Hey guys, Jenna, here in today's video,
we're going to check out one family's gorgeously renovated RV.
April is going to take us through the space and explain why they decided to
downsize and how they redesigned the inside to fit their specific needs,
including a performance stage for their twin daughters.
But first I'd like to thank nomad internet for sponsoring this video.
Nomad is the only truly unlimited internet you can use in rural areas and while
on the road stay connected wherever you are without any extra fees to find out
more, check out the link in the description.
My name is April. This is my renovated fifth wheel.
I live here with my boyfriend, Jason, our twin daughters, Brooklyn and Adelaide,
and our one and a half year old puppy Jackson.
So before we moved into the RV, we were living in an apartment.
We moved up from Southern California to Northern California and we were
renting the apartment and it was just really expensive. We had no backyard.
And so we decided to give this a try.
The reason why we decided to go tiny was to save money
at a faster pace than we were renting the apartment that we were living in.
We didn't realize that we would quickly fall in love with the lifestyle that
comes with it.
But the main goal originally was to invest in real estate
and have kind of like residual income that way as well.
We've been living here for two and a half years. Now.
We first lived in a different space in the same RV park.
So we've never left this RV park. Actually. We've never traveled.
So we renovated this fifth wheel, just Jason and myself.
He has some building experience.
I have painting and DIY experience, but I knew if I had a vision,
we could just make it happen. So this is a 2005 Keystone Montana.
We paid $18,000 for it,
including the furniture and all of the renovations.
I would guesstimate probably somewhere close to $9,000. Total.
Since we moved tiny, we spend a lot more time together.
Obviously like in tight quarters, you have to, but we, we actually want to now.
So it's really brought our family really close together.
Something I really enjoy about in a small space is being able to figure out how
to organize everything. So it all fits and everything's functional.
So it's kind of like a little project for me.
I'm constantly trying to make sure that everything has a place and there's a
place for everything.
As you walk in, you are greeted with like one big great room.
You've got the living room, dining room,
homeschool area and kitchen.
So this kitchen originally had some overhead cabinets and we ripped those out
to kind of create a bigger open concept. We put this backsplash in right here.
It's actually peal and stick, which is really cool.
We originally had tac tiles in here, but they yellowed over time.
And then they also started peeling back.
So this stuff has really held up pretty nicely. So over here,
I've got my money tree. I love this thing. It's actually,
I got it on mother's day and it's grown so much, which is pretty awesome.
It's like my little baby. And then this is one of my favorite cabinets.
We kept it. We contemplated taking it out, but this is my spice rack,
which is really cool. On the other side of the peninsula,
you have the girls toys, they each get their own bin.
It's taken a really long time to downsize to that. Whatever fits in there,
they can have it.
And then we have lots and lots of books because we love reading books.
And then over here is our dinner table.
It's our homeschool table.
It's our everything table up above we have our dry food storage
with Mason jars. I'll show you a little bit right there.
It's all labeled nicely.
And then right over here is the couch.
So we picked a really large couch. It's from Ikea.
It's pretty awesome because it converts to a queen bed,
which is what we wanted because we gave the girls the master, the only bedroom.
So this is the original beam, the wood right here. We just sanded it,
painted it right here we renovated the fireplace.
It was a built-in piece before it stopped working last year.
So I actually did it all by myself. I took the whole thing out.
I got this brick paneling from Home Depot and I just installed it.
I cut it down to size.
And then I got this from Amazon and it's our main heat source.
So this actually used to be an entire cabinet. In retrospect,
it looks like it was really nice and it has really good storage,
but it really didn't. So we turned it into our whiteboard area.
We also have this little thing that we say every night before bed.
I love you with all my love and heart. My girls love that saying,
and then this right here, too,
this was actually a whole cabinet that went all the way up to the top as well.
And I kind of just wanted to create like a little drop zone station right here,
instead of everything being closed in, you know, I wanted some more shelf space.
And then up here, lots of changes in here as well.
This is like the main bathroom area.
This was enclosed before and we renovated it.
We took out the entire, uh,
the doors we put this backing on,
which I think is just like a laminate sheet, totally waterproof.
I haven't changed my shower head yet because I love the on-off switch.
But this thing is so cool because you can remove it.
When the girls do take showers. I lower it for their height,
which I thought was really awesome. Here is the toilet room.
This is where all the business happens.
It's very small.
So this door right here is technically the laundry room.
It has full hookups for a stackable washer and dryer,
but I converted it to the girl's closet.
We have a little step stool right here for them and they can reach their clothes
perfectly fine.
Finding a way to organize for people's
clothing in one bedroom has been a challenge,
but this has been a really good use of space.
This area right here was a dresser. The dresser was four drawers,
but they were like this deep, really, really small.
So it took up a lot of square footage,
but it didn't really provide that much storage.
So the girls started kindergarten this year.
So this is like their little homeschool area. Um,
we mainly do homeschool out there because it's bigger.
If I ever need to separate them for any reason,
then they one will sit here and one, one out there.
This bench is really cool.
I needed something super specific because the floor right here is
kind of like a step up. And it's really narrow.
And your traditional benches are really wide. So this one fits perfectly.
And not only does it fit perfectly,
but it's extendable and retractable.
You can take it outside.
You can have it down in the living room and you can have lots of people sitting
on it. Everything is kind of dual purpose.
This area right here is traditionally a queen mattress for the first two
years, we actually had a queen mattress.
And then I found out that like a twin mattress fits perfectly on top of
the queen. So it was almost like a step up.
And they had like their bunk beds like that for the first two years.
And then they asked me for real bunk beds.
So about four months ago we built them. So this bed,
when you're traveling, it comes all the way up to here.
So when we were going to build the bunk beds, my original plan was,
I want to cut this off and have it be like a regular floor,
but it didn't work that way because the slide mechanism comes all the way out to
this right here. So that kind of nixed our plan,
but it turned into our stage. So now the girls do little, you know,
shows in front of the mirror and dances and it's really kind of cute.
So it's worked out to our benefit actually,
I put these curtains here and they call it their little tree house.
So every night before bed,
they just close these curtains and they absolutely love their bunk bed.
So that's really fun.
Over here in the front, we have a little garage area for Jason,
his motorcycle, and then back over here,
we have a paved space for our garden right now.
It's just pumpkin's because it was Halloween,
but we're about to do our winter garden in the next couple of weeks.
And then this area is where we sit and hang out underneath our awning.
The nice little cozy spot Back here.
Originally, this whole area was just rocks.
So we paved the whole thing. We put some furniture,
some plants, that little bench, right there holds all the girls outdoor toys.
And then this right here is a fountain.
It's sets the mood at night with our lights and everything.
The kids love playing out here.
We have lots of dinners out here and we hang out with friends,
come over and.
That's about it.
Some challenges living in an RV. The first one I'll talk about is super petty,
but we don't have a garbage disposal. And I cook basically every meal in here.
I've got kids who don't finish their food all the time.
So we do have those little food catchers, but I really miss a garbage disposal.
The other challenge I have living tiny is just,
you are in a really tight space.
And sometimes you do just want your own like space to decompress from the
day. And it's kind of impossible to do that. So, I mean, I find myself just,
you know, taking walks instead. So there's ways to remedy it,
but definitely a challenge sometimes.
Yeah.
Whenever you're considering going tiny, you know,
really look at every different model you can think of online first and narrow it
down to like your top three that you think you'll love.
And then go look at them in person and like envision yourself, you know,
can you live here?
I always tell people to pick their top three must haves in a home and,
and find that in a tiny place. That's my bit of advice.