Tag Archives: rv

better with friends

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First off, we are pretty excited about our new ‘grass’ {turf rug} . I was sweeping about 4-5 times a day and now down to 0-1 which is a WIN in my book. It is fun and cheerful and never needs watered ?

But why fun are nice things without friends to share them with!? The boys got a huge surprise today when their besties from the desert just happened to be driving through. So much fun showing their friends their new home.

Not a bad view for a play date! We had to rush out of the desert quickly being so tight on our timeline and we’ll be back for one last hoorah to officially say “until next time” to everyone. It’s been such a wave of emotions and so hectic that we have not even had time to process what major changes we are making!

We also had SO much to take care of during this time to get our airstream liveable that we did not get a chance to see all of our amazing San Diego/North County friends! I already feel like there’s not enough time in each spot when we have friends and family around. As you can see, we’re still working to put in the basics – like a bathroom door! Yay for a door! We found a steal of a hollow (aka lightweight) custom door at the hardware store that had been returned and was marked down on clearance. Those are my FAVORITE! So we changed our plan and decided to use it as a bathroom door. It looks pretty nice and though we don’t have latches or seals on it, it functions as a semi-private cover for those using the facilities 😉

The only bummer part of our friends stopping by was them having to leave 🙁 By the time you’re 6 years old, saying ‘goodbye’ to your best friend is not fun and even though we’re processing emotions of our own, seeing your kiddos go through sadness is rough. This goodbye was hard for the boys since I think we have been gone just long enough that they are realizing things are changing and it’s not just another weekend trip.



Another awesome part of traveling is being able to catch up with friends that you have not seen in years. You know the ones that you pick up on the conversation right where you left off? Tonight we had an awesome visit from the Davis family – the same friends we camped at this beach with exactly 4 years ago probably to the day. The kids were so little then, but they had fun re-connecting with their new ‘old friends’ and had a blast…..cooking out and roasting marshmallows, of course!! There are SO many more friends we wanted to see in the area, but the good news is we’ll just have to come back sooner than later!

airstream renovation: flooring

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Something is FINALLY happening on the inside!! I think at the end of all this maybe we will have time to better organize our updates, but for now just trying to keep up with it so we can have some of this written down and documented. This week we’ve made some big strides!

We installed the floors early this week. We went with TrafficMASTER allure after reading a lot of reviews on what to use and not use in a travel trailer. It is so crazy the things you have to factor in and consider when taking your ‘home’ into all different climates and also moving it around constantly. It is like having to build everything to be able to withstand an earthquake at all times. So fun. Anyway, the floors we went with a floating plank style but since we could not use real wood bc of climate control, moisture and weight issues we went with the Allure vinyl plank. Here’s what went down (literally)

It is crazy how much the lighting changes the shade of this floor, but in most light it is more of a neutral unfinished tone than the golden hue. We wanted it to be warmer than a grey driftwood, but still light and very neutral.

Pros: easiest floor we have ever installed. So so so easy. Literally press it down and a pair of heavy duty clippers or box cutters did the trick to make the cuts. It looks great – has a nice texture and we loved the color options. It is super easy to clean and seems very durable as little ones have already dropped tools and heavy objects on it with no ill result (big plus).


Cons: installing it in a travel trailer voids the warranty or any type of guarantee it may otherwise have. In reading the fine print, it actually recommends installing it in a cool dark place. Well that makes life rather boring. Short story:: it can’t take the heat.

So the day after we celebrated our beautiful new floors it hit triple digits here in the high desert. Blaring hot sun with no reprieve. By mid day with it closed up and stored the floors were already having issues 🙁 we have several spots that buckled and warped with the high temps. Thankfully as it cooled again that night some of it went back down, but we are going to have to go through and glue down several parts of our nice new and NOT cheap floating vinyl floor….which is a bummer.


It still looks good. It will still work, but despite all the rave reviews we had read, we will NOT likely be recommending this flooring to anyone renovating an RV or travel trailer bc of this. Unfortunately most other flooring options would be just as bad or worse so we feel we still have a good choice, but definitely not impressed at it warping in spots on day 1. Hoping it will be a fairly easy fix and we will not have more issues with it moving forward. Overall we are still happy to have it in and excited to move on to the next step: building in the furniture!