When we were first looking for a place to buy in Nebraska, we thought briefly about buying some land and living in a trailer or barn type building. Instead we bought the house in Union.
That house burned down. We moved into an apartment and then Dallas got accepted for training and we moved to California. After I found out that I was pregnant, I moved to Texas in the hope that I wouldn't have to move while pregnant. The idea was to move into a small building. That fell through. Then the idea was to borrow my mother-in-law's 5th wheel. That idea also fell through.
I ended up moving around 15 times in a 12 month period, half of which I was pregnant, the other half I had a very new baby. We lived in some very small accommodations during this time. We lived in a 17x20 room in Arkansas, and several military lodgings, and for a couple weeks in a a small hotel room with only one double bed and my brother for a couple days.
When we finally settled down, we bought this house in Tucson. Since we've moved in, this house has seemed more and more like too much. It's a great house, but it doesn't fit with the kind of lifestyle that we want to live. There is so much space that we just don't use, we could live so much more simply in a much smaller space. We also have seemed to get sick a LOT in this house.
We had been thinking sporadically about a small trailer or moving into a smaller house and renting this one out. Especially as Dallas will start getting deployed soon. If he leaves, it would be nice to be able to take the kids to go visit family without having to worry about the house here being left empty.
When Dallas's mom came to visit and we told her about our ideas. She offered to fix up her trailer for us to use. This made the idea very real and we started planning, including looking at trucks and places to put the trailer.
We went back and forth a bit on the type of truck that we wanted. At first, we really wanted a Dodge Mega cab. It gives the most in-cabin space - meaning less seat kicking from the kids in the back. But even used, these are just too expensive. And Dallas was pretty set on getting 4 wheel drive, which again ups the price.
Then we started looking at how much each truck could haul. And the 250 or 2500 models didn't seem big enough, according to a lot of the forum threads I read, to haul and STOP a big, heavy trailer. I decided we needed a 450/4500 or 550/5500 which pretty much left us with Fords.
We (meaning I) spent a LOT of time on craigslist and ebay and a number of other sites trying to find the right truck. Finally, we found it! A Ford F550 4x4 with the Lariat package right in our price range. And it was even in Arizona! Awesome. We bought it. It has a couple of problems that we're going to have to get fixed but, hopefully, this will be a truck we'll never have to upgrade.
We found out that Dallas was going to be getting deployed early in the new year. Which gave us a specific time frame for getting on the road.
Just after we got the truck, we found out that Paula's trailer was in too bad of shape. Paula wasn't going to be able to fix it, especially not by the time we would need it.
This got us back on the hunt for a trailer, which meant hours and hours looking over craigslist in every state near family. We had already checked out the RV dealerships nearby and knew that we wanted a two bedroom 5th wheel model. This really limited our options, as did our very small budget. Most of the ones that we looked at had a leak or other water damage, and, as that was what had caused the problems with Paula's trailer, we weren't going to risk it.
We kept trying to figure out how to take both the truck (which only gets about 9 mpg diesel) and the Jetta (which gets about 40 mpg diesel) without having to drive separately. We looked at toy haulers, but the weight ratings for the ramps were only 1000lb and the frames were about the same. They really are made for bikes and quads. The Jetta weighs at least 3500 lbs.
In looking through the craigslist ads, I sent an ad to Dallas as kind of a "don't we wish". But he got very excited about it, and, as it was in Tucson, we went to go see it. Instead of a toy hauler, it was a race hauler, built to haul race cars. The front had a living quarters and the back was a garage area, with a doorway between. It was a gooseneck trailer, while we had been looking mostly at 5th wheels. The price was well above what we'd been looking for. But when we saw it, we saw the potential. And for us, potential is a dangerous word.
This would allow us to haul the car where ever we are going to be staying for a while. Then when the car is out, it would give us open play space for the kids. The living quarters up front would be used mostly just for cooking and sleeping. The back would be the living room and play room.
We got very serious about this one and even made an offer on it, but the man wouldn't come down on his price or work with us. So we're back on the hunt, but this time for a race trailer with living quarters.
We had considered briefly getting an empty one and building it the way that we wanted, but it would probably cost more than getting one that has at least the basics already installed, like running water. We will probably get one about half way in between. It will be set up with a bath and kitchen areas, but won't be too fancy.
And that is how we slowly lost our minds...
YAY!!! I love blogs! Welcome to the world of blogging. I'll be checking regularly!!
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