Making a plan for full timing - piece of advice - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

Making a plan for full timing - piece of advice

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Are you saying you had no milestones during the winter, or you had then but just couldn't do them because of the winter? It was the latter in my case. We had hoped to put the house on the market before the end of January, but we still had a lot of purging to do and outdoor cosmetic repairs. Due to all the snow, the contractor wasn't able to work outside, and worse, we couldn't access the dumpster we rented -- the path to it in the driveway and the dumpster itself were buried for a few weeks! So with us, the anxiety wasn't that there was nothing we could do, but so much we had to do but couldn't!

jrzygrl64 · RV-Dreams Family Member

I know what you mean about the LONG winter! It has delayed our initial plan of having the house listed by late February, we are now hoping to get it done in the next week or two. It was hard to stay on track and get everything done, especially the outside stuff. I am hoping to get the front door painted this weekend, hopefully it doesn't rain! And, I have a yard to clean up! UGH!

I know you are further north, but we are starting to see signs of spring - so hang in there!

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

The milestones were delayed....here's my first pass plan from back in December it's pretty high level but gives you an idea. We have added more along the way but these are the big ones

1. Finish my MBA.. - This I am working on scheduled back to back classes in Jan/Feb and March/April. Finished the first class and three weeks through my second class...although it's a ton of work and very important to achieving Step 6...it had nothing to do with Lee

2. Sell our house...painting starts in March should have on the market by April - This is the rough one...it's March 18th and we wanted to start painting March 1st. This was going to be Lees major project but due to extreme cold weather so he's been at loose ends for the last 2 weeks.

3. See my youngest child through her senior year and into the Air Force hopefully into the crypto linguistics program.. - this one has gone perfectly so far which is great

4. Receive my new 5th wheel and enjoy a summer of seasonal camping also get it ready for the road

5. Get completely debt free - credit card free now, and working the plan but it's tough not to spend when your just waiting around for the weather to break. Also the Camping World Master catalog just came and yikes there's a bunch of cool stuff in there :) but holding firm

6. Get the consulting company ready to go - I did a lot of work on this early on and need to pick up again after the masters class is over. Need an accountant, a website, start looking for work etc. Some of this is hanging over my head but I can't take on to much at once

7. Find our first job either consulting or work kamping...whatever works best :) - I did some research last January to get a feel for what was out there and felt really good about it, but can't get serious until the house sells because I won't make a commitment I know I can't keep, Since Tampa is out first stop we at least know where the when is still up in the open

8. Be poised and ready to hit the road at the end of 2014 - This is actually going well. Still having good communication

9. Finish reading all of Howard's journal. I am up to January 2009 and have been making notes as I go. - Feel great about getting this one done

10. Complete sample budget - this we did although those were pretty tough conversations, unfortunately one of the biggest budget items is healthcare and things are so up in the air can't really lock the numbers in. Waiting until the spring Rally to talk to the RV expert and hopefully nail this down. Along with this comes the home state. We had previously selected South Dakota but have made that tentative due to many people changing their home states.

11. Get the truck - done

12. Get the RVI and PDI - Schedule March 29th

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Trace - having a plan and working to that plan is important, however, I've found that having flexiblity to adjust as you work that plan is so very important, not just for this step of getting on the road, but especially once you are on the road.

Some delays are inevitable, things happen that are outside of our control. For us our goal of getting the house on the market ended up being delayed by about 6 weeks last spring. The truck order was fouled up, some of the repairs / updating to the house took longer than expected, purging took longer than expected, the trip to pick up the RV was delayed and then to due mechanical issues with both the truck and trailer took longer than expected, the drive back to Seattle took longer than expected due to weather, etc, etc. It all added up to a 6 week delay in getting the house on the market, but the house sold immediately!! Then the closing was delayed 3 times, each time due to issues on the buyers side.

I think the delays helped us learn patience and flexibility as we went on the road. In the first 2 months after we left our driveway for the last time, we had 2 major changes to our travel plans. We didn't plan to be in South Dakota for 2 weeks, but due to a cooling unit replacement on the fridge, there we were. Gave us a chance to be a tourist in the Black Hills and meet a few Dreamers who were work camping there for the summer. We didn't plan a trip to Colorado at all in the first 6 months but once Dale decided to have the truck upgrade done, we changed our plans, thought we'd be there for a weeks, ended up there for 3 weeks, had to cancel an art show in California and then were told to evacuate the campground due to the flooding that Colorado had last September. The day we escaped the floding in Colorado was the 2 month anniversary of being on the road. Then things settled down a bit and we actually followed our travel plans / art show schedule for the next 5 months and most of the time things went according to our planned schedule until Feb. We didn't plan to be in Dallas in Feb but due to family circumstances found outside making a rapid 1000 mile repositioning in just over 2 days. We're going to end up spending 6 weeks in Dallas this spring, that was never in any of our plans.

So, while not everything has gone according to plan, or maybe I should say MANY things didn't go according to plan, those delays and changes have made us appreciate when things are going smoothly and know that when needed we can quickly adapt. We can laugh about the first 2 months on the road and all the changes now, we weren't laughing last September! We've learned to hold all our plans very loosely, as many of our RV friends have said, our plans are written in jello!!

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

NWescapee wrote:

So, while not everything has gone according to plan, or maybe I should say MANY things didn't go according to plan, those delays and changes have made us appreciate when things are going smoothly and know that when needed we can quickly adapt. We can laugh about the first 2 months on the road and all the changes now, we weren't laughing last September! We've learned to hold all our plans very loosely, as many of our RV friends have said, our plans are written in jello!!

I am learning flexibility which is a good thing for sure, but just saying it would have been a little more palatable if we had spread the milestones out a bit more. It's important when you are doing something this big and life changing to have small successes along the way so you stay energized and continue to feel good about what is happening...at least that's how we work :)

The Restless Youngs · RV-Dreams Family Member

I totally understand what you are saying!! We also had a plan, pretty high level, but we built milestones in along the way; it just helps keep the dream alive. What has helped us some was that in our plan we built in two RV things for winter--attending the Tampa RV show and attending a local one. We had no intentions of having our coach by Tampa, so seemed logical. Well, we bought one in December so Tampa was spent leisurely roaming around the show, attending a couple seminars, connecting with a few people, etc. It re-energized us and yes, kept the dream alive. Tampa however, seems like it was FOREVER ago! We also attended the local RV show, which quite honestly would have been a total bust, but we met up with other RVDreamers (jrzygrl64 and hubby) and walked the show and then went to dinner and talked for hours until our husbands drug us out of the bar!! This was huge as well as once again, reinforced the goal at hand.

Now, getting the house ready under ANY circumstance isn't fun, but the weather like others, has impacted our schedule some. Purging has been a lot harder than anticipated and not in "I can't part with my things" kind of way. It's just time consuming going through things, creating the "piles", listing stuff that we want to sell, etc. Staging the purge is also tricky as we want to get rid of furniture, but can't because the house won't show as nice.

Unlike you, I haven't been able to stay away from Camping Worlds website; I've found, even if I'm buying something small every couple of weeks, it's progress. Since we are new to RVing...we have a few things to get!! But, still helps as it's forward progress.

Having small milestones is so important for us. It's so easy getting bogged down with work and other stuff, that these are the little things that are keeping me focused on the future. Our "next" big milestones are getting the house on the market; attending the rally and getting our RV solar business up and running. Three biggies, but all very important!!!

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

I agree that the purging process was more difficult than we ever imagined. PURGE whenever you have time!! Can't get to the outside stuff? Clean out another closet. I'm saying this in hindsight. My wonderful husband is a packrat and a procrastinator so those 2 characteristics created chaos and stress at the end of our process. He wanted to wait until we had the RV home and he could figure out what was going to fit. In reality he knew much of it was not going to fit but had trouble paring down what he needed to take vs. what he wanted to take.
Byseandbyland - totally understand the desire to sell your furniture but needing some of it for staging for the house sale. Not sure if this will work for you but we did this via 2 online estate sales, sale 1 was getting rid of all the furniture we didn't need for staging or weren't still using (like my desk). I then had a garage sale which got rid of a lot of other stuff but in the end not sure the $$'s gained were worth the efforts to set up and conduct the sale. Then estate sale 2 - all the pics were taken ahead of time and as soon as the contract on the house was signed the second sale commenced getting rid of the rest of the furniture. Anything not sold was picked up by a local charity.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Trace,

A bit of advice in return.

Throw away the Camping World catalog. That will lead you to wanting to purchase stuff that you will later have to purge. Also, any time spent in the catalog takes away time from reading and noting from Howard's journal. After all, you've still got about 5 years of his journal yet to cover.

Also, invest in more and better fire extinguishers. A couple a few years ago saw their fifth wheel burn up because their fire extinguisher gave out before the fire was put out. They advised having two inside the coach, one on each side of the coach in the basement, and one on each side of the rear of the pickup.

Terry

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

byseaandbyland wrote:
, but we met up with other RVDreamers (jrzygrl64 and hubby) and walked the show and then went to dinner and talked for hours until our husbands drug us out of the bar!! This was huge as well as once again, reinforced the goal at hand.

Alright now I am totally bummed...you two are some of my favorite couples and you got to meet and drink together!!!! Man wish I would have been there bleh

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

Terry and Jo wrote:
Also, any time spent in the catalog takes away time from reading and noting from Howard's journal. After all, you've still got about 5 years of his journal yet to cover.

I finished reading it Terry...that may be part of my problem...every day I read the journal and it really helped cheer me up when I was getting impatient. Since I am all caught up I only get a tiny fix every other day or so. Anyways we've got off track here :)

The Restless Youngs · RV-Dreams Family Member

Trace wrote:
byseaandbyland wrote:
, but we met up with other RVDreamers (jrzygrl64 and hubby) and walked the show and then went to dinner and talked for hours until our husbands drug us out of the bar!! This was huge as well as once again, reinforced the goal at hand.

Alright now I am totally bummed...you two are some of my favorite couples and you got to meet and drink together!!!! Man wish I would have been there

We'll make up for it at the rally!! In hindsight we should have invited you....I think you're only 5 or so hours from here!!