RV Industry taking a hit

It is November 1 which puts us five months away from putting our house on the market. Our target date is still April 1, 2009.

We have been on our RV journey since August 2007. That has been 15 months. So what has changed? Do we still feel the same about things? Are we sure we want to go through with this? What about the gas prices? The economy?

Speaking of the economy, RV News is reporting the RV industry has taken some major hits: Look at Fleetwood, Winnebago and Monaco.

You may recall we were looking at getting a Holiday Rambler which is made by Monaco. They have closed three plants and moved most of their operations to Oregon. Both Fleetwood and Winnebago have made major moves as well.

We are looking at things a little differently although we are still committed to doing this.

Our choice is the Tiffin diesel Phaeton model. They are family owned and Bob Tiffin has indicated he is going to ride out the current crisis. He has slowed down also, but still putting out four coaches a week. He will not build one unless it is sold. Hopefully things will work out and he will still be in good shape in the spring.

Another thing we are thinking about is our shrinking 401k and 403k plans. Although our high income producing years will end next year, we are still 'in it for the long haul'. We won't be drawing on them for another 12-15 years probably.

Gas prices will continue to fluctuate so the higher they go up, the less likely we would to be traveling.

We are probably going to be workamping and staying at a National Park or Bureau of Land Management site for two - three months. We also are interested in building projects like Habitat for Humanity and NOMADS. More on that another time.

Until then, take care and drop us a note or comment sometime.

Another step to fulltiming -- fixing up the garage before we sell the house

We still intend to put our house on the market next April. In order to get ready, we are systematically taking on different projects. The garage has needed a lot of work and something we wanted to turn into an asset instead of an eyesore.

Our efforts began by painting the walls and ceiling and then we concentrated on the floor.

Mike (my brother-in-law) and Jeremy(Mike's son-in-law) were a huge help this last week. They drove up from Tennessee with their wives and kids/grand kids.

You can tell it is break time: Mike and Joan taking a breather and Noah is inspecting things.
Ed (our dog) is doing what he does best... and is at his full speed :)

Surprisingly, the work went pretty quickly after we got into a rhythm. Jeremy is working on the wall near the front door.


We started on the walls in one corner, got the ceiling painted and then worked on the floor. After Jeremy finished the walls, he put two coats of epoxy on the floor.






It turned out well and we are that much closer to getting our house ready to sell in the Spring (2009).
We have more work to do and will keep you posted!