Beast

Beast

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Learning Curve and Sneak Peak on Bead Spread



As I mentioned few days ago, we did some shopping and I bought couple sets of high TC sheets to our RV. Well, yesterday we decided to try how luxurious they were and I think I learned something new. In Finland where I grew up, I never heard even a word thread count, so this was kinda grade school for buying sheets for me. I should have thought of this, it kinda makes sense now that I think about it. The sheets we have used in our bed have been 700 TC and I love how soft and smooth they are, so I thought that of course the higher the thread count, the better the quality is and it will be softer and smoother. Not so much. The tighter the threads are, the thinner they have to be (instead of 700 threads on square inch that we were used to, the sheets we bought were 1600 and 1800, so to fit two to three times as many threads into the same square inch, the threads have to be thinner, a lot thinner), so this will make the sheet also at some point to thin out. I think it is safe to say that we have reached that point a little while ago. Well, the new sheets are very smooth, but yes, you guessed it; they are also very thin. While I like them, I am not expecting them to last very long. I think I will get a bit more expensive ones in the future, just to save myself from the frustration. So it wasn't as great of the deal as I thought, but I got exactly what I paid for, I paid for a cheap stuff, and that's what i got. My theory is just a theory, but I think I will stick to my 700 TC from now on. And for the winter I would love to get a set of flannel sheets too I could not care less if there is any TC involved or not. There is a proverb in Finland: The poor man can not afford the cheap stuff. I'm telling you, the old folks know sometimes!



If you remember I took on a gigantic project of crocheting a bead spread for the Beast (I prefer Monstah or Bugout). It looks pretty masculine on the outside but there is no reason it has to look like that on the inside too, which it actually does right now. I am determined to decorate it to look a little less like the Zombie Apocalypse Vehicle. So my plan is to girly it up with some fresh colors and soft materials and the bead spread is one of those things that is going to make it look a little less aggressive. I am still a long way from finishing it, mostly because of the lack of time to work on it, but I am not too worried, once we hit the road, I should be able to work on it at least for a little while every day. And it will get done pretty soon even if it is just little at a time. I have only less than one third of the length but I am not rushing it, I am sure couple months on the road will do wonders for this project.




Saturday, March 16, 2013

Moving Along

As our latest progress has been slow, we are definitely still moving but the pace is almost unnoticeable. The faucets are still half installed since Lee hurt his back in a hockey game (no penalties for the assaulter either, shame on refs!). He is hopping around but sounds like me when he tries to get up from the bed. So the progress inside the RV has been MIA but we have done some shopping for the things we are going to be taking for the road.

We purchased a new Oxygenics shower head, still have to get another part for it to make using it a bit more water conservative and user friendlier. We are excited about it and we believe it will make a big difference to have a well functioning shower. We got the brushed nickel one, which is a little bit more expensive but will be more durable in the long run. I believe the price tag on it was just short of $45 and we think the shipping was free from Amazon. I also want to get a long hose for the shower head, since that will be the only place where I can wash the dogs and they generally don't care for standing in a shower, never understood why ;o)


The next thing we bought was a wire fence. We actually bought 3 sets of play pens but you can connect them together to form a fence. This is so the dogs can move around a little bit without having to be leashed all the time. The plan is to use them outside the RV like actual fence. We still need to get something to block the dogs from being able to go under the RV so we need to also buy fencing that is not as high, chicken wire would do if everything else fails. The fence is needed for the youngsters, Nelli is a good girl and stays by our side where ever we go but the two little Greyhounds can't be trusted. Louie would probably be fine and follow us but Pixie would just take off and keep going until she would end up being a dinner for a coyote. This is a Greyhound thing, they are goofy and can not be trusted with open doors or gates. Now they have room to go in an out of the RV without being leashed. Yay! I am sure it will get tiring to set it up and pull down and store while we are on the road but it definitely will be better than the alternative. The fence (that's what I call it, since that is how we are going to be using it) happened to be on 40% sale at Petco when I searched for it. I kept comparing and looking at different options but these seemed good quality and cheaper with the sale price than anywhere else. So I decided to go to see if we had them in our local store... until I realized that it was almost midnight, and it was the last day of the sale. So I had about 3 minutes to finish my order or pay about $150 more after the sale. I did not want to have to pay more, so I panicked and ordered them and ended up paying with the taxes and free shipping $188.32. It was pricey but could have been much worse. The normal price for one set was $99.99, we ordered three of them. Sale price was $57.99 per unit and the sales tax was about $15. Deal, I think! Now we just really hope they will work for us the way we visioned.

This is just one of the three play pens that we purchased, we had to get the
48" tall ones to prevent these greyhounds from hopping over it,
 now we just hope they won't.
Pixie seems to think she is held captive against her will: "Help!"

We also were able to put a check mark in front of the Zero Gravity chairs on our to buy list. I am so excited, I love those chairs, I feel like getting rid of our couches and just chill out on our chairs all day long. I was a little bit skeptic if they would be as good as reviews were or if I got the right ones since it sounded that the radius they moved was not very much. The radius is more than needed. Me happy! I received my chairs just a couple days after ordering them from the Overstock, fast, I am telling you! The chairs were around $90 for a pair, depending on color, we wanted the tan ones so they will not be absorbing too much heat in the sun and two chairs were $91.99. I also got off 10% in coupon savings for being their customer for the first time, that took away $9.20 and shipping was free. So I got my two chairs for $82.79. I thought that was a great deal.


I also purchased couple sets of king size sheets for our RV. One of the sets was 1600 TC and the other one was 1800 TC, both Egyptian cotton. The shipping was $2 and the sets themselves cost $29 a piece. I ordered them from www.nomorerack.com. I have never seen so high thread count sheets for that cheap. Can't believe my luck. I hope the quality is as good as I would assume for that kind of thread count. That's it for now for shopping.



We have tossed around the options of different flooring. We really would like to go with hardwood, but since we have these crazy critters that do all kinds of crazy stuff 24/7, we are starting to lean towards the vinyl flooring. They make really nice wood looking planks that are 100% water proof and looks like also idiot proof on installation, which will hopefully benefit us. So far we are waiting on Lee's back feeling better and his work to be over with, then we are going to switch the gear and go full speed ahead with everything.