Our Newest Adventure

True to the McWilliams form, we have started a new adventure!

It all began with a joke. Andy sent me a listing for a 23,500 sqft building in Smithville. The building, more a warehouse, needed a ton of work and was located in a town I never heard of. So, clearly this was one of my husband’s half-jokes. But, like many of his half-jokes, further contemplation, conversation, and dreaming turned the joke into a very real possibility. Then the possibility turned into a plan, and here we are.

We closed on that 23,500 sqft building last week. Closing took longer than anticipated. In fact, everything has taken longer than anticipated. The building needs a ton of work. First of all, it is filled with a ton of trash. A TON! We have already made great progress on clearing out and organizing the piles upon piles of mess and we have mowed the attached lot.

Besides the initial clean-up, the first task of the adventure was finding an RV. That’s right, we are living in an RV again. (More on that in a moment)

Finding a livable RV was quite a task. With so many things in the works, we had a strict budget on what we could spend. Not a daunting problem since Andy and I are well versed at renovating less than ideal living spaces into something comfortable and beautiful. We put in a month’s notice at our home and thought we had an RV secured, BUT then that RV fell through last minute and we found ourselves with less than two weeks before we had to be out of our house.

This led to a weekend of mad scrambling and driving to multiple places to view RV after RV. At one RV that needed an obscene amount of work, I missed the last step leaving the RV and sprained my ankle.

In my defense, it was parked at an incline, but yeah, it was a painful misstep. Short on time, I insisted on leaving straight from urgent care to continue the RV search.

Luckily, we found one the next day! It needs a few cosmetic updates, but overall, I feel like we got fortunate on the find.

We have been out of our home and in the RV going on two weeks – and I have already ripped out the carpet and tossed the furniture. Keira’s fuzzy pink rug – which completely thrilled her. We also put our way-too-huge-for-the-space couch in the RV as a hilarious, but workable, short term fix.

Now, on living in an RV. When Andy and I first got together, we lived in an RV. We drove it across country once and had zero problems with space and functionality. However, living in an RV with a 1-year-old is a way more difficult experience. Space and functionality are both issues and Keira makes a mess faster than I can clean. She makes a bigger mess in the smaller space with less toys. But, the thing I miss the absolute most is our washer and dryer.

We are currently staying in an RV park because we are still waiting on utilities to be hooked up at our new property. I have a very large washer and dryer that, needless to point out, will not fit in an RV, so I am having to use a laundromat. Nothing is wrong with a laundromat, of course, but this is a new event for me. I am so accustomed to tossing the clothes I want to wear into the dryer to de-wrinkle or warm. Not possible when you have to be dressed BEFORE you can wash clothes.

Keira is enjoying the adventure so far, though this week she did find a way to open the RV door and fell out onto the concrete. No blood, but it was a truly horrifying event! She fell a good 2 ½ – 3 feet onto her head, so we brought her to the ER to get checked. She had to get a CT scan and I was more affected by it than she was. I am so proud by how sensational she did! Her scan came back clear, and we were sent home with a list of things to watch for. She was fine for the rest of the day, and we thought the drama had passed, but then she woke at 5am vomiting EVERYWHERE. We had to bring her back to the ER for another CT scan. This one also can back clear, and we were sent home again with instructions to observe her very closely for the next 24 hours.

Over 24 hours later and I am thrilled to report that, besides a bruise on her forehead, she is completely back to her normal self! I also have to take a minute to say that Ally Medical Emergency Room in Bastrop was a wonderful place. They guided us through a very scary moment with kindness, knowledge, and grace – AND they didn’t gouge us on the billing.

On a positive note, we are loving Smithville. It is the cutest little town and last weekend we enjoyed Keira’s first ever Christmas parade. She was in awe of the lights and enjoyed waving at all of the passing floats. We also got funnel cake!

I mentioned that everything is taking longer than usual. We have been hit with a case of Murphy’s Law so far on the journey. When it rains, it pours, right? But, we are still optimistic and excited for the end game of this adventure. Our plan is to move our custom cabinet shop into part of the 23,500 sqft building. Obviously, we don’t need the entire 23,500 sqft for our shop at this point, so we want to section off part of the building to construct our dream home barndominium. I want to use the empty lot as an extra large garden and play area for Keira. We will also likely section off part of the building to rent out, but we are still debating that possibility.

There are so many exhilarating prospects for our future with this building and I cannot wait to share the progress with you. Wish us luck!