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Mountain Man Mondays; Remodeling an RV

Mountain Man and I, well, we’re a little strange. Maybe it’s living with so many animals or maybe it’s just the way we are. Anyway, we march to the beat of our own drummer and at times, we can definitely seem odd to others. Just how odd may become more apparent to you after reading this post.

A couple of years ago, Mountain Man and I had the desire to explore other parts of the country. We were searching for a place to live where the weather is not so harsh nor are the property taxes so extreme. A place to spend our retirement years without having to worry about whether or not we we will be able to hold on to our farm from year to year. We know such places exist and our mission became to find them. But, unlike most people who own a dog or two or perhaps even three, we have seven and when we travel, they all come with us.

In order to accommodate our large family, we purchased an RV where we could all ride together. We found a beautiful one, complete with a luxurious interior and upscale amenities, much, much nicer than our home. Ah, the fact that it was bargained priced and the beauty of it swept us away but we were soon to discover it wasn’t very practical for a family of 9.

It was great being together in the big old bus headed down the road. The dogs loved it and became seasoned travelers. That is, until it was time to stop and then they all wanted to pile out of the only door at the same time. Chaos ensued as 7 anxious canines tried to knock down each other, Mountain Man and me to be the first one down the steep steps.

Mountain Man and I tried different methods of controlling them but no matter what we tried, we just couldn’t find a system that worked. And, after we had two very close calls of losing dogs at rest stops on the interstate, we both vowed we would never, ever go anywhere again.

Ah, but time has passed and our property tax bill is still rising (we’ve passed five figures now) and at the same time, our income is still decreasing so we have decided once again to hit the road in search of a less expensive place to live.

We knew our RV wasn’t practical for us so we tried to sell it, but in this economy there were no buyers. Then, we decided we’d trade it for something that worked better for us. We looked at modestly priced RVs and trailers thinking the equity in ours would cover the cost of the trade. We visited RV dealer after RV dealer but none of them were willing to work with us. The final blow came this weekend when we found an RV that cost substantially less than ours and the dealer told us we would still owe a ton of money even with our trade.

But, the ever resourceful Mountain Man was not to be deterred. He has come up with a plan to make our RV work for us and on Sunday, he set about remodeling it to be dog friendly.

His vision is to remove the lounge chair and the sofa giving us more floor space up front. Then, where the couch used to be, he is going to build an area for dog crates for three of our dogs. On top the crates, he is going to build a platform which he will turn into a couch for the dogs so they can see out the windows while we are traveling down the road. The platform will be anchored to the existing structure and have a guard railing as well so there will be no danger of movement while we are driving.

In the place where the chair used to rest, there will be another built in dog kennel. And, finally, at the back of our RV, he is going to put in a dog gate. When he is done with the renovations, we will have the ability to separate and contain all of the dogs so when we stop, they will not be in any danger of bolting out of the RV.

Now, I know some of you are going to wonder how we could demolish the interior of such a beautiful RV but the truth is the dogs and their safety and well being are the more important to us than well appointed interior amenities.

And, look for us to be out on the road in the near future. We’ll be the RV with seven dogs towing a horse trailer behind us.

Lilly used to enjoy riding in the chair.
Now, the chair has been removed providing additional space for a dog crate.

An interior shot of the RV, complete with couch and chair.
Mountain Man works on removing the couch.
It is bolted down to the floor and doesn’t want to remove easily.
Ah, but never fear. This is Mountain Man after all and he can do anything.


Finally, it’s moving!
The couch removed.

Mountain Man works on removing the final bolts in order to have a flat surface on which to build the kennel inserts.

The empty space where the couch used to rest and soon to be filled with built in kennels.

Stay tuned as the RV remodel progresses!