OUR RV

Hi Blog Buddies,

Well, back to reality - did some laundry today in the laundry room on the bottom floor of our UNIT ON THE HILL.  I miss not having our own washer and dryer but as we keep saying to ourselves - IT'S ONLY FOR SIX MONTHS!!!  Actually it is longer as our RV will not have a washer and dryer either.  Oh well - this is good practice for me!

We took some photos of a same size RV ( 31 feet ) as we are having built, so the following pictures are only to give an idea of what ours will resemble.  We are not having the bed in the over the cab section - that will be an entertainment center in cherry wood cabinets and will also provide extra storage.  In the center of this entertainment center will be a 32 inch HDTV with DVD player and surround sound. Therefore we will not have the windows in the over cab section as you see in the pictures.

The cabinets are beautiful - they are hand crafted out of real wood by Amish cabinet makers who live in that area of Indiana.

The living room slide out is 10ft long by 2ft deep

A nice electric awning and of course a ladder to the roof

My DW - Melissa at the front of the Ford 450 V-10

A practice shower

Melissa waiting for lunch at the dinette

Stove-microwave-sink-refrig/freezer

Nice comfortable leather couch and there is a leather swivel captain's chair across from it.

All in all it is a beautiful RV, with all the comforts of home, the cabinets in these photos are maple but ours will be a very rich looking cherry wood.

VERY EXCITING!!!!!

A TOUR OF THE NEXUS RV FACILITY

During the past year my DW, Melissa and I have had a slogan regarding the purchase of our RV.
That slogan was "WE'RE DO'IN IT"

Well-Well-Well -  that slogan has changed to "WE DID IT"

We arrived at the NEXUS RV Executive offices in Elkhart Indiana at 9 am Friday 10/14 and stayed until 1:30 - went to lunch - returned at 2:30 and stayed until 5:30.  During that time period - close to 8 hours, we were taken on a tour of the manufacturing facility and the show room by the President of Nexus.

The President Claude Donati escorted us through the construction of an RV from the time the chassis is delivered until it rolls out the opposite end of the factory as a finished RV.

I have been researching NEXUS RVs for 6 months now and my research showed that they were a strong-well managed company.  It also showed that the NEXUS RV was an extremely well built RV.  Well, after our tour and examining the exterior top to bottom, side to side and the interior top to bottom and side to side, what I observed was:

The NEXUS RV was not only what my researched found it to be BUT - the NEXUS RV was in fact much more than my research showed - it was SUPERIOR to what my research show - it in fact simply stated is, FANTASTIC in every way - a SUPERIOR product - well built with many-many innovative-state of the art techniques & construction processes inside-outside-top-bottom-and sides.

  We met workers at each station of the construction process who had 15-28 years experience in building RVs for other long time RV manufacturers who did not survive these economic times.  The experience level at NEXUS is outstanding.  As Claude explained, they are using "just in time production techniques" - such as the Toyota production model uses - make it in house if you can do it better and more cost effective and outsource when you can't - do not bring in product until you need it.  NEXUS uses local vendors and suppliers - developing strong loyal relationships within the community.  Examples of this are the local Amish cabinet makers who craft the solid wood cabinets and use metal slides - NOT the plastic ones attached with staples.  The solid wood cabinets are constructed with solid tongue and grooved and glued joints.  A local furniture maker produces all the couches, dinette seats etc - what better quality control could one ask for!!!  All inventory is stored inside climate controlled buildings, not piled up outside in a storage area or up against the building.  I have never seen such a well organized production line, not to mention neat and clean.  The entire operation was just unbelievable in terms of organization and the dedication of the workers was amazing.  The workers are not on piece meal so they care about what they are doing and what they are producing - they are not just pushing thru as many widgets as they can in order to get a pay check.  Non-piece work equates to QUALITY! 

Watching the workers assemble their various parts of the whole piece, I'm standing there looking at one-piece fiberglass residential showers, residential microwaves- just to name a few of the quality products used in the process.  The roof for example is light weight STEEL trusses as is the studding with in the walls.  The insulation is rigid foam - so much better than fiberglass bats.  Better insulation and it also adds stability to the wall structure.  The underside of the RV has yet to be rated for R-value but the owners feel it will exceed the industry standard.  The roof is a one-piece fiberglass roof which have very healthy pitch to each side.  There will not be any standing water on these roofs!!!!  The light weight steel used in this innovated production adds but a very small amount of weight to the overall RV.

 

 I have never seen such a well organized production line not to mention neat and clean.  The entire operation was just unbelievable in terms of organization and the dedication of the workers was amazing.  My DW, Melissa and I have never more happily written a check for a down payment - it was a complete joy to write this check!

 

In my opinion if you are looking for an RV - one of superior quality and professionally constructed using some of the most innovated processes in the marketplace today, you would be remiss in your search if you did not research the NEXUS product line.

 

http://www.nexusrv.com/

 

From the owners - Claude Donati and David Middleton (who both have very extensive backgrounds and successful histories in the RV industry), to the professional and talented craftsmen who create this product I do not think you could find a more professional team nor a more professionally constructed product.

 

We have completed a sales order & agreement for a 31 foot Class C Phantom RV with a living room slide out 10 feet long by 2 feet deep.

Our RV will go into production January 2012 for delivery March 2012. Very,very,very exciting!!!!  WE DID IT!!!  

RESTING IN FORT WAYNE

Hello Blog Buddies,

Just a short hello - we left Elkhart this morning and on the way out we stopped at SHIPSHEWANNA which is a lovely community in the heart of AMISH county near  Middlebury Indiana.  It was very nice - lots of nice shops to go in and my DW got 4 or 5 Christmas presents bought!!!!  Lots of those Amish horse & buggies going up and down the roads - just our kind of place.

From there we continued down the interstate and arrived at our Best Western right off of I-69.  We are a short distance from the Fort Wayne International airport from which our flight will leave tomorrow morning at 6 am for Dallas/Fort Worth.  We then catch a flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Albuquerque NM and drive back to Santa Fe.

Our journey to find and design our RV is almost over and now we sit and wait for our RV to be built - how exciting is that!!!  We'll be back here around the beginning of March to pick up our RV and drive it back to Santa Fe!

:>)  JR

WELL-WELL-WELL

Good Evening Blog Buddies,

During the past year my DW and I have had a slogan regarding the purchase of our RV.
That slogan was "WE'RE DO'IN IT"

Well-Well-Well - today that slogan has changed to "WE DID IT"

We arrived at the NEXUS RV Executive offices at 9 am today (Friday) and stayed until 1:30 - went to lunch - returned at 2:30 and stayed until 5:30.  During that time period - close to 8 hours, we were taken on a tour of the manufacturing facility and the show room.

I have been researching NEXUS RVs for 6 months now and my research showed that they were a strong-well managed company.  It also showed that the NEXUS RV was an extremely well built RV.  Well, after today's visit and examining the exterior top to bottom and the interior top to bottom and side to side I was surprised to find........
The NEXUS RV was not only what my researched found it to be BUT - the NEXUS RV was in fact much more than my research showed - it was SUPERIOR to what my research show - it in fact was simply stated, FANTASTIC in every way - a SUPERIOR product - well built with many-many innovative-state of the art techniques & construction processes inside-outside-top-bottom-and sides.

We have completed a sales order & agreement for a 31 foot Class C Phantom RV with a living room slide out 10 feet long by 2 feet deep.

Our RV will go into production in January 2012 for delivery March 2012.

Very,very,very exciting!!!!  

EXHAUSTED IN ELKHART

Yo Blog Buddies,

Just a short post -we arrived in Elkhart Indiana this afternoon (10/13).  We had to get up at 3am to get to the airport 2 hours before our flight - which is IMHO a stupid thing to have to do!  The flights were not all the long - Albuquerque NM to Dallas Fort Worth TX and then to Fort Wayne Indiana.  It's not so much the length of the flights as it is the WAITING FOR THE FLIGHTS!!!!!!!

After arriving in Fort Wayne and getting the rental car - we had a 2 hour drive (in the rain) to get to Elkhart.

However ---- tomorrow we begin our long awaited dream of seeking out our RV!!!!  We meet with the manufacturer tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday -- very exciting!!!

We grabbed a quick dinner tonight - Applebee's which we both love - I got the cowboy burger which is one of the best burgers I've had!!!

Soooooo busy day tomorrow and if time permits I shall put up a short post to let you guys in on our progress!!

Later Dudes,

JR  :>)

I COULD NOT RESIST!!!

Hello blog buddies,

Well, after setting up ED I could not resist throwing some paint around.  As you know I was biting at the bit to do so but had to do some things to get ready for our trip to Indiana to design our RV.  So I rushed thru those tasks and found the time to throw some paint around.  Where there is a will --- there is a way!!

A week of so ago we had a dusting of snow at the UNIT ON THE HILL - however up at the ski basin they had a friggin BLIZZARD!!!!  From what I could see - a good 6 inches and------most of it is still visible!!

This is my interpretation of "EARLY AUTUMN SNOW IN THE SANGRES"

It is 10 x 8 on canvas panel and was painted with vigor using a palette knife.  This is painted in an expressionistic style with emotion and of course expression - which is why they call it expressionistic - DUH - see how quickly I catch on!!!!  :>)

Excuse me - you, Sir in the 4th row - you have a question? -----------------------

Good question!!!!  When I have not painted for a while my strokes with brush or palette knife become very hesitant - tentative - my arm does not move as freely and I over think design-composition-color etc etc.  Sooooo that being said ---which I just did ------- I always do a very quick painting using a palette knife and I put no thought into the colors chosen, or to the exacting shapes or positions of objects.

Moving on ---- I did this piece very quickly with gusto, and perhaps an exaggerated movement of the "KNIFE ARM."  In this way I build up my confidence quickly and my hesitation with the absence from the painting process very quickly disappears.

First I throw in a quick sketch and then apply some paint in a very "I don't care" manner.

In addition to a palette knife, when creating pine trees, I slap paint on - 2 or 3 different colors and use my hair comb as a blending tool - it gives great texture.

I now throw in some dark background around the trees as the forest up in the Sangre de Christo mountains is very thick.  I also toss some light orange on the trunks as that is the light side with the light coming from the right - also the yellows/oranges from the aspen foliage has a reflective effect on all that is near them.

Google Blogger - or Google Blooper as I call it is as usual not running very well - so I'm going to speed this up before I lose my efforts in trying to get this posted.  It is worse than Microsoft or as I call it MicroSLOP!

I do tweaks here and there being careful not to create MUD as this is being done wet into wet - I don't like waiting for paint to dry!!!!  I throw in some snow and some shadows on the snow from the tree trunks and surrounding "things" and I toss in some vegetation as this is the first snow so not all ground cover will be covered with snow.

Following is the completed painting with all those things done to it that I mentioned in the above paragraph - pretty COOL ---

I would like to add that ED behaved reasonably well during this painting session.  His attitude has improved considerably since his trip to the "DUMPSTER!"

He did complain once that I was using too much force with my application of paint and he was afraid he might get bruised!!!!  I said "ED---I have to go to the dumpster ---- want to go with me?""

ED said no-no-no JR---I'm cool!!!!

I'll be gone for a few days with my DW and we will be designing our RV

OUR NEW HOME!!!

PAINTING SPACE IS SETUP - WOO-HOO!!!!

Hello Blog Buddies,

Well, I finally got off my --- and setup my painting space!!!!!!  Doubt if I get a chance to paint B4 we head out to Elkhart Indiana to seek out our RV - but when I return, watch out - I will be throwing paint around with wild abandonment!!!!

This is my PAINTING SPACE just a portion of a room in our TINY UNIT ON THE HILL but it is plenty of space for me.

The main purpose of the posting is to show ED to you folks --- you remember ED --- part of my plein air team!  ED of course thinks he IS THE TEAM - this dude has a lot to learn!!!!!  Since we moved in, he has been stored in a closet and 4 times he has gotten out of the closet and climbed up onto one of the kitchen counters - I should say THE KITCHEN COUNTER - (small kitchen)

The other day I took him out to the dumpster, showed him the inside of it and actually set him down into the dumpster.  HOLY CRAP - did that ever change his attitude!!!  All I heard over and over again was "PLEASE JR I CAN'T GO INTO THE DUMPSTER - I CAN'T LIVE IN A DUMPSTER - I'M TOO YOUNG AND TOO GOOD LOOKING TO BE IN A DUMPSTER - I CAN'T DO TIME IN THE DUMPSTER - WHATEVER WILL I DO - I'LL BE AFRAID TO SHOWER!!!!!  :>)

Well it now seems ED wants to play MY WAY!!!!!  I did not enjoy doing this to ED (like hell I didn't!!) however he had to be put in his place - I'm the artist he is merely a tool by which I create my art and as I mentioned B4, I have a backup easel - ED does not know this and I'm holding onto that as my ace in the hole!!!

Well anyhoooooo this is ED ------- ED these folks you see out there are my blog buddies and I will only tell you once - treat them with respect!!!!!

OK time to pack for the trip to Indiana to seek out our RV - our new HOME!!!!

MR. ED