Thursday, April 18, 2013

Transitioning





As of this morning, Denny and I have been homeowners for ten days.  To say it's been hectic would certainly be a bit of an understatement.

There have been moments where you grin ruefully, (and this will be TMI for some folks) like when you finish using the toilet and reach out with your foot to hit the flush pedal.  Every darn time for three solid days.  Or when I transferred the food from our four door RV refrigerator to our side by side refrigerator in the house only to find I was out of room for the food I had.  The RV refrigerator is larger.  Same with our RV kitchen cabinets and pantry; what was comfortably stored in our rig now is split between the kitchen and the storage cupboard in the garage of the house.  Wow.  Now I have to admit I don't have everything stacked on top of each other in the cupboards of the house as I did in the RV, so there will have to be some reshuffling and rearranging now that we're getting settled in and that should help but it does tickle me to realize that more space isn't necessarily more storage.  As our RVing friends Don and Vicki, who have also moved into The Villages, are finding out as well.

We've pretty much emptied out The Beast.  A final cleaning and he'll be ready for when his new owners come down to look at him next month.  It is bittersweet to see The Beast empty of those things that made it ours, but I foresee a lot of new adventures for him down the road.

As you can see from the photo above, we're still awaiting furniture.  The leather couch is on loan from the furniture company until our living room furniture is built and delivered.  The house is a bit "echo-y" at the moment due to all the empty space around us, but within a few more weeks the place will look more like a home.  On a minimalist RVer style, of course, with few knick-knacks and gewgaws.

Certainly the transition is expensive.  All an RVer brings to a house is linens, kitchenware, tools and clothing.  The list of things one needs is huge, from furniture for several rooms to bedding for an extra bedroom to multiple trash cans--stuff RVers normally don't worry about because one of everything is more than sufficient.  The more big box stores Denny and I walk into, the more things we see that "we could use."  I'm already working on reining that in for a few months.

Soon the two of us will have to start looking for a car and a golf cart and already my tree hugging self is fighting with my logical self.  The tree hugger wants an ecologically correct electric cart while 80% of the people here have a gasoline powered cart due to the size of The Villages. I'm told that many electric golf carts can be found stranded daily on the cart paths which line the city while stranded gas powered carts are rare.  So I waffle, because at this stage of simply trying to pull the house together I have no clue how much running around I'll do in The Villages attending classes, playing golf (someday), shopping and just joy-riding.  Here in The Villages your golf cart is your primary vehicle and your car is your secondary vehicle.  It is indeed an unusual lifestyle.

That's a glimpse of why posting is still sparse.  This makes post 1993--seven more and I think the RV Vagabonds blog will end as such.  Perhaps the next blog can be Not RV Vagabonds?

5 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

No doubt, it's a major transition. Hopefully, all will be well soon. Does a gas-powered cart really consume all that much gas or pollute very much? Just asking.

maddyrose said...

If I could start over furnishing my home I would take my time and not worry about setting it up all at once. It doesn't take long before you start wishing you had fewer things or more room for what you have.
I had the same question concerning the gas powered cart.
Enjoy getting settled into your new home.

OmaLindasOldeBaggsandStuftShirts said...

Savor every moment of this new adventure. Even the new use of your foot after using the facilities, tee hee. I wish you nothing but happiness and laughter in this new perspective on life.
I'd go with the gas one but then I'm like that. Oma Linda

Arkansas Patti said...

So this is what happened to you? For some reason you disappeared off my reading list and I missed you. I didn't know you all had thrown out anchor.
I will read back posts to see what has happened and see if I can get you to show up on the list again.
I agree in wanting to lower your footprint but being stranded doesn't sound like much fun either. Do they make a hybrid golf cart. If not, it looks like there might be a market for one.

Commonground said...

We discovered your blog while we were searching to buy our very first RV. We ended up with a Motorhome (40 ft) and our first winter was spend in Florida as a "snow bird". It is sad for me to see you end your blog. I thank you for the time it took to post. Best wishes in your next adventure.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...