Creating A Simpler Life Blog

Little Trailer on the Homestead!

7/26/2018

Now that the road is done we were finally able to put our trailer on our land for the duration of summer and fall. We will be bringing it back to Long Island for the winter because we have it set up on the snowmobile trails that pass through our land and we want to make sure that is open and running for our local community to use!

We absolutely love this little Jayco trailer and are very happy with it. We have had it (and been using it) for several years now and have not had any problems at all with it. Be sure to check out the video tour of our little trailer at the bottom of this post!

It is not an expensive trailer to start with, but since purchased it as a left over from a dealership we were able to get it for just under $10,000. Now I know that we could have purchased a used one for half of that but at the time were were looking we only had the Jeep liberty to pull it with. That limited us to finding a very small and very light trailer.

We used the Jeep to pull it for several years and mostly that was fine. There was a bit of a struggle pulling it uphill (The mountain roads in upstate NY can be brutal!) so we were really careful about how much we filled it up (water, etc.). But that's all changed now.

This past fall we purchased ourused Chevy truck and well, honestly, you hardly know the trailer is behind it! Now we like the trailer even better and we have absolutely no intention of upgrading to a larger one. We just don't see the need at all.

So, let's talk about the positive's and negatives!

Negatives first:

The bed - I sleep by the window and unfortunately this means I need to climb over my husband in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. This inevitably wakes him up, but we manage.
The mattress was awful. We fixed it by adding a 3" gel mattress on top and now it is so comfortable we don't want to get out of bed!
Limited room for walking/changing etc. We solved this by only one of us dressing, cooking, etc. at a time. The other one either sits down, lies down, or is outside!
Low ceiling. This is fine for us (my husband is 5'8") but we have had visitors that are over 6' and the ceiling is just too low for them. So for tall people this might be a problem. It's the same with the shower ceiling,
Tiny bathroom. This can be a real problem for anyone with a large stature. We don't even bother closing the door if nobody else is in there. It can be claustrophobic.
The AC blows on us in bed. This is probably our fault because we face the wrong direction (see the video for why) but it can make us really cold. We usually open the closet door next to it and that deflects the cold air off of us.
The refrigerator is really small. Because of this we also use a cooler for certain items that don't have to be super cold (fruit, etc.).
It is kind of a no-frills camper so it didn't come with silly things like drawers, a rack to hang your towel on, or even a toilet paper holder! It didn't even come with a TV or a place to put one! We just added what we needed! Check out our post about Making Our RV Like Home!

Now the Positives:

Queen size bed. This is huge for us as we absolutely could not share a full size, which is what most small R.V.'s come with.
The bed is always there. We refused to deal with having to set up our bed every night (by breaking down a table area or couch). We knew (I knew) that was just not feasible.
The small 5,000 BTU AC cools the camper down wonderfully and requires only a small generator to run (we have a 2,200 watt).
It heats up super fast too. We have the propane heater it came with and we have a small electric heater as well.
There is a lot of storage. I know ours looks really cramped, but that's because we stocked it up to actually live in for periods of time. If it is just being used for camping it's more than enough (For us anyway!).

Upgrades We Made (affiliate links for some):
**NOTE - No modifications were made to any outside wall - any holes drilled were only on inside walls (between bathroom and closet) or through the sides of cabinets (TV Mount and shelving unit).

LED light bulbs in every single light (every trailer is different!)
Paper towel holder
Metallic Knife Bar next to stove (FREE from Harbor Freight)
Hooks to hang utensils in the pantry
Towel and toilet paper holder in the bathroom (and a bathroom rug)
A mat (that we had to cut and fit) inside the front door.
Outdoor step rug
Hanging closet organizer in the closet.
Bins in the closet and all the cupboards for organization.
Over the door hooks on the closets for hanging towels, robes, etc.
A utensil holder and plate holders in the kitchen cupboard.
A key and mail holder right inside the front door (for keys, flashlights, etc.).
A Shelf for DVD's.
A small TV with DVD player on a moveable arm wall mount.
We made a foam headboard with luan, foam, and fabric.
Queen Size Gel Foam Mattress
We purchased a nice bedding set that matched the trailer interior.
A body pillow and other small pillows to make the couch comfy (there is no back or sides for it so that is what we use all the pillows for). If we have the table set up then the pillows just go on the bed.
We upgraded to a 30 lb. propane tank. We had to customize the tongue a little so it would work.

Other Items We Use For Our Off the Grid RV (affiliate links):

Water jugs (for filling the water tank)
Hand pump for jugs
Propane tank splitter and extension hose (so we can connect to the barbecue)
Propane tank guage
Weber Grill
Igloo 5 gallon Jug (for doing dishes over a bucket)
Reversible Outdoor Rug
Lifetime Picnic Table
Generac 2200i Generator (check out our review on our YouTube channel here!)

Thanks for visiting!
Please go to our YouTube Channel and subscribe! This is the way we will be communicating most of what we do as we move forward with building our homestead :-)
Sincerely,

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Our Homesite Is Cleared!

7/23/2018

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Well, it's official. Our land is cleared for building! The road has been completed and now we have about a 1.25 acre clearing to begin building our future homestead.

There is still a lot to do though. We are meeting with the well drilling company this weekend and we are still waiting to meet with an engineer to design our septic system. Yes, this is a new thing as per the New York State Board of Health. Everyone needs a system designed by a specially licensed (NYS) engineer. Of course that means that you can't hire any ole' engineer. Only an engineer that has taken a special septic design certification in New York State. Ugh...very annoying. Anyhoo....the engineer we want is so backed up they can't even come until mid August or later! So we will just have to wait.

We have also made our application to National Grid to have underground electric, but of course this is on hold because of the septic. We didn't know it originally, but if we have three out of four things (foundation, road, well, and/or septic), National Grid will cover a nice chunk of the cost of underground installation including the transformer, and a cost equal to 100 feet of above ground wire connection. That totals a few thousand dollars (And an additional savings of the $800 fee we would have had to pay for temporary service.). So, bottom line, the electric is on hold! No brainer there.

But either way, we are off to a great start. We have a road. We have a clearing. And we put our little trailer on the land so we can now enjoy it even more!

Check out our latest YouTube video showing the land clearing and please, subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on all future videos!

Sincerely,

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Little Trailer on the Homestead!

Our Homesite Is Cleared!

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