RV Renovations: Making it Feel Like Home

RV Renovations: Making it Feel Like Home

In this episode of TravelEssary, we’re diving into all things RV renovations . From easy upgrades to functional transformations that turn your rig into a cozy, personalized home on wheels.

Whether you're full-time RVing or weekend adventuring, a few thoughtful changes can go a long way. We’re chatting about:

✔️ Simple RV upgrades that make a big difference
✔️ Swapping out furniture and hardware for better function and style
✔️ Outdoor improvements like steps, ladders, and solar panels
✔️ How renovations can impact your RV’s resale value
✔️ Personal touches that make your space feel like you

Plus, we’re sharing a few renovation wins (and a couple lessons learned the hard way). If you're dreaming of RV life or knee-deep in a reno project, this episode is for you.

✨ Join the conversation on our social media and share any ideas or renovations that you have made to YOUR RV.

Transcript

  We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time. On this episode of TravelEssary, we are going to break down some RV renovations that you can do to make it a home.

Let's chat.

Well, welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode as we try to break down how RV renovations can make an rv. Your home

whether you are a full-time RV or it's something you just do in the summer or the weekends when you're in your rv, you want it to feel like a home. Isn't that why we stay in RVs instead of hotels? It's because we want our own space. We want our own thing, and so we're going to talk about how you can do that.

Now before we get into the different ways that you can do it, we need to reiterate and we need to make sure that everyone understands that a vast majority of anything you do from an RV inside or outside, you are going to depreciate the value of that rv.

Yeah. Even something as simple as changing out the furniture or changing your blinds and your shades can actually depreciate that, which of course we all know that once you take that thing off the lot, it's already depreciated by about 30%, but you're going to take that number down even more anytime you do something that

takes away from the normal manufactured settings, right? Whatever the specs are from the manufacturer, whenever leaves the lot, that's what they value the RV at. So anything that you personalize or anything that you do to it, even if you think it's a hundred percent better, which it probably is, oh, I mean it probably is, except that's gonna be a depreciation because it's not to the specs or the standards that it, it was built on.

So just be aware of that. But I believe , the upgrades that you can do to an RV to make it more personal and make it feel like a home is worth it. Yeah. Now, if you know. You're not gonna have your RV for very long, right? And you're gonna be getting rid of it. And it is important for you to keep that value as high as possible.

I suggest not making any of these renovations that we're gonna talk about, I highly suggest you keep it exactly as it is as much as possible, because if not. Then you're gonna regret that. Um, if you're like us and you're not really in it for the resell value, you're in it for a, Hey, this is what we want and what we need and we're in it long term.

Then, , yeah, stay tuned as we start getting into what you can do to make it a home. So the very first thing, and probably the easiest thing that you could possibly do to an RV to make it feel like home is the decor.. It is so easy to change out so many simple things that just makes it feel more cozy,

I mean, everyone has their own specific style of how they decorate their house. Yeah. Whether you're eclectic or you're less is more, you have . Some style, some themes, some color schemes that you like, and I am all for bringing that into your rv. And most of the time you are not going to find an RV exactly to your liking, whether it's , the wallpaper that they put on the curtains, the, the color of the stain.

Yeah. Any of that kind of stuff. Yeah. When we purchased the fifth wheel that we have now. I looked into several that I was like, oh man, I'm so hesitant because I would have to do a lot of prep work. The walls were so dark and I'm glad a lot of the manufacturers have gotten out of that. I hate those wood paneled walls with a passion.

Yes, that was definitely a style that started probably in the seventies. Nineties. Oh, yes. It reminds me of my childhood. And it just makes it so dark and dingy and uninviting. I don't know. I do not like dark colors, but I'm so glad they're lightening them up because it seems so much more inviting and it's, and it feels more open because you get a little bit of reflection off of the walls.

It doesn't feel like everything is being absorbed and it's closed in around you. But if it does have the dark coloring that you don't like, there are options of painting now. I'm so glad we didn't have to do that because there is prep work and things you have to consider when painting, and we're not gonna get into all that.

I highly suggest you look into it before you do any of that to make sure you're doing it properly, but. It is possible to paint the interior and the cabinets of your rv. There are hundreds of people that do so, and it looks amazing. It does. It looks absolutely stunning. Wherever they get done, if they do it right, and that's the big kicker because it is such a tedious job . So if you're looking into that, , definitely do your research, especially depending on what type of paint that you're gonna be purchasing. All that has its own prep work and everything else that has to be done.

, Another thing that is a real simple, just switch around are curtains. Curtains have like the accent color and so sometimes it can really pop or it could make the inside of your RV just look awful. . And we did look at some that had some curtains.

We were like, oh, we definitely without an option. Very, your first day leaving the lot, we're gonna go to, A seamstress. And get those suckers changed out as fast as possible. Yeah. I'm not a big fan of the ones we have now, but it just has not been opportune time yet to go get new ones.

And it's really hard to find pre-made ones in the shapes and size that you need. , But the ones we have are not terrible. They do match our color scheme of our furniture and the things that we have , in our home. So it's not too bad. I do eventually want to change them 'cause I definitely feel it makes a space.

. More comforting, more homey when you have curtains. Yes. And the same thing , with the shades. Like right now we only have , the one panel kind of blackout shades. Mm-hmm. And now they've come out with so many different ones.

, There's so many different blinds you can put inside an RV that also. Helps you make it a little bit more homey. Misty loves outside light coming in. Yes, I want a bright interior. I don't wanna feel like a vampire living in a cave. I think you know, too much darkness is extremely depressing.

We've talked about this many times. I have a pep. Personality and , I need that light to come in , to nourish my peppiness, I guess. I don't know, but I am really glad that ours did come with curtains and not those terrible, terrible lances, like those little. Cardboard thingies that they have. , Again, a lot of the newer ones are getting away from that.

Some of them I still see in some of the new models, but I don't even know what they are or what they're called. They're not even really VA lances. They're like this cardboard material covered piece of crap that makes no sense and is super ugly. Yes, , they are super ugly and then changing them out. Is a little bit more of a work than if it's just straight up curtains.

Mm-hmm. But yeah, that's another thing that I would've done right away. If we had those, I would've taken those suckers off and just went with shades if I had to, because I think they're ugly and they're not homey or comforting at all. It makes it feel like you're in an RV and not in a home or in your own personal space.

So, yeah, and those are things that. You can change that are already there. Now what can you bring from your home or what can you purchase to make it feel more like home? Adding stuff on the walls such as pictures, paintings, pictures, personal, you know, items, photos, right? I mean, anything like that.

, RV doesn't have a whole bunch of studs. No. You wanna do things that you can use command strips as much as possible. Something that's not gonna leave a hole. Something that's easy , to peel off. Mm-hmm.

Because you will have to move it. Things will happen. It'll fall. Ill tell you, those command strips are wonderful. They have like the heavy duty ones though. Yes. They're, they got really good. I've hung up like 15 pound mirrors with those things, with several of the heavy duty command strips. And when they come off, , they come off clear and.

Clean in the RV with no issues that we've had on this. I don't even know what this material is like this. It's not wallpaper. I don't, I don't know. Actually. It is wallpaper, is it? Yes. Well, it's fantastic. Yeah. I love it. But , the command strips come off nice and clean. I've had a couple of them in here with no issues.

Um, so yeah, I suggest. Anytime you do hang up decor that you use something like command strips. Now that's gonna be your lighter stuff. That's definitely not gonna be your heavier stuff . Matter of fact, I even saw a Facebook post today where someone used command strips to hang up shelves and then put books in it.

Oh no, it, it didn't last. I suggest not putting heavy stuff. In an RV like that. That's just my suggestion, right? Like they already have cabinets, put it in the cabinets. Oh gosh. If, if you're doing something like that, you need to build from the ground up. Who would do that? That's just no common sense. And so she had books all over the place because the shelves kept on falling down.

I can imagine. 'cause it's too much weight. So those command strips usually have some type of weight limit also. , If they get too hot sometimes , the sticky comes off the pieces Will, yeah.

Will loosen up. Um, other things that you don't have to really worry about walls, but also brings in a little bit of color, brings in some of that, that fresh air our plants. Yeah. Potted plants or you have like , a Voss with a flower. You're so fancy. Who says Voss?

So you have a Voss with flowers. We're American. We say vase or so we're not European or roses or just something like that. Now, . Be mindful that anything you either hang on the wall or you bring in as far as like plants whenever you go to transport, you're gonna have to take those things down and find places for them to ride in your trip.

Right. I have two hanging plants in our living space. Mm-hmm. And again, I, so what I actually did was I got like the hat hooks the command stripped hat hooks, like. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like they're hat hooks, but they have command strip stuff on the back of 'em, and I turned them sideways and stuck them to the ceiling and they've worked fantastic.

Now on travel days, I take them down. I don't want them to swing off and get wedged into a slide out or something like that, and they would probably fall off as we're going down the road because it is. A sideways hook, but it works great for hanging potted plants if you wanna do that from your ceiling, just FYI . Okay, next, what you can do, after you've added all your decor, you can switch out the furniture in your rv. And not only can you. But should you? Yes, a hundred percent. And here's why. Well, I'm not sure if it's is a hundred percent.

Yes, it is definitely. At least on one thing. There's definitely. Situations, depending on , your family style or who you plan on going camping with that, we highly suggest that you change some stuff out. Yeah. , The main, main, main thing, I think, maybe not right away, but eventually you're gonna have to change out your couches.

You are, and that's even something that even in a house, eventually you will have to change it house. So much more in an rv, so much more because those things are not made to last and they pill like crazy. Someone explained to me what kind of material is it that they use in this RV stuff that makes 'em just flake off everywhere.

, I don't know what it is, but it's definitely not meant for every day and . You know, it's crazy because these things are more expensive than your normal house furniture and they're made 10 times worse. And I don't understand that. Like I need someone to break that down for me.

I have a lot to say to the manufacturers of that, why is it twice as expensive as something I can go buy for my sticks and bricks home, and it only lasts a third of the time. So two things. I can definitely answer one of them. Is why they're a little bit more expensive or sometimes even way more expensive because they have to be certain specs and weights, certain sizes.

Mm-hmm. And they have to be made out of certain, well not necessarily certain material, but , you do need to watch the weight on them. Mm-hmm. Um, why they use the material, the outside material though, like that a, I don't understand. That's a good, it's like, what are y'all thinking about whenever y'all did that?

Right. Just more cost efficient , to make 'em that way. Their profit's higher. I don't know. So if you're in that manufacturing business and you make couches, and you know, that's the only part that I have an issue with is this outside material that just flakes off. And so quickly too, like I so quickly don't understand that.

But it's also one of those things that depending on how many people you're gonna have inside your RV or what you're kind of planning for, you can always change out your couches to fit your needs. Yeah. No matter what it is. , You just gotta make sure that it comes in pieces so it fits through the door.

Yes. You gotta get it through the door. Mm-hmm. Guys or anyone who's gonna be putting this stuff together. It's gonna be IKEA style, so just be prepared for it. There's gonna be pieces, but you can always change out.

Like we have two theater seats and then we have , a couch. Yeah, we can always change our theater to a loveseat or put in another couch. We can always rearrange our furniture to make it work. I've thought about a day bed in there. A day bed. So when we have guests or as Jasper gets bigger, it's a place for him to sleep, you know?

Right. , Another thing that we highly suggest that , you look at your table situation. Mm-hmm. Find out, does that really meet your need? Right. Do you need your table? Because the table could make a huge difference as far as seating. Oh, yes. I love what we did in ours. , We took out the four chairs and the normal table with the little leaf that you can pop up, which was very compact by the way. Like if four of us were sitting at it, it would've been very, very cramped.

, But we switched it out for something that we wanted to use more as a desk and only partly as a table. We got a bar table that is almost the same height as the bottom of the window. And we have this perfect. Viewing workspace and when the kids wanna sit here and eat, it's fine.

, No, all five of us cannot sit around this and eat, but majority of us don't sit at the table anyway when we're eating. We might all be in the same room, but we're not all at a table. So it works out great for us, and I think because we're working and using it as a desk more than we do as a table.

That's why we went with bar stools and it's so nice. And it gave us more walking space in here. Yes. And it totally allows us to sit people here as well, because we have swivel chairs. Mm-hmm. So they can swing 360. Mm-hmm. And so no matter who's talking to 'em, what they wanna look at.

, We made , our area more functional mm-hmm. For our requirements. Your kitchen and your living area gets used the most. Yes, if you're like us, , if not, if you're, people that are outside all day and you only use it at night, then you may wanna consider switching out your mattress now. Again, a lot of the newer models are coming out with fantastic mattresses.

They are comfortable , they're big, they're thick, like you don't need to change them. However, those older models or even some of the new ones, mostly on like travel trailers that I've seen, they have paper thin mattresses. They're not made for anybody over the age of 10 to lay on comfortably, and I highly suggest getting you a new mattress because even if you're not living in your RV and you're just.

Using it for vacation or summer trips. You want to be able to wake up in the morning without having back pain. You're gonna need that rest. , It's something that can't be overlooked because when you sleep is whenever you recoup all your energy and if you're on vacation, you wanna make sure you have as much energy as you want because you wanna go do things.

Totally understand. They have gotten way better. You're absolutely right, Misty. Are they gonna come with the top tier thing that, you know? Nah, you, you won't ever have to change out.

Absolutely not. But there are definitely some, like you said, I don't even know I'd allow a dog to sleep on it. There's no, our first cushion. Travel trailer and that mattress on there. And when you laid on it, it's like you could fill the, you could fill the wood under the board underneath it.

Absolutely. And it was horrible now, one thing you do need to be cautious about is vast majority of the time. Are going to be special mattresses.

Yes. You're not gonna just be able to go to a mattress store and buy one. , So there are RV mattresses that you can buy online. They are more expensive than your normal. I have heard of people that will trim down a regular mattress. Oh, that's scary. I don't think I would ever wanna do that, but I have heard of that.

, I've read on different forums in the groups on Facebook of people trimming that down. You have to be careful with those measurements. You can't just say, oh, I have this queen size mattress in my house. It's gonna go in my rv. 'cause it's gonna stick out like two feet past where your board is.

. But there are a lot of options out there for RV mattresses. I do highly suggest you measure that area before you just go order a mattress. In some of the other podcasts where we talk about staying at hotels or even, you know, Airbnbs, sometimes just having that mattress that feels like home

, you rest so much easier. There's nothing better than waking up and feeling refreshed. It's so true. Like we have a decent mattress. , Ours came with a new mattress and it was pretty decent. , I'm already ready to upgrade that a little bit, but, , you know, it works definitely better than what they used to be.

But if not, change that out. Change that out. Other things that you can change out is the hardware in the rv, , I think a reason to change out the hardware, which we have done a little bit in here, is to make it more comfortable for you, to make it more accessible for the needs of your family, because.

With RVs, I feel like it's a one size fits all. That's how . They make it. Oh, absolutely. But every person who purchases that RV has different needs from the other person that purchases the same exact floor plan and model. Yep. Like your family has different needs and than everyone else.

And so changing out the hardware to fit your family's needs and accessibility, , it. Takes what the decor does and like brings that up a level and we're gonna start with the easy hardware to change out. Changing out any kind of cabinet hardware. . As far as the doors or the handles?

The handles is actually a big one for me. . Because I've seen a lot that have those little bitty knobs. Oh my goodness. You can't really get your hand on, there's no grip. Mm-hmm. Sometimes these doors are hard to open. Yeah. Those little knobs that you can't hardly grip on and then you're having to pull and there's , no leverage.

And so I'm so glad that we got the ones that have the full grips on them. . It just makes it a whole lot easier to me. It makes it a little bit more stable whenever you open 'em and close 'em. 'cause you're not just pulling it one spot and like yanking the drawer too hard. Yes. And getting it off the track.

And even taking the cabinets and changing out the hardware, whether it's the doors or magnets. I mean, all that stuff is super easy. And whenever your vacation cabinets feel like your home cabinets and I know it's super weird. I know that a lot of people don't even think about that.

But just even doing that makes it feel more at home, right? Like you know what the feel of the stuff that you normally use on a day-to-day basis. It just feels more like home.

Right. You know, comfort is home. Home is comfort. And so when you're comfortable in your RV and in your space, then I mean, , that's pretty important. A lot of people make a lot of changes to the kitchen. I feel like the kitchen area is probably the number one place where people change Absolutely.

Their hardware out, you know, other than just cabinets. I've heard of people, , changing out their sinks. , They like the farmhouse sinks. Again, a lot of the newer models are coming with those. . Ours has a two. I wish it had the farm. I'm so glad it has , the two, which I don't understand because you are not the one who uses the sink. I am. I use the sink too. I use it 99% of the dime. I'm the one who does the dishes and stuff. Most of the time I, there's a little bit left.

I like the farm one. I hate the small side of the double basin. It doesn't make sense to me like I hate that side. But, , I've also heard of recently, this is one I, I don't understand, but I do know there's a lot of people out there that do it is they are taking out their islands in their fifth wheels. It adds more space.

, It gives you more floor space, but it does give you more floor space, but you lose so much. , I know I love the island. It's actually my favorite thing in the kitchen because I like the separation that it gives me, because I feel like without the island, everyone's in my space while I'm trying to cook.

Right. But with the island, it gives me that little bit of separation that I want to keep everyone from . Crowding me while I cook. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I can understand. I'm definitely gonna have to look that up though. Yeah, , they do the couches with the chase lounges.

Okay. And so they stick out further and they take the islands off because they have more children and they don't even have a table. They'll have like two couches and both will have chase lounges so that everyone has a comfort. Wow. Area to sit and they, hmm. Yeah, they take out the island. A lot of people say it gets on their nerves.

Um, I absolutely love my island, so I wouldn't wanna do that. Another thing, , that people are taking out of kitchens. And this is more of your older models because again, your newer models come with bigger ones, but that's the oven. Because some of them are so tiny, they're almost useless if you have a larger family.

Yeah. Now if you're just baking for one or two, it probably works just fine. But we've talked about this in our podcast about cooking in an RV is, you know, for us, you almost can't put anything in there. That's big enough for our family. Yeah, not that would work. Not to feed us for an entire meal with as many servings as we need.

Yeah. And not, it just doesn't work. , We would use so much propane going through it doesn't work for us. We have not taken ours out and we're not going to, but a lot of people take theirs out. , , I'm not sure how you would do that.

You just have to cap it. Cap the propane. Yeah. And they use it for storage for their appliances that they do. Do use. Yep. Like their air fryers and their roaster ovens and things like that. , The other main thing that people do in the kitchen is they change the countertops to butcher block.

Mm-hmm. , I would personally love it, but then I'd also be afraid it would make it so heavy because butcher block is so heavy. Yes. I mean,

. But they do make a little bit lighter version. But yes, weight, especially on those would definitely make a difference. So what I did was get one of those, which I still thought it was kind of ridiculously expensive, but probably 'cause I bought it at Camping World. Yes. What is it called?

It's like a stove top cover. Yes. And it's. Kind of like a butcher's block and we use it as a charcuterie board. And it's great 'cause I put it on top of our glass stove top cover and I put the appliances on it and stuff when we're traveling. So it's been nice, but it's not actually something that will, you know, depreciate the value or anything like that.

Now outside of the kitchen. One thing that we have done, I don't know actually if this is common. I can't say that I've seen anybody else do it, but we have switched out a door, like we took a door off and switched it out with something else., I don't see it as very common, but there are situations depending on what your family is.

As far as security and as far as being able to access them if they're like super young is to change out the doors. . So by changing out that hardware to the door, or even changing out the door completely like we did , it just makes sense just for a safety standpoint. Yeah. Now we have a second bedroom that comes off of the kitchen.

It's , our oldest son's bedroom, and, . It had a swivel door on it. So the door swiveled in and out. Like it swiveled both ways. And

. I'm gonna say this. I love RVs. Okay. I love our rv, but it is a known fact that things in RVs 75% of the time are very cheaply made. Oh, absolutely. They're very cheaply made, and although the concept of the swivel door was great and we liked it in the beginning, we learned that anytime this RV moved, that thing came outta the track.

Yes, or it opened because it came outta the track anywhere. It came outta the track. And so there is a slide on either side of that swivel door, I mean within an inch on either side of that door, and it would come out. And I think what happened , when we were bringing it home, yeah. When we brought it home is it came out of the track and, because there's no way to lock it, it didn't come with a way for you to attach it or anything.

We were literally bringing it off the lot and it came off the track and got wedged between one of the slides and it like popped and cracked the bottom of the door. And so right away after that we were like, you know what? It seems great, but it's really not. And then also if my son had his door open, I could not access our refrigerator.

I actually have a YouTube video of us making this change on, , prepping the fifth wheel, I believe it is, which again, our YouTube channel will be linked in the show notes. If you wanna go see the change that we made. So we took out that swivel door, and what we put in was an accordion door, which , it's not gonna. Move around. It's not gonna flap around. Whenever we transport, we'll be able to lock it open. . So we don't have to worry about our slides becoming a huge issue. We can use our fridge without any problems.

And it actually gave our son more room on the inside Yeah. To kind of spread out because that door didn't take up that extra space that was in right when it was open. It , took up space in the kitchen and his room because it was so weird. Now, if you ever give an RV and I'm gonna. Quickly hit this and then we're gonna move on.

But if you ever get a RV that you don't like where the door's located and you want to move the door and you're gonna wall something up, be very cautious. Whenever you do that, there is electrical lines that are run all over the place, so you need to be prepared for that. , Depending on what kind of wood that you use to build the wall is gonna add weight.

So just if you're gonna do that, just take the time. Really think that all the way through. So. That's just my little tidbit. If , you plan on building a wall or , I know that there's some, toy haulers that the bathroom isn't fully encased with, like a solid wall. Mm-hmm. And so they'll build it and then they build it out of like true two by fours and they add sheet rock and everything, and they just add like 700 pounds , to the rv.

. And it'll put 'em over that weight limit. So just be very cautious, kind of what you're gonna be doing with that. , The last thing that we're gonna be talking about is all of the outdoor accessories that can be done. And some of these are really good. Some of these need to be done depending on , your family or your lifestyle.

. And almost add value to your rv. Almost one would think. , why are you talking about the outside? I thought you were talking about making it a home. Well, again, comfort to me and accessibility is what makes something homey.

And not everyone has the same version of comfort and accessibility, but when you add. Things to the outside, to me that makes it, you know, easier to use. , Makes it more accessible to your needs. So yes, that does make it feel like a home. One of the very first things that you can do that. Can be simple and then can be a full on nightmare is change your outside door. . So they're almost all specially made depending , on that unit and, changing even like the door handles, you know.

The security codes or things of that nature. . They're changeable. You can absolutely do it. Yeah. I do know it's highly recommended for you to change the locks , that's probably something you wanna make it special do right away.

Um, but yeah, a lot of people do change out hardware for their doors. Some of them don't want any glass in their door. Some just want like the little window that we have in ours. . There's tons of doors out there. They can all be specialty to whatever you want.

, Now the biggest outside change I feel that people are doing right now is change. Now those steps, that's number one. Steps have come a long way. Oh my goodness. Oh, thank goodness. Thank goodness. , Matter of fact, it may not have been on Misty's list, but it was definitely on my list.

Like must haves, having those good steps, the old steps where they're not bouncy, bouncy, didn't have any support on the bottom? No. It was just like you jumped off the bottom. It was hung on , the RV by like three screws and maybe like 12 inch support. And , it flexed. Yeah. Every single time you get into , it flexed.

Anytime anyone was in and out of the rv, the whole RV would rumble around and it and oh my goodness. But they have come such a long ways, but I know a lot of people that are taking their old steps that didn't have any support and are going to the ones that fold from the inside all the way down and touch the ground.

And it's 100% supported. . Some of them even come with little handles you can front of and you don't feel scared when you're walking up your rv, which, I mean, it doesn't scare me. But having the 1-year-old, I love having the safe, stable steps. And they're wider too. They're wider. And so just by switching those out now, they can be a headache depending on what style you have. I have an uncle that is trying to get these type of steps on , his fifth wheel. And his door is not right. He would've to change his door out as well in order to get the steps to cover.

Well, it's one of those renovations we're talking about, but man, I would totally do it. He's looking into it. He'll figure out a way to do it, I promise he will. But adding , those type of steps is, in my opinion, so worth it. Even if you lose a little bit of value. Those are one of those things that I think you actually add a little bit of value.

Instead of totally depreciating something like we've already talked about, , some other things , there are a lot of RVs, especially your bumper pools that do not come with a ladder, so you have no idea what your ceiling looks like.

. , The last trip that we took, we had all sorts of branches all over . The top of our rv that we had to get up there and make sure we swept off, especially with the slide outs, make sure that they were safe. We didn't crunch anything or break anything. So definitely adding a ladder and then any accessory that goes on the back of , the RV on the bumper part, either that's a bike rack, luggage, your hauling an ice chest or your barbecue pit.

. Those type of things. It just allows you to bring those comforts from home. . Bike racks are usually the number one right. That's what you see the most often. You see the most. Everyone is carrying their bikes around 'cause they want that exercise to get out into nature. 100% agree with it.

We will definitely be adding one to ours as soon as we possibly can so we can take our bikes around. Although you're really the only one who rides a bike. I am , we all prefer walking. We like hikes. Yes. But it's also one of those things where , we'll be in certain places. That riding a bike because , the trail is so long and you'll be able to see so much more.

It's gonna be absolutely stunning. So I will get them on a bike. We'll record it the whole nine yards for you. The last thing that we're gonna talk about, especially as far as making it homey and just the stuff that you can do in renovating, is solar panels. I mean, I guess if you're boom docking or if you're somewhere where you have to pay a monthly electric bill and you wanna lower that, if you're just using it for, you know, state parks, corps of engineer parks, national parks, things like that, a lot of them come with electric and it's comes with your nightly fee.

So you wouldn't need to add the solar panels. But if you're doing beyond that, especially if you put on boon docking, then solar panels are definitely good if you're traveling somewhere in a day and you know you're gonna be hooking up, not a problem. You don't have any issues if you're traveling between places and it's gonna take you several days to get there.

And you have to stop at a Walmart or a Cracker Barrel or even like , a harvest host. A harvest host. A lot of those don't have, that, doesn't have electricity have, right. This allows you to charge your battery so at the bare minimum you can run your refrigerator. Yeah, you can run your refrigerator or you can get in at night and take your slides out.

Stuff like that. Other ones,. Like Missy said, if you're boondocking and . This is also one of those things that if it's done correctly and it looks professionally, can add value to your rv.

. Because you're giving it more options. There are a few people who also add decks to their roof. Oh, yeah. The only thing , that's scary in my opinion. With touching anything beyond the manufacturer on the roof with getting leaks. Leaks, yeah, because you're gonna be putting holes that there shouldn't be holes and you have to seal it and make sure it's sealed.

And you also avoid the warranty of your roof. Right? So there's a lot of things you can do to your rv. A ton of things to make it so much more comfortable than it is. I don't feel like there's any one RV that fits everyone's. Needs and wants, exactly like it's just not gonna happen. You're gonna wanna make it your own.

But there are two big things to consider. Again, you will depreciate the value of your RV for pretty much anything that you do to it. So any major, even cosmetic things that you do, it's going to depreciate. And the second thing you need to consider is weight. Anything you add to your rv. Is going to add weight.

Your RV axles are only made for specific amount of weights. . And if you go over that, you could wind up in a very dangerous situation. Yeah. So keep in mind, there's a reason why your mattress is thin. There's a , reason why the furniture's built out of crappy material. , You're gonna wanna make those changes, but keep in mind the reason they are built like that is to keep things under a certain weight.

So yeah, keep all of that into consideration. If you have any renovations or other ways that you have made your RV your home, please let us know. We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions and your ideas of kind of what you have done to your rv.

Maybe it's something we haven't thought about and something that we definitely. Would like to do to ours. Yeah. If you haven't joined our Facebook group yet, I highly suggest you go and do that. TravelEssary all one word on Facebook. Links are always in the show notes and on today's post about our renovations, add some pictures of what you've done or maybe add a picture and say, Hey, what can I do with this space?

And we would love to take a look at that. Yeah. And help you out and just see how it goes from there. Thank you for joining us.