When working with our general contractor and planning our massive remodel on Myrtle, it became abundantly clear that we would not be able to live in the home alongside the work for quite some time.
A new line item was added to the budget for alternate living expenses. Since we are RVers, living in our camper in nearby campgrounds became the most obvious (and the cheapest) thing to do.
Obvious. Cheap. But one thing it’s not? Easy.
My children are 5 and 3 years old. My youngest is going through a – hrm, how to put this delicately – period of self discovery that manifests itself through defiance, tantrums, and a good helping of snark (that she absolutely doesn’t get from me. Promise.)
Though our camper is spacious as far as campers go (take a tour) it’s still a far cry from an actual house when humans of different ages dealing with all kinds of different human things need space to process.
So, consider this post a big “I feel you” to anyone else out there reading this because you’re going through a remodel yourself and have also been temporarily displaced with your spawn.
The campground where we spent the first month of the remodel had its pros and cons. Pros being that it was reasonably priced, well-tended to, and safe. Cons being that the sites were tiny, both wi-fi and cell signal were slow and patchy, and it offered very few amenities for kids (not that they’d be open during the pandemic anyway)
The biggest issue we had with the campground was that it was out in the country and a solid 45-minute commute to Myrtle. Beggars can’t be choosers, however, because it was the only place “close” that had space to rent to us for a month.
Now that we’re into the second month of RV-living and into our new campground… I’m missing the first one. Our current spot is much, much closer to Myrtle, but it sits right on the freeway (hello, noise!) the sites are so close you can barely extend the awnings on the camper, it smells like a sewer, and the majority of the tenants are long-term. Unfortunately, that fact means that many of the campers are in various states of disrepair.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit scared staying here.
Overseeing the goings on at the house means that the kids each have to spend significant time at the house as well as the camper. Screen time? You betcha. You do what you need to do to survive, and having them use their tablets in a cleanish room – maintaining appropriate distance (because hello, pandemic) from the workers – was the best way to keep them safe for a number of reasons.
Keeping these two from killing each other, entertained, and happy has NOT been easy (read that as this has been the hardest month of my life) and the only way we are surviving is with a lot of help from our village.
We’re keeping our eyes on the prize and our excitement about Myrtle’s transformation is helping to keep our morale up, but man, this process has been… a process.
The work being done on the house over the week has centered around electrical and plumbing rough-ins. I’ll post an update very soon. I’m not sure how exciting photos of bare pipe and junction boxes are, so that’s the main reason for fewer posts over the last week.
Some of the more visual work – tile and KITCHEN CABINETS (squeeee!!) will be happening very soon, so there will be some fun progress photos incoming.
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