Sunday, October 11, 2015

Upgrades


Romancing the Road

 

We have Solar! If the sun is shining, we can generate 495 watts of energy. It’s uber cool to sit in the RV and watch TV, fix a cup of coffee and not be plugged in to shore power! We also have a backup generator if we have a lot of no sun days. Are we covering all our bases? Probably not. Some things you just learn when you go full time.

 Which is getting closer. We’ve taken everything we want to keep to our daughter’s house. I’m so proud my son-in-law didn’t freak out too much. Most of it, we just passed on to them.

 Unfortunately, our son and daughter-in-law and our youngest grandson got a fabulous job offer in California so they had to downsize. So our daughter is hanging on to a few heirlooms for them as well. Giving up the tea set Karl bought me in Ireland was hard, but not as hard when I see how our daughter has in displayed in her china cabinet. Some things will stay boxed and that’s okay too. After a while, Karl and I realized we didn’t want to be tied to “stuff”. Along with downsizing comes a sense of freedom. I’ve found we can put way too much “stuff” in the RV though so I’ll be purging a little more there as well. 

 Here are some neat tricks how we organized our shoes and my jewelry. Reusing my pantry organizer that was in the house and putting it on the bathroom door of the RV. All great info I found on Pinterest and from other RVers who are already full timers.

 We should have the house on the market by the end of the month. We’ll be having a major garage sale in 2 weeks. I think the main thing is trying to coordinate everything. If you read my newsletter you’ll know I’m retiring from nursing fulltime and going strictly part time and I will be returning to my first love, writing romance books. Which, by the way, I’m reissuing Double Dating with the Dead in a few days. Just in time for Halloween. If you like sexy romantic comedies, then check out my website www.authorkarenkelley.com And watch for brand new books coming soon.

 

Best Wishes,

Karen Kelley




Friday, April 3, 2015

Preparing for full time

USA Today Bestselling author


Hi Everyone,
I decided to start blogging again. I hope you enjoy my posts about RVing and what new books I have out and what I'm currently working on.

A new kind of life? Karl and I are so excited, nervous, anxious---you name it, we've experienced it! Our date to become full time RVers is approaching fast, and not fast enough. We're planning on the end of April 2016. In that time, we have to downsize and get the house ready to sell. That means working on projects that we sort of let slide as homeowners who planned on staying in the same house until we died.

Downsizing sounds easy, but Karl and I have been married 45 years. We keep stuff in case we might need it. We never do, of course. Well, unless we actually get rid of something then we definitely could use it a week later. Never fails. The initial downsizing was horrible! This is my stuff! It has sentimental value. Thank goodness our kids are taking a lot and storing what we don't want to sell. I figure another two sweeps and we'll be done--maybe.

When we went into deep downsize mode there were a lot of hard decisions we had to make when it came to what would actually fit in the RV and the weight of the item. Some things I won't give up, like my KitchenAide mixer and the convection oven. RV ovens pretty much suck. I'm tired of light golden brown biscuits on top and almost black on bottom. We're in deep downsize mode now--next stage is deeper downsizing, the last one is road to freedom. Weight is the deciding factor. You can only stuff so much in an RV. The more weight you carry, the more fuel you use pulling it. Not to mention stress on the tires if you overload.

I have pics posted on my website if you want to see our rig (website)

And in more news, Bachelor Party is now available!  Kindle, Nook, Kobo and Apple. This is the first book I sold and was only available in Wal-Mart. I've updated it and Karl created a really cute cover. I hope you enjoy it. Next up is the 4th book in my Southern series, Southern Star. This was originally titled It's A Wonderful Life and was in the I'm Your Santa anthology, but yea, I have the rights back. I'm still working on the 2nd book in my Scavenger Hunt series (darn day job).  

If you'd like to join my free newsletter group, I have a link on my website. I usually have a cool contest every month. If you'd like to ask any questions about writing or RVing, please feel free.
 
Best Wishes,
Karen Kelley