Now that we are over COVID we have work to do and places to go. Thanks for joining us for this segment of our never-ending journey. Here we will show you our progress on the new home-base and our trip to Vancouver BC.
We have finished the clean up and repairs on one house and we're deep into fixing up the other house. AKA - Our new home-base. With the brilliant idea of renting out our home in Oceanside and moving out of California comes the reality of living full-time in a van. If you ever want to test the ties that bind a relationship, try that idea on for size. Or you can just take my word for it. It ain't easy.
Surviving van life in the harsh winter months of Canada, COVID-19, a home remodel and two very hardheaded adults with deep seated issues is a challenge worth mentioning. Especially since we are past the bulk of those hurdles. Maybe we were destined to be together after all.
The old house that we plan to make our home was so off-kilter that if you dropped anything at all you'd have to chase it across the floor. The left side had to be jacked up over 5 inches!
We gained access to this little gem on May 1st. Our fabulous tenant gladly moved into the other house and we began taking stock of what repairs were needed for the little blue bungalow. Like I mentioned, the first task was getting the floor level again. Once that was done the list just grew.
The hedge was removed on the right and trimmed back on the left in order to get to the exterior walls and in order to pour our new parking pad for the van. ALL of this is way easier said than done. Setback after setback occurred before we could finally park on our own property.
In late May we were excited to take a little road trip into Canada to visit my wonderful son and daughter-in-law on their way to Alaska. The four of us took in the sightss, rode bikes and just enjoyed ourselves for a few days.
Back to the Port Orchard grind... We need concrete poured for our parking pad - so of course there was a concrete STRIKE. How does that happen? What actually is a concrete strike? Well, more money, that's what. We decided to go on another road trip. Cape Flattery here we come.
Before we knew it, two more months passed by with us living in the van on the street corner, literally. Thank goodness our neighbors are very tolerant. As July 4th loomed we made plans to attend the annual pig roast in Bellingham. That entire stack of wood and then some was used for the event! The food was spectacular but the company was even better.
FINALLY!! Our first concrete pour happened on July 14th!! The first estimate said 2-3 pours and we'd be done. FIVE pours later, we got a parking pad! But still not done.
I know more about concrete today than I ever wanted to know. The crew that did our pour was simply amazing really. They worked hard and got us to where we are now.
We were told to wait 3-4 days before parking on it so on August 22 Darin did the honors of driving onto our new home! This was huge in our journey of setting up a new home base. No more street parking for us. No more eating dinner with the slider open and waving at folks walking their dogs. No more pulling up on the curb to level the van for sleeping.
The best part of all... emptying the pee jug from our composting toilet just became a little more discreet. Filling our 5 gallon fresh water jug just became a little easier. Emptying the 5 gallon gray water jug just became easier. Although it doesn't get really hot here, fighting the sun just became more tolerable. Life is good.
Obviously we have a long way to go before we sleep in our new home-base. The progress is slow but steady. We see a light at the end of the tunnel. Our next post will be about all the fun stuff we have planned for the inside. FYI... clicking on any of the included ads will take you to a new screen where you will find fun deals and awesome products.
Here are lots of photos of our travels and of the house project. Join us again as we continue this journey.
