So I am living in an RV. Not a sentence I had planned on saying any time in my life. In fact had you asked me where I was going to be living two weeks ago I would have told you in our new house while we did a small renovation. That is not my reality…instead we are gutting the new house completely and we bought a Winnebago. This is not what most food bloggers think of as ideal working conditions. But we are going to embrace this new twist on life and I am going let the RV, my horses, the dogs, and even my grouchy husband become more part of this blog. So get ready the next few months you are going to learn about us all, the house remodel and how I can cook better than most restaurants in an RV…I hope.
The “New” House
We bought our new home last week, it’s a small 1980s three bedroom that we knew needed a bit of work. It sits on 5 acers in an equestrian community in Palm Beach County, Florida. I can ride from my new place to top dressage trainers and the well-known White Fences horse show. I have been an equestrian for almost my whole life and this location is pretty darn perfect for me. The house on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired, like a decent kitchen and a real master bathroom. We decided that we could make it work, the plan was new floors, new paint and a kitchen reno. Then we would live in it while we decided if we wanted to do more. The first day in the place we began ripping out floors, drywall and a huge fireplace. Once we got that far we just kept going realizing painting over the problems the house had would not fix anything. Let the full gut begin!
The New RV
By the second night we both had sore throats from dust, and we knew the AC unit needed to be reworked, so living in the mess was not going to work. We also have a lot of baggage of the living breathing four legged kind: three dogs, one cat and two horses. So renting is a bit of a challenge. Thus what is either the best or worst idea my husband has ever had, buying an RV. You seriously can’t rent one of these things for what you can buy one for. We definitely will spend less this year on the RV than we would have on renting a house with first, last and security deposits! Plus when we are done living in it we can use it to go to horse shows, haha! (That will likely never happen.)
We got a big ass travel trailer! It’s got a nicer kitchen than many small apartments. It even came with Bluetooth surround sound and much to my husband’s annoyance a fake fireplace. We are not RV type people, so us getting this thing set up and running was a bit messy at times. But once we figured out that I could shimmy over the kitchen counter top to fix the blown fuse and get the slide outs to work again we were golden. We live in a plastic bubble on wheels, but it’s not so bad. Who am I kidding its flipping great. The “Winne” is new, clean, has AC and running water! Thankfully we also have laundry in the garage of the house that is still working and one bathroom for real showers in stinky well water.
Reality Sets In
The morning after we took delivery I awoke to realize we were the new white trash neighbors. Our front yard looked like an answer to that old Jeff Foxworthy joke “you might be a red neck if.” We had an RV, four trailers, a Kubota buggy, four dogs, a 20 yard dumpster and a front end loader in our front yard. Thankfully the cattle trailer has been relocated to the cattle lease, the RV has been placed in the back/side yard and we made room in the garage for the buggy, but all that took a few days. We owe the neighbors an apology happy hour around the pool as soon as the tropical storm we are enjoying this weekend passes us by. Yes, while we have been moving the state has enjoyed like 8 inches of rain in the last week. My horses might float away if it doesn’t stop soon.
Our First RV Meal
So we did not have a lighter to start the gas on the RV’s cooktop so the first meal we made was in my toaster oven, cooked on a random pizza baking pan I found in shoved in a box of towels. It was nothing fancy just pork chops and some pre-prepped veggies that I found at the grocery store. I managed to set off the fire alarm in the RV twice, but the meal was good enough to eat! And we could enjoy it in the comfort of the RV away from the dust, smell and heat of the gutted house. That is success!
Follow my Instagram stories to get more pictures and videos of the progress. And come back to cookbetterthan.com for update posts like this one as well as informational posts with ideas for small space living/cooking and home remodeling.
