Upgrades to the LQ

 Shout out to Jeffrey Potter, Hummingbird Woodworking, of Phoenix who built our new cabinet for the kitchen area. I designed the cabinet using Solidworks, a CAD software I use for work. I emailed the plans to several woodworkers, but only heard back from two of them and I liked Jeff best. Jeff is a retired project manager from Silicon Valley, who moved to Arizona when he got laid off in the 2008 recession.

I wanted to replace the small table I bought from Wayfair because it rolled around, didn't actually do what I wanted, and was just generally annoying. The Wayfair table only cost around $50 and was ok, but I always considered it a temporary fix until we were some place long enough to get a real cabinet installed. Jeff did a great job of matching our color scheme. The table has four drawers and four small shelves. There is a folding leaf which I can use as a desk or as counter space when I am cooking.

It fits perfectly in the empty corner between the door and the fridge. I was worried about the drawers coming out while we were driving, so he installed earth magnets to the back of the drawers. A good tug will bring the drawers out and the magnets keep the drawers in place.

Jeff charged us $300, including installation, which I thought was a bargain. I doubt we paid for all of his time, just his materials and some labor. Cabinet is made of oak and stained.

Shelves are used as a pantry and for storing our shoes and flip-flops. Drawers are being used for various tools and stationary items.

The same day we got the cabinet installed, we took our LQ to Copper State RV in Phoenix for upgrades. One of the items on the list was installing a bidet. Toilet paper is not really great for RVs and we missed our bidet from home. I bought a bidet without an arm because an arm would block the door we use to access the mid-tack area. Instead, the bidet uses a remote control - which I mounted above the toilet paper holder. Some folks have commented that bidets are unsanitary, because we are using the water in our RV tank or well water, but we use a very expensive water filter for our water and this is the same water we use in the shower, so we are pretty confident that the water is fine. I also will freely acknowledge that a bidet in an RV may seem incongruous to the idea of "roughing it", but frankly once you have succumbed to the flat screen TV, the stereo system, the satellite internet, etc. you pretty much can't make any claims about roughing anything.

In addition to the bidet, we had Mike improve the dinette bench, make the hay pod area more water tight, replace the electrical box for our bale bucker (it had cracked), and install brackets for a sun screen that can be attached to the awning.

By the time we picked up the LQ and got the cabinet installed, we didn't make it back to our home base until 9 pm and it was well past dark.  We didn't want to risk backing into our spot and breaking something - like running over the septic connection - so we parked in the arena area, figuring we would back in and set up in the morning.