Can we really survive comfortably in less than four-hundred square feet?
That is approximately two-thousand square feet less than we currently live in. I'm sure it can be done because we have many RVing friends that do it.
People have asked if we really think we can live in such a small space and feel comfortable. Our answer is, of course WE CAN. Even though we live in a nice size house, we currently occupy the same rooms at the same time and we don't feel crowded. As I took a minute to re-examine this thought, I suddenly realized that our living room has more total square feet then our entire fifth wheel has! As I looked around the room I realized we don't use half of our living room anyway.
In a stick-n-brick we heat and cool square footage that we really don't even use. For example, we have a nice size bedroom that we don't occupy. In that bedroom there is a large walk-in closet. In that closet we store junk. If we didn't have that closet we'd been force to do away with that junk sooner.
We have a breakfast area that doesn't have a table. We don't need a table because we use the bar to eat our meals. We have a open floor plan and the kitchen and living room are separated by a plate ledge that seats four. We have all our meals at the bar.
People have asked if we really think we can live in such a small space and feel comfortable. Our answer is, of course WE CAN. Even though we live in a nice size house, we currently occupy the same rooms at the same time and we don't feel crowded. As I took a minute to re-examine this thought, I suddenly realized that our living room has more total square feet then our entire fifth wheel has! As I looked around the room I realized we don't use half of our living room anyway.
In a stick-n-brick we heat and cool square footage that we really don't even use. For example, we have a nice size bedroom that we don't occupy. In that bedroom there is a large walk-in closet. In that closet we store junk. If we didn't have that closet we'd been force to do away with that junk sooner.
We have a breakfast area that doesn't have a table. We don't need a table because we use the bar to eat our meals. We have a open floor plan and the kitchen and living room are separated by a plate ledge that seats four. We have all our meals at the bar.
We have made every effort to make our fifth wheel as homey and comfortable as possible. We have spent a few bucks and little time redecorating our fifth wheel in order to make it feel more like a home and less like a fifth wheel. Neither of us likes having everything matchy – matchy.
We spent a little money on the furniture but we also made money by selling the furniture we removed.
We replaced the uncomfortable hid-abed love seat with a full size sofa with a reversible chaise.
We replaced the two over sized recliners with a sofa daybed. It is comfortable as a sofa and is makes a great little bed for guest.
We removed the carpet and found linoleum already on the floor. Removing the carpet will help with my allergies. We now have a cow hide throw rug.
We replaced the floor mounted dining table and four heavy chairs with our drop-leaf breakfast table and two chairs. We can pull the table out in the middle of the room instead of being crammed in the corner.
We replaced the desk chair with a portable electric fireplace. The fireplace weights less than the chair. The little fireplace will keep us warm on those cold nights and it is relaxing to look at too.
We also lightened our weight by changing out the furniture. We are estimating that we are now about a hundred and fifty pounds lighter, if not more.
We replaced the dual handle kitchen faucet with a single lever which came with a veggie sprayer.
We also did some cosmetic things as well. We removed the floral border that ran throughout the fifth wheel. We got rid of the floral bedspread and replaced it with a stripped quilt. We also hung small shelves on each side of the bed to act as night stands.
We recovered the window valances and headboard with faux punched leather. We also hung thermal curtains on all the windows. The curtains will help keep in the heat or the cool.
We have lived in a smaller motor home in the past and didn’t have any real problems. So we think we can live in our fifth wheel just fine. I guess time will tell!!!!!!
Travel Safe Dawn and Denise