Since we’ve been in Seattle, we’ve completed a project or two, and we’ve learned a lot about living full time in our trailer.
This trailer, while it’s got a great floor plan for full time living, is still lacking in counter space. We fixed this by taking a John Boos cutting board, and turning it into a counter top extension. We use it every day!
Living in Seattle, over the winter, is WET. Yes, everyone talks about the “Seattle Rain”, take this section from Train’s song Save Me San Francisco:
So I kept on goin’ going on right through
I drove into Seattle rain
Fell in love then missed the train
That could have took me right back home to you
We knew this, but every time we visited up here for the last 20 years, it rarely rained. Maybe it was the times of year we were visiting. But dang, the RAIN.
The good news is that our trailer doesn’t leak. No leaks. Yay! The bad news is that with all the humidity in the area, combined with the cooler weather, we’ve already run into mold. We knew we might, but hadn’t taken the necessary precautions for it. We ARE NOW.
Upon lifting up our mattress, we also discovered condensation and mold forming. We learned about this neat product that the ships use called Hypervent. It’s a cut to fit mesh that you put under your mattress that allows air to circulate. We decided to give it a try, and it’s been dry under there ever since.
We also know when we get back to Boise, we’ll be doing some frame inspections and clean up any surface rust.
As for living in the trailer, it’s been working out pretty good. When we got here we plugged in a 100lb propane tank. We have since filled it twice. We then figured out our electric fireplace does a really good job at keeping the temperature in the trailer tolerable. We also bought a Dyson portable electric heater. Now we’re only really using propane for cooking, and have only gone through half the 100lb bottle in a month.
My folks have good internet, and Nate has been able to work reliably. We ran a network cable from their house router out back, and installed a WiFi extender. Our Cradlepoint manages our internal network from there.
https://www.engeniustech.com/engenius-products/outdoor-wireless-ap-ens620ext/
As for other things we’ve done and to be completed:
Done – Replaced hydraulic leveling/slide system breaker, and replaced the clutch master cylinder in the Suzuki
To be done – Install a separate AC circuit for our PC systems, and install a stronger pin box on the nose of the trailer.
We are planning to be back in Boise in April, and will visit the dealership for another warranty visit. This one is to fix a couple of prior things we didn’t get finished on the last visit, but also to fix something else that occurred while testing the new hydraulic breaker install.
Yeah, that’s a cut in the floor, caused by the dinette slide moving in and out while I was testing the breaker. For some reason there’s a sharp point on the underside of our slide. The slide might have settled in place since we’ve been sitting for a while and now it’s an issue.
Sigh.
Let’s end this post with puppy snuggles and brisket!
