The first RV we toured was a Sandpiper 388BHRD. We thought we really liked it, until we discovered toy haulers! The first toyhauler we toured was a Cyclone 4006 and I fell completely and totally in love with the layout! I also loved the interior. But as we researched, we decided it just wasn't right for us. We also felt the quality was lacking when we toured one.
On April 16, we towed a Keystone Fuzion 430 and we were so sure this was “the one” that we put a deposit on it. As you’ll read later, we were glad this deposit was refundable. After we put the deposit down, we kept doing more and more research on the Fuzion brand. We heard over and over again about this infamous crack that keeps happening in these rigs and that really scared us. So, we backed out, had our deposit refunded, and kept on searching.
We both kept circling back to the Grand Design brand, but we both really liked the 395MS. As you may already know, the 395MS rigs are a little hard to find. About a week after changing our mind about the Fuzion, we found a 399 close by to tour and that solidified the decision on the Grand Design brand. For one, we knew they would warranty full time living and we had heard good things about them. We liked the 399 ok, but we knew we really wanted the 395MS because of the living room layout. I was dead set on wanting the living room and kitchen to feel like “separate” areas. The problem was, we couldn’t find a 395MS close enough to tour. After a lot of searching, we found one about two hours away, so we made the drive. It was a done deal once we stepped into it. We made our deposit and didn’t look back! If you scroll way back on our Instagram account, you can see a tour of all three of these. Check out our Instagram Page by clicking here.
We still had a few concerns with this model, lack of outside storage being one. But with every negative thing we found, we figured out a solution. We planned to add under chassis storage to solve the storage issue, which we did. See the video by clicking here. You can also find the link to the storage boxes by clicking here.
Another thing I'm still not crazy about is all the brown on the interior...seriously, like so much brown! We've temporarily brightened things up in little ways like adding some peel and stick wallpaper and rugs. You can check those out here and here. We still plan to do things like take down the horrible window valences and add curtains, but that's turned out to be a bigger project than we expected too. I have so many things I want to do, but finding the extra funds and time to do them make it difficult. Soon though!
So, at this point, we found "the one", put a deposit on it, but there was still one really big obstacle. We couldn't purchase our new dream home without first selling our house. When we first listed it, we expected it to sell within days, but we quickly found out that it wouldn't go that quickly.
If you'd like to see the house we sold to live the full time RV life, you can see the old videos on our TikTok account here and here. I'll be honest. It's a little hard for me to watch these videos because I really did love that house. But given the chance, I wouldn't do anything differently. I love our new life! I compare the feeling to my older boys moving out. I miss them like crazy and I cherish every moment I had of them living under my roof. But they've started a new chapter and I'm proud of them and wouldn't change that either. I've realized it's ok to have mixed feelings about things. It really is bittersweet!