'We're in the Home Stretch'

After spending a few months downsizing and preparing the house for sale, our North Austin house sold in two days. We're now about 3 weeks away from traveling full time in an RV.

Our North Austin house received 8 offers in 2 days. We plan to hit the road in late March.

What If I Hate RVing?

"Aren't you scared?" "You're selling your house to live in an RV?" "What if you hate it?"

Carbon Footprint: House vs. RV

For the past 7 years, Denise and I have lived in a small house in North Austin. Soon, we'll put that house on the market so we can buy an RV and travel full time. I've been wondering, how will living in an RV affect my impact on the environment?

Gardening and composting have been a big part of my life for the past 7 years. Photo courtesy Compost Pedallers

Ceiling fan install success!

Maybe I shouldn't feel so proud of installing a ceiling fan, but I'm really pleased. And surprised. After striking out when trying to swap out a broken pull cord light fixture in the master bedroom closet, figuring out the ceiling fan felt like a huge victory. And we're one step closer to getting our house in Austin on the market so we can buy an RV and travel full time.

Food waste in an RV

Downsizing has been at once liberating and heavy. Selling our house to live full time in an RV will come with many adjustments. I'll probably miss not having a garden the most, followed closely by my chickens, then the compost bins. One big change will be how we deal with food waste in an RV. For the past years, whenever we've had food begin to spoil in the fridge, we'd either feed it to the chickens or compost it for the garden.

At the end of the week, left overs and uneaten meals prepared for workday lunch get dumped into the compost bin or fed to the chickens. This won't be so easy once we begin living full-time in an RV.

Decision, decisions... about a toilet seat

House renovations lead to many decisions, even about something as unremarkable as a toilet seat. We bought our house in 2010 from an elderly couple. They installed a wheelchair ramp at the front door and disabled access bars in the shower. Our realtor believes that's part of the reason this house sat unsold for so long. We actually liked having an accessible house. Floral wallpaper in the bathroom? Not so much.

This photo is from the original real estate listing. While we could change the color of the walls and remove the wallpaper, the wooden parts are pretty much keepers. The towel racks, not pictured, were chrome and gold plating, which doesn't go.

Compost piles, garden broken down

The more we do to get the house ready for sale, the more we realize there is so much more to do. Painting, downsizing, preparing the yard -- it seems as if we'll never be done. I'm grateful to have help. Today, my friend Jeremy came to help break down two compost bins and a hugelkulture garden. We loaded about 5 wheelbarrows of compost and a wheelbarrow of soil into his trailer before we ran out of time. He'll use the material in his yard, which is part wildflower meadow, part grove, and made up of mostly native Central Texas plants. Jeremy also took 3 of my 9 compost bins, but not before finding some interesting critters living off of the decomposing organic material.

About a yard of compost sits in my friend Jeremy's trailer, partially obscuring two compost bins he'll put to use in his yard. One is a cone shaped composter, commonly called an earth tower, and the other is a modular cube Rubbermaid used to make. They've served me well over the years converting tons of food waste, chicken litter, and other organic material into some of the most nutritious plant food around.

Painting is no small task

Painting the interior of a house is no small task. Cleaning months worth of dust and grime, painting walls, then painting the trim is time consuming, labor intensive, and not really all that much fun. It'll be worth it once we sell the house, buy an RV, and begin traveling full time.

Painters tape seemed like a good idea so I could achieve a crisp line between the wall and trim. It seemed to work great until I started to peel it off -- portions of the wall and trim paint came off with the tape. Touch ups will prolong the fun.

Pool days are over

This is what it was like to have an above-ground pool in the backyard. Those days are now over, now that we're downsizing and preparing our house for sale so that we can travel full-time in an RV.

Paint -- lots of paint

Painting a few rooms will help with the sale of our house in Austin so we can live full-time in an RV. The dining area, bathrooms, and 2 bedrooms need a fresh coat. Hard work always pays off.

Our paint mascot, Patches (aka laser eyes), surveys a paint job well done.

Replacing the kitchen sink

Now that I've been to the hardware store 5 times for various parts and supplies, I've realized replacing the sink might have been a mistake. The old cast iron sink we pulled out was stained and dated. But it worked. This hole in the counter looks intimidating. If we're going to travel for long on the road, I'll need to know my way around a wrench.

Trip to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore

Denise's dad is visiting us from Corpus Christi to help us with a few things as we get the house ready to sell. We went to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore. Think Goodwill, but instead of clothes they sell home improvement materials. We picked up some paint rollers and a ceiling fan to replace the dated one in the living room. The past two nights have been about enjoying Austin's night life, but this coming week there will be work!

House sale | kitchen fixtures replaced

There's a lot of work to do before we'll be able to hit the road. The biggest effort will be in preparing the house for sale. While the house is perfectly livable and has had some relatively recent upgrades (new roof, water heater, and central air conditioning), the interior is dated and a bit worn. After a deep cleaning, fresh paint, and the right staging, we should have no problem selling the house.

Some of the sprucing up we've done so far includes replacing the dated light fixtures and cabinet handles in the kitchen. We'll still need to replace the cast iron sink with a stainless steel one. A deep cleaning will complete the minor makeover.