t see a girl. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe that there is a girl there. I tell her to go to sleep anyway. What can I do? I’ve been plagued with nighttime visions my entire life. It was only natural that my daughter would be the same way. Over the years I have learned to block it, but how do you explain to a child that she has a gift–a gift that can scare her, could even hurt her. Do you say, “Oh, by the way, dead people can communicate with us and they will. Get used to it. Learn to control it.”

Each person needs to learn to control it in their own way. All I can do now is try to protect her….

Later that night…I wake up to something in the room again. I have my hand on my daughter’s arm. I hear myself demanding that they GO! I know I’m yelling at them to go away. The dogs only seem slightly disturbed. They go through this with me…with us…frequently.

“Mom, mom, it’s okay. Go back to sleep.”

“I’m awake. Didn’t you tell me there was a girl here?” Silence.

“No. I don’t remember that.”

“Okay. It’s okay. Let’s go back to sleep.”

This is a typical night. It happens maybe once a week–sometimes more often, sometimes less often, but it is a natural part of our life. My daughter has insisted on sleeping with me for the past year. I don’t argue. I feel this constant need to protect her during the night. Her “gift”, if you want to call it that, is getting stronger. The only way I can protect her right now is to be there with her to ward off these spirits. She’s not ready for it yet and they are not all good.

I’m feeling sick lately. I suffer from heart conditions. Classic symptoms of someone who can see and speak to dead people. Someone who attracts them. Someone who tries to ward them off. Eventually, it will get to you. Everything is fine with me. My blood tests are normal, most things are normal with me. So why do I feel extreme exhaustion? Why are some days so difficult to get through? Why do I never sleep well? I can tell you why. Because I need to stop suppressing. I need to find my inner self again, so to speak. Have you had similar experiences? Comment about them. I’d love to hear about it.

May 16, 2016 0

Catching Up

It’s been a long, long time since I have posted on here. Believe me when I tell you that I have thought about it. I have been busy. We’re coming to the end of 2015 and I’m hardly better off than when we were coming to the end of 2014.

To catch readers up, in July of 2014 we were told we had to leave Ireland. We decided to return to the US. We went back to our home state of WI, where we had family, friends and most importantly, our things!

At first we stayed in a lake cottage, but that was only temporary. By October, we needed to find a permanent place fast. Eventually I found an apartment owner that was looking for someone to move into a 2 bedroom apartment, rent-free, to manage two buildings.

It seemed like a fit. The apartments allowed our large breed dog and although I found both the bathroom and kitchen (two of the most important areas in a home) to be downright hideous, I was assured that those areas would be updated after we moved in.

Not only did that never happen, but the apartment manager became a complete nightmare. I’ll talk more on that later in other posts (hopefully).

By September, 2015, we were moving out and the apartment owner had decided to sue us and attempted to get a judge to issue an eviction on our records. She was unable to get the eviction, but did manage to get a judgement against us.

Living in that apartment became a nightmare. Our daughter is permanently affected by it. Even though we are moved out into a single family home, away from having close neighbors or evil landlords, she is still affected in ways I am only beginning to understand. Some people think we are exaggerating, but they didn’t have to deal with what we dealt with and they’re not in our home to see what our daughter goes through constantly.

So that’s where we’re at for now. We’re working too much and we have too little money to do what we want. No one wanted to return to WI and no one is happy that we’re still stuck here. As of now, the future is looking grim.

One of my goals that I’m working on is to be able to dedicate just 15 minutes a day to writing fiction. So far, the idea has been in my mind, but I haven’t been able to do it. Another goal is to finish the construction on the home we are in. There is so much to do! Finally, as always, I am trying to lose weight.

Check back for more stories about what has happened since we returned, as well as other odds and ends that I feel like talking about.

November 24, 2015 0