We started the week by checking in with Haulmark and going over our list of 'wants/needs' for this RV remodeling project. They are definitely busier than they were in 2010 when we had ours built and it was nice to see several completed and awaiting delivery to the dealers. Haulmark has come a long ways since 2010 and we really like some of the changes they have made and it's nice to see them doing well, adding employees, but still maintaining their quality product. Of course, with them being busier, we won't be able to to get in/out as quickly as we'd like but we told them we were ok with that because we wanted it all done right the first time. Novel concept……… After our meeting with Haulmark, we went to a place called Bradd and Hall, to get more information on MCD Shades for the windows. Like many RVers we don't like the day/night shades that most manufacturers put in so we're looking to do something different and these shades come highly recommended. We saw some up close and personal, got a pricing sheet, looked at some other furniture items and then came home to wait for a satellite repairman to call and schedule some time to help get satellite back down (he had put it up on Sunday in hopes of maybe it would work but it only went half way up & stopped).
We noticed that some other RVing friends were here in the campground so after getting home we got together with them for some good conversation and then dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant here in the area.
Tuesday we were up early and went to an Amish furniture maker called Lambright who is well known for his comfort chairs. Over the years he has expanded into gliders, sofas, love seats, side tables, and other things and all are custom made. We had two of his chairs in our 5th wheel and loved them so we knew we wanted him to make our sofa. It is such a pleasure to talk to someone who truly cares about their craft, doesn't want to be the biggest business in town and wants 100% to make his customer happy. We found a style we liked and he's going to do something different with it than he normally does by putting a drawer under the middle section. Each end will have a recliner position so no drawer can be there, but he liked our idea of the middle one being useful so he's going to do that for us.
We will have to take the coach out to him (he's about 20 miles from Elkhart) for measurements and then he'll start to build. We will do that this week as he was not going to be there a few days last week.
We came home from Lambright and still hadn't heard from the satellite guy (we couldn't take the rig anywhere with the dish half way up) so Dick called the manufacturer, got some help from them in a couple of different calls, recalibrated it, and bingo it worked. Yeah!!
Tuesday afternoon we went to another Amish RV furniture maker in Nappannee, IN about 20 miles the other way from Elkhart. We had been struggling with what to do with the dinette area……table/chairs, or another dinette but smaller. Dinettes seem to be hard to come by and even though Haulmark could make another one for us, we didn't want to use the furniture maker they use, so after seeing what the gentleman in Nappannee does with wood, we decided to go that way. Since it's more like a credenza, with a table that pulls out further, if needed, and chairs, we will use Haulmark because they use Walnut and that is what all of our other wood is. The Amish folks don't normally use walnut though they can get it, they prefer to use cherry and stain it walnut.
Long story short, we will have Mr. Lambright make our sofa (he'll measure for it on Tuesday), and Haulmark will make our credenza/table, and redo our entire desk area, making what I call an entertainment center above the desk to enclose the TV, have some cabinets, shelves, etc. We go back to Haulmark on Tuesday morning and they'll measure everything they're going to do and then we'll at least be making some progress. We took the coach to Bradd and Hall on Thursday and they measured for the shades, we now have that quote, and once we say 'go' that will be at least two weeks as well. The RV industry has definitely come back to life here and everyone seems to really be busy……which is a good thing after seeing how it was in 2010.
Murphy went to his favorite 'doggie day care' camp one day this week and of course had a blast. He came home one tired dog and slept for 24 hours I think. His other favorite thing to do while here is hunt for gophers!!! It is quite a challenge sometimes to walk him because he knows where all the gopher holes are and wants to check them out.
Friday we took a ride up to White Pigeon, MI, a village of about 1500 people according to the sign. There is an RV Surplus Store there called Bontragers. There are several surplus stores in this area but we haven't been to this one and by far it is the largest we've ever been in. In addition to RV surplus, they have mobile home supplies, and home improvement materials, all bought by the truckloads from suppliers in the Elkhart area. Unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of furniture items as we were looking for two chairs for the new table/credenza area. It was still an interesting place to roam around and I think they had bins of every screw/nut/bolt ever made. One of those kind of places that you say……if Bontragers don't have it, it isn't made.
The RV park here is busy as there are a couple of RV rallies in the area. Again, it's nice to see people traveling again. One of the small rallies was here at the park this weekend and it was a Rialta Club. These are smaller motor homes, several different manufactures, all built on a Volkswagen chassis. Really fun to look at and would definitely be easy to maneuver in city traffic. I'll post a picture below.
Have a good week and remember this……growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional!
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Murphy on the hunt for a gopher!! |
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Camp K-9 where Murphy goes to day camp. The first time we took him there we thought maybe they took them on a field trip, but this is just for street advertising. Very cute! |
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Sunrise over Lake Simonton near the campground one morning when I walked |
The Rialta Club motor home rally |
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Just one aisle of many many at Bontragers RV Surplus |
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