Motorhome 101 Part II

                        A couple of weeks ago I presented to you Motorhome 101, a primer for a look into how we live in and work on our 40’ Winnebago Forza and I promised a second installment in this series about actually living inside of this house on wheels.

                                    As promised, presented here, for your collective enjoyment and because, (as the National Enquirer so simply put it) “Inquiring Minds Want To Know!”

                                    The facts: at least the ones that come to mind….

                        Downsizing. This was a real issue as we do not have a condo or apartment or anything else like that to keep “stuff”. We do have a small metal shed at our pad in Texas next to the corral. In it we have some random items like paint, umbrellas, car ramps, bicycles, and just the odd item that is not needed inside the motorhome. That’s it. The only other place we have anything is in the trailer that I bought in the beginning to hold my Library (books, artifacts, furniture, etc.) for when the day comes that you don’t want a couple of old withered senior citizens wheeling around a 28,000-pound behemoth of a vehicle running over peeps in the Walmart parking lot. This trailer is parked in Colorado at my daughter’s place as the humidity there is in the negative numbers 😊(or so it seems!) which is wonderful for books!

                                    Deciding what to bring along with us was actually made easier by the fact that practically nothing else will fit except the bare essentials!

                                    When you have an initial X amount of internal cubic feet of space and obviously some of that will be used by things like seating, bed, bathrooms, kitchen counters, washer and dryer, etc. you quickly find out that your CFOSFUBFS (pronounced see-fos-foo-boofs) or Cubic Feet Of Storage For Unnecessary But Fun Stuff is nowhere near what you were hoping that it would be! This leads to the wailing and gnashing of teeth as you try and separate the items (that you had hoped to bring along!) into yet more piles of decisions.

            This process requires certain negotiating skills usually reserved for the AFL-CIO and Solomon. Deal-Breakers soon become obvious and how you make sure that you obtain the Allotted Space For Your Favorite Items, ASFYFI (pronounced as-fife-ee) will determine how happy you will be for the rest of your life.

                                    Paula’s Non-Negotiable Arena included practically everything that was contained in her kitchen in the house, including the kitchen sink! (which fortunately, the motor home was equipped with already!) Luckily, we found a model that exemplifies the Utilization of Confined Spaces, and we were able to bring every item from the kitchen that she wanted! Except the dishwasher, and for that I was re-commissioned Director of Post-Culinary Suds Implementation. Luckily for me I was brought up in the restaurant industry and I possess a Ph.D. in this area. Paula used every available cubic inch of storage in the kitchen area to the point where we can have even the largest pots, pans, mixers, crock pots, and the like along with us. NASA has been studying her techniques for better practices aboard the International Space Station.

Happy chefs make exquisite meals!

            For me, it was a little more difficult.

            My aforementioned Library is something that transcends what would be considered a normal relationship with a defined space. So, in order to “negotiate” what I wanted to bring along, I proposed that we gut the motor home, re-do the interior with nice oak shelves, a tongue and groove wooden floor complete with an oriental rug and furniture. It would have been very comfortable!

                                    What I got was one (1) book affixed to the wall and eventually I found some here-to-for unknown space that the engineers missed, and I converted that into a few shelves!

                                    I was a little more successful when it came to bringing along my tools. I had an incredible workshop contained in the garage. It was full bay and a half of (it’s a guy thing) equipment that was organized to the hilt, and I could produce or repair just about anything out of it. Now, carrying tools along with us is quite essential and there are some regular maintenance items that I take care of, but there is always something else that needs fixing. Just like a home where a door gets sticky, a window jams, trim needs painting, (the list is as long as any terrestrial home, but ours moves constantly making these tweaks needed more frequently) all of these types of items need to be dealt with more sooner than later as they really get bad as we bump along the roadways.

                        This is where the basement comes in.

                        Yes, we do have a basement and that is exactly what it is called in the vernacular of the RV industry. And this is where what type of unit you have, Class A, B, C, (Diesel or Gas), 5th Wheel, or pull-along makes a difference because only a Class A Diesel Pusher has the room for a large area underneath. They all have storage and some more than others, but by design, the Diesel Pusher Coach has the most. And we use it!

                        On my side of the basement is the Tool Area and that is jam-packed with essentials (at least in my mind they are). Mind you, not all of it is used in the maintenance of the motorhome. Some of the items are used because I seem to find “projects” to do or help with wherever we go and having just the right TBT (testosterone boosting tool) can make all the difference!

                        The final major area of shoehorning came with a need (mine) for a hobby center of sorts. There is a practical side to this space as it is not used exclusively for model building and the like. It is also the Repair Center for anything that breaks in the motor home to random grandkids favorite toy fixed or someone’s priceless Ming Vase that needs repair. This was planned from the beginning in that we knew that we needed a motor home that had “bunk beds” as one of the features. I had seen some articles on how these beds were removed and the space converted into an office (for full-timers that still worked) to our preferred Hobby Center.

                                    I must say that I think that we did an outstanding job in the conversion of this space!

                                    Anyway, we only lost two sleeping berths that were never going to be used anyway! The brochure says that this motorhome sleeps eight.

Eight what?

Gerbils?

Could we squeeze more folks in here?

Sure we could.

Would any of those folks (especially us) be happy?

Absolutely not!

The reality of this scenario would have someone sleeping with their head inches from the paper-thin bathroom door and someone else curled (?) up in what was once the dinette that barely holds the two of us. So, in case you are thinking about an RV-type vehicle, and you have anyone in your family over the age of twelve, you should probably opt for extra tents or just go to a Resort where you have gobs of room!

But for two…… this works just fine!