With a few camping trips under our belts, we thought of more things that would make the trailer more comfortable. That led to Mark googling ideas and shopping on Amazon. Then, just like magic, he found solutions. Denisa thinks he's wonderful!
We noticed that the lighting wasn't good for reading in bed, and Mark found a great solution. He installed two chargeable reading lights over the bed. They are adjustable in color and intensity of light, and can be aimed right on a book you are reading. Mark screwed the base to the cabinet, and the lights are actually held in place by a strong magnet. That means they can also be pulled off their metal bases to use as flashlights.
One of Denisa's favorite modifications gave us more storage in the kitchen. Between the three-burner gas stove and the kitchen window was a knife block with slots for huge butcher knives and meat cleavers. You would think we were running a butcher shop in this little trailer if we had that many big knives on board. Since we only travel with two small knives, that seemed like a lot of wasted space. So Mark ordered some metal malt glasses, and cut perfect circles for them to fit down into that space. Now we have handy containers for all kinds of kitchen utensils! They're within easy reach and they don't take up any precious drawer space.
Our little 12-volt refrigerator sometimes struggles with keeping food the right temperature. We've had some frozen lettuce, and cantaloupe slices that turned into popsicles. At the same time, other sections of the refrigerator seemed a little warm. Mark read that improving the air circulation would help the temperature within the refrigerator to be more consistent. The glass shelves that come with it didn't help with the air circulation. So Mark ordered some heavy duty wire shelves, and then cut them to be the perfect size. The picture below shows the new wire top shelf, and the old glass shelf that will be replaced.
If there's one thing that we don't like about our new trailer, it would be the big window in the front. It's just silly to have one in the front on this model, where normally the Murphy bed completely covers it. When you put the bed down at night, you then have a big window when you want privacy to sleep. It comes with an inside blind over it, but that means you can't sit up in bed to read a book without banging your head on that blind. We were beginning to hate that window.
The other problem is that the window can be broken if the tow vehicle throws up a rock. We read that there are companies that will make a custom window covering that will protect it from rocks, but the prices were high! So Mark did lots of research, and ordered black padding material that matches the texture of the bottom third of the trailer front. He also bought a dozen strong suction cups. His total cost for his custom window cover was much less, and it looks and works great!
With the suction cups, we can take it off if we want the light inside the trailer. But with it on, we don't have to have the roller shade down and can lean against the glass to read in bed. That was a great project!
We have lots of things that need to be charged with a USB--our fans, our phones, our new bed-side lights, and our computers. So Mark installed extra USB chargers that can use our solar powered battery, rather than plugging into an outlet that must have shore power (or uses the energy-hungry inverter). Since we are working to stay at more places without electrical hook-ups, this is another way to make that possible.
We have struggled to find a place to store our shoes. Mark invented this newest modification that uses a plastic mat to keep the dirty shoe bottoms off the wall. In the picture below you can see the tall part of the mat going up the wall, but he creased the mat in such a way that the shorter side goes up to protect the arm of the sofa as well. It will hold three pairs of his shoes, and that's about all that he owns. It's out of the way, and uses a little wasted space to store some big shoes.
Denisa thinks that Mark enjoys solving problems and then crafting the solution. Mark thinks that Denisa is sure lucky to have married such a handy guy!
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