May 31st, 2026 – Moved my RV from the nearby Raspberry Loop RV park to my daughters house!
I have parked the RV in the side yard and began to slowly move my stuff from the RV into the house. My daughters SO Scott wasn’t much on staying persistent with home repairs and improvements so there are a lot of nagging issues that invigorate my ‘fix-it’ nature. But first, before those stories, a few pictures of my new digs…
Parked the RV in the side yard, already have had 2 quotes on installing an RV pad…$8900 & $12,500. I’m not sure I want to put in something permanent like that though.
Home was built in 1962 and it’s in fairly good condition but as usual there has been deferred maintenance I’ll need to catch up on. But it’s June now so plenty of time before winter to work on things.
If I stand in the street, looking due west, this is the neighborhood. These homes were built back during the era of generous lot sizes. I don’t feel crowded in the least here. But as an RV’er I’m used to that, ha!
And looking east. Note that damned power pole right in the way of what could have been a nice driveway for RV parking. As it is, I have to roll up at an odd angle to get the RV into the side yard.
From the carport into the patio. I’m happy the previous owners put a roof over this section. Spend quite a bit of time in there lounging between projects.
Oh, I didn’t mention the creek that passes the entire eastern property edge. It’s a very old irrigation creek that’s still managed by the water company. Which means that some days its full of water (around 1 to 1.5 feet deep) that you can hear trickling and gurgling and other days it’s dry. Because it’s managed, no worries about flooding. When they shut off the water, of course the mosquitoes show up. But not bad so far after they turned it off yesterday. I just expect it eventually. Hasn’t happened yet. There are some blackberry bushes on our side of the creek next to the RV that I trimmed back and there’s a walkway between the bushes and the RV. Looking forward to fresh blackberries soon for breakfast.
Believe it or not, daughter used to take care of the back yard. When they moved in, it was grass. She didn’t like caring for that big of a grass yard so she had the sod ripped out and put down ground cover, then a layer of gravel. And it’s gone wild in spite of that. Those weeds are the type that end up in your socks. Pointy things. Annoying. Trying to figure out what to do about it.
Kitchen has lots of cupboards but it’s a poor design. Nowhere to put in a dishwasher without loosing a bunch of storage space. Daughter is opposed to losing any and I’m for installing a dishwasher next to the sink.
One of the first projects I took on were these vertical window blinds. When I moved in, they opened and bunched up on the left. I took them down, reworked the assembly so they now open to the right. This makes it more comfortable to watch TV when the sun is setting right out that window as it casts some shade on the TV. Daughter likes lots of light, but I need shade for the TV. We’ve reached a compromise where I leave the shades wide open until 2 pm, then close them half way and turn them so they are partially open until the sun is too bright, then close them all the way.
When the house was built, apparently they put the new guy on that window install because he put the 4″ sill on the outside of the house and the normal 1.5″ outside sill on the inside. All the other windows in the house were put in correctly. Because of the limited space between the blinds and the glass when open 90 degrees, those vertical blinds won’t open fully. Maybe get 30 degrees. Grrr. So I’m going to remove the inside lower sill and upper board and replace them with 4″ boards. Being able to open the blinds the full 90 degrees as they are meant too will make it more comfortable for both of us when controlling the amount of sun coming in during the afternoon. Meanwhile, we’re using the work around of pulling them into the middle of the window with the angle at 30 degrees until closing them all the way and setting the blinds at 0 dgrees is needed as the sun sets.
Liquor cabinet and her collection of antique cameras. She’s big on Polaroid instant cameras.
Laundry room. Needs work. Washer and dryer are unfortunately plumbed in swapped from normal so the doors to the machines open inconveniently. Washer should be on the left and dryer on the right. Big job but with plastic plumbing available, shouldn’t take long to re-plumb and rewire things. Easy enough to cut out that sheet rock for access and then cover it up.
This is my room for the time being. I’m going to put my computer and electronics shop in here soon and leave the bed/dresser. Right now the computer room is the spare bedroom. The house has three generous bedrooms. But the 2 bathrooms are poorly designed. Not sure what to do about those yet.
Computer room/office/possible shop.
I am enjoying working on things, and I can feel the muscles I haven’t needed to exercise for years getting toned.
Previous owner, Scott, moved out the day before I moved in but he was a cool guy. Would have been okay for a while if he’d stayed but really, it was better he left. Started the process of buying the house…worked with my Credit Union for the loan and we’re supposed to close today, June 26th, 2026. It’s a 30 year loan at 5%…I’d asked for a 10 year loan initially and stuck with that throughout the process and thought they were working on that spec. I have a vague idea why they came up with a 30 year loan, they said that was the only way to get the type of loan I was getting at that %. I had checked around and found that 5% wasn’t bad (not as good as the original loan at 3.9% but the lender wouldn’t allow an assumption) and often showed a lower interest for 10 year loans but then I thought about it and the wisdom of getting a 30 year instead of a 10 year made sense. If I pass away unexpectedly, my daughter may just be able to afford the mortgage payment on her low income, or it’ll give her some time, in Oregon 3 to 4 months, to sell the place before it goes into foreclosure. I am planning on making excess payments, double in fact, to get it paid off in my 10-15 year timeline. Daughter will be contributing to those excess payments.
So that’s where we stand at the moment. Moved into a house, started repairs and remodels, slowly emptying my RV and planning for a future with little to no RV traveling. But than again, I will miss spending months in Mexico. Maybe I’ll buy a camper van?
Thanks for reading!