by Maureen Barnes

Created on: April 06, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

NATURE'S FAMILY ROOM

My husband and I are full time RVers. We spend our winter months in Florida. We park our RV on an acre of land we own. Our RV is large enough to entertain four, maybe five people.

We have four adult children who live in Florida. When we are home for the winter, our children and their families like to visit us. This became a problem when everyone showed up at once, which happened quite often. There was just not enough room in our RV to accommodate, comfortably, that many people. We had to do something. Buying a larger RV was not an option.

Most of the time Florida's weather is great, so why not extend our living area to outside.

With our awning pulled out, we had quite a bit of shade in front of the RV to stay out of the sun. We had just begun.

Next, we bought an indoor/outdoor carpet to put down in front of the RV. Now it looked like we had a large patio, but we were still not finished.

We wanted this to be an extension of our living room so we put lawn chairs out for comfort, but we were still not finished.

This was also going to be an extension of our refrigerator so we got a large cooler for cold drinks, but we were still not finished.

We needed an extension of our stove so we bought a barbeque to cook on, but still we were not finished.

We needed an extension of the dining room, so we bought a large table for the outside. We were just about finished, but not quite.

Instead of emptying my cabinets of washable dishes and silverware, when we are outside everything is paper and plastic, and there is always enough to go around. Not quite finished yet.

Most times our visits last into the evening hours. We needed lights, so we hung party lights from the awning.

Now our visits became a party, but something was missing. We needed music, so we brought a radio out to play CDs on.

For now, we are finished adding to natures family room.

With nature's family room outside, my RV stays neat and orderly, there are never any dishes, silverware, or glasses to wash and we are not squeezed into the RV like sardines in a can.

Not only is this extra space a lot of fun and a work saver when guests come to visit, but it is also great when guests do not come to visit. My husband and I find ourselves sitting outside more and more, enjoying nature and our own company.

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