MOTORHOME STUFF - STEAM CLEANING RV CARPET - PAINTING FRONT PORCH

This blog starts out with some motorhome stuff. While we were gone on our vacation, it was our anniversary. We usually decide to buy something that we both want together and that will be our anniversary present to ourselves. We didn't find anything while we were traveling, but we decided that we really could use a new set of pots and pans for the RV. 

We waited until we got home to order them, and we are lucky that we did. They happened to be on sale, and we saved quite a bit.

We had seen another YouTube RVing couple, actually two different couples now, that had these nice pots and pans that had detachable handles. They are just perfect in an RV because they stack together and take up less space. Both of those couples seem to have great reviews about them and have been using them for quite some time. So we thought we would look into it. 

The brand is called "Carote", and they even feature the fact that they are great for RVs because they stack together.

They have different colors in different assortments of different various pans. We looked through all of them to find the set that seemed to fit our needs the best:

We chose this one because we wanted the darker color, and we wanted a variety of fry pan sizes and deeper sauce pans than what we currently have. It also came with a set of knives and some cooking utensils that we really didn't need, but they were nice to get along with the whole deal. 

Here's the link to Amazon for the set that we purchased: 

CAROTE 33pcs Pots and Pans Set Non Stick, Cookware Set, Removable Handle Pots and Pans Nonstick, RV

We had a lot of fun opening them up and checking them all out. We really do a lot of cooking, together, in the RV when we travel. We rarely go to restaurants. So this would really be a wonderful gift for the both of us. 

The detachable handles were pretty cool, and I could see where they would make it really easy to stack things up into a drawer or a cabinet without handles sticking out.

We registered the kettles for the warranty and showed our proof of purchase for one year.

Here they are all stacked up. The brown felted flower-shaped petals are underneath the stack in this photo. Further on in the blog you will see where they go when the kettles are in transit. 

All in all, it's three fry pans, a large 5 qt saute pan/wok and three sauce pans, and a special egg pan.  There are three detachable handles that can fit onto any of the pans when needed. It came with assorted glass lids and some snap on plastic sealing storage lids to store food in the refrigerator. Plus a nice stainless steel steamer basket that can double as a strainer/colander.

I also like that it comes with a four quart saucepan, my last set only had a three quart and two quart. Four is much more usable and things don't boil over as quickly because it's deeper. 

One of the kettles we wanted the most was the four small round egg circles in a pan. We often fry up a single egg for each of us and put it on an English muffin along with a piece of ham or sausage. We make our own Egg McMuffins for a quick breakfast in the morning while we are traveling.

After running them through the dishwasher, we quickly removed our old set from the motorhome. They were in pretty good shape, but they were about 13 or 14 years old. Our youngest daughter needed a set and we passed them on to her. I'm sure she will get a lot more use out of them. They were really pretty coppery color with ceramic lining. We gave her the extra knife set, too.  

Now for the fun stuff--- finding out how they all stack together in our drawer underneath the stove in the motorhome. 

The set comes with these brown felted flower shaped petals that are really protective trivets that go between each pot or pan as they stack up. It prevents scratching from the exterior of one onto the interior of the other. Mostly it's to prevent the rattling noises! And we know in an RV, those can be irritating. I used to pad my old kettles with pieces of shelf liner or my hot pads to muffle the metallic rattling sounds as we drive down the road. 

These are going to work out really well...

Look how they all stack up and nest together into one stack? This is a set of three fry pans, a saute pan, and three saucepans. Seven of them in one stack! (really 8--- I decided to keep my old flat square griddle for pancakes or French toast down below in the bottom of the drawer).

 All three of the detachable handles are down in front in the corner. The lids are laid up on their side on an angle, because the knobs prevent them from stacking flat anyhow.  The egg pan holds them up just enough on an angle that the drawer can easily open and close.

I decided to keep the stainless steel steamer basket up in the cabinet with my stainless steel mixing bowl. I think I will use this more often as a colander or strainer than an actual steamer basket. Multi-use! So I got rid of the dumb plastic one I had in the upper cabinet.

We went camping and we got to use them for the first time. Something I had never really thought about was by having detachable handles, they can be detached and set off to the side for easier arrangement on the stove burners. As most of you RV owners know, the stovetop space is quite limited and the burners are placed closer together than on a traditional household stove. By detaching the handles, I can move the pans into place and then not accidentally knock something by bumping a handle or having a handle get too heated by being next to another pan.  That was an added plus that I really hadn't thought of until I was actually using them. I was very satisfied with the nonstick surface, and the pans seemed to be flat and evenly distributed the heat.

Steve cooked up a big breakfast using three fry pans on the stove at the same time. Once pan for hash browns, one for bacon, and one for eggs. They all fit quite easily on the RV range top. 

I think these pots and pans are going to be a winner!

Another project that needed to get done when we got home from vacation was to clean the carpets and also the vinyl flooring. I had picked up this steamer device to use on both the carpet and snap-on a microfiber cloth and it can be used to steam clean the floor at the same time.

It did a great job on the vinyl flooring and the two little carpeted areas up on front behind each of the cockpit chairs.

(Why on earth Winnebago decided to put carpet in those two little triangle sections is beyond me? We saw somebody else on the Winnebago Group on Facebook try to pull it up and it has holes underneath for some kind of brackets or something, depending on what your floor plan is).

The other part in our motorhome that is carpeted is on this step up area that goes around each side of our queen size bed. It gets rather grubby because it's a light cream color. The steam cleaner and the Resolve carpet shampoo really brightened it up and it looked pretty darn nice after it dried.

So that's it for motorhome stuff, but the last two weeks I had a couple sweet darlings come over here to help me out with something that needed to get done on the house. 

We bought the house in 2019 and back then I had completely primed and painted the entire front porch. We had to replace spindles and repair handrails. 6 years later, things were looking worse for the wear and really needed to have some better quality paint this time around.  The stuff I used last time was straight paint and it was on sale. This time I bought primer and paint mixed together, and I bought enough to do THREE COATS!!! 

But first that meant scratching off and scraping any of the loose chips before I got started. That's where these two sweethearts came in on the job.

Boy oh boy, did they ever work hard! They said it's very satisfying to chip and peel off the old paint. Remember, it's only 6-year-old paint so it's not lead-based so they weren't in any danger. They enjoyed chipping and peeling and scraping and scratching. And even more fun, they thought it was hilarious when I brought out the shop vac. They actually vacuumed up the paint chips out of the grass, the sidewalk and the flower beds. They thought that was totally amazing that they're Crazy Grandma would have them vacuuming the flower beds???

Sadly, I lost my helpers when they had to go back to school. Now it was my turn. I love to paint. I turn on some soft music and I have my mug of coffee. In the morning, as soon as the dew is burned off, I get to it. I do one section each day and work my way around all four sides of the spindles and the top and bottom rails. Each section got three coats of paint.

I could only paint in the mornings, as this porch faces to the west. The afternoon sun made it too hot to work out there. So I did a little bit each day as the weather permitted. 

Steve helped me with the tall man work on the big columns because he can reach up higher. We didn't want to haul out a ladder so he put a telescoping pole on the roller and he was able to reach to the top.

Some of this porch is rather rugged, it's from the late 1800s and some of the wood is worse for the wear.

Steve firmed up some of it with a chemical wood hardener to hopefully get it to last a little bit longer. If we don't keep things original, we would have to go through zoning and get a building permit to replace the railings with different types and heights to meet code. I would rather keep it original for now.

I just love how neat and clean and crisp everything looks when it's done. There is a therapeutic and mesmerizing effect to doing painting. Every stroke of the brush is cleaning it up and making it nice and fresh. It's a type of a job that you get immediate gratification from, it goes from grubby and ugly to beautiful and pristine. Especially when you paint with white.

The railings look so good again. Steve put the flower boxes back along the ledges after I finished up the gray with some porch and floor enamel paint. Just the outside edges of the porch boards where they are exposed to the elements needed a touch up. The rest of the porch is still in pretty good shape.

Then I had to break out the red paint and a little roller and touch up the lattice work underneath. That was very time-consuming...

Someday I might like to change this lattice over into some cut out fret work boards like we had on our house and Chilton. But for now, this looks very "farmhousey"... but it's not original.

We really enjoy having a front porch. This one is quite long with two sections with two different seating areas. We mostly use the part that is to the southern section of the house with the rocking chairs and the porch swing. Very often we have little grandkid butts perched on the porch swing, eating popsicles or sipping on juice boxes.

Whenever we have company, we kind of end up out on the front porch and sit out there to chit chat after dinner. It's kind of like an extra "living space" for us.

The old fashioned beadboard ceiling could probably use another coat of paint sometime soon. Maybe in the spring I will get a long-napped roller and get a good coat of paint up there. For now it is holding it's own. I can only do so much at a time.

The gray porch boards are showing a little wear, but I can roll those maybe in the spring with some more porch and flooring enamel. Right now I am out of that paint, and I think I am done for the season with my painting projects.

We propped the window boxes up out of the way so I could touch up here and there a little bit more. Imagine soft music playing from my little MP3 speakers, and I'm sipping my coffee from my mug with all of the grandchildren pictured on it.  Mornings like this make me smile. I am at peace.

For how much we love traveling and exploring, we also love being back home at our house. It takes some work keeping it up, so we have to fit it in between trips.

A couple years ago, granddaughter Chelsea help me make this rain chain. It's little metal buckets from the party supply section at Walmart. Then it's a hunk of plastic landscape chain from the hardware store. Steve helped us drill big holes in the bottoms of the buckets and we used little S-hooks on the handles to attach them to the chain. We squeezed them tight with a pliers. Then Steve mounted it to the end of the rain gutter. It is quite fascinating to watch the water come pouring down through it.  See the chain of little red buckets?

Here is a very short video segment on YouTube of how it works, with granddaughters Whitney and Claire playing with it after a downpour had just passed through: 

In this photo below, I have the rest of the gray boards painted along the edges. As soon as they are dry, Steve will hoist down the window boxes to set back on the ledges again. I don't like them up high on the railing, because then we can't see out of the windows. Plus I have the ferns hanging down from above and they just block out too much daylight if I have everything filled up with plants...

This is a beautiful family heirloom. It is the sign that hung on Steve's parents' various homes throughout the years. They are both gone now to Heaven. We happened to be the lucky ones who got the sign when we were clearing out Steve's dad's last home. They were married in 1951.

It hangs proudly on our front porch between the windows on the left side. 

I think it is very pretty, and I'm glad that nobody else in the family wanted it. I had always admired it, and we were lucky to get it.

Now that the painting is done, the plants are put back where they belong, and we can relax a little bit. 

The weather is still nice here in Wisconsin, even though we've had some cool evenings. It's perfect to grab my spinning wheel and come and sit out on the front porch in our rocking chairs...  Steve sipping some limeade or maybe a beer, while I have my soft wool sliding through my fingers as I create beautiful yarn.

It's especially nice to look around and say that we've taken care of "our home".

Some of today's blog is also in this YouTube link below: 

Right now Steve is helping the kids with some work on remodeling their bathroom, but after that we are getting ready to go camping again. 

Maybe next week! 

Stay tuned....