People Called Us Crazy and We Just Might Be…
About 12 months ago, I dramatically turned to my husband and said, “Have you ever wanted to talk to me about something, but have been too nervous to?” He rolled his eyes at me and asked what I wanted to talk to him about, thinking it was just something silly I wanted to bring up. “What if we sold everything, house included, and just traveled the country in an RV full-time?” I thought he would laugh off my suggestion and tell me that there was no way, but he surprised me by asking questions and thinking about the possibility. Since it wasn’t a NO right away, I knew that my dreams of full-time traveling with my family could actually be a reality.
But Now What?
Obviously, we had never traveled full-time before or lived in an RV (or even camped in an RV at all, for that matter), so we quickly jumped into research mode and our to-do lists became miles long.
Our first step was to figure out what kind of RV we wanted. We hadn’t ever even been camping in an RV so the RV world and terms were like a foreign language for us. We had to learn the differences between classes of RVs, what each RV came with, and what we could safely tow with our small truck (we had just bought my husband a RAM 1500, and the truck market was crazy so there was no way we were going to upgrade to just get started).
Looking at all the different RVs online was a lot of fun, but also very overwhelming. We spent hours each night deep diving into what we thought we would want in our traveling home. After some research, we found that we could safely tow right under 10,000 lbs which would limit our options significantly. After much frustration, we decided to just go to a local RV dealer so we could check out floor plans in person to get an idea of what we would want.
We stopped in at the RV dealer and told the dealer that greeted us that we weren’t interested in purchasing an RV that day and that we just wanted to take a look at floorplans. He was more than happy to show us units that would fit our weight restrictions. We looked at several that we weren’t fans of and we felt defeated. Our salesman said that a new RV had just pulled into the lot that day that we could possibly look at. We agreed and went to check it out. Once we walked in, I knew that this would be our starting rig.
Things We Love About It
Before looking at RVs we had our “must have” lists and our “would be nice” lists.
Our “must have” list included:
- Under 10,000 lbs
- A dinette for family dinners, homeschooling, and games
- A separate room for the kids to have their own space.
Our “would be nice” list included:
- Second bathroom
- King bed in the master
- Big, front window in master
- Large, picturesque windows
- Fireplace
- Outdoor kitchen with griddle
When we walked through this RV, it had ALL of it! I couldn’t believe it! Contrary to what I had told the dealer when we walked in, we walked out with our future traveling home.
Time to Sell Our House
After we bought our RV, we set a goal to be on the road in just under three months. That goal was just after the beginning of January and would be a perfect start to a new year. We decided to finish our home renovations to get top dollar when we sold our house. At the same time, we had to downsize from our 2,000 sqft house to our new 200 sqft RV. We had a more difficult time with both than anticipated.
While renovating our house, it seemed like everything we did had to be done again in some way because of some crazy reason. It became very mentally exhausting very quickly. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t in tears nearly everyday. I had to remind myself often that it would be worth it all and that the chaos wouldn’t last forever. Our goal date came and went, which made it all the more difficult. But little by little, we made progress that lasted and rooms got checked off and done. Even more slowly, we started to downsize. We had garage sales, listed things on marketplace, had family shop our stuff, made dozens of trips to Goodwill and threw so much stuff we didn’t need away.
Time to List the House
Finally the day came when the last of the renovations were done, the downsizing was finished, and we had cleaned every last inch of the house. It was so surreal walking through a bare house where we had created so many memories. Finally putting the “For Sale” sign in the yard on March 17 was bittersweet. I had looked forward to that moment for months after so much literal blood, sweat and tears had gone into it. But my heart was still so full of gratitude for the memories and safety it was for us for 6 years. That weekend we had many offers and many compliments on the work we had done. Finally, we were under contract. Thankfully, most of the closing process went smoothly after such a difficult time to that point.
The End and Also the Beginning
On April 18, we finally left in our new home and became a full-time travel family. The amount of relief and excitement was unreal. Every day since, we are filled with gratitude and wonder at all the things we’ve been able to do in such a short amount of time. We’ve had such good quality time together, made lasting memories, and learn new things daily and will continue to do so for as long as we are called to be on this journey. We hope you follow along with us on our full-time travel adventures!
