Nov. 25, 2021 | Preparations Underway!

As Thanksgiving approaches we are starting our preparations for our winter travels in our RV, Gladys. The biggest change this year is our new traveling companion Miss Daisy. Of course she cannot replace Mr. P. Nutt but she does offer her own personality and penchant for mischief.

Miss Daisy, who chose her own name as witnessed here, was 8 weeks old when we adopted her from “Heart of the Catskills” shelter in Delhi, New York. It was important to us that she was comfortable in a moving house on wheels so I took her with me whenever I was working in Gladys at home.  She made herself right at home so we planned a short camping trip to a NY State park as a “test drive”.  Maybe it was her tender age but she was absolutely fearless and settled right in on the dashboard so as not to miss a thing! We spent three nights at the beautiful Letchworth State Park returning with a purr-r-r-fect traveling companion. 

While Mr. T.  concentrated on the exterior duties of travel prep, Miss Daisy and I worked on the inside unpacking clothes, food, supplies and of course, redecorating.  One of the first things any self-respecting female RV co-owner does is to remove the stock cornice boards that surround the windows.  It is my belief that the RV manufacturers compete for the “ugly windows” prize much like some of us take pride in our ugly Holiday sweaters. 

Fleetwood won in 2012, the year our Bounder 33C left the assembly line. The entire interior is a sea of brown and beige and those cornice boards fit right in. With some help from a contractor friend, I got the boards down and began to perform exploratory surgery. Long story short, or at least not so long, I removed the legs that covered the sides of the windows and reupholstered the top board that hid the mechanism and roll shades with a teal upholstery fabric to add some color. A coordinating print was glued to the smallest  of the shades and some side curtains are being sewn by my friend Gray for the larger windows.

I used some restraint when selecting peel-and-stick tile to the fireplace. I love the way it turned out! The tile has some brushed gold here and there so I changed all twenty cabinet/drawer handles from the silver to brushed gold.  I think it looks great; Tim just shook his head. He hasn’t seen the new light fixture yet.  

I do want to thank my partner in crime who helped me with the difficult stuff,  local contractor and good friend Gary Faracci. He worked below his skill set on little projects and never complained out loud.  Much easier to work with than Mr. T!  Another friend, Gray Mason, sewed the curtains in the cockpit and living area. She put up with Plan A, B, C and so forth until I finally made a decision and she managed to walk away with her sanity intact. 

All of the new furnishings and decorative items were ordered from Amazon. Rugs came from Overstock.com and the fabrics came from FabricGuru.com.   Our UPS driver will miss me while we are gone!