Motorhome Modification - CHAIRS, CLOCKS AND COFFEE TABLE

First note, two years ago today our youngest granddaughter Chelsea was born.  Here she is just a few minutes old, in my arms.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEEDLE BUG CHELSEA! 

I called her this morning on the phone and sang to her.  On Saturday we will go to her party, with all her little cousins there.  What fun!

Wow.. all our grandbabies are growing up fast!   It's a good thing there are two more grandsons on the way in April, so we will have more babies to hold in our arms and in our hearts.  Amazing how a Grandmuddah's heart can stretch and grow with each new addition!




I am getting through the boring winter months of No Camping by posting alphabetically the things we have either modified, improved or bought to make our RVing life easier.

This post is in the C's .....  Oh boy... chairs chairs chairs!  

We now carry SIX chairs in our rig and probably need to cut back down to  four.  I will start with the first two we will keep for sure.  These are the ones pictured in my post the other day about the camping mat.  They are called "The Ultimate Relaxer Recliner"    We bought ours about five years ago, one at Pamida and one at Shopko in Wisconsin.   They are the most relaxing lounge chairs we have ever sat in.  We never leave them out at night, or sitting out in the hot sun where they will get bleached or weakened.  They are sure nice chairs.

I googled right now and found them for $44.99 through a deal place from JCPenny.  http://dealspl.us/ultimate_relaxer_recliner_64619  

We paid in the $69 range back then.  We tried buying some cheaper ones at Ace Hardware for my folks (because Lowell would not get out of mine any time we went camping!)     They were not quite the same.  I would suggest sitting in them for a length of time to test them out before buying.  Beware, you might fall asleep in the store, so bring along a fellow shopper to wake you up again.


Added to my chair, is something that is found now in many camping supply stores. Steve bought me this tray device for Xmas to go on my Ultimate Relaxer Recliner chair.  The bracket portion stays bolted on the frame, even when folding the chair up to put away.  The arm and swiveling top tray removes during storage or for easy cleaning.  When in use, the tray stays level no matter what position the chair is put in.  Great for my coffee cup, scissors, knitting stuff or a plate.  The recessed area is where my taller coffee cup or water bottle sits into.  But our fat wide coffee mugs need to set on the round portion of the tray.

Our next set of chairs are the ones we have had for about 12-13 years now.  I made them from macrame cord on new heavy aluminum chair frames.  These are wider and taller than most webbed lawn chairs, and we can not find these kind of chairs any more in the stores.  Twice now our frames have broken, so for Steve's we found a new frame and I transferred the woven portion of the chair from one to another (NOT an easy task!)   ...

Then my frame broke two years ago...  Steve was gonna toss our chairs in the trash because we bought new ones from Coleman instead (see below)  He put ours in the garage and kept saying he was gonna haul them to the dump!!!   But stubborn me, I said NOOOOOO  ----   I unwove the portion of the chair where the frame broke, had Steve cut a piece of pipe to slide over the broken portion, screwed it into place, and I re-wove the chair again!   I like these better than the Coleman ones in the next topic below. 

The tree pattern is traced from our shutters on our house, which is also repeated on our bed headboard and bronco doors to our changing room. So keeping these chairs will bring a piece of our log home along with us once we go full time.  I vote to keep them!


Here are the instructions on making these chairs... all you need are 2 big skeins of macrame cord (the braided works better than the twisted)   and two large crochet hooks, about size K.  

www.kingskountry.com/how-to-make-a-macrame-lawn-chair.html

My sister and I have made many of these chairs over the years, but it takes a lot of oomph and hard on the hands to tug the loops around and through the previous loops along the frame.  Similar to crocheting.

Here are the Coleman chairs we bought to replace the macrame ones.

Of course, Steve happens to like these better, so we now have SIX chairs in our rig.  They all fit in the one compartment designated to stow the chairs, so I suppose they can ride along for a while longer.  He likes these because they fold up and can be carried over to neighboring campsites, and they have the little fold out table to set things on.   I find the macrame ones are taller, warmer on the butt on cold nights and just all and out prettier! 

So stay tuned to the Saga of Survivor of the Lawn Chairs... 

wait and see who will be voted off the motorhome next!

Next up is Clocks.... 

We don't have much of any wall space in our rig for a clock to hang up.  (it's all windows) So we decided to buy a battery operated one and attach it to one of the smoked glass panels up front that double as cabinet doors over our electronics.  We used a heavy duty velcro, so we can pull it down to change the batteries or set it ahead and back for daylight savings time.   Our RVing buddy Seann has THIS clock instead... (see pic on the right)    I think that is what we will change over to once we hit the road full time.  Even on vacation, after the first few days, you forget what day of the week it even is.  The sad part, is when you are on vacation, you HAVE to keep track because you need to realize what day you have to go home again.  Sigh.  

I saw a blog post the other day with a clock 

that had all the numbers jumbled up at the bottom and it read: "WHO CARES?"   

I forgot which blog it was one, but I think that is the type of clock to get!!!

Last on the list is Coffee Table.

Steve, my wonderful woodworking spouse made us this heavy duty coffee table for our rig. It is just the right height as a base for my table loom. It doubles as a stool to sit on for company at the table or as a step stool for me to get up high into the back of the overhead compartments.  He made it with wide stance legs for added stability. 

This photo was taken while we still had two couches in the rig.  We removed one couch first.. then the other last fall.  We now have two reclining chairs instead.  And, of course, we still have the coffee table. 

It even works for the wee grandtots to use for a lunch spot or an activity table! 

Last topic:  Prepping of the house for sale:   Last night Steveio burnt the taller weeds along the river on the lowest terrace of our land along the bank... last summer the weeds took over and grew too tall for the mower.

Now while the winds were calm, and the grass is dry (no snow) he was able to do a slow controlled burn along the river frontage.   And the doggers had to supervise!