Side Note- You know, we've never named our RV. Doing all this work on her makes me think it's about time she had a name. She deserves one now! So, we are taking name suggestions.
We put our 3 day, Labor Day weekend to good use and made some major progress on the RV! Joe's been working on her for a couple of months now, here and there. But when it finally came time to paint, that's where I entered! Once I was in there though, working side-by-side, I realized there were a lot of reno projects I could help with! Thank goodness for cloudy days, which kept the temps in the 80's-low 90's (not bad for August in TX), since we needed to leave the doors and windows open while painting for ventilation. Mom watched the kids for a few hours each day and our weekend went just like this...
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| Here's how she looked before we started this weekend. |
Saturday
Did nothing. We're bums.
Sunday
Sanded and primed and painted all of the new shelves Joe has built in place of the TV center that used to be in the RV. This was my job! Don't think it was a simple one either, just cause it's painting! It was about a 5 step processes to first sand, ,then wipe everything off, then prime, and paint and paint again. Whoo!
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| Step 1- Sand |
While I did this, Joe built the new steps to the master bedroom, installed the new wall frame that goes behind the desk, and okay, okay, he helped me paint a little too.
Monday
We only had about 2 hours to work on the RV this day. I did some touch up painting and second coats, rehung a cabinet door we had taken off to paint, and caulked a few holes for future painting, as well as did the chalk board paint. WE LOVE CHALK BOARD PAINT! I made a small chalk board for me that I can use to write our plans for the week, or our menu, or use as a board to help when teaching the girls school lessons. There's another chalk board that will be under the desk, that the girls can use to draw on whenever they like.
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| It don't look like much, but to us, this is some major progress! |
Joe put up the wall that faces the bedroom. Cut the wall that will face the living room (which means something new for me to paint), and insulated the wall as well. He also finished the hinged stair toppers. (Now that the stairs are built, I have those to paint as well.)
Good thing I like painting! We'll see how long that keeps up. I will say that now that we have started painting, it makes me want to paint the whole RV, or at least all the wood cabinets. I love how the colors came out! Gives it an accidental cottage look. And I LOVE the cottage look!
Here are a few tips for anyone renovating an RV, or anything really, that I picked up this weekend...
1. You will get paint on everything you are wearing. In other words, don't do what I did, and "just know" you will not get paint on you cause you're so careful. YOU WILL! RV spaces are even smaller and bumping into wet paint or dripping on your pants is inevitable. So wear something you don't mind getting paint on. However, do not wear PJ pants. See following tip to see why...
2. You will take way more trips to Home Depot than you plan to. We took our first trip and once in the parking lot discovered that we did not bring the samples to compare to flooring and paint. At least we got lunch, and Jonah was sleeping. So we head back home, grab samples and head back for our 2nd round. Inevitably, we get the wrong sized board for the steps and Joe had to return Monday for that. So 3 trips in 2 days. Really not too bad, but definitely a reason to not wear PJ pants while painting.
3. Do as much work as you can OUTSIDE! It's small, and cramped, and hot in an RV! If there's a wall or cabinet you can paint outside before installing back in the RV, do that!
4. You'd think we'd know this by now, but USE LATEX paint and primer! It is such a pain to clean brushes with mineral spirits that you used to paint on oil based paints. So we end up throwing a lot away. Latex paints do not create this problem. They also do not require you to rub paint thinner all over your skin to get it off
So after this weekend, we are feeling pretty proud of ourselves! There was a moment in the RV that we were both working together and listening to good music, and it just felt awesome! We are getting there!
And get this! While on one of our 3 trips to Home Depot, we discovered sticker backsplashes! This is so HUGE! You can't do traditional backsplashes in RV's cause they move too much and they are heavy! So we were looking at painting or doing metal, or just leaving it in it's current ugly state. Then we stumbled upon sticker backsplashes! As happy as we are to have found these, you'd think they would be cheap right? I mean they are stickers! If you bought this for a house, it'd be like buying something that looks like a backsplash, but really isn't. Like an inflatable that looked like a stone statue or something. Well fake, it may be, but they are NOT cheap! One little single sqft is $8. I said $8!!!! Who, besides anyone renovating an RV would buy these?! But, of course we will, cause the area we need to cover is tiny and this will make it look so good! Excited!!!
Stay tuned! Lots more renovations to come! About 4 more months until our planned departure date of January 4th-ish. Our current deadline is to finish the desk area, bedroom wall, and flooring in time to take the RV to Joe's triathlon race in Kerville, TX the weekend of Sept 27th.
Full Speed Ahead!
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