So - this happened today. Sure, most people wouldn't consider purchasing a camper in the middle of winter, but the Mcgraths? We when we see a deal, we don't let it pass us up. We weren't really looking to upgrade, well, I should say that I wasn't really looking. Ryan, he's always looking/thinking/planning about upgrading something. Let's just say that we threw out a low-ball offer on this Craigslist posting figuring they'd never come down that much, and then they did.
There are two big reasons we decided to upgrade.
1. Rooms with doors so everyone sleeps better
2. The "pull up and camp" appeal of a hard sided camper
Let's talk about the bedrooms first. The above picture is the "master". You'll notice it's open to the rest, but keep in mind I did marry a carpenter. We plan to fill in that half wall above the couch and add a small door where the walk way is. One bedroom solution down, one to go.
Here is the kitchen. You can see it has a three burner stove and microwave along with a nice sized fridge/freezer (below).
Plenty of people, including us, would call this "glamping". Don't get me wrong, I totally agree. But after 4 season of camping out of a popup and coolers Ryan and I both fully appreciate the convenience of having a fridge to keep the basics like milk, butter and meat cold, while being able to keep frozen stuff frozen for longer than a few hours.
The back side of the camper houses this bunk bed room. Well, it's not a room until you've got a door, but again, that will come. We plan to reduce that larger bed down to a bunk (like the bed above) and add a small door to this room as well. Once we've done that we officially have a two bedroom camper where I can put Abby down to bed and close the door....while keeping lights on in the rest of the camper. HUGE bonus.
When I was a kid we grew up vacationing in a popup. It was perfect for our family and I always knew it was something I wanted to do with my kids. Back in 2011 I convinced Ryan that we should buy this popup. It was cheap and kind of crappy but it was our entry into the campers. We put a lot of love into that camper and were able to flip it for a profit back in 2013. For some reason, I never blogged about our 2013 camper which we still own today but will be selling in the spring. It stinks that I don't have that post (isn't that why I started a blog in the first place?) because I'd love to show you the evolution....but I can post that later.
The small door to the right of the bunk room is the bathroom. It's small, but it'll do. I've never owned a camper with a bathroom before. Neither Ryan or I are afraid to use the campsite bathrooms or the nearby woods for that matter, but with a two year old potty training, access to a potty closealong with a bathtub (ever try showering with a baby?!?!) will be awesome!! I don't know that Ryan and I will shower in here much, but who knows..
Here is the view from the bunk room. You can see the small dinette area to the right here and a pullout couch against the wall for the master. You can easily see here where we plan to close in the half wall and add a door to create that master room.
We've had some great luck with flipping our campers so far. And, having a handy husband sure makes buying something from 2005 with a few issues a reasonable purchase. Sadly it'll be a few months still til we can try her out ourselves. But, that gives us time to build in the walls, convert the bunk room into two bunks and buy some new bedding (does anyone really like camper interior fabrics??).
The other huge benefit of this hard sided camper is that we're already mostly set up when we arrive at camp. A popup is a great option, and certainly affordable, but, anytime you set up or tear down, there's about an hour and a half process of pulling everything out and getting camp set up. With this camper, things will all have their spot, we can pack groceries, clothes, toys etc in the driveway and have very minimal setup when we get to the site.
We're super excited about our newest purchase. Who wants to plan a camping trip with us??!?!?
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