Visit to the Homestead & RV Repairs

By: Kevin

I had completed my contract in San Angelo, TX and we were headed to Rhode Island for the summer. But first, we planned to make a two week stop in Ohio to visit friends, family, and make some needed RV repairs while we had the space to do so. After making the trip in two days from TX to OH, we pulled in after dark to a full house of relatives awaiting our arrival, and after many hugs we were off to bed for the night.The next two weeks were comprised of visits with friends, a feast of meals with the extended family, and a few bits of down time.

However, there was also work to be done. On our trip to Carlsbad, NM one of the legs of the kids’ bunk beds had fallen through the floor signalling the water leak that we had been dealing with for a few months but had finally located and repaired had done more damage than we realized and a partial gut of the back of the RV would be required. With the assistance of Heather and Grandpa Beer we unloaded everything from the back section of the RV into the barn and began ripping up the sheet vinyl, half the floor, and part of the wall to expose the damage. After removing all the damaged and rotten wood we began to re-frame, re-insulate, and re-install the wall and floor. Once that was done we installed new sheet vinyl flooring and with the assistance of Grandma Stricker and Karla (Heather’s mom) a top-to-bottom deep cleaning of the RV was completed. Only then did we reload the bunk beds and all our stuff into the tail of the RV again. This project took a few days, but the end result was a floor and wall that are now arguably more sturdy than when the RV rolled off the assembly line. I did learn more about how the RV was constructed and what to watch for in the future during the repair. We also re-sealed the front corners of the RV as well as the seam where the roof and walls met, which had not yet started leaking, but an ounce of prevention could save us from the fate of another partial rebuild on the front end of the RV in the future.

While we greatly enjoyed our visit in Ohio, by the end of the two weeks we were exhausted and were looking forward to resting a little once arriving in Rhode Island. We made the trip from OH to RI in a single long day of driving without any issues along the way.