Charlie and I fondly call our 40′ 2005 Monaco Windsor motorhome “The Beast”. We love traveling in it, and it’s quite comfy for the four of us (including the dogs!). Compared to most RV’s, it pretty luxurious.
It’s not without issues, of course, as it is now 11 years old and counting. Like your home, or any piece of equipment, parts of it wear out, get damaged, or just stop working (from old age!). Everything has a shelf life, I guess, and The Beast is constantly undergoing renovations.
We’ve been repairing, replacing, and updating parts of The Beast for a couple of years now. The batteries, the slider canvas, the tires, some ceiling fans, the toilet, etc… the list goes on. It costs money to live this lifestyle, and, luckily for us, Charlie is bringing in some pretty good money right now and feels like the rig is a good place to use it. So, we continue…
This season we are changing out all of the flooring. The original ceramic floor tiles have yellowed and several are cracked. And, the carpet is about what one would expect after a decade of abuse. So, at considerable expense, we are re-doing the floors with hard surface wood-like laminate and re-carpeting most of the previously carpeted areas with some Mohawk medium pile material.
We are also upgrading our audiovisual system with a new 40′ HDTV, an upgraded surround sound receiver, and an external Bluetooth music system (for outdoor patio users) that our guests can use with their Pandora phone app. And, we will now have Dish satellite TV reception in both the bedroom and in the living room. Yeah!
Last year, we bought some very nice artificial grass in Las Vegas to use under the patio. We really liked it, and so did the dogs! We’re going to get another section this coming year.
Luckily, some of this expense can be “written off” against Charlie’s business. It is our home, and her mobile office, for half of the year, complete with her computer, dual monitors, printer, WiFi hotspot, and business phone.
It would be nice if she didn’t have so much work during our road trip, but she’s still enjoying her business, and I help her out with a number of the clients. I can only hike and walk the dogs so much; plenty of extra time on my hands.
When we’re on the road, I try to get Charlie out of the rig as much as I can, and we have at least one “date night” per week when we go out to dinner. And, we both enjoy our afternoon alcoholic beverage break under the patio with the doggies.
It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to do it.