The park we have been staying at the last seven winters, Westwind Golf and RV resort in Yuma, Arizona has a mix of RV spaces for rent, as well as park models. A park model is basically a tiny home on wheels, that is brought into an RV park, and set on a space. The wheels are removed from the trailer, and water/sewer/electric is hooked up. A skirting is then placed around the park model to enclose the underbelly. Park models are recreational vehicles and are titled as an RV.

We have looked at park models in the park off and on over the past several years, but had no interest in purchasing one. Until this year! We have been living in an RV full-time for 12 years now, and we started thinking about having a place to settle down. We did find a park model that we liked at Westwind, and it was for sale by owner. The owner was, in our opinion, asking too much money. It had been for sale for over a year, so apparently others felt it was also overpriced!

After looking at many other units for sale, and seeing nothing that we really liked, we decided to give the owner a call and see if they would come down off their price. They were willing to do so, and we agreed on a significantly lower price. But we knew that our current RV needed to sell first, so we asked for a closing date over 60 days away, which was agreed to.

We had started asking around if anyone knew of anyone wanting to purchase our RV, and it turned out the gal living across the street from our RV said her sister was looking. One thing led to another, and we sold our class A Newmar Canyon Star, and then purchased the park model. We went to the AZ motor vehicle department with the park model owners and transferred the title over to us. The total cost? Seven dollars!

So here is our new to us tiny house, at 385 square feet (it’s 35 feet long, and 11 feet wide). It is a 2019 model, with a bonus room added on. In AZ, they call it an Arizona room. In FL it’s a Florida room.

This is the front to back view, of the living room and kitchen. It came fully furnished. We will eventually bring in our own stuff.

The prior owner used the bedroom as a laundry room, and the Arizona room as a bedroom. We will make the laundry room back into a bedroom, and make the AZ room into an extra living area when we return this fall. We will probably change out the old washer/dryer into a stackable set, so we can build a closet in the bedroom.

We closed on the sale in April, so we only had one month living in the unit before we left for Wyoming. We quickly discovered we had more storage space in our RV than in the park model!

So we have some work to do when we return in the fall. Once we get closets built back in the bedroom, that will give us more storage space. We already know almost all of our neighbors on our block. It’s a good mix of Canadians and Americans. I’m sure there will be plenty of happy hours this upcoming season!

Once we were all settled with the sale of the RV and park model, we started looking for a nice used Class C RV. We found several in AZ that we liked, but they were either overpriced or already had accepted offers. We did find an RV that we liked, but it was in Colorado. It was from the same dealer we bought our Newmar from. They had just gotten it in on trade, and decided to sell it since it was in good condition. Since we had a positive experience with this dealership before, we decided to road trip to Colorado and pick it up.

We made sure to stop and visit with our nieces on the way up. First stop was with Jasmine and Ryan, they are living in Fountain Hills, AZ, a very pretty community.

When we got to Colorado, we got together with my niece Breanna and her husband Lorenzo for dinner. It was great catching up with them!

And now for the new to us RV. It is a 2018 Forest River Forrester GTS. The dealership has a parking lot campground where you can stay overnight and try everything out in the RV.

A few photos of the inside

Makena now sits up front between the seats when we travel. We had her kennel on the booth dinette, but she couldn’t see us, and barked and barked and barked while we were driving. So we had to find a new solution. She’s happy now that she can see us.

So that’s about it for now on our two new homes! We hope everyone is having a good summer, and staying safe from this heat.

Quote for the day: “Moving doesn’t change who you are. It only changes the view outside your window.” – Rachel Hollis