I Have My Inspiration!

This lovely picture is my RV renovation inspiration. I will paint the cabinetry the dark wheat of the Eiffel Tower. The walls will be the lighter wheat from the background. I want to reupholster the couch and benches in the red of the stamp. All the light fixtures and cabinet pulls will be black like the bike.  Accents (duvet, pillows,towels and curtains) will be in burgundy and green like the flowers...and in black as well.

But Derron says I can't start until after we're in Oregon. Crap! Oh well, a girl can dream until then.

I'm Already Thinking About Renovating Filbert (our RV)

This is a video of an RV very similar to the one we bought. Only real difference is our interior is beige and tan.  It'll do for the time-being but soon afterward I will start renovating it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeiIpMjdJUg

My goal is to make the RV more like a bohemian Parisian pied-a-terre. These pictures represent some ideas...but I'm thinking dark brown leather on the furniture, antique ivory on the cabinets (distressed of course) and lots of sage, washed out burgundy and possibly pale peach accents. White will never do with Hazelnut and Nutella around. And the light fixtures will have to be refinished as well. Possibly distressed ivory like the cabinets.

And We Wait...

We test drove Filbert (our RV) yesterday. We discovered a couple of minor issues. The RV dealer will make the repairs ASAP but since they're closed between Christmas and New Year's, we won't be able to pick it up until early January. That should be fine.  We'll still have time to take a quick overnight (or two) with the cat and pups to see how things work out...and we'll have plenty of time to pack up.

In the meantime we've connected with some friends that RV (the verb, not the noun). Getting lots of great advice. I'm making a list of everything we want to try on the first short trip.

I am 51, my husband, Derron, is 47. We have two dogs, Hazelnut and Nutella (the nuts), and a cat named Gracie. No kids, at least none with two legs. We need a new start. We need to be somewhere that speaks to us. We need to be somewhere that feels more like home. 

Three years ago we left an idyllic existence in Europe to move back to the States to be near old friends. We settled in Bush, LA, across the lake from New Orleans. It wasn't a mistake, things just haven't worked out. I've not been able to find employment - a huge concern for me - and Derron, a Yankee accustomed to seasonal changes, has never acclimated to the climate here. Additionally, the political and cultural climates haven't been good fits for us either. That's not to say the New Orleans area is not a vital, magical, fantastic place...it is, in so many ways. Nevertheless, we're in need of something else. 

So we're moving to the more progressive and seasonally spontaneous Northwest, specifically Corvallis, Oregon. We're hoping to find "home" there. We have family nearby in Portland and we're hoping that "small, college town Corvallis" and its proximity to "big Portland" will be just the right mix for us.

The trip will begin in five weeks. At the end of January 2014, we will leave our beautiful home and three acres in Bush in an RV we've dubbed, "Filbert". [FYI, Filbert is another name for hazelnuts...get it?]

This travelogue will detail that trip and, afterward, serve as a place for me to capture the resettling process and any bumps along the way.

Here's hoping it will be smooth sailing...or RVing.

"Nothing happens until the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change." Arthur Burt