Good-Bye, Homer; Hello, Unnamed Trailer

In my last post I alluded to us buying something in addition to a birdhouse for Steve's birthday.

That thing was an Airstream.

We had Homer on the market for a couple months without any bites except for a couple in Huntington Beach who decided not to look at it, and a guy in Garden Grove who wanted to trade us for a mobile home.

Homer wasn't getting any younger and was only losing value, so we decided to trade him in for something smaller that we could actually USE. We took a bit of a hit on the deal, of course, but I think it will ultimately be worth it.

And although I'm sad to see Homer go, my anxiety surrounding him has gone, too.

Obviously we won't be full-timing in the yet-to-be-named Airstream. If/when we do decide to full-time in a couple years we'll either trade it in or go park it somewhere and get something else in the meantime. I really have no idea.

But for now, we're planning our first camping trip for next month, and I truly can't wait!

Here are some photos. I only had my phone with me, so the quality isn't great.

The dinette, which converts into a bed:


The couch, which also converts into a bed:


Most of the kitchen:


The bathroom door, which I think is just SO cool-looking:


And part of the bedroom. It was really hard to get a photo in here:


Finally, one of the brake lights on the outside, just because I like the shape:

Happy Birthday to Steve

It's Steve's birthday, so for his present I got him an Airstream...

...birdhouse



I found it from a seller on etsy.

Maybe the birds who had bad luck with the nest in our patio cover will rebuild in the Airstream.

Steve and I also bought something else today, but that will wait for another post.

The Nest

A few weeks ago, some house finches started flying around under our patio cover. It soon became evident they were building a nest in there. I thought it was a bad idea, because rather than putting the nest in the structural support, they built it on top of some folds of fabric on the sides. A few brisk breezes and the nest would be history.

I thought about scaring them off to save them the trouble, but then I decided that birds build nests in seemingly precarious places all the time and do just fine. So I figured they must know what they're doing.

Over the past couple days I hadn't noticed the birds around, and the nest had shifted to the point that it was close to falling down. The birds had abandoned the nest.

It struck me as very sad that they had spent all this time and effort building a new home, getting ready to move in, only to have their plans thwarted.

Then I noticed the parallels and got even more depressed about it. Apparently we attract other species who also aren't very good at planning for this sort of thing.

Big News, Big Changes

I realize it has been a couple months since I updated this. I haven't been intentionally neglecting things, it's just that we're in a huge state of limbo and it has been hard to know what or when to update things.

We do have a few pieces of big news, one good, and one bittersweet.

First, the bittersweet. We have decided to put Homer up for sale.

At this point, it looks like full-timing--if we even do it--is another two years away. Homer is too big for short jaunts. Steve would still need his Non-Commercial Class A, plus there are only two state parks in all of California that will fit him (Homer, that is, not Steve). Right now Homer is just sitting in storage, waiting to be used.

Although it would be the perfect trailer for full-timing, it's just not practical now, and without knowing what the future holds, it doesn't make sense to keep him.

If you or your friends are interested in a ginormous but very, very cool fifth wheel in practically-brand-new condition, you can check our ad here: http://www.rvsearch.com/findrv/index.cfm/a-d/tc-36286/vid-614805/

If we can't sell him, we might trade him in for something smaller that we can use now. We'd take a big financial hit on that, but it might be better than making payments plus insurance and storage fees on something we can't even use.

We are very sad to see Homer possibly leaving our family, but we are also excited to announce that we will have a new addition coming to our family this September in the form of our third child! Believe it or not, that development actually has little bearing on the Homer situation, although it probably is better to be grounded in one place for the time being.

So, for now, we're stuck indefinitely in Southern California. Although this isn't exactly what we wanted, we realize our situation could be much worse, and we're grateful to have what we do.

I will continue to post updates about Homer. And seriously, if you know people who want a full-timing 5er, pass on the info.