We’ve gotten a LOT accomplished the past couple of days! I’m super proud of us! 
Allen got the patio steps mounted up underneath the camper. So now we don’t have to strap them down every time we travel and take them back out again when we park, one less hassle to deal with and make moving quicker. He used some scrap pieces of unistrut he got from work. I guess they use this stuff on towers to hold cable and coax and wires and what not. This was mounted with some all-thread bolts (maybe it’s just called all-thread) and double nutted (that’s so the nut doesn’t loosen itself- the second one acts as a locking nut… I just learned this when we mounted the toolbox in the big cubby!). You can’t really tell what’s under there when you look at it so I think that’s good! We got some weather stripping from Lowe’s to cushion the steps so they don’t get all scratched, and just tightened it up there so it won’t move when we drive. Allen hung on it like a monkey trying to yank it off, it’s stable. We wanted to mount our 6ft ladder too but haven’t quite figured out a plan for that puppy just yet.

 

 

 

 

If you want to read about how we added the vinyl letters on the back, you can do that here.

We picked up an over-the-door rack for the pantry at Lowe’s also that I put up yesterday to combat this mess…

 

I’m loving this new rack!

 It makes getting to things so much easier! Now I just need to find something to cover the frosted glass bc you can see all my spices and I think it looks a little tacky…

 

 

A few people suggested contact paper and then I found out they make chalkboard contact paper that you can write on and erase! So I think I’m going to go with that option. I still have a couple pieces of the rack left and a few baskets, we just haven’t found a place to put them just yet.

We are quickly approaching our one year anniversary mark of having this camper so we’ve been going over it with a fine tooth comb, making sure everything is good before the manufacturers warranty is up. (Here is a tour of our Home on Wheels, if you’re interested…) Anyway, last weekend we noticed the back end of the camper, on each corner, had cracks in the plastic trim.

 

Also, the weather stripping has been coming out from the door jamb.

 And our mattress is like Death Valley, with a huge dip in the middle! Allen can’t get away from me if he tries, we both just roll toward the middle!

 

So I sent I all these things to Grand Design, Ray specifically. We just got the new plastic trim today. And ALL this weather stripping!

He told me I could probably just push the weather stripping back in the door jamb with a putty knife, which I did, and that he would send me a few feet of it just in case it ripped… Yowzers! I’d say that’s more than a few feet! But I’m sure I’ll find something to do with it! The mattress people just called and asked what address they should send a check to, so that’ll help a little toward getting a new one. (For some reason she said it wouldn’t let her send it to the campground so it’s going to our South Dakota address. If you want to know how and why we have that you can read this and this.)Mattresses are EXPENSIVE! I never realized they cost so much, I guess I’ve always gotten hand-me-downs…

We took out an extended warranty when we bought the camper called RV Warranty Forever. Once a year we need to have this maintenance inspection completed and submit proof of it to keep it valid. So yesterday I called around to get some prices. We had to have:

• Furnace inspected
• Hot Water Heater inspected
• Roof inspected
• Axle and hub lubed

First I called McClain’s RV here in Oklahoma City, mostly to get an idea of what to expect from a mobile tech. They said $500-$600 and said it would take a couple of DAYS in the shop! Mind you, there’s nothing wrong, it’s still new, we just need proof that it was inspected. I thought that was a little high and thought a couple of days was outrageous! So I called Palm Beach RV, where we bought the thing, to see what they charge. My thinking was that Palm Beach, FL is a lot more expensive of an area than Oklahoma City so I thought it would be higher. $290 and a couple hours. Bottom line: McClain’s is a rip off. After I heard that, I went ahead and gave Price Mobile RV a call. They were recommended by our neighbors here and also Karen and Bob, the campground owners here at Abe’s RV Park.  I figured $290 plus maybe $100 for the service fee… So anything less than $400 was a “go”. They charged $365. It took an hour with 2 guys. And they also checked and cleaned all 3 ACs. And they came to us. I still thought it was a bit high for only taking an hour, but we got it done!

My point: McClain’s is a rip off. And, always call around to price check!