It’s been a winter of soul-searching for ideas, wants and
needs for our up north property and hasn’t ended remotely as I ever imagined it
would. Let me explain.
When Marc worked in WI back in 2007 he badly injured his right rotator cuff in a silly move. After seeing numerous surgeons who said it was unfixable, he managed an appointment with the orthopedist who treated injuries for the Green Bay Packers; arguably one of the finest in the Midwest. It was fixed, but with the caveat to take it easy on it as the way the procedure had to be corrected left no room or chance of ever fixing it again in a reinjury.
Building our RV shed last Fall, hurrying to get it done, Marc pushed himself beyond what he should have and his shoulder has done nothing but nag him with pain all winter. I know he began questioning just how much he was going to be capable of this year in terms of building, so to try and “help out” I kept reducing the size and scope our project to where I finally suggested just a 16x24 foot one room cabin! He still seemed non-committal, given his first priority is to finish building the shop this summer.
So, in the meantime, my thoughts turned to earnestly searching for instant housing; everything from tiny homes, park models, and manufactured homes. If anyone has paid attention to the price of these in the past two-three years, they have skyrocketed to absurd levels. After months of scouring new and used listings for a park model I finally just found a very nice used unit in TX that was in our price range. But an exorbitant transport bid ($16,000!) knocked it out of the park for us. Our former park model was a 2007 model and those are being listed for more than what ours cost new and many were only in so-so condition and would have required lots of renovation. Forget about purchase of a new one—something sticks in my craw about paying over six figures for a structure with wallboard walls and pressboard cabinets.
Three days ago as we’re sitting through the big Midwest snow storm, Marc suddenly came across a Facebook Marketplace listing of a destination RV (similar to the one we had) which is in a campground three miles from us! Yesterday we took a look at it and it was pristine (a 2021 40 foot model) and a great deal pricewise as well. The owner had been trying to sell it since last summer so was getting very motivated, so we decided to take advantage of that and made an offer, which she quickly accepted.
Will it be my ideal; the thing of my dreams? No, but….It will serve the purpose of comfortable seasonal housing; it will be relatively easy setup for Marc; and it conserves money we don’t need to spend yet allowing for us to also spend some for what we still need to do, which includes a new set of steps to the dock and a little remodel to the unit’s kitchen. We’ll be possibly ditching the cooktop and RV oven in favor of a full size stove/oven and also I’m not living with plastic countertops so those will likely be replaced with butcher block.
We have until mid April to get it removed from its current spot. In addition, the owner included a large deck and Rubbermaid shed which we’ll need to tear down and transport north.
On another note, back at the end of October we finally broke
down and ordered a new car. Although it still runs like a champ, I’ve been
driving my Saturn for twenty years and we figured now might be a good time to
get a backup. Our new, loaded Subaru Forrester (if it’s my last car I’m having
leather seats dammit!), finally arrived at the end of January. It is so filled
with electronic gadgetry I’m still not comfortable driving it, so for the most
part it has sat in the garage and I’m getting around on all our salt-laden
streets and highways in the Saturn. We did have the new car undercoated, which
they guarantee against rust for ten years. Since it will be our last ever car
however, we will baby it and keep mileage down and use the Saturn as much as we
can until she gives up. My luck, that thing will just keep going and going
because that’s the way she’s always been!
We await Spring thaw with anticipation and I’m getting really
anxious to return to the land of pine scented air and the call of the loons.
