Happy week 21!! I am getting so close to the end of this contract and my excitement is getting a little out of hand! The last of my remaining schedule was released and I have ZERO call days! This plus the fact that someone wanted to take my call that was schedule for this coming weekend, I got away with very very few call days in the very long 26 week contract! I count myself very lucky because call days are seriously my most hated part of this job!
This week I had plans on visiting the local Aviation museum located at the Tyler airport but after a morning disc golfing on Saturday, we decided to do something a little more low key and that would allow us to sit down. We ended up restarting the hunt for that perfect couch.
Now, lets back track a little… The couch and recliners that came with The ReImagine looked great. I loved the light airy color and, of course, they were made to fit in this tiny space. When doing the RV tours, we thought the furniture would “work”, but the reality is, once you start living in a space full-time and using the furniture every single day, the “RV” quality (or lack there of) was evident. It only took a few days for the couch to develop an indentation in the seat that rendered it unusable! It was so uncomfortable and I knew that it would have to be replaced sooner rather than later because I sit on it every day.
After measuring the space between the end tables and the depth that the space would accommodate, we started to look at your big box brand furniture stores for a couch we liked. I found a couch that was a nice light color, super plush, and very comfortable at La-Z-Boy.
All the measurements checked out except for one! The tiny RV entry doorway is only 28″ and we realized that although the couch would fit the space, getting it into the rig through the door would be impossible! Once we realized that the doorway was the biggest issue, we started to measure every single couch in the showroom… not a single couch was small enough to make that tight squeeze, even if we took the feet off the furniture.
We came to the conclusion that if we wanted residential furniture, we would have to remove the living room window on the Left side of the slide to get anything into the RV.
We had seen some other full-time RVers do this, but it is a huge undertaking. I was not thrilled with the idea and the labor and risk that it would require, so we decided to wait and keep thinking on the idea.
I started to do a lot of online searching for small apartment furniture… Ikea type furniture that was made for tiny living… I started to notice a common trend and this 80s mid-century modern style was everywhere.
This got me thinking… “What if I consider something a little more eclectic and less of the overstuffed style?” The more I searched, the more I fell in LOVE with this 80s style and I was certain that it would look great in The ReImagine. I wasn’t sure what Chris would think, he is a more classic, country style kind of guy and not a fan of modern furniture… I never did share my thoughts or my search results with him, but I knew that ripping out the window wasn’t going to be an option for me! We would have to find something that fit through the door no matter what.
Fast forward to Saturday, we didn’t have plans of going furniture shopping, but a quick stop at World Market turned into a hunt for the perfect couch… again! World Market had a few couches that were “different” than what we had been looking at before and with them being sectionals, this turned into truly looking and considering other styles than what we hadn’t considered during our last search. None of the World Market couches we saw would fit, but it got Chris onboard with the idea of thinking outside the box on style!
We knew that the big box stores we had been to had nothing remotely similar and everything they did have, we had already measured and decided wouldn’t fit through the doorway.
So, we headed to a discount furniture store. I saw it right away!
The color, the style… It was perfect and exactly what I had been seeing online! Chris even liked it, which was shocking to me. I honestly didn’t expect him to be agreeable! This was completely different than anything we had picked out in the past. I sat on it, laid on it, measured it twice just to make sure and I was sold!
Chris and I were both sold and we decided to head back to the ReImagine and measure one more time just to make sure!
We ended up ripping out the old furniture!
Once we measure our space one more time, we knew that this was it… we were going for it!
We decided to replace the recliners with the matching loveseat while we were at it! The recliners weren’t comfortable either, and we really disliked that they were electric! So, out with the old and in with the new!
Our neighbor in the RV park thinks we are crazy and maybe we are, but replacing furniture for something that is more comfortable is always a worthy investment!
It was a long journey finding the perfect fit, but I couldn’t be happier with my choice to keep searching. Stepping outside the box is something that I never did before moving into an RV, but now it seems that every choice I make requires me to be flexible and open to new ideas.
So, very long story short… We found our perfect match and we didn’t have to pull out the slide window after all!
Keep following along to see where this crazy amazing Travel Nurse/ RV life adventure takes me next.
