A First Look At Our RV Renovation Project

On May 27, 2017, I got my first look at our rv renovation project.
My first impressions were that it was bigger than it looks in the photos dad had sent me and that it was in rougher shape than I thought.  It was going to need a lot of work and I didn’t realize just how much until later on in the project.  The water damage was extensive and I didn’t realize just how bad it really was at the time.  But for $600, it made a great starting point.

I also realized at that time that my dad’s ideas and my ideas were worlds apart on what to do.  He thought I could just patch it up and make it work for a temporary home, but that just isn’t how I approach things nor what I had in mind.  I don’t like doing things twice, so I prefer to do them right the first time.  I had no desire to live in that thing unless it was fixed properly either.  Doing what I call a “hack” job on it would only mean that I would be fixing problems with it in the near future.

I was committed to fixing it properly, which ultimately led to gutting the whole thing, which I was initially trying to avoid.  I was wanting to just fix the water damaged areas until I realized it was all water damaged, some places worse than others.  The roof was going to have to be completely replaced.  It had collapsed in where the AC was at and the previous owner had make a sort of exoskeleton out of lumber that held the roof up around the AC.  The plastic lids on all of the vents were cracked, which was one of the reasons for the plastic sheeting on it.

The dinette was missing.  What you see in the photos was all there was left of it.  The AC didn’t work, there wasn’t a refrigerator, and so on.  It was definitely going to take a lot of work, but I was ready to get started and make it into a home that will hopefully last us for many years.