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Class of 2017


Tumbleweed

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We've been on this forum for a while but just the other day realized that the DW can retire late in 2017 and that winter should be our first winter GONE.

 

We have full-timed before but in a sailboat (for five years - with kids). Just back last month from a shakedown cruise in our '93 DP and we were both relieved to discover that we could survive mechanical problems, plan changes, and being in the same 36-foot "house" together with two dogs and a cat for longer than a 4-day weekend.

 

Now we hope that the real estate market where we live will improve to the point where we can sell the SnB and complete our northern home-base. Our plan is to spend summers up here in WA moving between kids (and grandkids) on the coast and inland, and the DW's hot-dog business (weekends only) that should bring in enough to cover health insurance for both of us for the entire year.

 

We'll have the RV set up for boondocking in the desert (since we both love the desert) but also want to experience more of the SKP co-op parks after spending time at SKP Park Sierra (and really enjoying it) and a very pleasant overnight at the SKP park in Sutherlin, OR.

 

So... with any luck in October, 2017 we'll be able to escape for the second time in our lives.

 

WDR

1993 Foretravel U225 with Pacbrake and 5.9 Cummins with Banks

1999 Jeep Wrangler, 4" lift and 33" tires

Raspberry Pi Coach Computer

Ham Radio

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WDR

 

Welcome to the class of 2017.

 

Being a live-a-board on a sailboat sounds like it was fun. We have owned sailboats in the past but on the east coast.

 

There was an article in a recent Escapees magazine of a couple who would live on a sailboat on the west coast ( and Mexico) during the winter. In the summer they would live on their 5th wheel.

 

We're glad to have you aboard.

 

Dave

Dave

2008 Airstream 34’ Classic Trailer

Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins CTD

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  • 4 weeks later...

Time to blow off the dust around here a bit. We're an awful quiet bunch still.

 

This has been a two steps forward, one step back kind of week.

 

Just 10 days ago, we finally saw a fifth wheel brand that had the construction quality and features we are looking for in a full time trailer. And then last Friday they announced they were closing effective immediately taking a second brand we had on our possible list with them. Oof. I know we'll find our perfect home, but that did take us that one step back for the moment.

 

Meanwhile, we are now 23 months from our target date to put our S&B on the market. To hit that date, we have a lot of work to do. This week I completed a deep sort out and cleaning of our dining room, butler's pantry and kitchen. We have an opportunity to donate to a massive rummage sale for a scholarship program we support every April. It's a win-win-win-win from our perspective, netting us the tax deduction, moving large amounts of stuff out of our house, seeing it go to people who will get good use from it and supporting education. I still have to inventory everything, but the decision making is done. Two very large steps forward.

 

Next week, sort out continues through the rest of the downstairs and our bedroom which are much smaller jobs. How's everyone else doing?

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We are doing well here in Northern Ca. We had a successful trip to Arizona earlier in the month. 24 months for us to go. Our wants/needs list is getting shorter. New trailer tires and a washer/dryer combo is on the short list.

We still plan on taking the two older grand kids to Mt Rushmore this summer.

We have rented the last 6 years so no house to get rid of for us. But we do have tons of stuff to get rid of.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

 

James

2024 GMC 3500HD DRW Denali Diesel

2019 Keystone Avalanche 396BH

USN Retired

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Hello class of 2017!

Been a while since posting.... Been working w/ the numbers and it looks like adding 2 years to working will give us $500 more a month to live on.... Have to really consider it. That will put us in mid 2020 to take off! Plan is to be fulltiming way before that though. Our 5 er is pretty Midwest - winter ready w/ skirting, double pane windows and well insulated, so we want to be in a local campground as soon as we can sell the house. The goal is to bring the expenses way down while we are both still working so we can pile up the dough for a buffer and to get a different rig later on if our old fiver gives out at some point. We are both dreaming of being unshackled by the house and upkeep. We have the upstairs pretty emptied out and continue to purge and sell. planning another garage sale this summer. Getting the house itself ready to sell is a project we have to start tackling. Hard to do when you really want to just be RVing and kayaking and biking and fishing. This coming winter looks to be slated fot that. Maybe put the the house on the market next Spring?

Moving into the 5 er on our own property for the duration of prep will not jive w/ our county so we scrapped that idea.

Anybody think we are nuts????

Patti

"RINGO" 2005 VOLVO 670 D12 465hp/Freedomline Transmission 3.42 w/locker and smart car bed.

By Gregg Shields at RVHAULERS

 

“Penny Lane” 2018 DRV HOUSTON

 

"ABBEY" 2013 smart for-two Passion

 

"Tilly" Irish Wolfhound/lab mix  ( Good Memories)

 

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Our plans include an apartment built into the large shop we own on a double lot near our SnB. The City, after years of issues, finally cut us a small break on the planning. In order to get the apartment built we had to bring the entire shop up to current code and then plat the double lot into one lot. But wait... there's more. The City's rules for platting say that the sidewalks have to be up to code, too. So we have to fix those. And, of course, add water and sewer (no stubs from those exist into the property so we have to dig up the street and the sidewalk to do it). So another $15,000 just to get us to the point where we can start building the apartment!!!

 

Luckily we are both still working (although I am semi-retired).

 

Like everyone else, we're hoping that the economy improves to the point where real estate has recovered but that looks like it's only in the big cities; smaller towns aren't recovering as quickly. Right now a 3br/2ba house in town on a large lake full of bass and walleye (they hold several tournaments each year) that was sold in 1999 for $175,000 is on the market for $184,000 and we don't see anyone looking at it!

 

So we have the SnB to get ready to sell, the apartment to finish, and the RV to have ready. Focus is our watchword. :P

 

WDR

1993 Foretravel U225 with Pacbrake and 5.9 Cummins with Banks

1999 Jeep Wrangler, 4" lift and 33" tires

Raspberry Pi Coach Computer

Ham Radio

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Patti:

 

I don't think your nuts. If you are then we all are.

 

However you say you will spend a winter in the Midwest - hopefully not the northern part. We are in Illinois about an hour west of Chicago and I would not want to live in any RV in the winter here.

 

I see you will have no problem pulling anything with your tow vehicle. Take a look a the New Horizons - well built but expensive. You could get a pre-owned.

 

Keep the dream; it will come faster than you think.

 

Dave

Dave

2008 Airstream 34’ Classic Trailer

Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins CTD

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Wow, yeah, I guess it has been a while since checking in.

 

Still neck deep in house renovations and all that entails. I actually had a couple of informal inquires about whether I would be willing to sell the house 'as-is' right now. I couldn't say yes fast enough but I also made sure they understood that the house is only about half renovated so far. Both parties said that was what they wanted as they could finish it all out the way they wanted. So we'll see! I could very well be homeless in the next few weeks. I can only hope! I would just buy the rig/truck that much earlier and live in it until retirement date.

 

Updated my kick-off plan with a bunch more detail and realized that I need to get moving along! I thought that a little over 2 years would be waaaaay more than enough time to get everything done. Well, as it turns out, it's not. It's actually just barely enough. I didn't realize there was so much to do until I put it all down on 'paper' (a word document) and the months filled up unbelievably fast.

 

Went to the Tampa RV Super-show and the Jacksonville RV show. Both really big ones. I'm fast starting to really like the Keystone Montana High Country 293RK. So far it has checked off the most 'must have' boxes on my list. Unless I find something I like better, I think this might be my horse.

 

Sorry, I got long winded.

 

Russ

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  • 1 month later...

One more month down.

 

Last month we finished up the donations I mentioned and started to figure out the intricacies of eBay sales. We're making progress, but a long way to go still,

 

This month we are looking forward to a lot of education. We're currently in Sevierville, TN at the RV Dreams educational rally. The agenda includes a lot of seminar on topics that we want to understand better before we are ready to full time. We're having a great time and things haven't really started rolling yet.

 

Once we return home, our focus returns to getting rid of our stuff and doing the work necessary to get our house ready for sale.

 

How's everyone else doing?

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Hello NJTroy. We are doing well. 23 months to go. We haven't really started getting rid of stuff yet but since we rent we don't have a house to sell. We have about 4 camping (glamping) trips set up so far this summer.

We did get rid of our RV mattress for a gel memory foam mattress. We haven't use it yet but I can tell it's going to be a lot better than what we had. We ordered custom curtains for most of the windows to help darken the rooms. Those should arrive in about 2 weeks. I installed the curtain rods yesterday.

That's it for now.

 

James

2024 GMC 3500HD DRW Denali Diesel

2019 Keystone Avalanche 396BH

USN Retired

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  • 3 weeks later...

We too are planning to set off in two years. We did a lot of research and went to Denver Colorado to some dealers and finally decided on a Glacier Peak 5th wheel by Outdoors RV. We needed a true 4-season and this one is perfect. Plan to buy it as soon as we buy the truck! We are new to all of this but LOVE to travel! We spend all of our time planning our next adventure when we finally decided we need to just live the adventure!

 

We too are doing some renovations on the house as we get it ready to sell. And then to think about all that we need to sell/donate!! .... Plus a grandbaby on the way (our first)! Lot's to do. And a lot of emotions about it all.

 

Kathie

Kathie and Tom

Ambition 33QS (Honalee)

Augusta RV

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Welcome to the Class of 2017, Kathie!

 

There surely is a lot to do to get there, but the goal is a lovely dream to look forward to. This forum has been terrific with advice, information and just plain cheering me on as we work through all the things we need to do to get ready. I hope you find it the same.

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Welcome Kathie!!! We have 4 grand babies. When we hit the road they will range from ages 4 to 13. It will be super hard to leave them but we can't wait for everything or we will never go. Hope all goes well with the house.

 

james

2024 GMC 3500HD DRW Denali Diesel

2019 Keystone Avalanche 396BH

USN Retired

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kathie:

 

Welcome to the class of 2017. You have a lot going on but it is an exciting time.

 

At least you have picked out your RV.

 

2017 is coming faster than we think. Before we know it will be here and then we the pressure to be ready.

 

Dave

Dave

2008 Airstream 34’ Classic Trailer

Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins CTD

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Hello,

My husband Chris and I are planning on being full timers by 2017. We are taking care of 2 grandsons at this time. Also, Chris is building a boat. We plan on selling our home and hitting the road. We sort of full timed 4 years ago. I worked as a travel nurse at that time. This time I am retired and will be really enjoying the life!

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Another month of prep done. I hope no one minds that I'm using this as a sort of accountability thread for myself. Sometimes it's hard to see the progress day by day so this is helping me stay at it by seeing the bigger picture.

 

We're still slowly selling things on eBay, collecting things for donation and doing house prep. Youngest son is home from college for a few weeks, so we've gotten him to start sorting through his stuff. Oldest son has been making progress on his stuff as well. Large piles of books to go to the recycling center from each of them and general piles of donation and trash. I managed to get two rooms prepped primed for final painting which we will do just before we put the house on the market. I'm hoping to do two more in June as well as continue to sort through stuff in the house.

 

We took a fun long weekend away over Memorial Day at a new to us campground in the Lancaster/Hershey area. We were happy that we really liked it since we'll be back there in September for the Hershey RV show.

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Just started following you guys in the class of 2017. We will be in the class of 2019 but there is no thread started for that yet (at least none that I could find).

 

Hope to learn from your planning.

Mark from Missouri

Our Future in an RV

2018 Ram 3500 Laramie Dually LB 6.7L HO Diesel Aisin Transmission 4x4 3.73 Gears

2019 Vanleigh Vilano 320GK 35’ fifth wheel 16,000-pound GVWR

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Hey everyone! Kind of got busy and forgot to check in. Looks like it was late March the last time I posted. Will have to work on that.

 

Fast reaching the halfway point in the house renovation. By the end of June things should start to pick up speed. I could possibly have it on the market by the end of this year or shortly there after.

 

I've pretty much decided that the Keystone Montana 293RK will be my new home, or at least my home for the bulk of the year. Unless something significantly better comes along, I think this one has what I'm looking for.

 

I say bulk of the year as I think at least for the first couple of years I'm going to maintain a residence here in Florida. The current idea is to sell the house and buy a small condominium nearby. I would only actually be living in the condo for about three months out of the year during winter and be on the road the other nine. That way I have my domicile and I'm near my mom and daughter at least part of the year. Plus, it gives me a landing zone whenever I give up full-timing.

 

So for now it's nose to the grindstone!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Time is a scary thing. I wanted to check back in to the Class and all that is happening, and it looks like it has been almost a year! Holy stuff and nonsense!

 

I've been reading all the prep work going on and it sounds so familiar. We have just about emptied out a rented storage facility (not all our stuff, mostly parental.) And are still chipping away at the garage.

 

We did have a sad year, we lost a beloved pet in February, and less than a month later, Mike lost his dad. Not unexpected, but no matter what you think you are prepared for, you never really are.

 

We are working hard now on making sure the house will be as close to "house beautiful" as elbow grease can get it in the next two years. LOL. I just hope we don't get it so fixed up and pretty that we change our minds about selling and want to enjoy the work we did! We are also working to pay off all debt, and to start with a clean slate and savings.

 

It looks like so many "Class Of" folks follow the same set of getting ready steps.

We've had our home on wheels for going on six months now, and really have made it a home. Some nice rugs, flameless candles and a few displayed books. I sometimes have this unexplainable urge to go out and sleep in it in the driveway. :-)

 

I think using the forum as a sort of check list and time line is a great idea. And knowing you are not alone makes it far easier to donate Aunt Mildred's crystal vase (that you never liked) to a fund raiser silent auction. I like to think Aunt Mildred would be pleased. And that makes it easier to start donating the rest of the stuff. Each piece gets easier. When I read from so many that it makes a person feel so "light and unburdened", stuff really starts to disappear!

 

I am so glad so many folks are willing to share their stories and their progress. Thank you for that.

Leslie

 

 

 

 

 

I had a TV around here, a black and white job, but after I built it, I lost interest. Heinlein.

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Hello NJTroy. We are doing well. 23 months to go. We haven't really started getting rid of stuff yet but since we rent we don't have a house to sell. We have about 4 camping (glamping) trips set up so far this summer.

We did get rid of our RV mattress for a gel memory foam mattress. We haven't use it yet but I can tell it's going to be a lot better than what we had. We ordered custom curtains for most of the windows to help darken the rooms. Those should arrive in about 2 weeks. I installed the curtain rods yesterday.

That's it for now.

 

James

Reading thru the posts, and OMG don't you love the foam mattresses! Only problem is sometimes they are so comfortable that you don't want to get up to have your coffee while you watch the sun rise anymore. :D

I had a TV around here, a black and white job, but after I built it, I lost interest. Heinlein.

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Leslie:

 

I know what you are saying about fixing up the house and wanting to keep it. We always fix up our house to be like new before selling it. My wife says that we should fix it up for ourselves rather than waiting to sell it. However I that it's easier to spend the money when you know you are going to recoup it in the short term.

 

We are just getting started in getting rid of our stuff. Our piano is gone. We will replace it with a keyboard.

 

As I type this I am sitting in our trailer with a gentle rain coming down. It's rather nice.

 

Dave

Dave

2008 Airstream 34’ Classic Trailer

Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins CTD

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Good morning everyone. Got the curtains installed and they fit great. We went out last weekend and boy do they keep the rooms dark.

I installed a tv bracket in the front storage bay where there is hook ups and watched the Basketball game outside. That was a lot of fun.

We had a blowout on the way there and had to hit up a tire shop to get a new spare. Called coachnet and they had someone out within an hour to change it.

I could have done it but it was raining and we were on an incline. Might as well use them since I'm paying for a service we may or may not use.

Made a deal with our local America's tire and yesterday had 4 Goodyear G614 LT tires installed. What a difference.

 

22 months to go til we hit the road. Everything is on track. My car lease ends the same month we are leaving. (I planned it that way). The only thing left for the 5ther is the washer/dryer combo.

Will probably get that about the 6 months left mark. Oh and we will be getting a chocolate lab soon. She will need to be trained before we hit the road. We lost our Rottie this past New Years eve.

Rotties are tough dogs to travel with since they are on all restricted breed lists. We miss her a lot. She was pretty special.....

 

That's it for now!! Talk to you soon.

 

James

2024 GMC 3500HD DRW Denali Diesel

2019 Keystone Avalanche 396BH

USN Retired

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  • 2 weeks later...

The campground where we keep our trailer was hit by a tornado last week. It is a large park on 1,800 acres with 6,100 sites all privately owned. Over 300 RVs were completely destroyed.

 

We have significant damage to our unit. The inside is fine but the cost of repairs may total out the unit.

 

Life goes on.

 

Dave

Dave

2008 Airstream 34’ Classic Trailer

Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins CTD

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I'm so sorry, Dave. I can't imagine how frustrating and sad that must be.

 

Meanwhile, another month is almost gone. Still making great progress getting things ready to sell the house and go full time in 2017.

 

We squeaked in under the wire on June's painting with Dave rolling the bedroom ceiling this evening while I fixed dinner. With the master bath, that's our two rooms for this month. We were really tightly focused on getting stuff out of the house this month as well. Lots and lots of stuff tossed, set aside for donation, recycled or dropped off at the bulk collection station. The big win on that front was that we got the massive TV out of our bedroom. No idea how much it weighs, but it took all four of us to get that thing down out of the cabinet, down the stairs, into the truck and out at the bulk center.

 

Next month, obviously more sorting out although that's gotten harder since we've done so much recently. The next rooms for painting are the upstairs and downstairs halls, much easier than June's rooms plus prep in the family room. We need to get back to eBay selling as well.

 

How's everyone else doing?

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