A Slow Motorhome Remodel

When we decided to remodel The Wandering Dolphin, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I knew we had to start somewhere, sometime.

The process began with moving the motorhome out of the woods and onto the driveway, a more convenient remodel location. This proved to not be as difficult as we had imagined. In past years, we did a pretty great job of getting the motorhome stuck in the mud. This year, it was really just the battery that gave us pause.

OK, not a huge deal. We just hooked the jeep up to it and let it charge up.

It fired right up after that, but it got us thinking that we should probably replace at least one of the batteries before we hit the road again.

We parked it conveniently (and inconveniently) close to the house.

And there it sat.

You’ll notice that the trees do not have any leaves on them in these photos. That’s because we did all this in the early springtime. And we didn’t really do anything else. I watched the weather closely, and if there was a stretch without rain predicted, I made sure the windows and door were open to allow airflow to get in there and hopefully help refresh some stuff. We had already done a decent job of bleaching, but it needed more.

After several weeks, I got motivated enough to go in there are take down the front curtains, which were disgusting anyway and had been ripped up from the cats crawling in them. I tossed them, knowing we already had a new plan for the front window.

Then I spent a little time taking out every fabric item that wasn’t nailed down, trying to get as much of it out as possible. I threw away scratching posts and a blanket. I tossed bits of paper. Anything that could easily hold mold spores had to go.

Then I let it sit again.

My inspiration and motivation for the remodel came and went over the weeks to come. In my mind, Andy and I were going to do this together. But finding a day where he wasn’t working and we weren’t doing something fun was difficult. This is before I had returned to my in-person job.

I decided I didn’t have to wait for him — I could do this myself.

I started by taking down the carpeted window treatments.

These were not only covered in dust and a little smelly, but they’re not my style at all. Whoever decides the decorations for these motorhomes needs to get some new ideas. It took me a little while to get a good routine down, but before I knew it, all the treatments were off the windows.

It was so much brighter already!

I did make the mistake of taking off the carpet edging from above the door — I found out there’s a nice gap around the door that that hides. Oh well, I can screw it back on.

I felt oddly proud of myself for doing such a little task. But you see, Andy is the handyman of us (he actually owns his own handyman service now!), and I am the words person, the technology person, the planner, etc. I could say that he’s more of the tactile person normally, maybe that explains it. But here’s the thing, I always forget how absolutely capable I am of these things when I do them. I just don’t do them very often because he takes care of it, hence the being proud. But I digress…

After this step, I started to do a little planning. I looked for inspiration online, and I decided to get a few color samples for the cabinets.

There’s no going back now — that paint is on there!

This was all very exciting, but then Minnesota’s summer truly hit. And while I know much of the nation is being hit with this tropical, oppressive weather and that we are not alone, I can only speak for my experiences. Let me tell you something that you probably already know if you’ve read any of my previous blogs: I hate Minnesota summers. I hate the heat. I hate the humidity. I hate the bugs. So with 90-plus degree days and 70%-plus humidity for the past couple of weeks, my work has been halted.

Once I get a new power adaptor that lets me hook up to shore power so I can run some air in that beast, I’ll get back to work. But until then, I’m just going to soak in the lake until the weather becomes bearable again.