The decision & the renovation

In the fall of 2018 we had to decide whether to extend our lease in our current house or buy a trailer and move onto the property with the rest of the family.

We were living in a cute little two bedroom, one bath duplex at the time with a small but functional yard and the perfect amount of space for the two of us and our little man. The rental had truly become home over the two years we spent there. It afforded us the opportunity to entertain our family and friends constantly and allowed Fletcher to grow his affinity for gardening and BBQing (it was our first home with a private yard). When we first found the rental, we singed up for a two-year lease. Midway through the lease our family purchased the “hundred acre dream” and a few months later they made the decision to move up to the property (living in trailers without power, running water or a septic system).

In September of 2018 with the end of our lease approaching, we sat down and discussed whether we wanted to extend our lease or move up to the property and add another home-on-wheels to the family trailer park. The biggest worry, besides the obvious concern of going from a two bedroom home to a 200 sq. ft trailer, was that we would be moving up in the middle of winter. We finally realized that, like most things in life, there is never a “perfect” time. With that realization, the decision was easy… it was time to go shopping for a trailer!

What we knew when shopping was that we needed two “bedrooms” with room for a crib as we were planning on having another baby and knew we’d be in a trailer for much longer than we wanted to wait to get pregnant again. We also weren’t exactly rolling in extra funds so we had a pretty tight budget. We settled on a nicely laid-out Jayco travel trailer with an awesome bunk area for the little dude and a small “bedroom” with a queen bed for us. Before going shopping I started scouring Instagram for accounts that showcased full-time trailer life and happened upon several accounts that had completely transformed these dark trailers into beautiful, bright living spaces for their families. I had my mind set on doing the same with our trailer, however, Fletch was not on board with purchasing a brand new trailer and then completely overhauling the design of said trailer… hard to blame him.

But, we met in the middle. We purchased the trailer in October, sanded down and painted the cabinets in the kitchen and the bunk room during the time it was parked outside our duplex (during which we obtained TWO parking tickets - apparently our neighbors thought people were living in it & were calling the cops), and then moved it up to the property a few weeks before we moved in to it.

Sanding and painting was QUITE the experience. On the first attempt we lightly sanded the cabinets, cleaned and taped off everything, and then painted the white in the bunk room. Mistake #1 - one day later we went to pull off the tape and the paint peeled right off along with the tape 🤦🏽‍♀️. All that work just to go back, sand everything again about three times as much as we did the first time, and then paint once again.

Next was the kitchen area. We decided to paint most everything white with the exception of the “lowers”. For that we had selected a blue. Originally we were thinking teal but upon painting the first coat it was a little too San Jose Sharks superfan-ish so we toned it down to more of a navy for the next coat. Two coats was not enough, so I went back to do coat number three. Mistake #2 - we still had the Sharks teal and I accidentally used that rather than the new navy 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️.

On to coat number FOUR…

Now, with a very thick layer of paint on the lowers, and all of the cabinet doors screwed back on, we were feeling completely done with “renovating” this new trailer. That was when I realized we had made Mistake #3 - we didn’t sand and paint the “closet” cabinets in the bedroom. I mentioned this to Fletch and he responded with a calm, yet finite… “NO.”

So now that the trailer was ready for us to move in, and was parked where we planned to set up our home, we needed to purchase vehicles that would survive the terrain up on the property. Keep in mind, at this point it was November and “winter is coming” (shout out any Game of Thrones fans!). At the time we had a two-wheel drive 2001 Highlander and a Chevy Volt… not ideal for dirt roads with steep inclines. Thankfully black Friday lasts more than one day these days so we were able to get some decent deals on Fletcher’s new Tundra and my leased Subaru. Still… it’s amazing how quickly your net worth can go from positive to severely negative! Word to the wise - I wouldn’t suggest purchasing a trailer and two cars within 6 weeks of one-another. You get reminded of that poor timing annually when your registration is renewed at the same time as well 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️.

By this time it was midway through November and our decision was very quickly becoming our reality. Our son was blissfully unaware of what was happening around him and thoroughly enjoying playing with every single thing we owned, laid out all over the house. My favorite moment was him “cooking” his bunny grahams in our big non-stick pan in the middle of the living room.

We were ready to slim down our possessions, move away from our suburban life and settle down in our tiny home on the hundred acre dream! All that was left to do was have one gigantic garage sale, load up a storage unit, and dive in to trailer life. How hard could it be… right?