The Mudroom

Okay, after being reminded last week of this post waiting in my drafts I told myself I would not post anything else until I sat down and wrote the words for this. So here I am. Doing my best. Though I did post a weekly Wednesday wupdate, I blame it on there being way more mudroom progress photos to write captions for than I was expecting. 

But I'm finished now, even if the mudroom is not. 

From the beginning of discussing living in an RV we had the idea to build a mudroom addition for it. Will had some ideas and my dad and Matt were gung ho to build it for us. 

Will started on the Thanksgiving weekend to build the floor. He had never framed before so there was a lot of learning along the way. 

And of course, if you have a mini excavator you might as well use it at every opportunity, right?

Dad and Matt arrived on a Thursday night with a van and utility trailer full of building materials. They planned to build all day Friday and Saturday morning and head back home Saturday at noon. 

It was fun to watch them work together. Here they're getting up the second wall right around morning coffee time. The first 'wall' is a frame, moreso, that will go up against the trailer, but is key for the room and supporting walls to be connected to. 

The kids had so much fun watching all the work going on. 

Third wall up, and you can see where the window is going right in the middle there. 

And once this fourth wall was up they took a lunch break. 

Unfortunately in the afternoon it began to rain. We had a good (dry) vantage point from inside and delivered hot drinks to the men as our display of appreciation and sympathy.  

And not only was it raining but also the wind picked up. 

Getting shingles on quick before stopping for dinner. 

By the time they called it quits for the day both men were soaked! 

Done for the day and off to join us in the trailer for a warm meal and dry socks. 

Saturday morning 11am the door was getting hung

some siding up

Delilah was pretty excited about the door - with a functioning door handle already too!

12pm

And as quick as they came, by 1:30pm on Saturday they were gone again.

Really looking forward to having all this mess not inside the trailer! 

Using a winch Will was able to pull the mudroom up to the trailer. Thankfully it worked just as he had hoped. 

I was reading bedtime stories to the kids and was a little bummed to miss the excitement. It needed to be straightened out a bit at this point before the gap was fully closed. 

Tucked right up against the trailer!

This is how it looks outside with the seal against the trailer. 

And check out that colour match between the trailer and the siding! It's practically perfect! 

Some stairs on the outside now

Getting the electrical in

Helper James always wanting to be in the thick of things with Dad, but sensitive to loud noises. 

Behind him you can see that the walls have been insulated and sheeted. And there's a space for the stove chimney roughed out too. 

One of the kids took this photo, but it shows the stack of used flooring we bought from a neighbour. 

And the pot lights are up

Will spent two evenings laying the flooring

After going back and forth between a wood stove or a pellet stove, looking at buying something used or one brand new, we found a sale on this pellet stove and bought it! 

Cute little chimney outside

Making more progress!!! 

This shoe shelf and coat rail are temporary but are already so much better with what we were working with before. (Which was coats all hanging in our bedroom closet and shoes under our bed and in a box in the hallway. 

The stove is blocked off with a baby gate and railing. The landing has an access door on the bottom right to get to the jack in that corner. 

The pellet stove keeps the mudroom warm but blows directly into the trailer through the open RV door. 

My first time getting the stove going on my own - messy work! 

(I can do it know with barely any soot, practice makes perfect it a lot easier) 

When you come into the mudroom door this is what you see - coats all to the right. Shoe shelf and counter to the left. The collection of items being stored on the floor and counter changes from day to day and week to week. And the child greeting you may vary. 

This space has made the five months we had of winter very do-able while living in an RV. Having space for the kids to store and put on and take off their winter gear has been great. And having the pellet stove in there is what got us through the sub zero temperatures. 

We are very grateful for the extra space this mudroom has given us while we're living in the trailer!