We Live In An RV. And It's Awesome.

Well, at the end of May we sold our house and moved most of our belongings into our friend's basement for storage, taking only the necessities with us to our temporary residence. The RV.

As I've been telling friends where we planned to live, I've seen a mix of reactions from surprise to disgust to that-won't-last-long to envious to straight out laughing in my face. But for our family, this is a perfect fit.

I live with 2 of the most extroverted people I have ever encountered, meaning they never ever want to be alone. In our old house, whichever room I was in, they would join me there in about 5 minutes. We migrated around our 2,100 square foot home as a herd, rarely occupying more than one or two adjoining rooms at a time. And I've been enchanted by the idea of tiny houses for quite some time, so this season of life is fulfilling that (momentary) desire for me. (Side note: Where do the people who get those fancy tiny houses on HGTV store all their stuff?? There's no closet or pantry or secret storage, but they have a full-sized fridge and TV?! Yeah right. Not practical. Don't be fooled by the HGTV. You need a closet.) So RV life has suited our little herd just fine.

There have certainly been unique challenges, like the batteries on the fritz and having to start the whole thing to get adequate power. But now that's sorted out, there's only one lingering problem: the bathroom.

The shower is about the size of the shower we had in our house, and I have yet to experience the small hot water heater shortening a shower, so that's been much better than expected. There's plenty of storage, good counter space, a working sink. So the problem is- yep, you guessed it- the toilet. You see, the toilet is like an airplane toilet, dumping straight into the, um, collection center. So any time you flush, you open the gate to said collection center, and it smells like where death goes to die. It's so awful I could cry just thinking about it. We finally figured out a trick, which is a series of steps to take to avoid the deathness from taking over our entire residence, and it's much better now. But every now and then CJ forgets and flushes on her own without one of the grown-ups doing the trick. Those are easily the worst moments of RV living.  But the togetherness and novelty and simplicity far outweigh the stinky moments. And we genuinely enjoy it!!

It's a fun adventure, a challenge in simple living. The RV belongs to John's parents, and until we have water and electricity on our property, we are parked on the back of their land. That's meant family dinners and dips in the pool that we were longing for when we lived an hour away. Sweet confirmations that we made the right decision moving out into the country closer to family. I think our house will be done after the new year, so until then we will soak up these moments making sweet memories with our family.

Left to right: Dining, couch, dashboard and captains chairs, old school TV, new school TV, toy drawers, door, sink, oven and range, fridge.

Left to right: Fridge, pantry, closet, bedroom, bathroom

Queen size bed has our own mattress on it, bedroom has lots of storage and beautiful outdoor views.

Dining and couch. Couch folds out to almost full sized bed. Perfect for the 4 year old!

CJ's clothes/books/movies, shoe bin, door. 

All the clothes in our closet!! 

Pantry! It's super deep, tons of storage space!

I love this fridge, it's the perfect size! 

Sink has chopping boards that extend the counterspace. And hide the dirty dishes.

These patterns and textures make it feel like home for me.

Tons of bathroom storage!

I never want to forget these tiny feet always finding their way to me!