Retirement Remodeling

      Nearly every RV owner starts planning what they would change the day after they buy their unit.  Part of our master retirement plan the past 2-3 years has to do some minor remodeling inside our RV.  We never really used our couch, which was mounted in the slide out room, next to the dinette.  The majority of a time a blanket was spread out on it for Dharma the "Repuplican" and Bodhi the "Democat" to lay on. Only twice in 9 years has someone been camping with us that slept on it. 





     First of all we removed the couch from the RV, which was a chore in itself.  It would not fit through the door whole so it had to be disassembled.  This is due to the fact that most RV furniture is loaded into the RV before the slide out room is assembled and mounted.  We have two Laz E Boy type chairs on our back wall under the picture window.  We moved the one from the door to the vacancy left by the couch.  In it's place we added two floor mats for shoes when entering and an overhead coat hanger.  This did leave approximately 30+" in the slide out which we planned to use by adding a small desk to house our computer, printer, and assorted retiree bills, medical records, and other crap.  We decided the best use of this space would be a smaller size roll top desk, which would allow the laptop and printer to remain in the desk securely by simply rolling the lid closed.  This proved to monumental task #2.  New factory desks were out of the question not only due to price, but weight.  I had to have a desk that would not only fit, but would not present an overweight problem for the slide out mechanism.  I finally dedicated my efforts to online shopping.  I did find several that would fit our requirements.  The first two were either sold or still too heavy.  We finally found a small size roll top on Craig's List downstate that only took a little driving and a day out with my bride to complete our mission. 

     The scaled down version does not include pedestal type drawers, but this was remedied by using a portable briefcase style hanging file folder case.  It fits perfectly, still allowing the chair to swivel to watch TV.  We still have a chair to add, but heck.....how hard can that be?