Our latest family - homeschool project ----

Every fall we do some sort of improvement or remodel in the house. One year we put in hardwood floors, some of you may remember last year we remodeled the entire kitchen area, another we replaced a window, front door and slider. Luckily CJ is a super DIY guy and I am the super saver shopper type - so between the two of us we have done it all on a really low budget!

Once we started homeschooling we tried to get KM involved, she is really not big into manual labor, but has been getting much better about it, especially since she is getting older and feels a bit more confident with certain things.

Well this year there really wasn't any pressing things that needed to be done around here, so CJ got an idea, but first you have to have the background...it all started back when the gas prices skyrocketed up over the $4 mark and his work truck was guzzling about half of his paychecks that he decided to get a little compact car. So he purchased a little KIA Sophia for about $1000. He used it all that summer and then he got in an accident with his truck and thankfully we had the KIA as a back up because just as his car was getting out of the shop I got into an accident and needed to drive the KIA.

I will say that it was a little putt-putt car, but it got us from A to B and several points in between when need be, but when gas prices started coming back down, both our vehicles were fixed and back on the road and winter came it didn't make sense for us to have the 3rd car on the road anymore, so he put it out front for sale. Usually things get snapped up off our front lawn but the KIA just sat and sat and sat ~ No one apparently wants to drive a manual around her! ~ So he decided to list it on Craig's List and very quickly got an offer that someone wanted to trade him a quad for the KIA. ~ Now just in case you didn't know how much of a JEEP/ATV/4 wheeler of any sort freak CJ is I can refer you to this posting and just say that if it has to with mud he is there! ~ So he traded the KIA for a quad and spent all summer zipping through the woods. He had a great time and KM and her friends loved taking rides on it.

We have had discussions over the last few years about getting an RV again and how much fun we had when we could just jump in and go! So CJ was always checking craig's list for feasible possibilities, but I could just not justify spending the cash on it and there was NO way we were going to get a loan for one. However he managed to work out another trade when he saw the words "willing to trade for ATV".

Now it needs some serious exterior work and minimal interior work, but considering it is older than CJ it realy isn't that bad -

It runs great, is pretty good on mileage considering it's age, has TONS of storage, I can drive it and it sleeps 6!

We are planning on taking the stove out completely and putting in a bigger sink there, since we always use a grill when we are camping. The bathroom needs to be redone. We are thinking of using some leftover flooring to get rid of the orange carpeting. The outside will be powerwashed and painted - there was some talk of bedliner on the exterior, but I am trying to push away from that one. I would be happy if we could also find a bit bigger fridge, but I am not holding my breath on that one.

All in all we will be doing a lot of work, but we have all agreed to do it together! It will be a fantastic project that we will be all be able to reap the benefits of it in the long run!
I will keep you all updated as things progress!