2livesimple’s Weblog


RV Living?
May 27, 2009, 8:12 pm
Filed under: Small housing ideas

On Monday we took a quick drive to an RV dealer my wife had seen as she drove by it a few times.

Most of the RVs we saw were not laid out well enough to actually live in.  Not that the space was not enough in some, but did not like how it was designed.

It was as if they found some space left over, and stuck a cabinet in it.  It didn’t seem to matter what the average person might need to store, just that a cabinet might fit there.  Any cabinet would do, even if it might only have space for a 6 pack of soda,  or 2 rolls of toilet paper.

I have to say that I was very disappointed with the quality in the majority of the RVs.  I know that many people trample through them, and may not treat them with the respect they would if they owned it.  However, I believe that is how you judge how something will age over time.

If someone tells you that a piece of furniture has had too many people sitting in it.  Say it is a floor model, and you accept that it has had more than its normal share of use, wouldn’t it really tell you how it would age over a longer period of time?

You know the cardboard pieces you tack on the back of most bookcases these days?  That thick paper board that is trying to look like a piece of wood, but fails horribly?  It was many times the bottom or back of a closet, and was sometimes terribly damaged.

If you could take 20 different RVs and pick and choose all the different items you like, and lay everything out, and then choose products that aren’t going to offgas and stink for a long, long, long time, then an RV might be an idea.  I know many people live in them, but I can’t even imagine how with what we saw.

Does anyone live in an RV?  Have you made any custom changes?  How is the insulation?  Do you have pictures?  Are you happy?  Anything you don’t like?