Hey guys, Jenna here, and I'm back again with another tour for you.
As many of you know, I am really into renovated RVs and campers.
I even renovated one myself recently.
but in this week's video I'm going to show you how one couple took something
that looks like a regular RV on the outside and made something absolutely
spectacular on the inside.
So without further ado, let's take a tour.
I'm Shelby. This is my husband Rooster, and this is our RV Louise.
We're actually not really new to the tiny living game and we got married in 2015
and right away moved on to a boat that was actually smaller than the RV.
So this for us feels more homey than some of the other places we've lived.
So Rooster is in the military and I am an online ESL teacher.
So this lifestyle really works for us because I don't have to quit my job and
start all over again every time we move somewhere and as long as there's wifi,
I can work.
For the first few years of our marriage,
we spend the majority of our marriage actually living separately in different
cities, states, sometimes countries,
and so the RV was really the only solution for us to stay together under the
same roof for the first time in a year almost because we were moving so often
and we didn't own furniture,
we would just take a bed with us everywhere we went.
So the RV is the first time we've owned a kitchen table in three years.
So for us it was nice to finally have a place to really call home.
So when we got the RV,
we just pretty much completely overhauled it.
I grew up working with my dad who was a carpenter and so learned a little bit here
and there.
We had these big old builtin ugly recliners back here.
We actually had overhanging cabinets, so we tore out a lot of stuff in here.
Has been a lot harder than it should've been because not having a table saw,
you can't have a whole garage full of stuff and this thing that's definitely
made it a little bit more difficult.
So my style is a little more eclectic and Bohemian.
But when we found out we were moving to California,
I definitely went with a more sort of shack, interior design.
I didn't realize how much of a creative outlet this was going to be for me.
So it's been really fun for me just to challenge myself creatively and learn
that you don't have to be a professional at something.
If you have something in your heart you want to do, you should just go for it.
I think my favorite part is the day bed area.
It's just very unique to us in our home and it was like the first area that I
stepped after all the blood, sweat and tears and was like, Oh, this is it.
So I think my favorite part is just being able to pack up and be right next to
the beach one day.
With him being military and living separate life for so long,
it's nice to finally live under the same roof together.
Sometimes we'll complain about little things and we'll remind each other like
remember why we're doing this.
I think that we also learned to just live with less.
You don't need what you think you need.
Welcome to Louise, come on in.
So this is our kitchen here. We had a full size fridge originally,
but it broke and so instead of going with a RV fridge,
which cost about $1000-$2,000 we went residential and just for the two of
us, the mini fridge works perfectly.
There's enough space in there I grocery shop, maybe twice a week over.
Here's our food pantry over here.
There was originally a microwave with a very large vent around it.
We took out the vent and realized that there was a lot of space back there that
was being wasted.
So we kind of just redid it into a new cabinet and it's kind of our catchall.
There used to be overhead cabinets that extended out into the living room.
It was really just kind of an eyesore locked off light.
So we took those out and used open shelving.
Over here is where I do all the dishes or we don't have a dishwasher,
so I just extend this out and do dishes by hand.
So this is our dining room and as you go throughout the home you'll notice that
a lot of the stuff that we have in here, it has been DIY or thrifted.
This is a hat that I got for $5 turned upside down to shine the light
through over here these curtains I made out of Turkish towels and a bamboo rod.
My husband made the bench himself for about $30 and the table was free.
So pretty inexpensive living area.
Over here is our living room area.
We hung up our surfboard using bamboo and twine.
So bamboo was a big component in building with the RV just because it's so
cheap.
Underneath here we have extra storage. You can see a cat door,
there's a section here for her litter box in the center
there's a section for her safe place when we're moving the RV I'm a huge
thrifter. And so I actually changed out the decor up there quite often.
For instance, the radio came from the flea market. The deer's head,
as you can see, has been broken several times, and glued back together.
I just love it. I think is a little piece of the eclectic rustic charm.
We're from Kansas, so that just kind of reminds me of home.
So the coffee table is one piece in the RV that's kind of an unnecessary item.
We don't really use it for anything. We just love the aesthetic of it.
We thrifted it in Virginia Beach and we just couldn't let it go.
So it's just one of those pieces that we hung on to.
Even though it didn't have a functional purpose for the RV,
we just couldn't bring ourselves to let it go.
So one of the other requirements for the RV when we were looking was that it
must have a work area or a desk for me, since I teach online,
all I do is I put up a little poster with visual aids behind me and this
turns into my virtual classroom.
One of the things I like about having my own desk area over here is that it's
the one place in the RV that is all mine. It belongs entirely to me. So,
and what you see over here as a lot of me rocks and gems and air plants and
seashells, it's all just kind of a mild mix of all the things I find and love.
It was really important to me to have my own space in here that way when I'm at
work, I'm at work and when I'm at home I'm at home.
Over here is our coffee bar in very close proximity to my desk.
You'll notice this actually was supposed to be torn out.
We just didn't have time for it. So it was left as is.
Nobody owns a box TV in 2009
So kind of cool.
My hubby built these little storage spaces inside the stairs for us to keep our
shoes, so that's super convenient.
Over here we have a little closet where we can keep our broom,
our keys and it has all of our electrical system and it tells us our tanks if
they're full or empty.
Behind this curtain here we have our shower went up. Here is our bedroom.
All right,
this is our bed and underneath there is some additional storage where we keep our
winter clothes. Our headboard we made out of foam shiplap.
We actually had a painter come in and give us an estimate for them to paint
because we realized we were running low on time for renovations and they quoted
us $3,000 to paint the RV. Instead of doing that,
we put the shiplap up to cover the wallpaper since it couldn't be painted at a
cheaper price. Here we have some shutters covering our windows.
We made that out of just one long shutter.
We cut it in half and split it between the two windows.
Over here we have some additional storage for clothes. We have a dresser,
so pretty decent amount of storage in here.
Up here is where I keep all of my hair and makeup.
This is my husband's catchall.
This is our little toilet room. Not a lot of privacy in the RV,
but it gets the job done. So we have a normal working RV toilet.
You also have our little letter board in here and it usually has something that
references using the bathroom,
Hoping
to conceive it in the next year. So fingers crossed. If that happens,
this space is going to need to function much differently with a baby.
So what that might look like for us is ripping out this nightstand over here,
centering the bed more in the bedroom. That way we can walk around the bed,
lifting the bed up to create more storage underneath. And then um,
this might sound weird. We're going to put the baby in the closet.
This half will remain closet area.
You can go back there and get some shoes. Over here is washer, dryer,
hookup.
We actually don't have a washer dryer right now because we don't need it with
the two of us. But with a baby,
we would definitely consider getting a washer dryer.
So then this half of the closet would be completely torn out.
There'd be a crib in there changing station.
Right now this is my half of the closet and this is my husband's half of the
closet. So we will definitely have to consolidate some of the more clothing. Um,
I'll have to donate a lot of my shoes,
but we plan to just make that work by donating a lot of our clothes and adding
more storage under the bed for other storage, for clothing.
And that half will become the babies section.
I really don't foresee it being too much different than what it is now.
Living with the baby in the RV,
we have always kind of gotten by on with less and our child would probably grow
up with those same standards of you don't need all the unnecessary,
unnecessary things that society tells you that you need today.
So with military relationships,
you kind of see the reunion videos on Instagram and Facebook.
And what you don't see is what happens when you go home after the reunion.
And you have to always find a new normal when they're leaving and coming and
leaving and coming. And so for us,
having the RV and having a sense of that normalcy and having a home helped keep
our marriage rooted. And so for that reason,
it's been a real blessing on our marriage.
Thanks for watching.
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