A Journey Before the Journey

It's been 10 months since we acquired RiskyVenture, and reflecting on our accomplishments leaves us amazed at how we found the time and energy to achieve so much. We have just three months to go.

We've made significant progress transitioning from our suburban lifestyle to full time RVing. In order to begin this journey, we faced a formidable list of tasks to complete before listing our house this spring on the real estate market. The workload was grueling and at times we questioned if our dream was worth all the effort. Since early December we have:

1. Restored the crown molding in the den with new paint and touch-ups

2. Renovated the upstairs bathroom with a new vanity, backsplash, and paint

3. Completely renovated the downstairs bathroom - rebuilding an exterior and interior walls, repainting, installing a new vanity, re-grouting the tile floor, and replacing baseboard trim and shower fixtures

4. Transformed the downstairs west office into a bedroom by removing the office equipment, bookshelves, office furniture and file cabinets, then adding fresh paint and appropriate furnishings.

5. Cleaned all windows inside and out

6. Power washed house and deck

7. Cleaned all gutters

8. Completed spring yard maintenance

9. Renovated the laundry area

Offiice Before - Now in RiskyVenture's Bunk Area

Office After

Simultaneously, from early fall through the winter months we undertook an extensive remodeling of our Catskill mountain cabin. We doubled the kitchen area and adjacent bedroom by expanding into the old screened in porch. Before and after pictures

Cabin Before Renovations

Cabin After Renovations

We installed cathedral ceilings and new windows, rewired the electrical system and lighting. Working with half the house exposed to the elements during January and February presented significant challenges. The harsh high-altitude winter conditions caused burst pipes, required constant wood burning in the fireplace, and brought battles with ice and blowing snow. We also experienced a blown Jeep tire and several power outages. When the well pump froze multiple times, we thawed it out with an improvised ice catheter constructed from a turkey fryer, an electric bilge pump and 50 feet of Tygon tubing.

By the official start of spring on March 20, 2025, our real estate agent welcomed the first potential buyers to our Long Island home. It was an exhausting and incredibly busy winter. Beyond the physical renovations, we have digitized and organized all important financial records, including 6000 photographs all the while selling, donating, consolidating, and minimizing our possessions. We're finally beginning to sense that the most of the difficult work is behind us as we look ahead to our overland adventure in RiskyVenture.

Walking through our decluttered home now brings feelings of freedom, space and peace. The countless distractions of everyday life are fading away as we now spend more time together discussing and planning our upcoming adventure.