Motor home Remodel ~ Part 1

Have you been wondering what we are doing?  Well after a lot of talking, drawing and what have you we had a plan to do a little remodeling in our rig.  We rarely sit at our dinette - it is usually used to hold things.  We had baskets on the bench, stuff stacked under the table and even a 3 drawer cabinet sitting on one of the benches. 

So the plan was to take out the table and the two benches and put in a desk with a file cabinet giving us more counter top space (oh yes, the convection oven was sitting on top of the table).  Found the desk and two file cabinets.  Demolition day was set for Wednesday, June 27th!!

And this is what we found:

This is the dinette area with the table & benches cleaned off and a glimpse of stuff underneath.

Any idea what this is?  Found under the table in the back corner?  Answer to be revealed at end of post :)

Dinette area without the table

And the cushions are gone!

And what do we find?  Electrical box for power to the front of the motor home and the built in vacuum cleaner.  Umm, now what??????

And under the other bench ~ the wheel well, furnace ducting and more electric outlets.  Ummm, now what???

So now to plan B...

We talked about cutting down the benches giving more room for walking in the rig.  But wait we need the back of the bench by the door ~ it has electric outlet in it, holds the banister for climbing into the motor home, holds the magazine rack.  Oh, and we use it to balance when stepping out of the rig.   And then it was time to go work ~~ all the above happened before 8:00 a.m. :)

So we talked some more, discussed Plan C and came up with getting a cabinet for across the benches, giving us a little storage under the center cabinet.  And so off to Walmart we went.  Bought a cabinet and a file cabinet with two wood drawers.  In the boxes they looked the same color.  Also bought new curtains for the kitchen window and the window behind where the dinette was.  I went back to work leaving Ron to do some demolishing and building.

And this is what I came to after work:

Cabinet in place.  Lighter color cherry wood.  File cabinet is dark cherry wood ~ uh oh, clashes together.  But I got the curtains up:)  Just have to hem them as they are about 6" too long.

Now to plan D,

So we bought two 3 tier cabinets for each side of the cabinet.  And voila ~~~ here we go:

Inside cabinet: center section with my cookbooks!!!! And food storage on either side.

Right corner.  I put contact paper on the benches :) 

Corner with wine cabinet (behind the mirrored door) and my new pigs that hubby bought me the other day.  See the pig picture that I cross-stitched for in our sticks & bricks house.

Another view of right corner.  Not sure if going to leave tray with cactus plant or just put plant directly on the cabinet top.  Ideas???  The lady pig in the top corner is one I bought in 2003 when I went to Georgia to spend time with my longest friend ever, Merel.  She has traveled many miles. 

Stuff under the middle of the cabinet.  Will be buying a couple of baskets to slide under there instead of having stuff just tucked under there that can roll around when we are on the move.

Center & Left of cabinet.  Convection oven on top left.

Left side of cabinet.  Spices are now in top drawer of 3 tier shelf and away from the stove top.

A front view of the remodel.  The board to the right of the picture will be cut out once we get a saw to do that. 

Continuing with other remodeling this weekend: new curtains in the living room, covering the box that hubby built above the driver/passenger seats.  Once that's all done, will post another blog post with pictures.

Whatcha think?  Any suggestions for the top of the wood cabinet?  Not sure I like the tray with the plant, pig, frog...do I leave the tray or take it away and just put those items directly on the cabinet top???

A Day in the Life of a Full-time RVing Campground Manager

A day in the life of a full-time RV'ing Campground Manager.

What can I say, each day is different from the day before and the one that will happen tomorrow.  I want to just give you a glimpse into our life as we are the campground managers at Branson View Campground, Branson, MO.

The Office at Branson View Campground

 Our campground is small, 41 full hook-up sites w/cable, electric, water & sewer and occasionally wif-fi when I can get it to stay on.

Hubby is the Outside Manager and I am the Office Manager.  Other titles for us include: Bathroom Cleaner, Maid (for the cabin), Garbage Picker-upper, Pool Maintenance Guy, Errand Runner, Greeter and Potluck Coordinator.  I am sure there are other names but can't think of them right now.

My typical day begins around 8:30 in the morning in the office.  I have to do the daily reports, count the till, answer the phone, reply to email, post a morning greeting on Facebook ~ oops, forgot to do that this morning, will do it when I am done with this post :), put outgoing mail in the box and then later in the day collect the mail that was delivered, clean the bathrooms ~ there are two on the lower level and two at the upper level by the group picnic area, sweep the office ~ there are so many bugs here in Branson ~ sometimes I wonder where do they all come from.  I also clean the laundry room, dust the shelves in the store, keep the store fridge stocked with cold pop, bottled water and Gatorade.  We have candy bars, cookies and ice cream bars for sell as well along with the typical RV supplies that campers need to pick up occasionally.  Oh and give out the keys to the bathrooms.

A note about cleaning the bathrooms ~ I have to wonder how grown men can pee on top of the urinal which is 4' from the floor?  So far no one has been able to give me an answer that makes any sense.  Also, after cleaning the bathroom after Memorial Day weekend I did wonder if people are as dirty/messy at home as they are here when using a public bathroom.  Toilet paper laying on the floor...ummm  let me see, if you drop the paper on the floor don't you think you should pick it up?

We enjoy being campground managers 99% of the time but there are those times we do wonder what did we get ourselves mixed up with?  Like having to show someone how to start the dryer..umm the button that says START - push it :)   That one made me laugh.  Hubby did not think it was too funny because he couldn't figure out how to start the dryer either :)::))

We enjoy swimming in the evenings and visiting with guests when they check-in or while we are out working in the campground or visiting at one of our Potlucks. 

Our beautiful and clean swimming pool :)

We were so blessed in May to host the Amber Waves Band (the Costello family) and they blessed us back with holding a free concert for us here in the park.  You can check it out at here.  

What a feast!

Eating and listening to the some great music!

Not the best picture, the Costello family singing and playing!

We had a ton of fun and are looking forward to our next Potluck which is going to be a BBQ Potluck.  If you are here we would love to have you join us on June 17th at 5:00 p.m.  Bring your own meat and a side dish to share.  Give us a call to make reservations for your stay here.

Some of the things hubby has on his daily list is to clean & service the swimming pool each day.  We are loving having this amenity to use every day!!  He also does a garbage run, cleans the sites of people coming into the park and the lawn mowing & weed eating.  One of the projects we have done here at Branson View Campground is to clean out and open the Activity Room for guests.  They now have a place to come and read, watch TV, use the internet and soon will be playing games here.

We usually take a lunch break about 1:00 for an hour and then back to work till 5 or 6 depending on the day.  But alas our work is really never done since we live in the park.  We have greeted guests after hours, assisted someone who ran out of gas and coasted into our park ~ they were talking really loud and woke us up at 2:00 a.m. and hubby went out to see what all the commotion was about.  Made me wonder don't people usually try to be quiet when they are outside in the early morning hours at a campground ~ guess not :)

Oh, one of our other wonderful benefits here at Branson View Campground is the huge ice maker in the back room :)  We sell bagged ice for $1.50 a bag but we get all the free ice we want.  Let me tell you it sure comes in handy after a long day  and strawberry margaritas are calling your name.

Hope you enjoyed a peak into a day in the life of Campground Managers.