Warranty work III

As of my last update these were the repairs that were pending:

Exterior

• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Siding is bowing or dented in a number of places 
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Leaking water heater (as mentioned above)

Interior

• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Shower stall unsticking / bowing away from the wall
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Shower head leaks significantly when in the closed position
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: A couple panels and cabinets need repair
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: There is a wall panel in the bathroom that has a bubbling texture -  this has been there since day one and we think we missed it at our walk-through because the lights were not on and it is not easy to see without light.
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: The kitchen faucet is really squeaky (this same thing happened in the bathroom and resulted in us replacing the fixture).  I think the kitchen faucet is ready to fail.

The process goes like this - the quick fixes were already handled by the dealership without much fuss.  For those things that were bigger or needed Keystone parts the dealership took pictures and submitted it to Keystone and waited for approval of the repairs.  

Here is what we have learned about the pending issues (in italics):

Exterior

• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Siding is bowing or dented in a number of places - More pictures were needed.  We did our best to take new pictures and sent them to the dealership.  They will forward the pictures to the manufacturer.
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Leaking water heater (as mentioned above) - Keystone denied this repair stating the manufacturer of the water heater was responsible.  Our dealership has submitted a claim to the water heater manufacturer and is hopeful it will ultimately be covered.

Interior

• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Shower stall unsticking / bowing away from the wall (dealership will seal the places where it is needed when we take it in)
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Shower head leaks significantly when in the closed position (denied repair - stating this is normal.  However I wonder if our dealership ever tested it to see if the amount of leakage was "normal."  I will push the issue when we take it in again)
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: A couple panels and cabinets need repair (these will be fixed)
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: There is a wall panel in the bathroom that has a bubbling texture -  this has been there since day one and we think we missed it at our walk-through because the lights were not on and it is not easy to see without light. (This will be fixed - they will replace the wall panel which will require taking off the existing panel and probably part of the shower stall...this is a bigger repair that will take the better part of a day)
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: The kitchen faucet is really squeaky (this same thing happened in the bathroom and resulted in us replacing the fixture).  I think the kitchen faucet is ready to fail. (Denied - some BS reason was given...I can't remember.  I wasn't surprised about this one. We will replace the fixture with something better like we did in the bathroom.)

Since our last visit to the dealership I have noticed one other thing I want them to take a look at - there is a seal that seems out of place in one of the windows in the bedroom.  We are also going to ask if they can install the cover over the exhaust vent on the roof as well as look at options for an external ladder.  

Our current plan is to take the Hideout into the dealership during spring break IF all the parts have arrived by then.  

A couple of interesting facts we learned - Keystone (and many other manufacturers) will not honor the warranty if they learn you are living in the trailer full-time.  Secondly, any modification you make to the trailer - such as the installation of sun shades (snaps) on the exterior of the vehicle - could void all or part of the warranty.  Because we have some issues with the siding bowing or being dented we had to be sure not to show any of the snaps which hold the sun shades.  Of course the siding we are complaining about doesn't have any snaps in it, but that doesn't matter.  If they get wind of the modification they will use it as an excuse to void the warranty.

We are glad we have been able to use the trailer and work out the bugs.  I imagine many people purchase these things and have a hard time getting the warranty work done.  I am glad we "did it right" as we were told by the dealership, by taking it in well ahead of the expiration of our year warranty (one year is up in June '18) to get the ball rolling on these repairs.  Though we could impose on friends or get a hotel room, leaving the Hideout for more than a day is not desirable.  Over spring break we will probably travel up north to our land in the mountains and camp in our steel building so we can leave it for a couple of days/nights.   

Homeschooling Part III

So we are using a curriculum called Moving Beyond the Page for Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies.  We are using Zearn and some other apps like Operation Math for math skills, & DuoLingo for Spanish.  So far it has been fun.  It is nice to spend quality time learning about things like electricity together.  We've done some fun experiments with magnets, circuits, and static electricity... I've noticed that the desire for screen time has diminished.  Days go by without even having a conversation about a video game - instead he will read or build Legos in his down time.  He seems happy and engaged.  He really likes the experiments and the Electricity and Magnetism book that he is reading.  Sometimes we end up on a tangent and he asks really good questions and we explore those things together.  I have to admit that we have had to work on improving our communication as a family and the experience has brought us closer together.  Like all change there are bumps along the way - but we knew there would be.  To make the whole thing official I submitted the paperwork to the county superintendent of schools - we are on the books as a homeschool family. 

Today we visited the Children's Museum of Phoenix.  We've been going there since he was an infant, but it still is such a fun place!  Today we climbed through the climber together - mama and boy - it was fun.  We were going to go as a family, but Sister had a bad morning. Because we couldn't reward that behavior, so she stayed home with Husband.  Many people are concerned about the lack of socialization for homeschool kids, but Brother easily found playmates at the Children's Museum and when we were home this weekend he played for hours with a neighbor kiddo from another full-time RV family based in Tempe.  We also spent the afternoon swimming with other neighbors in the heated pool here at our park - that was fun to be in the pool in January!  Next weekend we were invited to two birthday parties of friends from our old neighborhood, so we will definitely have some fun socialization then.  I think the socialization kids do have in the public school environment is superficial and very fragmented - especially given the small amount of free time they have during the day. 

We started reading the first Percy Jackson book together (after Sister goes to bed each night).  That's a fun one!  Overall our life is much more simple.  We are less rushed.  We have more time.  It is a beautiful thing not to be busy.

My school schedule is awesome this semester.  Because this is my second semester I am much more settled into the classes that I am teaching.  I am more comfortable with the material and I don't stress quite as much before my lectures.  (Though I do occasionally have a hard time sleeping the night before!)  Husband is taking discrete math and linear algebra - fun, right?!?  He's doing well in them, but it is an adjustment going back to school.

We continue to plan our summer trip, our solar system, and what to do with our remaining stuff (which becomes more and more irrelevant as we live with less).  I am feeling the urge to purge even more stuff and embrace minimalism even more significantly.  Everything is a learning experience, we are constantly present in this adventure - nothing is taken for granted.  Life is good, not busy, and simple.  It is perfect.

The word for the week...

....is flu.  Yep.  This is a definite con of tiny Hideout living.  Husband was sick last weekend followed closely by Brother, then Sister and I.  Yes, we did get our flue shots this year, but they were not effective.  I'm the last one to get the fever.  It's been a tough week.  My main hope is that I am well enough to go to work on Tuesday. 

...is planning!  On a exciting side we've been making travel plans!

Here is a rough draft of our plan!  I've made most of our reservations for California.  We will visit Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Yosemite and the Redwoods.  After that it is over to Yellowstone then the Badlands and on to Michigan where we will spend a month or so visiting our extended family. Pre Michigan will be about six weeks and we will take about two weeks coming back to AZ for a grand total of 12 weeks across the US.   Best. Vacation. Ever.  We are so excited!

Extreme poverty and consumerism

Did you know that the richest 25 people in the U.S. hold a trillion in wealth?  That is more than the bottom 56% of the American population (or roughly 180 million people).

In December a special reporter from the United Nations to the U.S. released his preliminary report about extreme poverty in the U.S. - it's not good. 40 Million American citizens live in extreme poverty and approximately half a million of those are homeless.  Despite being the richest country on Earth and despite spending more per person on healthcare, the US has the highest infant mortality rate in the developed world.  Despite calling ourselves the "land of the free" we have the highest incarceration rate in the world - and we use that population as slave labor to do public and private sector jobs that should provide a living wage to families (such as fighting fires in CA).

Americans should be outraged.  There should be mass protests and demands for equity.  We should demand that prison labor be outlawed.  Inmate labor forces wages down, takes away good jobs for Americans in need and provides a corrupt incentive to continue to incarcerate poor people for addiction and other petty crime.  Let's be real - it is the working class and poor who suffer imprisonment at disproportionate rates.  We certainly don't see while-collar folks being locked up and forced to fight fires after, say, causing the Great Recession...though I imagine I am not alone in wishing that were the case.  And, if you are lucky enough to belong to a family who can hire an attorney it is likely you can escape significant punishment - even if you have victimized others -  though it is unimaginable how someone who is poor or a minority would receive the same treatment.

But we are not outraged - the answer to everything is commerce.  "Go shopping," the advertisements tell us.  Shopping will make you happy, fulfilled, popular, and distracted - and isn't that what we crave above all things - distraction from all this negative stuff?  We are a nation in denial.  We have neither the will nor the inclination to be informed or to take action.  Instead we shop.  We accumulate.  We spend money making millionaires and billionaires richer.  We act against our own interests in pretty much every way we can.

How many conversations do we have to have about the shit we buy?  I can't feign interest.  I've done it and it is shallow and leaves much to be desired.  Stuff is a means to an end.  The end should be human relationships, our shared experiences, our cultural understandings, and our personal growth.  Shopping to shop is a disease of a culture that values stuff over people, money over quality of life, and reveres and supports millionaires over our own families.  We've got to wake the F up and evaluate our priorities.

Homeschooling vs American Education Part II

This week we embarked upon our new adventures and are now all engaged in educating and being educated.  Husband is taking two classes at ASU towards a Computer Science degree he started many years ago.  Brother started his homeschool curriculum from Moving Beyond the Page and we are finding it very enjoyable and comprehensive in the way it ties together language arts, science, history and social studies.  We are teaching math without the use of a formal cirriculum knowing where Brother is currently and where he needs to be by the end of the year.  Sister is using a preschool workbook to practice writing, letters, numbers and so forth.  I continue to learn through teaching; I am teaching five classes with a total of 285 undergraduate students.  Husband and I are sharing the responsibilities of educating the kids and it has been very fun to explore Brother's content and concepts together as a family.

When I last wrote about this topic I presented various arguments and reasons for not homeschooling, but I deliberately neglected the most common reason families rely on public education - they are too busy to educate their kids.  The fact is that economic realities for most families require parents to work a minimum of 40 hours a week each.  Public schools serve the important function of ensuring the safety and security of children while their parents are putting food on the table and a roof over their heads.  We have changed virtually everything about our lives to allow for the possibility of homeschooling - and I admit these changes are extreme and not necessarily desirable for many families.

There is also the fear factor, which we have experienced fully.  Will I be able to handle this?  Will my kids fall behind their peers?  Will homeschooling result in any barriers to my kids' success in the long-term?  I have explored these questions in significant depth and am convinced that while failure is always a possibility, it not likely.  Homeschooling during elementary school and middle school does not prevent students from attending high school or taking the GED.  The parents have to be very aware of the state standards to be sure their kid is not falling behind - but there are SO many things kids can learn with their parents that enhance their education.  In our case, household finances, cooking, computer skills (such as programming), sociology, anthropology, economics, public health and music.

In my last post I also raised an argument I have heard that goes something like this: we need to support and be engaged with public school districts to help shape them into the type of institutions that serve the needs of our communities.  While I agree with this in principal I, personally, have a couple of problems with this.  First, I have spent many years in public service trying to change the flow of powerful rivers - many times to no avail.  It is possible "we" (parents) could put our energy into trying to change Goliath - to no avail - when we could just put the energy directly into educating our kids (if that is practical for your family).  It is frustrating to always have to fight the middle man - I prefer to cut out the middle man and take matters into my own hands.  Secondly, all families have limited resources such as time & energy.  How many want to spend those resources seeking to reform a school which belongs to a public education system that is unfairly funded, utilizes arbitrary evaluation methods, and is designed to create compliant workers instead of the problem solvers of tomorrow?   To reshape these institutions in any meaningful way significant policy change at the state and federal levels are needed.

I return to the thoughts of Ralph Waldo Emerson (who I admire a great deal), in 1841 he wrote an essay called Self-Reliance. In that work he says,

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till." 

What is our "plot of ground" in this context other than the fertile ground of our own minds and the minds of our children?  To really emphasize this point he says,

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."

He goes on to talk about how vital it is to be your own person and to think your own thoughts in this great and famous quote,

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.--'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.'--Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." 

So friends, that is where we are at - blazing a trail to own ourselves and our minds - both figuratively and literally. 

How debt is "The Enemy"

I've been there (under a load of debt) - let me admit that first - but I resented the shit out of it.  If you pay any interest that means you are living beyond your means.  It means you have purchased something that you can't really afford.  You may have been duped into thinking you could afford it - some salesman probably looked at your monthly income and worked out a monthly payment you could "afford," but it is a lie.  You were too broke to pay cash, you had to borrow the money and it is likely that your net worth (value of assets minus debt) is negative or barely above zero.

Many of us have family members who lived through the Great Depression, or who have lived in poverty have incorporated frugality, saving, recycling, and living within ones means into their lives.  The average American is the antithesis of this.

The myth of American capitalism is that the rich create jobs, but that is absurd.  They are the idle class - they make money by having money.  They are the collectors of interest.  They are the investor class.  They worry about things that most of us don't - how to avoid capital gains taxes or the estate tax, or how to best balance their portfolios - this is the "work" of the investor class.  They are the consumers of luxury goods, they own islands and yachts to sail themselves there.  We have virtually nothing in common with investors.  They are earning while we are working and spending - it's a rigged game and we can't win yet our fortunes are tied to theirs.  Most Americans who do have  positive net wealth own their homes and/or have retirement accounts invested in the very system that is robbing them.

Average Americans help make the rich richer in so many ways - first we are ineffective at demanding living wages and benefits while corporations such as WalMart rake in profits that make the mind spin and reward their CEO with millions in bonuses in addition to the already crazy yearly "wage."  The WalMart CEO earns more in an hour than WalMart employees earn in a year.   The result is that corporations pay less for labor than they should and they reap copious profit as a result (which leaders and shareholders pocket - they don't create more jobs with that money).

Secondly, we don't live within our means.  We are earning less than a living wage and we can't afford our homes, vehicles, etc so we take on debt.  The rich will take their cut in the form of interest.  If you use credit cards or, god forbid, payday loans, you are really doing your best to line the pockets of the wealthy.  Can you imagine saving for something you want instead of charging it or taking out a loan?  Delayed gratification is a lost skill - we know it is good for kids, but we seem to think when you get to be an adult we deserve instant gratification.  This may be hard to accept - but you are screwing yourself if you can't save and wait.  The cost of that item (car, house, etc) plus interest is obscene and we all know it, but chose to look away and pretend that all is well.

Third, we buy into the myth of things being disposable.  How long is a cell phone supposed to last?  A computer?  What does the new computer or cell phone do for you that the last one did not?  As a family who used a desktop computer for over ten years for multiple applications including retro video gaming I can attest that they last much longer than manufacturers would have you think.  Actually most items do.  Second-hand stores, garage sales, and and all the buy/sell/trade apps help us get rid of stuff while still appreciating that these things have value and use.  Further you don't need to buy Microsoft Office - you can use Open Office; you don't need Quick books, you can use GnuCash.

Fourth we buy into the myth that every damn household needs one of everything instead of sharing with a community.  There are businesses that offer tool rentals (for example) but in my experience by the time you rent a tool for the time you need it you could have bought a new one - perhaps co-ops or subscription services could meet the tool needs of of a community.  The point is that each neighbor does not need a complete set of everything...not even family laundry - I find it much more efficient to get my laundry done with 2-4 washing machines instead of using only one!   Further, how many kitchen appliances does a person need?!  I need a food processor for two recipes that I love falafel and Almond Umami Burgers - but I make those two recipes, at the most, a half dozen times a year...I use my crockpot the most of any appliance (2-3 times/week), second would be the breadmaker (weekly), third the Vitamix (every other week at present, but in the past it was daily) but I could totally share these - I use the stove almost every day, other than that I have more cooking options than I really need.  Also, don't get me going on pots, pans, baking dishes, mixing bowls, serving bowls...Perhaps one day I will take a picture of my stock.  It is very lean, yet I have everything I need.  It would be nice to borrow a baking pan or different pot/pan when I need one - a community kitchen would allow many benefits beyond access to unique appliances and/or baking dishes.

Finally, we buy into the myth of things enhancing our identity.  We've always purchased the cheapest new car we could find.  We drive a 2009 Toyota Yaris manual transmission, before that (and before kids) we drove a  2000 Toyota Tacoma manual transmission (which we sold in 2016 with 200,000 miles on it).  This is not a Toyota commercial - my point is we didn't buy a Camry or a Tundra because we couldn't see how those would get us from A to B any better than the cheaper versions of the vehicles.  Same goes for luxury items in every product line that exists.  Why an iPhone when you can get an Android phone for much less and it has all the same functionality?  You are still you regardless of the vehicle you drive - but the myth of commercialism says you will be enhanced, amazing, improved, more likable, more popular, more cool....it's all bullshit.  If we all bought things for their utility instead of to one-up our neighbor we could reduce our debt and/or keep more of our hard-earned moola in our pockets saving for the day we exit the rat race.

The take-away point of this rant that has built up over many years is that we should all do everything in our power to get out of debt and live within our means - by choice - which means that we chose to forgo the "latest greatest" and even the latest convenience or gimmick instead of rushing to stand in line to purchase it.  It also means really questioning every purchase, "do I really need this? or can I use the money to pay off my debt?"  How low can you get your monthly expenses so that you can dedicate your resources to once and for all paying off the wealthy people, banks and corporations who own you?

Warranty work Part II

We were at the dealership at 9:00 a.m. today as planned.  It was a good and productive day.  They fixed a number of items and those that were not fixed today have been submitted to Keystone as warranty issues and we are now waiting for approval and then for them to order parts.  I suggested scheduling our next visit during spring break when we can go camp on our land and we can leave the Hideout at the dealership.  They expect parts to take 5-8 weeks, so we may or may not be able to get the rest of the items fixed then, but surely some of the other items can be checked off at that time.  They anticipate the remaining repairs to take 2-3 days.  This is good news for us because now we can start booking reservations for the summer!!!  So excited.

Here is the remaining breakdown of needed repairs. 

Exterior

• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Siding is bowing or dented in a number of places
• FIXED: The awning is not closing all the way properly and there are screws on a part of the canopy that are stripped and have fallen out a few times.  
• RESOLVED: We paid extra to have the the underbelly sealed but they did a poor job of it and we think it needs to be done again.  Related to this the propane line was never attached back to the underbelly when they did said enclosure.  
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Leaking water heater (as mentioned above)

Interior

• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Shower stall unsticking / bowing away from the wall
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: Shower head leaks significantly when in the closed position
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: A couple panels and cabinets need repair
• FIXED: Molding needs to be fixed
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: There is a wall panel in the bathroom that has a bubbling texture -  this has been there since day one and we think we missed it at our walk-through because the lights were not on and it is not easy to see without light.
• FIXED: There is a wall panel in the bedroom that is bowing and making the tape between two panels separate.
• FIXED: An area of the ceiling paneling in the bedroom is bowing 
• WARRANTY/PARTS NEEDED: The kitchen faucet is really squeaky (this same thing happened in the bathroom and resulted in us replacing the fixture).  I think the kitchen faucet is ready to fail.
• RESOLVED (this is how it is supposed to work - both are on the same breaker): We have an electrical question about the built-in vacuum and the microwave.  I am not sure anything is wrong, we just need someone to explain it to us in the context of our observations that the microwave doesn't work when the vacuum is on and the vacuum resets the microwave.  

Warranty work - Part I

I name this blog "Part I" because I am sure there are going to be more of these...might as well track the saga from beginning to end.  I have heard many horror stories from other full-timers about the length of time it takes to get warranty work done. We want to get an early start on getting this work done so that we are road ready in May. 

Today we took the Hideout to the dealership mainly to get two issues resolved, but also to talk to them about the other items on our warranty list.  We were asked to arrive at 10:00 a.m. and we were there by 10:05 a.m.  The immediate issues were leaking propane and a leaking hot water heater.  The leak must have gotten worse because we went through our last tank of propane in 11 days, which seemed too quickly.  It turned out the leaking propane was a no brainer - both pigtails were leaking (as Husband has already determined), one worse than the other.    They did replace the pig tails.

The water heater leak is very slow, but since we were taking it in we asked them to take a look.  After they had the Hideout for a few hours they called and said the anode rod was shot, $20 to replace and $15 for labor.  They thought that would fix the leak, but it didn't.  It turns out there is a leak from a place where the tank is welded and it is probable that the water heater will need to be replaced.  If that happens the new anode rod will be placed in the new water heater and then the brand new rod will serve as our replacement.  One thing we did learn is that we need to flush that tank every month.  We didn't realize that and we were shown all of the minerals that were in the water heater when it was drained.  This probably sped the demise of our previous anode rod.

Though we did walk-through the Hideout with a service dept person to show them all of the other issues they said that they needed another day to...I don't really know...to look at?  consider it? appraise? the other warranty issues before they could give us the details on the timeline for repairs.  We picked it up at 4:00 p.m. apparently they could not finish looking at all of the issues we raised.  What we need to know is how long it will take for parts to come in and then how long to complete these repairs so that we can plan on living elsewhere while it is in the shop.  So...we have to take it back on Friday at 9 a.m.

Here is the list of the other issues we have:

• Exterior 
• Siding is bowing or dented in a number of places
• The awning is not closing all the way properly and there are screws on a part of the canopy that are stripped and have fallen out a few times.  
• We paid extra to have the the underbelly sealed but they did a poor job of it and we think it needs to be done again.  Related to this the propane line was never attached back to the underbelly when they did said enclosure.  
• Leaking water heater (as mentioned above)

On the plus side our propane does not seem to be leaking anymore.  Not sure that $20 repair was worth taking it into the dealership, but we did get the ball rolling (I think) on all the rest of these issues.

• Interior
• Shower stall unsticking / bowing away from the wall
• Shower head leaks significantly when in the closed position
• A couple panels and cabinets need repair
• Molding needs to be fixed
• There is a wall panel in the bathroom that has a bubbling texture -  this has been there since day one and we think we missed it at our walk-through because the lights were not on and it is not easy to see without light.
• There is a wall panel in the bedroom that is bowing and making the tape between two panels separate.
• An area of the ceiling paneling in the bedroom is bowing 
• The kitchen faucet is really squeaky (this same thing happened in the bathroom and resulted in us replacing the fixture).  I think the kitchen faucet is ready to fail.
• We have an electrical question about the built-in vacuum and the microwave.  I am not sure anything is wrong, we just need someone to explain it to us in the context of our observations that the microwave doesn't work when the vacuum is on and the vacuum resets the microwave.  

The long term?

It's a conversation we had again today and that we have regularly because people always ask us, "but you are going to buy a house, right?"  It shows how our choices make others uncomfortable - breaking norms always does.  I've thought long and hard about the stereotypes about people living in trailers.  I just don't give a shit.  Living in the moment is more satisfying than worrying about what comes next.  My choices are wide open and I like that feeling.  I could, hypothetically drive away from here tomorrow - it would take me a couple of hours to have my house on the road.  It is liberating.  I am not tied down.  There is a lightness of living with less.  You have to experience it to appreciate it completely.

I was invited in to tour a beautiful fifth wheel a month or more ago.  An older couple lives in it.  It was very nice, but I just couldn't see why I would need all that.  Maybe my Hideout will grow too small over time, I don't know.  But for now I am channeling my inner child - the one that liked to build forts in the woods.  I feel secure in this space.

We met another family full-timing with two kids aged 7 and 5.  They have a monster, 49' fifth wheel toy hauler with a patio deck that slides out as well as 4 or 5 other slides.  That beast must have cost $80,000 or more.  It was beautiful, but really too extravagant for my tastes.  National Parks would be off the table because the rig is too big.  Also, when I see these huge rigs I wonder about gas costs...they must be astronomical.  Our 6-cylinder Tacoma guzzles gas when the Hideout is being pulled, but nothing like a dually!  Will we upgrade or buy a house?  Neither option sounds good at this time...

We've been thinking about a cross-country trip for so long that it's almost like I can't see past it. It's hard to think long-term when you have to deal with so much change and adjustment in such a short period of time.  But we do have a long-term plan...

Our long-term goals at present include finishing our self-sufficient home on our land in NE AZ.  That project has been in the works since 1998 - holy crap - 20 years this March!  I will have to share a history of all the work that has gone into that land over the years.  We were children with no handyman experience when we bought the land dreaming of living off the grid with no mortgage or utility payments.  Over 20 years we have obtained a septic system, a well (complete with both a solar pump and a back-up hand pump), and a 500 square foot SteelMaster building. These three things are not connected - though we have all of the necessary components to do so.  We have also improved some of the roads and built a shed around the well.  However because of our inexperience we have made dozens of mistakes along the way and have been frustrated by the length of time each project takes.  Now that we are done having babies (which severely hindered our ability to move the project forward), and now that Sister is approaching 4....we should be able to resume work with the assistance of Brother - who, at 8 years old, may finally be a help rather than hindrance.  This remains to be seen... Having purchased the land while childless we never considered the hazards of being in the high desert far from civilization with kids.

So...there it is - we will live in the Hideout and do some traveling until we have a home base on our land.  When that project is complete then we can decide what comes next!

Upgraded Hideout sleeping & some warranty issues

We're sleeping on a cloud in 2018!  The mattress that came with the Hideout left A LOT to be desired.  After six months it was so flat it felt like we were sleeping on the floor...definitely not made for full-time use.  I actually sustained a sleeping injury to my right shoulder a week ago and am favoring it until it is healed...  I don't want to be too positive about this Lucid 10" but I am a happy sleeper.  I have limited experiences with foam mattresses, the one that came with the Hideout was my second time sleeping on one.  My first experience was when we rented a fully furnished house during the construction of our McMansion.  In both cases the mattresses were very cheap and failed to expand after relatively few nights of sleep.  I don't have too high of hopes for this new one - but it did come with a 25-year warranty....so we will see.  

We actually received our delivery on the 30th.  Per the instructions we had to lay it flat in a well ventilated area for two days while it expanded and off-gassed.  It was ghetto, but we left outside by our trailer for the full two days.  We brought it in last night and I didn't notice any odors, I just melted right into it.  It is a few pounds more heavy than the last one - but it is well worth it.  The one con of this mattress is that our under-bed storage will not stay open because the mattress does not bend as easily and is heavier than the last one.  I think we will have to cut a stick to the right length to prop open the storage compartment when we need access.  Today when I had to access the storage Husband held it up for me and it was no problem. 

We have a significant list of warranty issues, many of them small and/or cosmetic, but there are a couple of big ones.  We are smelling propane when we take the plastic cover off of the tanks - Husband narrowed down the leak with soapy water to faulty hoses.  Secondly the hot water heater is leaking.  It is located at the very rear of the trailer and we noticed mineral deposits trailing from the water heater to the rear bumper.  Since we first located it we have seen it wet a number of times.  These two issues are the priority and we will be contacting our dealer ASAP for assistance.  We have heard many horror stories about people dropping off their trailers and dealerships taking very long periods of time to complete the work.  Needless to say, we are a bit tense about how to get the entire list completed.  We are hoping to talk to the dealership and figure out how we can schedule it.