I just completed the remodel of our shower, and I'm really very happy with the final results. Thought I'd give you all a little peek into the entire project. To begin, here's a couple quick shots of what our shower looked like when we started:

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If you read my last entry So Close, And Yet... you already know that selling our house and buying this coach has been an ordeal, the last couple days especially. Well, things just got a lot better.

First of all, I have to say a huge 'thank you' to the RV sellers. They've been absolutely wonderful to work with through this entire process, and they have had the patience of a saint. When I explained to them what was happening and what I was trying to do to fix it, the wife's response was,...

In a nutshell - we downsized from a big house to a smaller house, and are using the proceeds from the sale of the big house to buy our new2us coach.

It's the perfect plan: We have a buyer for our house, we've signed the deal, opened escrow, made a deal with the sellers of the rig, and timed it all perfectly so that we'd have the money from the sale in time to take possession of the rig this Thursday.

Well, it was the perfect plan, until the house buyer's underwriter (FHA)...

"Imagine" is a great name for our new2us coach. It embodies the life we're about to embrace and it's the song of the century written by my personal hero, John Lennon. It means a lot to both of us in many ways.

But, as great as the name is, I'm not keeping it. I'm a little sad to let it go, but there's another name ringing in my ears, and it has an even deeper personal connection than any hero could.

Not to dwell on the past, but my childhood was less than ideal....

As some of you might already know, my wife and I have just purchased our first RV. I’ve been so busy preparing to take possession of it that I haven’t even had time to blog about it until today. We’re excited, and nervous, and excited and… well, you get the picture.

My year-long research into which type, make and model to buy is thankfully over, but now I’m neck-deep researching exactly what we’ll need to make this RV ours. It’s an all-electric coach with an induction cooktop, residential...

Yesterday I posted my first update in a long time about downsizing and selling our big house. I was concerned that selling it was going to be a long, drawn-out process and that it could be a year or more before I got to retire and buy an RV. Sure, we've had a few exploratory offers, but they were all far too low to be taken very seriously.

That was just yesterday.

I woke up this morning to an email informing me that one of the potential buyers - who had initially low-balled...

Well, the first phase of downsizing is nearly complete: We're finally all moved into the little house and the big house is officially on the market. In fact, it's been for sale for about a month - we've had a couple of offers but they were ridiculously low (naturally). That's ok... it's not costing us anything to just sit there, so we can wait for the right buyer.

In the mean time, we're putting the finishing touches on our new home. Thankfully, the flipper that we bought the house...

In my last forum posting (which you can read here) I talked about being in pre-negotiations with a used-RV dealership, and specifically with one particular salesman. To set the stage for you all: I made it abundantly clear to him that I wanted to buy this rig (which was absolutely true) and that I had a few questions to ask him before scheduling time to drive the 400+ miles to see it and him in person.

The salesman was extremely helpful and professional. He responded quickly and...

The good news is that the DW and I have finally settled on what we think is the perfect coach for us: a 2002 Beaver Marquis Emerald. We love the floor plan, we love the quality of the build, we love its stellar reputation - we love everything about it. There are quite a few Monaco’s, Damon’s, Newmar’s and Tiffin’s we like a lot, too, and we’d be very happy in any of them. But for now we’re holding out for our first choice.

The bad news is there aren't a lot of them around so we're going...

This is an article I wrote for an online magazine that I thought might be of some interest to the folks on this forum. I hope you enjoy it.

I admit it: I’m middle-aged. Well, maybe not middle aged; at 52 it seems a bit presumptive to think I might live to be 104, but either way it’s all downhill from here, right? The hair thins and greys, the skin wrinkles, the eyesight blurs, the equilibrium wobbles, the razor wit dulls, the bones and muscles ache in pounding syncopation. There...

As of my last posting, I was trying to talk my wife into buying the 'perfect' rig way earlier than we had anticipated. Well... things didn't work out exactly as I had planned.

You see, even though it was originally my wife's idea to buy an RV, I've always felt it was really me who was driving the idea home (so to speak). I'd research a couple dozen rigs, show her maybe half of them and the only reaction I'd get is, "Yeah, those were pretty." Then I'd research a couple dozen...

... I've found our perfect coach! Top-of-the-line manufacturer, exquisite model, impeccably maintained, tastefully upgraded with all the bells and whistles we wanted and some we'd never even heard of.

Now, I just have to talk my wife into letting me buy it.

Yeah, I know... crazy right? We've been searching for months and when the machine of our dreams drops right into our laps she wants to wait six months? Infuriating? Yes. Crazy? Not even a little. In fact, she's absolutely...

I feel like a flakey 9-year old that can't make up his mind between pizza and ice cream.

We started out convinced that we were going to buy a Class A DP. We knew the floor plan we wanted; we knew the price we wanted to pay. The only thing we couldn't be 100% sure of is when. The only thing we knew about timing was that it had to be after we sold this big house and bought our smaller retirement house, which we assumed would happen in that order.

But then we had a change...

So, to recap: The plan is to put our current house on the market March 1 and split the proceeds between a new, smaller house and an RV. We've gone back and forth a few times on the RV: new Class A, used Class A... now we're pretty well settled on a 2013 5th wheel we've got our eye on. Nice Jayco... comes with a 2013 Ram 3500 loaded with everything. Doesn't get much better than that.

As far as the new house is concerned, we've been shopping around like crazy (though having full realtor...

... but stay flexible in your approach." ~Tony Robbins

Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but the DW and I have changed our minds. Oh, we're still buying an RV, just not the class of RV we always assumed we would. If I'm being honest about it, I never really gave any serious thought to any other option... that is, until last night when I decided to surf around the 'net just to see what I could find and I landed on something I had always just assumed I wouldn't like.
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