RV LIving: 94 & 89 yr old couple live in their DIY rv on social security!!

hello hello welcome to another episode of Glorious life on Wheels you're probably wondering what in the world is that behind you well it is a semi-truck trailer that has been turned into an RV and the person who did it is now 94 years old and he is just a delightful person him and his lovely wife Miss Lois who is 89 and he still gets on his ATV and heads up to the hills and up and down I mean very active and this is his fifth RV that he has built and he's going to share it with us do a tour of it and you're going to meet Mr Bernie and the lovely Miss Lois and inide here are two beds also that they do a little bit of traveling and but not like they used to but come on and let's hear their story and see this DIY RV inside of a semi truck trailer so come on let's go meet him shall we well today I have the privilege of interviewing Mr Bernie and Miss Lois and how long have you guys been married 40 years all right 40 years and one of the reasons I wanted to come interview you was you are living in your own self-built um I don't know whether you'd call it a mobile home conversion from a semi-trailer what would you call it RV RV okay we were talking and you were sharing Mr Bernie how you built a RV um in 1959 one of you've built five alog together yeah and you built it how did you come across the idea of building that one building that one in 1959 I have no idea how invinc me to do it or nothing I just did it CU I hadn't really seen one except on paper and then it didn't say how that was built I just seen the looks of it and it wasn't on a car or anything it was a on Wheels a trailer kind of a deal but you built yours on what your first one on the four wheels of the backer car that's amazing that truly is amazing so that you went on to build four more including this one that we're in now all right this is the fifth one now when were you during what years were you going around traveling building places for people and from 95 up to about five 5 10 years almost all right so basic basically you guys were traveling kind of a nomadic life going from place to place during that time yes well and that was after you retired from your air conditioning build business well that's so that's what I was saying we did all that after I retired at 95 that's when we started going around building things okay it was a fulltime doing it all right so now again getting back to the present you are living part of the year on the BLM land when they have it open the long term and that's a because you're living on only your Social Security correct yes so this is a sounds like this is a great financial option for you cost savings we we had money but we didn't spend any more than what we could live on on Social Security actually CU that's what we want if we run out of money we want to have a living anyway way so we've got a few thousand left but not a lot but we we we live within the social security thing most of the time there a rule we can live on Social Security easily most of the people in this area is living on Social Security right I've talk to them you probably have too yes I have and there are they can all live on it so you live here again here on BLM land for the s months the long term and then you live at the RV park for five months so you go back and forth between the two that's just we just started that this year okay we've only did that one one time we stayed here last summer was the first time we've ever stayed here all summer and how are you liking it staying here year round now well I finding a hard time to find things to do too much it's just nothing to do oh and that's the hardest thing is not having enough to do and when it's 100 degrees and higher you don't want nothing to do anyway it's too H that's true what about you miss Lois how do you like now because you're stationary now you were you know traveling around the country building things and how does it feel like being stationary now I like to be stationary do you what what do you like about it more than the other oh I just don't have to move around okay and you were a registered nurse at one time yeah so and you went back um Bernie Mr Bernie was telling me you went back to school in what your 50s to get your RN MH wow that's very impressive well you know what if you don't mind we'll go around and take a tour of this fabulous RV that you built how long did it take you to build it Mr Bernie I think close to two months okay we built it right out in the desert over on the salt and sea I by the salt and sea it was out in the ground thing where I had a little generator for electricity and my saw and stuff and so I just started to work and I build it all all right everything and you with this and it's in a semitrailer yes all right well let's go ahead and let's do the tour of your fabulous home in a semi-trailer shall we yes all right well this is the bedroom area and back here what kind of wood is this that's back there that's just some kind of wood wood over plywood it's shading it's actually plywood okay and then you have an air conditioner back there what how big an air conditioner is that back there 12,000 BTU okay and you were telling me that is sufficient and does the job here yeah and I can turn it on right here oh okay and I can change the temperature and I can go in there and start the other one with one of these and and change the temperature or turn it off or turn it on I don't even have to get off my share that's pretty clever so you have you have three of them in here all together well I have one there and one there but then I have a roof Mo type model and you but you're saying that this one is sufficient for everything it could but we never use it we use that one with the door shut in the real hot days then just before we go to bed we shut the door here and turn on this air conditioner cool list down all right now over here I see you have a sink in here yes this is your sink all right and was this a stock cabinet or did you build this cabinet no no I bought this one okay and then over here um let's look over here behind you it looks there's a little stove and we got if we want to close the door and they heat it up in here okay all right and then I see you have a closet here on this side a hanging closet here you we have on the toilet here all right and then you have your your bathroom here all right and it's separate from your shower then yeah the shower is here it's a regular 36 in shower oh okay we took a foam thing off the bed okay but you have so you don't have like you don't have what's called a wet bath where the shower and everything is together you have them separate no no this is completely like a house okay well let's go down and why don't we look at your kitchen before I forget it our car came right in under this what do you mean your car comes in under this we hauled our car under this bed right in our motor home open the back door and it drives right in under the bed here oh my gosh we're going to have to look at that cuz that sounds pretty interesting you and you built it so that you could haul your car on this we built it a purpose that way okay well we'll look at that a little later meanwhile let's go look at your kitchen shall we I see you have a regular stackable washer and dryer that say stackable an individual really oh okay I put I put but I just stacked them but they didn't come made for stacking oh all right you just made them so they would stack yes and then you're you have lots of counter space here yeah now who does most of the cooking do you do most of the cooking Miss Lois or does Mr Bernie do most of the cooking I used to but he does most most of it now really is he a pretty good cook yeah really oh that's pretty impressive Mr Bernie I know how to heat water and I know how to put corn flakes on the table with milk okay well hey you won't starve will you all right and you did you make I did build all the cupboards though oh you did okay so you built all and you said all of this took about two months close to it I think wow not over that it was probably less than that all right and then over here you've got a microwave and your now is this on propane your stove huh is this on propane your stove okay I see over here you have your refrigerator and you were telling me you just haven't put the facings on it yet does that is that big enough does that big enough for you guys very adequate very ad adequate adequate adequate okay all right that's very adequate for you all right and so all of these cabinets here you built too then yes oh my one lady come in she say hey this is bigger than the kitchen in my house it is bigger than the kitchens in a lot of houses are Apartments now I'm looking at this over here this is I guess where you eat most of your meals yeah this is we eat all our meals here okay and then over here these cabinets did you build these cabinets too yeah I built everything inside put the rope in this ceiling it was just metal up there before so now what kind of ceiling is that just plywood painted plywood she Rock oh sheetrock and it doesn't tear up or crumble when you move no all the sides are sheet rock but I built two water homes with sheet rock and people told me you can't do that it'll crack up and neither one of them ever cracked okay they just never cracked I meant any except maybe where I done a poor job perfect taping okay and then over here now this cabinet now I see you've got switches over here what are these switches for over there oh they turn on lights around the things and this turns the light on the outside of course you know what that is yep your little vacuum this is a thermostat cuz we got a furnace in there and the heat comes out over there and and under here oh okay so you got it you got vents for your your heat different vents for your heat from your furnace okay yeah and then we got a furnace here don't need electricity or nothing we just turn the propane on it and light it and it'll give out it get so hot you can't stand it wow it's really a thing and we've used it for years now and it's still working fine does this sofa pull out into a bed no we didn't none none of them do all right and then you've got lots of storage space over here this is where we got our other oh your other air conditioner okay all right well tell me this I'm going to ask Miss Lois Miss Lois what do you think about living in in this RV would you rather a house or are you happy with this RV I'm happy with the RV that's it's easy to clean and especially when I do it yeah he's really good well you're a handy fellow to have around you can build things you can H make corn flakes you can boil water and you can clean I mean you know what else could you want you know all right so is there anything that you would I'm looking here and it's just such a lovely home it it's hard to even imagine that someone could have built this um did you do do it all by yourself or did someone help you do it oh no I did it all by myself I even built my own home all by myself except the C at work where we lived I couldn't Lois wasn't strong enough to use a squeee so I had to hire a person to put the cement but I built the whole house myself the cupboards everything wow that's very impressive it's all by myself but this year we built this so I could stand up here you notice you can stand up and see I do notice that I notice if you notice if you sat down you can see right out too let me sit down and see oh so you had that in mind you wanted to be able to look out and see see the build a I was going to build a motor home on one of them big buses but when I got in the bus it couldn't see out the windows were too low okay and then when you sit down there were too low high so I built my own and I made sure I could sit down see out I I love to see so anything going on you're the reporter you know what's going on around here yeah okay I I don't like years ago when they started to build on mobile homes the that was Cur back in the 50s they had started making a lot of mobile homes and they all used dark paneling inside it was they were pressy yeah well you you can see like you said you can sit there and see out and when you're at your dining room table here you can sit and see out so yeah you have lots of light and lots of visibility outside so you're not cooped in oh well you know what the last thing I want to do I want to go out and see where you put your car underneath do you feel up to going out to show me that okay sure all right let's go do that you see that has two beds in it too it's two two single beds in there oh this does so do you ever just take this off and go somewhere with just that by itself oh sometimes I I can put my ATV up on there and take it out in the hills and go riding so you take this is your ATV that you take off and go riding in the Hills yeah you still do that yeah oh my goodness I want to get a shot of this this is just un believable and you drive this still huh you still drive this yeah it won't drive itself it's not one of them Vehicles they have that drives themselves okay all right all right let's go around and look at this you can see I just washed the windows this morning I just got you a few minutes before you got here oh my goodness look at this I them all inside and out this here when I used to travel I just put my car around right in there oh so this is junk in there right now but but this is underneath your bed yeah right underneath the bed went right in there not this car it's too big yeah I had an Mazda Miata and that car your car would fit right underneath and you would just go down the road with your car underneath your bed yeah we we haul that car over 12,000 miles for seven eight years we call hold that car wherever we went wow that's amazing this last year we sold it cuz a man come along wanted to buy that little sports car so I sold it to him cuz we ain't going to move Hall anymore we're not going to go on long long trips anymore okay what would you say you attribute your long Health to cuz you're 89 Miss Lois and you're 94 Mr Bernie what do you attribute your good health to we have our lives through the Lord Jesus Christ and he instantly told us that the best thing we can do is have good health so he told us how to eat what to eat and what not to eat and how to live and it's made it a much much different it's a great thing to have good health so what is your biggest secret about what to eat and not to eat well we don't eat no we never eat meat or anything we don't use any kind of ve Animal product okay so it's just good food being a vegetarian certainly is working for you and it's something I think I'm going to have to start considering all right well thank you I will be stopping back by when I'm in Courtside to say hello and thank you so much for taking the time and showing me your beautiful beautiful DIY RV all right so you know what months we're about to be here and the other are going to be a okay and I will be stopping by and saying hello you'll say oh no here she comes again we'll be looking forward to see again bye-bye thank you you're a lovely woman so bye-bye

Channel: Glorious Life On Wheels

Views: 367,807

Keywords: senior rv living, camper, diy camper, diy rv, diy, cheap rv living, boondocking, living on social security, Quartzsite, Arizona, BLM Land, camping, rv living, van life, tiny homes, tiny houses, YouTube, solo female van life, black female van life, black female YouTube creators, stealth parking, minimalism, van city van life

Id: m9u0nJWhWuk

Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 16 2023