When we arrived back in Colorado from our excessively drawn-out trip east around Christmas, we were faced with a few jobs left hanging. One, we had promised to help deconstruct a house that was donated to Habitat for Humanity. Two, we had to sell our motor home to make space for a new 5th wheel RV. Three, we had to locate and pick up a new RV to live in.

Here is how it all shook down.

Selling Fermin:

Got to Montrose and ready to sell Fermin. The first person to come out and look at it bought it.

Deconstruction:

The house was purchased by the President of one of the country’s longest current standing department stores as a way to get rid of an eye sore in his neighborhood and give his son land for agricultural purposes. After the property changed ownership the new owner just wanted it gone and the man in charge of making that happen asked Habitat for Humanity if they wanted the lumber in exchange for doing the demolition work. A few weeks prior to us arriving on the job site, a crew was hired to remove the large, gangly trusses from the roof. Photos below show what the house looked like when we began our work. In just 6 days, the two of us–a circular saw, two reciprocating saws, a pair of hammers and pry bars, and a sledge hammer–took the house from fully framed to bare foundation. The photos show the progression.

The start of the job.

In the middle of our first day of work taking the entire 2nd story walls down.

After the first couple days the entire 2nd store is down and working on the great room as well as floor joists for the 2nd story.

The entire 1st story down, now attacking the foundation and 1st story floor joists.

DONE!

Buying a new 5th wheel:

After lots of searching on craigslist as well as used RV inventories all across the United States we decided, after seeing one locally, that a 22’ long Alpenlite 5^th wheel seemed perfect for what we needed. After doing lots of research we learned that Alpenlite 5^th wheels were some of the highest quality trailers built in the 1980’s, they fell into our price range, they were a manageable weight, and had a very functional layout…including lots of large windows, which Adrienne requested and I didn’t contest at all. The one we found locally was comparable in price to all of the others we found across the country but others looked to be in better shape. Since we were not looking for a project and simply needed something we could more-or-less move right into we decided to look closer at the others we found.

Then, amidst the searching, I found one located in California outside Sacramento that was part of a used RV dealer’s inventory and the price was a full $1000 less than all the others. After some talking to the dealer on the phone and reviewing more photos, we got them to knock another $250 off the price as well as confirm the condition of it without us having to see it in person. We put a deposit on it and spent the next hand full of weeks prepping the truck for the trip West which included installing a brake controller, building a custom gooseneck trailer hitch for the truck, and replacing the transfer case on the truck. Here are some photos of the process I just described.

The Alpenlite 5th wheel

Custom gooseneck hitch made for our 92 GMC 1500. You can see how the brackets had to be notched for clearance of the airbag mounting ears.

Top view of the homemade gooseneck hitch.

Installing the new transfer case in our driveway in Montrose.

We had to move the WVO fuel tank to the front of the bed from the side rail so that the new 5th wheel trailer wouldn’t hit it when we make turns.

Welded a custom safety chain collar since we wanted to used the 5th wheel trailer with a gooseneck adapter. This clamps around the gooseneck post and the chains (not yet welded to the collar) go down to hold-downs bolted to the hitch on the truck.