We started our full time RV life in a used 2011 Grey Wolf Super Lite 28BH bumper pull travel trailer. The exterior had corrugated sides with one big slide and an awning. The interior had a master bedroom, living area, bathroom, and corner bunk. It wasn’t everything we had wanted, but it quickly became our home.
The master bedroom had a queen size bed with three storage compartments overhead. We had ordered a memory foam mattress for it, which was money well spent! There were his and hers closets on each side of the bed with nightstands. It was designed to have a turn around TV serving the MBR or living area, but our TV was so large that it had to be kept facing one way. You could access the under the bed storage by lifting the foot of the bed or pulling out a large drawer at the base of the entertainment wall in the LV. You could enter or exit the room on either side, but the end of the bed went all the way to the wall. Curtains could be closed on each doorway for privacy, although they didn’t offer the same privacy that pocket doors would have offered.
The living area had an entertainment wall, futon couch, U-booth, and good size kitchen. The wall separating our master had a TV, entertainment system with indoor & outdoor speakers, cabinets, and an extra large, deep drawer. Behind the couch was a shelf where we displayed different things to make our camper more homey like homeschool projects, art, or a tiny Christmas tree. The couch wasn’t really comfortable to sit on, but our oldest dog & youngest daughter both enjoyed sleeping on it. There was a short storage space underneath that was accessible from the exterior. The U-booth fit everyone comfortably for meals and homeschooling. During lessons, there was room for three of us to sit there with our laptops and still have writing space. Storage beneath the booths was ample. We kept all of our school and home office things under one side, extra kitchen appliances and items under the other side, and a few miscellaneous things under the back leaving room to stow away everything loose when we were on the road.
One of my favorite things about this particular layout was the kitchen counter. Instead of the common angle by the door, ours had an L-shape counter. The double sink was square against the front wall under the window supplying natural light as well as a light directly above mounted under the cabinets. This sink placement allowed all the side space for bare counter. That was like a slice of heaven. This good sized rectangular area of counter was accessible from three sides making it advantageous for many uses. To the right of the sink was a three burner gas stove top. The wall behind the stove top had enough space for a line of command hooks that held spatulas, spoons, ladles, measuring cups/spoons, and a long lighter as well as enough counter space behind for bottles and jars to line up. The Suburban oven was small, but once we learned how to successfully light it, it served its purpose. Above the stove was a small microwave and above the sink was a good amount of cabinet space, but it was difficult to access. You had to lift the cabinet up and hold it with one hand while using the other hand to retrieve and put away items. We tried to replace the hardware so that the cabinet would stay up on its own, but the wood could not handle the stress, so we had to go back to the original hardware. The previous owners had installed an under the cabinet light underneath the microwave that better lit up the area for cooking. They also had installed pop-a-plate and pop-a-bowl dispensers that proved to be a very handy space saver. Underneath the sink was a tall cabinet door to an area twice that size where we kept our food stuff, and under the empty counter space were two deep drawers for utensils, towels, oven mitts, etc. To the right of the stove was a small freezer and refrigerator, and I mean small. It was almost impossible to fit enough food in that refrigerator to feed our family for a week. In fact, I could not do it.
The corner bunk area had a single bed on top and a double bed on the bottom. It was made with access to storage underneath, but the mattress we purchased for it weighed too much to do this easily. That storage area did have exterior access though. There was one drawer mounted underneath the top bunk and one closet hanging on the back wall, which our daughters shared equally for their clothing. I should also mention that we purchased a mattress for the top bunk. We felt since we were going to be living full time in a camper, we should invest in better mattresses in the beginning. Upon reflection, I would have waited to make these purchases after living in the camper for a while. I recommend this because if you decide to change campers for any reason, mattress sizes are NOT standard like they are in houses. There are so many different sizes that chances are, your mattresses will not fit in your next RV home.
Across from the girls’ bunks to the left of the U-booth was our sink and medicine cabinet. I really liked this layout for one simple reason. It is not easy for a family of four to share one bathroom, especially after living in a house with multiple bathrooms. This set up allows someone to be able to use the toilet or bathe, while someone else brushes their teeth, and someone else could be washing their hands at the kitchen sink. It greatly reduced our getting ready time in the mornings to have two areas where people could prepare for the day. There was a cabinet under the sink that had enough room for three baskets – one for each of our children and one for my husband & I to share. This is where we kept our toiletries. That left the two-shelf medicine cabinet free for strictly first aid items.
The bathroom housed a toilet and tub/shower. I really enjoyed the amount of natural light that came through the skylight above the shower. Having the tub made it nice and roomy to bathe, but there was little space to put your soap & shampoo. We all had to adapt to using the same kind as there wasn’t room for multiple bottles. It was important to open the sky vent when showering to avoid steaming up the bathroom and camper. It was within reach from the floor or the tub so even the kids could turn the fan on by themselves. We kept the towel bar the previous owners had installed, and I added command hooks on the walls and door for our towels as well as a broom & dustpan. There was a full length mirror hanging on the outside of the bathroom door which was not only functional for self reflection, but it helped give an illusion of a larger space.
We made this camper our own by painting most of the brown cabinetry a white with light gray tones. Not only did this brighten it up, it also made it feel more spacious. Good friends of ours that have a camper of their own were complimentary of how bright our interior lights were which also helped. Although I originally had wanted a larger camper, the small size grew on me for two reasons. I found it convenient that no matter what I was doing or where I was in the camper, everything was still pretty much in reach. If we all sat down to dinner, it was no problem to stand up and reach over to get something that was forgotten. The best thing about it though, was the time spent together. When you put four people in a space that small, the only really private escape is outside. This made our evenings together after school and work full of quality time that will be lifelong memories. I will always remember this small space fondly because we stuffed it full of love.
Free 2 Live = Free 2 Roam 