The Road to Renovation: Our Journey to Transforming Our RV

When we got our new-to-us RV, I knew right away that I loved the layout but not the look. RV’s are typically dark and drab. Definitely not MY style and not what I envisioned for us to live in full time. Having renovated our houses in the past, I was excited to tackle this project! As soon as we had the RV parked, we immediately went to work. So much so that I didn’t even take any before videos, just some quick pictures!!

Before Pictures

RV Renos VS House Renos

Renovating an RV is not the same as a house. There are so many different factors to think about in an RV; the weight, the different wall surfaces (not drywall), the flooring depth, slide outs, the 12 volt system for lights etc. and so much more! I was pretty confident in our ability to renovate the RV since we had renovated our homes many times, but this new big purchase was not something I wanted to experiment on.

Pre-Renovation Prep

I had joined Facebook groups, followed other people who renovated their RVs on Instagram as well as invested in an RV renovation course. I learned how to paint RV walls and cabinets, how to remove and replace flooring, how to install proper lighting and so much more! As soon as we had the RV delivered, I got to work! I would go all weekend long and work on it in the evenings just to be sure we got everything completed in time to leave 5 months later.

Tackling the Tough Stuff: Overcoming Challenges in Renovation

Many challenges popped up along the way, and we expected that! We had to shift our plans often, but that seems to be the way it is with renovations. Our 'take off' date changed a few times which meant that all of my bookings across Canada also needed to move. It was a challenge to say the least, but in the end it was worth it.

Some Challenges We Had:

• My first initial primer that I spent hours prepping for and then the spray painting completely failed in our master bedroom. I did not think about the humidity with everything taped up and therefore it was too humid in the trailer when I left it overnight. It, consequently, dripped down the walls creating long drip marks and another full days work for myself to sand and start over. I only made that mistake once.

• Another challenge that we encountered was that my expensive spray painter died on me JUST as I was ready to spray paint cabinets. I had all of the cabinets lined up, ready to go and I could not get my sprayer to spray evenly. With having a strict deadline, we had no choice but to go and purchase a new one immediately, So I had to make a quick, interruptive stop at Home Depot in order to stay on our timeline.

• When we redid our flooring we found that there had been a previous water leak that was repaired, but not repaired well. We had to completely redo that which involved us removing a panel on the side of the RV, adding new bracing to the flooring, adding insulation and new plywood.

During Renovations

Closing the entrance to the bunk (opened it on the other side)

All in all, we spent almost a solid 5 months, putting in approximately 25 hours per week to completely gut and upgrade our RV so that we could be comfortable for our travels.

After Pictures

Watch the video below to get a quick tour!

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