Driveway camping "living"

vizsla owner · 10-04-2013, 08:06 AM

We are moving and thanks to the process and my DW needing new carpet and paint we will be without beds for close to a week.

No problem. Sleeping in the camper for a few nights at the current house since the family can help this weekend to pack the truck. Then sleeping in the drive of the new house since it will be next weekend before we can unpack the truck.

Boy the new neighbors are going to love us.

Fire Instructor · 10-04-2013, 08:36 AM

Just last night, DW and I discussed moving into our TT, in our driveway, while we refinish the first-floor floors of our stick-house.

jamie325i · 10-04-2013, 08:45 AM

Funny, we just refinished our floors 2 weeks ago and lived in the camper for a night. Unfortunately it was so un-level next to the house that we nearly fell out of bed.

Jamie

GalsofEscape · 10-04-2013, 09:20 AM

We also driveway camped when we refinished our hardwood floors last year. It worked out really well.

Arefbee · 10-04-2013, 09:22 AM

Pretty popular in my area to buy a camper to live in while the house is being built. One family was living in a hybrid for a few months while they were doing additions on a 1800's farm house down the street.

Hijinks · 10-04-2013, 09:42 AM

We used our 5th wheel in the driveway while our kitchen was gutted and remodeled. We slept in the house but all meals in the rv. Kept toaster and coffee maker in the bathroom. It took about two months because of a delay in counters. We were into December before it was done, had a couple mornings when the fresh water hose was froze but nothing in rv was damaged. We were lucky because Ohio can get cold in December.

jdadoug · 10-04-2013, 08:32 PM

We have been in our Cardinal since June

Gutted the kitchen and bathroom.......... doing most of the work myself and as the money comes.
Just got the bathroom done so it wont be long now. (just came into the camper after hanging the last piece of sheet rock and doing the mudding)

Wifey cant wait to get back in the house........hate to say it, but I kinda like living in the camper. I'm just glad we didn't have to do this in our
"learning camper".
jdadoug

RamblerGuy · 10-05-2013, 05:14 AM

We slept in our driveway in our motorhome for several weeks last year while a real carpenter and I gutted and rebuilt both of our bathrooms. Every morning I would move it into the street so the carpenter could get his trailer in the driveway.

The day we got it complete enough to move back in, my dearly beloved's brother and his wife arrived from Oregon with their travel trailer, which they then occupied in our driveway for a week.

Several times we've had more visitors than bedrooms and we just bring the motorhome from storage for extra space.

We have great neighbors who don't complain. That's a great thing about living in a neighborhood for almost 40 years. The young family across the street enjoys the trip reports that we e-mail to them. Their older kids enjoy the money we pay them for cutting the grass, etc., while we are gone!

jdadoug · 10-05-2013, 06:43 PM

Dang, Rambler guy I guess that's what's been my trouble all this time.............. shoulda hired a real carpenter!!

Actually I did hire a carpenter, but I soon found out he was a "roughen iner"
Not a finisher!!!
So now I 'm doing all the finish work, and plumbing......... I hate painting about as bad as mudding and sanding!

Quote:

Originally Posted by RamblerGuy

We slept in our driveway in our motorhome for several weeks last year while a real carpenter and I gutted and rebuilt both of our bathrooms. Every morning I would move it into the street so the carpenter could get his trailer in the driveway.

The day we got it complete enough to move back in, my dearly beloved's brother and his wife arrived from Oregon with their travel trailer, which they then occupied in our driveway for a week.

Several times we've had more visitors than bedrooms and we just bring the motorhome from storage for extra space.

We have great neighbors who don't complain. That's a great thing about living in a neighborhood for almost 40 years. The young family across the street enjoys the trip reports that we e-mail to them. Their older kids enjoy the money we pay them for cutting the grass, etc., while we are gone!

f150k · 10-05-2013, 08:26 PM

Our Daughter and Husband lived in their camper 3 months. We built a new house in the fall of 2010 and 7 months later it was hit by a tornado, so they bought a camper while we rebuilt. Their insurance gave them a housing allowance, so the kids applied it to the camper. Now they have another new house and a camper.

jdadoug · 10-05-2013, 08:34 PM

F150, what kinda Triumph do you have? I'm kinda looking again......... would like to get a Bonnie.
Bought a new then 78 Bonnie, had lots of bikes since.
jdadoug

f150k · 10-05-2013, 08:40 PM

I have a 1954 Terrier, 1967 Bonneville and a 2005 Bonneville America. Needed at least one with electric start.

dwaynerz · 10-05-2013, 09:15 PM

i found the best thing for sanding mud to be a damp sponge. dust stays down and i get a better than i hoped for finish. i also used that mud where after you mixed it, i had 90 minutes to wait before next coat. cant remember the brand or name as its been a couple years, but it turned out well enough for me.

jdadoug · 10-05-2013, 09:15 PM

The Yamaha in my pict was my last bike.......... I'm in between bikes right now

My 78 was the black tank with the red stripe on the side just beautiful. I coulda bought a Jubilee that spring and didn't I see a few of them on Ebay,
I didn't care for the colors...
Don't know if they hold all that much value?
I had a 68 Lightning that I traded in on the Bonnie. Them's the only two Brits I had, had every other since. I still think the Triumph is one of the most beautiful bikes out there! Their tanks were art, and the whole bike just "looked like a motorcycle"
This one woulda looked just like mine.....jdadoug

F and E Damp · 10-05-2013, 10:31 PM

If you really want the top-of-the-line experience of British bikes, find a decently restored Norton Commando. I worked for them for a couple of years before we emigrated in 1968. The company was badly managed and almost in its death throes when I joined, but actually getting paid to ride that bike all over England was worth the grief.

There were two prototypes, ridden by four guys in shifts. One of us (for each bike) would start work at 04:00 and be back at the factory by 12:00. The other one would start out at 16:00 and be back by midnight. Once we got confident with the reliability, we could cover 500 miles per shift. The four hours between rides was for the shop guys to fix anything we broke and to generally keep things in top shape.

We also did high-speed endurance tests at an industry association test track - a banked tri-oval. Running at 100 mph for as long as a tank of fuel lasted, then switching riders for another tankful (and adjusting the drive chain) was quite an experience, and we did it for 10 hours a day per bike. We had very few problems. The most exciting was when a final drive chain broke at 105 mph. The engine over-revved enough to bend the tachometer needle against the stop, then it came apart, big time! It was good for a boat anchor.

jdadoug · 10-06-2013, 09:13 AM

So was just one off the "line" for testing or was it for new models?
Norton's is one bike I can say I have not owned........... Wouldn't mind owning one though. I check out all the bikes for sale on Ebay all the time and then save the pictures and burn them to a disc........ I've got hours and hours of bikes to look at and ogle over.......... 99% are Brits
(mostly Bonnies) My brother had a 71 Tiger with that beautiful blue and white tank! He's mostly into Moto Guzzi's right now.
I'm 56 now and been riding since grade school....had a little Italian built 125 Harley Davidson then. jdadoug

Quote:

Originally Posted by F and E Damp

If you really want the top-of-the-line experience of British bikes, find a decently restored Norton Commando. I worked for them for a couple of years before we emigrated in 1968. The company was badly managed and almost in its death throes when I joined, but actually getting paid to ride that bike all over England was worth the grief.

There were two prototypes, ridden by four guys in shifts. One of us (for each bike) would start work at 04:00 and be back at the factory by 12:00. The other one would start out at 16:00 and be back by midnight. Once we got confident with the reliability, we could cover 500 miles per shift. The four hours between rides was for the shop guys to fix anything we broke and to generally keep things in top shape.

We also did high-speed endurance tests at an industry association test track - a banked tri-oval. Running at 100 mph for as long as a tank of fuel lasted, then switching riders for another tankful (and adjusting the drive chain) was quite an experience, and we did it for 10 hours a day per bike. We had very few problems. The most exciting was when a final drive chain broke at 105 mph. The engine over-revved enough to bend the tachometer needle against the stop, then it came apart, big time! It was good for a boat anchor.

Stg1 · 10-06-2013, 11:55 AM

Don't know how the subject changed to bikes. I had a 69 Bonnie back in the day. She looked and ran great. I even rode her with a cast on my right leg. Yep, the shifter tore up the cast, but I still rode. Great Days back then.

jdadoug · 10-06-2013, 08:08 PM

So sorry for the hijack guys.....since I'm the one that did it

I guess there is a motorcycle spot somewhere here??

So back to the driveway camping.........yes we are still in the camper. But I'm making progress with the house. We will be able the use the shower when we get to town to get a shower curtain. But we can at least us the toilet and sink.
So its only a day or two before we can get into the house. Now all we got to do is finish mudding and painting, then call the flooring guy and get the floor down.
Once all that is done, we could roll the furniture back into the kitchen and we would be back in the house.

This mornings little debacle was a reminder of to me that that the time is running out. I had a water leak at the hot water tank. Couldn't find the leak until the thing fired up and that's when I saw a little drip, just a twist on the plastic nut fitting was all it took.
Ole Jack Frost is going to here in Ks. soon so its time to get the Cardinal winterized.
Again, sorry for the hijack..........jdadoug

DXSMac · 10-06-2013, 08:32 PM

I did the "driveway camping" thing last week. I friend of mine who lives in another city had back problems, and I went over to help him out. This friend had a 30 amp RV plug installed on his place just for me.

jdadoug · 10-06-2013, 08:49 PM

That's the second thing I did after I put up my shed..... ran the cable under ground over to the plug in. I do most of my own work around the house...... I've done all my wiring over the years in the house remods and out buildings.
All I did was go to the Home Depot and buy a Electrical book and sit down and read it cover to cover. It had some real good diagrams on how to do the different types of "electrical runs".
Now I'm thinking about turning it into 50 amp.

jdadoug

You may also like: