Transitioning From Full-timing To A House Is Revealing

Well, it's been almost two months since we've posted. We closed on our house in The Villages on Monday, December 9, and we've been going non-stop for weeks.

It's been a combination of work and fun, but the reason for not posting has been more about not knowing what to say.

So, I'm just going to wing it with a somewhat scattered recap of what we've been up to.

 

Moving Day

Here's a look at our RV in the driveway as we moved in.

 

 

As you can see, it didn't quite fit, so we had to put out some orange cones. Although there is little traffic on our street, our house is in a curve and the more precautions the better.

 

 

Cleaning & Upgrading Our New House

The realtors who had the property listed did a great job of covering up flaws and filth, but we still got a great deal even if it's been a bit more work than we expected. 

Again, we bought the two bedroom/two bath house furnished and "turnkey" which means the seller left pretty much everything including dishes, silverware, pots, pans, linens, and much more. The house also came with an electric golf cart (which is in pretty decent shape for its age) .....

 

 

and a four-person hot tub. All that made it even a better deal since 1) a golf cart is a "must have" in The Villages, and 2) being full-time RVers for 15 years we, of course, had no furniture. So, not having to fully furnish an empty house and buy all the little things necessary to run a bit larger household has been great.

But behind all those furnishings, it looked like none of it had been moved for years. The prior owner built this house in 2002 and has lived here all that time. We're assuming she just wasn't able to move furniture and appliances and clean behind them. Boy we were in for a rude awakening.

We spent the first three days cleaning and re-arranging furniture while moving in our little bit of stuff from the RV. 

While vacuuming the bedrooms, there were clouds of dust and dirt, and, being concerned for our health, we decided the carpeting had to be replaced as soon as possible. That was done in the first two weeks, and it made a big difference.

The other big thing was the entire interior of the house needed to be painted. Walls, doors, baseboards, and trim - they were all in pretty bad shape once we took a closer, more thorough look. After interviewing painters and getting quotes, that work started the first week of January and was completed January 13, the day we got back for doing an RV show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

Linda also had the painter paint the generic wood cabinets in the kitchen and the vanities in the bathrooms, and she added new hardware (there was none before).

The kitchen floor is horrible and needs to be replaced, but we'll probably wait on that until March.

The kitchen appliances were old. We thought we would be fine with them for now, but we were wrong. The dishwasher was randomly leaking, so I bought a cheap new one at Lowe's, and our grass cutter/handyman installed it. Since then we've gradually replaced all the almond/bisque appliances with used, but nice white appliances.

Now, we knew that the furniture was good enough to get us by, but surprisingly some of it is perfectly acceptable, especially now that we've scrubbed everything. The plan is to slowly replace what we can't live with, but we're not very good with patience for that kind of thing. The good news is that The Villages has well over 50,000 homes and over 130,000 people, and Villagers are constantly changing homes and updating and changing their interiors. They sell the stuff they no longer need at pretty good prices.

So, we've been using the neighborhood app/website NextDoor.com to search for bargains and to sell the furniture and stuff we don't want. We've gotten a pair of nice recliners and living room furniture, a dining room table, six chairs, and a matching hutch, a couple of bar stools, a light to go over the dining area table, a gas range, a washer & dryer, a microwave, a rolling island for the kitchen, a desk, and more. 

I got a 52-inch 4k "smart" TV at a bargain price and a 40-inch TV for the bedroom for $30. It's been nice that we've been able to get some good stuff without breaking the bank. A couple of other TVs came with the house.

Of course, other than sports, we still aren't watching much TV. We didn't sign up for cable or satellite TV. But I did spring for high speed fiber optic internet (cheaper and far faster than anything we had on the road), and we are streaming all our entertainment using Roku Streaming Sticks with YouTubeTV as our primary live TV source. For our needs, YouTubeTV has the best combination of local stations, cable channels, and sports channels for the money. Plus, with our Amazon Prime membership, we can stream Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Music (which we use a lot).

You can watch live TV or record shows to the cloud, and YouTubeTV will easily travel with us on trips to RV shows and on our RV journeys.

Linda has used her decorating/design background to repurpose furniture, rearrange it and move artwork and decorative items. She's gotten new bedding, shower curtains, and other items that have changed the character of rooms and made it more personal to us.

I ordered a cheap patio furniture set off of eBay, and after a few hours of putting it together, we replaced the furniture that was on our lanai/screened patio/birdcage.

We sold the old patio furniture, the old microwave, the old range, and several other items using NextDoor, and we donated the old washer/dryer to a grandmother raising her young grandchildren.

More recently, we got the necessary supplies to treat and test the water in the hot tub. It's really old and the cover needs to be replaced, but it works and we've been enjoying it quite a bit. That was one thing we missed when we went on the road.

 

Photos

For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos showing what we've done.

From the front entrance.

 

 

Living Area. The electric recliners, tables, corner lamp, TV and other items came from Villages our posted them on NextDoor and from Linda's Mom's neighbors. The blue chair, sofa, fake fireplace, and wall art came with the house and were re-purposed by Linda.

 

 

Dining Area. The dining table (with leaf to expand to six spots) and chairs and hutch and the light over the table all came from postings on NextDoor, and we sold all the prior wicker furniture using NextDoor.

 

 

Kitchen. The bar stools, desk, rolling island, gas stove, and microwave all came from NextDoor listings. We also got a nice white refrigerator on NextDoor, but we mis-measured and it didn't quite fit, so it's now in the garage and we need to find another refrigerator to replace the current one. Our chest freezer that we brought back from Alaska is also in the garage, and we still have lots of salmon which is probably what you will be eating if you come to visit us.

 

 

 

Linda had the cabinets painted gray, and she installed hardware on all of them. The dishwasher is the only thing in the front area of the house that we bought new.

 

 

 

We got the washer and dryer off NextDoor, and we are fortunate that our laundry area is inside. In many of these small villas, the laundry is in the garage.

 

 

Living & Dining Area. This view is looking toward the front of the house to our small lanai (main door) and our "bird cage" patio (sliding glass doors).

 

 

Lanai. The lanai (or front porch) is still a work in progress. Because we have the wonderful bird cage area to enjoy the outdoors, Linda has decided to turn the lanai (which has glass windows) into her craft room using a combination of furniture that came with the house along with some items she picked up using NextDoor. You might notice she has the two pieces of stained glass that she made for our fifth wheel a few years ago (the folks that bought our fifth wheel were kind enough to return those pieces to us). 

 

 

Bird Cage. The bird cage is what sets this villa apart from all the others on our street. Here is the aerial view of our end lot which gives us privacy on the one side and allows us to have this big screened porch.

 

 

 

Again, we sold the old patio furniture on NextDoor, and bought the new patio set on eBay. We got the cart by the sliding glass doors for free on NextDoor, and I roll it around and use it as my grilling station for our Blackstone. 

The fire table is new and from Home Depot.

 

 

 

As I mentioned before, the hot tub came with the house. It's an old Coleman Spa from the early 2000s and we need a new cover and we need to stain the cabinet, but it works and we've been enjoying it.

 

 

Note, we wouldn't spring for new appliances but we got new patio furniture and a new campfire so we can still enjoy the outdoors in our little oasis. Perhaps we're trying to hang on to a bit of camping amongst the rows of houses. 

 

Master Bedroom. The new gray carpet in the bedrooms was inexpensive and Linda bought a new comforter and pillows to go with her darker gray accent wall.

 

 

The bed frame, the bedroom furniture, the lamps, and the corner recliner (moved from the living area) all came with the house. We just scrubbed it all down, and Linda re-arranged it. We're still looking for some wall art.

 

 

 

Besides the comforter, linens, and pillows, the only thing "new" in here is the TV I got off NextDoor for $30.

 

 

Master Bath. Linda got a new shower curtain, rugs, and towels for the bathroom, plus she had the vanity and medicine cabinet painted, and she added hardware. She also installed two new grab bars for potential short-term tenants.

 

 

 

We like the low step-in shower for ourselves and for any tenants we may have. The bathroom scale came with the house.

 

Guest Bedroom. Linda had an accent wall painted, and got a new comforter, linens, and pillows. The bed frame, furniture, TV, lamps, and wall art came with the house.

 

 

 

Guest Bath. Like the rest of the house, the guest bath was painted. Linda got a new shower curtain, rug, and towels, but everything else was pretty much here.

 

 

 

Linda installed a grab bar next to the tub/shower in here as well.

 

 

That pretty much takes care of the inside and the bird cage.

 

Garage. There isn't really anything special about the garage. It's a one car garage with space for the golf cart, and I just organized it to make everything as easy to get to as possible. Unfortunately, the spring was broken, so we had to get that repaired and we replaced the rollers, the remotes, and the keypad.

Golf Cart. It didn't take long to learn the golf cart needed new batteries. I sort of suspected that. It died on me coming back from playing pickleball one morning, but fortunately we have Kart Aide (golf cart roadside assistance), and they got me home.

Around the same time, the onboard computer also went out so the batteries wouldn't charge. That had to be replaced, too. It was quite the debate as to whether to put that much money into on old golf cart it or to replace it, but it was still far cheaper to make the repairs than to buy another one right now, and it's a good quality cart considering its age. The seats were also pretty bad (just dirty, not torn), and we solved that problem with some nice, inexpensive seat covers from Amazon.

Driveway. Our driveway is too narrow to park two vehicles side-by-side, so we got approval from the Villages Architectural Committee to expand it by a couple of feet on the left side.

 

 

That way, we'll be able to get the Jeep out of the garage without having to move Linda's van. Hopefully, that will be done in March.

Landscaping & Outside. Over the Christmas holidays, Linda's sister, Karen, came down from Jacksonville, and the two gals cleaned up the landscaping, moved plants, dug up things we didn't want, and made the exterior look quite nice.

 

 

We have some of the largest bird-of-paradise plants we've ever seen.

We got our little house sign for the lamp post so I guess we're now official.

 

 

A little fountain along the walk to the front door came with the house, but it wasn't working when we moved in. Linda ordered a new pump, and got that working, so now she sits out there with her coffee in the morning and enjoys the sound of the water and the birds.

 

 

She got some solar lights, so sometimes she sits out there at night.

 

 

The fountain and the fire table in the bird cage are her happy places and she tends to flit between them.

 

 

Well, that pretty much wraps up the photo tour of our place. 

 

Linda's Business

In the midst of all the house cleaning and re-organizing, Linda has been working her new business - Your 2nd Pair of Hands.

 

 

Her website is up and running, and she's already had several clients that have had her put up Christmas trees and lights and help with decorating and organizing. She spent three full days with one lady who was so overwhelmed, she didn't know where to start.

After the first of the year, she took down Christmas decorations and helped store them and she's picked up a couple of new clients. If you know anyone in The Villages that could use a second pair of hands once in a while, give Linda a call.

 

Administration & Miscellaneous

While Linda was earning some money, I cleaned out our storage unit, organized the garage, took care of dealing with the mortgage company, set up the utilities, and went through the painstaking job of changing our address everywhere we can think of.

According to our mail forwarding service St. Brendan's Island:

Please note that postal regulations governing “Agent Forwarded Mail” prohibit submission of a "Forwarding Order", i.e. change of address Form 3575/3576, to redirect your mail. You must notify your correspondents individually of your new address to prevent mail from being delivered to your Walnut Street address. Please note that this is a US Postal Service regulation, not a SBI Inc. policy.

I had a list of 30 places where our address needed to be changed. For most, I could do it online. But some required phone calls or emails and proof of the new residence.

We also had to change the addresses on our driver's licenses and vehicle registrations. That wasn't too difficult, but we needed proof of address and other documentation, so that had to wait until after closing.

Utilities in The Villages is pretty easy. But it's weird having to deal with all these different companies and having to prove we are who we are and we own the house. Getting our mortgage was relatively easy, but it was still a much bigger pain than we've been used to.

 

Realizations

In these last several weeks I've realized a few things.

First, we always talked about full-time RVing as being a much simpler life .... and we were right!

Second, I liked being "off the radar", and I'm not enjoying having to be involved with so many different entities that have our personal information. After being a full-timer for so long, everything, no matter how relatively easy it is in the overall scheme of things, seems like a hassle to me.

Third, I hate all the junk mail we now get because we've had a deed and a mortgage recorded in the public records. Every possible company that targets homeowners monitors the public records and they send out offers and coupons and other enticements or introductions as quickly and often as they can.

In the big picture of our lives, we're still happy that we've made the decision to settle down. Those first few weeks of waiting and then scrambling and working our tails off were rough, but that's mostly over now. As I mentioned above, I liked being "off the radar" and we always talked about how nice it was to be outside the "real world" problems. Now, we're sort of back in the "real world", but it's tolerable because The Villages is still like being a part of a community that's outside the norm. Much like full-time RVing, people on the outside don't really know what it's all about, and people on the inside are more concerned with living happy lives than dealing with the societal pressures of day-to-day living that used to have more control over us in our pre-full-timing days.

With all the work we've been doing, I've still been playing pickleball and basketball and having so much fun. And Linda has been enjoying the work she has been doing through her business - it's fulfilling and rewarding for her.

 

What About Our RV?

As for the RV, we found a storage facility nearby for $35/month with security gates and on-site personnel. We'll try to rent it out when we're not using it, but we'll be using it for about six weeks this Spring, and Linda is planning on doing a two-week "sisters trip" in the Summer. We were able to lower our insurance a little bit as we changed from our Full-timer Package coverage and we can remove liability insurance for a few months in the winter while the RV is in storage.

The big issue with renting out the RV is insurance for the renters. I originally listed it on RVShare and was considering listing it on Outdoorsy, the two largest, most visible peer-to-peer rental companies. They make handling insurance easier, but the fees they charge the owners and renters on a deal are pretty high, and by the time everything is added up, the nightly rates seems way too high to me.

So, we're looking at ways to make renting our RV more worthwhile for both us and the renters, and that may mean we just offer it to our own current network. I've found we can get a commercial policy on our own, and though it is expensive, it takes out the middlemen, and I've come to the conclusion that it would be a better situation in our case.

 

Renting Out Our House For The First Time

We had always said that we would rent out our house in The Villages whenever we eventually moved here. The rent we can get in January through March is just hard to pass up ($3,500 a month). And we're considering renting it out monthly or weekly (or perhaps even nightly) in other months because we can easily 1) shack up with Linda's Mom or 2) live in our RV during the rental period.

Of course, there was no way we could rent it this January, but with us being gone three weeks in February to do RV shows, we decided to give it a shot. 

We monitored NextDoor and saw a Villager that was looking for a house for his brother to rent for February. We replied, and he came to look at the house the day we got back from doing seminars in Grand Rapids, MI. That was also the day the painter finished, so it was looking great. He called his brother in Pennsylvania and told him, "Yeah, you'll want this one."

I got several sample leases together and took the best parts and created a lease for our house. We got the lease signed, and received a security deposit. The week before his arrival, we got the balance of the rent.

So, we have a signed lease and our first tenant. His one month of rent will pay our property taxes for the year plus our electric bills for the year. And having our first, real live tenant in this house really kicked us into gear the last half of January to get everything in great shape.

Linda labeled every light switch in the house (plus a whole lot more) and prepared a welcome manual with instructions, tips, and information. On February 1, we met the tenant at the house, gave him a walk-through, went through the manual with him, and showed him all the numbers to call if he had any issues. Nice guy.

Then we proceeded to move in with Linda's Mom until Feb. 5 when it was time to fly to Minneapolis for our RV show appearances in La Crosse, Wisconsin and then in Duluth, Minnesota.

 

The RV Shows

We went to Grand Rapids and did the RV show there January 9 - 12. We did a morning TV show there like we often do and did seminars each day, Thursday - Sunday. We've worked with those folks (ShowSpan) for several years now and we enjoy working with them.

For February, were doing two shows with Shamrock Productions, a new show promoter for us. They found us online and we agreed to do seminars and promotion for them for back-to-back shows in La Crosse and Duluth. I sent them our Grand Rapids TV interview and they quickly lined us up for several TV and radio interviews. It was the first time we were doing a multi-sport show, and it was their first time offering RV seminars. 

So, we flew into Minneapolis, rented a car, hit the Costco there for some keto-friendly items, and drove to La Crosse for the first show. We did two TV interviews and a few radio interviews there for their 43rd annual Boat, Sports, Travel, RV & Hunting Show. We even did ESPN radio, and I got to talk a little college basketball before we told our RVing story. 

The La Crosse show went quite well, except we got 10 inches of snow on the last day of the show, and we had to drive to Duluth the next day.

 

 

After scraping the snow off the rental car Monday morning, we drove northwest to Duluth. Fortunately, the roads were fine and we got checked into our hotel in downtown Duluth.

The next day, we had a 6:00 a.m. TV interview and then a show taping followed by a radio interview. A couple days later we had another TV interview and it was 15 below zero (without wind chill). Fortunately, in both cities, our hotel was connected to the show venue by skywalks.

We did seminars Wednesday through Sunday, and the show promoter president invited us to come back and do both shows next year. He was very impressed with us, and it felt quite good to get that kind of response.

We only did two seminars for those shows which they rotated all the days, and we were quite surprised at how good our attendance was. Being the first time for RV seminars and seeing all the other non-RV attractions at these shows, our expectations were low. But, our seminars were pretty well attended and we had one that was standing room only - over 75 people.

As of this writing, we are back in Florida, and will be flying out tomorrow for the Roberts Center RV & Camping Show in Wilmington, Ohio which serves Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus.

 

 

RV-Dreams

Our 2020 RV-Dreams Spring Educational Rally has been picking up momentum. We only have about a dozen RV sites left, the on-site tiny houses have been sold out since November, and there is only 1 on-site glamping safari tent left. We have about 120 people signed up thus far.

We have some new information about the Rally, and I'll be sending out an email to all attendees this week.

We're still not sure exactly where we are going with RV-Dreams, which is one of the reasons it has been so long since we've posted. I'm considering a new version of RV-Dreams, a new format and possibly even a new website with a little bit different focus. Certainly, blogging about our days in The Villages isn't much use to our RV audience, but perhaps we can gather input to see how we can best continue to educate, inform, and inspire or RV audience.

RVing is now in our soul, and it's not something that we can just casually shake off. So, in the next weeks (maybe months), we'll be doing a lot of soul-searching to see how to best move forward with RV-Dreams and how we make it work with our new life in The Villages.

As always, thank you for your love and support.

---

 

 

Comments

[renee]

As always, thanks for your inspiration and valuable information! Excited for you and this next chapter!

[Susan Anderson]

Excellent post Howard, thanks for all your time and effort.
Interesting your comments about being back in the "real world"....something those of us still fulltiming will need to consider for sure.
Your new home looks amazing!
We sure hope with all your soul searching you find a way to keep in touch because you and Linda have so much to offer BOTH to the RVng world and the non RVers.

PS - We had to replace our hot tub cover, well worth it. That is the ONLY thing I miss from our stixs n brix is our hot tub.

[Pamela]

So glad to get an update from you!
I watch a YouTube channel of a couple that live in the Villages and it’s fun and interesting!
I hope maybe you and Linda might consider doing the same thing. Not necessarily a vlog, but continuing your blog all about “Village” life! 😊
Thanks for sharing!
God Bless🙏

[Jo Gebbert]

While we are so very happy and excited for you and Linda, it's just so sad and surreal to me that you are no longer on the road. I'm having such a hard time wrapping my head around it. We owe so much to you both for introducing us to this wonderful lifestyle and it just breaks my heart any time someone hangs up their keys. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it! I know we'll have to pull off one day, but I just can't go there. We wish you both the very best life has to offer. May God bless and keep you both always and all ways! With much love and gratitude...

[Susan Alexander]

I don’t know if you remember me. I came to visit you when you were in Chester CA when I lived in Sacramento.
I can’t thank you enough for your help with making my decision to RV full time after I retired. It has been an amazing 8 years.
I too have decided to settle in one place near family. So last December 13th I put in an offer for a very small 3 bedroom house in Hentyetta Oklahoma. I have since moved in and have gone through a lot of the same feelings and realizations that you mention. I still think I have made the right decision, although I will have to supplement my income for the extras.
Thank you again. It’s been a great ride!

[Steve and Dianne Colibaba]

That’s a beautiful home. You now have the best of both worlds and still seem to be in your happy place. Congrats on this next stage of your lives!

[Tom Drotning]

Howard & Linda
Great to hear from you! The house looks great! Nice job Linda! We did our bucket list trip to Alaska last summer 4 months and 12,400 miles. Drove the top of the world highway and up to the arctic circle. We followed your journals and went to many of the places that you visited. Thanks for all your wonderful posts and pictures!!
Tom & Cheryl Drotning

[Laurel Owen]

We don't regret selling the RV and buying a house. It was the right thing to do for my Mom's sake. The only thing now is deciding where to go on vacation :-) Glad to see you are still blogging, love seeing your place in the Villages.

[Bill and Nancy]

WOW...you two have been on the go!!! What a great job you have done with the house...have to love, Nextdoor and we also used Habitat Restores. We've told our kids they can just recycle our stuff if anything happens to us;-)) It does take some adjusting back to a sticks and brick and the "real world" stuff. Fortunately, we still have our new "Little Baby" in the port next to the house. Keeps us in touch with our RVing world;o)) We are still part-time real-life people. We'll be heading out mid May and returning mid October. I guess we are "Snowbirds" now!!

We wish you the very best as you move in new directions. You two have inspired so many people to live a life they love. Thanks as always for all you do for all of us!!!

[Sherry]

Wow I'm worn out just reading about all you two have done. I'm trying to figure out what you do with all the clothes in your closets and dressers when you have to clear out your house for renters. Great that those rentals pay so many expenses but it must be a hassle to move in and out of your own house, assuming you have somewhere to put everything you take out. Glad to hear you are now down to having some fun in your new life or perhaps it's now a combination life.

[Jane]

So glad to see an update. Linda needs to strongly advertise her "interior decorating on a shoestring budget" on her site. I would love to have her revitalize my house.
Jane in Kansas

[Mrs Thompson]

THANK YOU for the update ~ it was very thorough and interesting to read about your big transition. Your new home looks fabulous and comfy!

[JC Webber III]

H&L,

We are also considering The Villages so we will be coming by next winter to check it out. Hope to come by for a visit once we get there.

-- jc&bev

[Bill and Jodee Gravel]

Had to laugh at the junk mail and reality of utility companies! You two really got a lot done in quick time, and the house looks amazing. I know Linda had fun having larger space to plan and decorate - I've sure enjoyed our little Arizona winter house :-) Looking forward to seeing how things move forward. Thanks for getting us caught up!!

[Phyllis East]

Wow my head is spinning from all this info. I would often check out your blog the last couple of months curious to get the latest. You sure did supply.

When we settled the house was great. Only needed a few things. It was the property! Found two huge trash heaps. One of the side property and the other about 100 feet in the back. All overgrown with brush, etc. When I say trash.... refrigerator, air conditioner, washer, TV, bathtub, siding, clothes, shoes, etc, etc.

But we could take our time to clear it. It was not visible to visitors. What you did in only a month or so is remarkable.

[Andrea Charles]

Howard and Linda!!! Wow, what a transformation it is. I have been an ardent fan of your RVing life for quite a while. Loved the hot tub and the lovely gray shades in the bedroom! Linda can do magic with her hands. Wishing you all the best for your business