Well… That Changes Everything

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:06]Hi, I'm Lulu and welcome to Lulu's Way.

[00:00:09]I'm really glad you're here. So, I'm sitting here in Sweet Pea with a whole new plan. Why do I have a new plan?

[00:00:18]Because there was something very, very important that I didn't remember. I know about this stuff, but I I just didn't think of it. And thanks to some of you who wrote to me and said, "Hey, Lulu, what about this?" And I was like, "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." So, I'm on to plan B. My plan A will not work. Putting a chair in an ottoman here will not work.

[00:00:47]It looks like it would work. Look at all this space. But what did I not think of?

[00:00:53]I'm not going to say that I should have thought of it because I don't sh on myself.

[00:00:58]I could have thought of it. You would think I would have thought of it because I've built out a van and I know how these tiny homes on wheels work. And that is wheel wells. How did I not think about a wheel well? So, this space is not all available. There's a wheel well under the bed. Several people wrote to me and and pointed out like, "Hey, what about the wheel well? That might be in your way." And I thought, "Oh, gez." So, I came out and checked it out and this is what it looks like.

[00:01:40]Okay.

[00:01:52]Look at the size of that wheel well.

[00:01:56]It's like a quarter of the bed. So clearly I cannot put a chair here and it's just it's just too narrow. It's taking up all this space. I had to just nyx the whole plan. You got to go with the flow, right? So I didn't think of that.

[00:02:15]So I had to come up with a plan B. So what I've been doing is thinking and dreaming and scheming. I cleaned all this out. I vacuumed it all out and then I cleaned it with disinfectant. Also notice over here there's a little door right there that goes outside. And that is a way that you can get access to some of the things that you put under the bed. So right here there's a cabinet. So I I can reach in and get things that are here and here. But way down in there there's that door. So that's that's convenient. So I'll use this for storage. I had to fix this cuz this was broken. So, I had to screw that in over there. So, that's all set. Everything's all set under here.

[00:03:07]So, so I took all the bedding off. When I got Sweet Pea, everything was pink. The outside is pink. This was pink. All the curtains were pink and white flowers. It was very, very, very pinkish. Uh, a little bit too um dollousy for me. So, I just I covered everything. So, now here I am with this this bed. So, I thought I looked over here with this table. I have I've got a few inches here. So, this is um 26 in wide. After my measurements, I could make this 30 in wide. So, I could just pull this out like this.

[00:03:49]and get a um get a wider piece of foam and make a wider bed. So, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to just that extra few inches will make a big difference. Big difference. What I've been doing is I've been shopping for back rests. You know, like those those um big pillows with the arms that people put uh on the bed and they can sit back.

[00:04:16]Now, I'm not talking about the big stuffed ones that are like um that are floppy. I'm not talking about those. The ones that have the handle at the top and the the arms are kind of floppy. There's ones that I found that are actually made out of dense foam and they have the whole back. It's kind of reclined a little bit. It has arms. It has pockets to put things in like your phone or your iPad. What I'm going to do is I'm going to invest in one of those. I'm gonna make my own recliner feel. So, I'm thinking if I have this thing right here, I did all the measurements. It's going to fit right underneath this sconce. Now, now, let me just tell you, I put the I plugged it in. So, look at those. Aren't they Isn't that light so cute? So, the the only lights in here are that one, this one, and at night, uh I have like those soft the soft yellow bulbs in here. And at night, it's just so it's so cute in here with these two sconces. And then there's a light right up here, right over the um the counter. Okay, so those are my three lights. The back rest cushion I ordered from Amazon and I believe that it's going to work well. What I envision is that I'll have this back rest right here and I can lean back. It's got like a cushion pillow. It's got arms. And I'm thinking about my bed pillows. I'm thinking about, you know, how like when you have something under your knees, it just releases any strain on your back.

[00:05:50]So, I picture putting my bed pillows under my knees and sitting back on this cushion with the arms and being comfortable. I'm going to try it. I'm going to try this one that I ordered.

[00:06:04]There were other variations of it. If it's not going to work for me, if it's not 100% comfortable, I'll try a couple of other ones, but this is the one that I think is the best for me. I did a lot of scoping around on Amazon and looked into all the different ones and imagined it. That's what I'm imagining. And it's cream color.

[00:06:25]So, what I need to do is I need a new bedspread.

[00:06:29]And now, instead of the 4x6 rug, I'm going to need a runner. So, I've measured this. It's 2 ft wide. And I'm going to need about maybe 5 to 6 feet long. And that is going to be my rug here. And then I'll get a little rug for right when you walk in. So there'll be a runner and a little rug here. I took off the covers that I made for these. And as you see that they're pink like that. I mean, I could leave them pink. I don't know. I guess it just really depends on what I find for curtains. I love these zebra curtains right here. These two zebra curtains. You know what I love about them? They were one long valance and I cut it in half and made two. And that's why it's not symmetrical, right?

[00:07:17]Because this is like one half of it. And I just love how it's not even. It's not scooped in the middle. It's just uneven.

[00:07:27]I kind of like that. So, I'm going to keep those two. But I want to get something new for here. And I'm imagining um whatever fabric I find for here, I'll also use to cover the cushions. That's kind of my idea. I just really don't think I'm going to do the pink. I I really don't think I'm going to keep the pink. I want something bright and colorful and a print. So, we'll see what I get. I cleaned all the windows. That was a big project. These are screens on the inside. So, these screens were filled with dust bunnies and cobwebs. It was just they were a mess. So, I vacuumed them inside and out. When Sweet Pea got powerwashed, all the outside windows got clean, but on the inside they didn't. And the only way to get to the inside of these to clean them is to crank them out. But before I could crank them out, I have uh 1 2 3 4 5 six cranks. Two of them were working. Four of them were not working.

[00:08:31]So my friend Bob came over. Genius.

[00:08:35]Okay, he figured out I had to go to the hardware store and get this certain screw and they were a teeny teeny bit too long. So, he grinded them down and uh we got them we got them all working right. So, they all crank. I'm so grateful. So grateful for him. He's a good He's a good friend and shows up and helps me out. But I just cranked them all out and then from the outside I just cleaned the each each slat. They're just so clean.

[00:09:05]They're so clean. I should have taken like a before and after closeup because it's like night and day here. So, I guess I'm going to keep the dinette.

[00:09:12]First of all, people were asking me if this was long enough to be a bed. It's It's 6 ft 4 in long. This is longer than this bed. Okay, cuz I measured this bed.

[00:09:23]It's 72 in long, which is 6 feet. And this is uh about 5 in over six feet. So, I know it's it's kind of deceiving looking, but this is definitely long enough to be a bed. So, I guess I can have a guest now. I don't want one, though.

[00:09:42]Don't invite yourself. I'll keep the dinette. I will use it, you know. I mean, if it's here, I'll use it. I don't really need it, but this is kind of a nice place to sit right here. And this is also serves as extra counter space.

[00:09:56]So when I'm working up here, this is a nice place to put all my food while I'm making a salad up here and just have everything here. So th this is not like bad news that I can't do my plan A. So this morning I came in and touched up all the paint, all the wall paint. Um just here and there where it had little dings and nicks and stuff. It's coming along.

[00:10:20]So Saturday the electrician is coming to put the outlet in. He's coming at 7:00 on Saturday morning and it's going to take him probably all day to do it. And then I'm going to arrange for Bill to come and put the uh AC heat unit right up in here. I'm grateful that the hole is already here. This is not a Maxia fan. It's just a It's just a way that you can open up and get air. This will now be blocked and then I'll have I'll be able to regulate the temperature. So, I'm really excited about that. So, I have this leftover greenery. This is the greenery that I bought for my van. And this was one little piece left over. And I thought, where can I use this in here?

[00:11:00]And I had this idea. I thought maybe a piece right on the edge of this shelf would look really nice because I thought plants would be really nice up here, but I need to utilize this storage space.

[00:11:12]Like I need the storage. So I can't be putting plants up here when I can use it for things that I need. So I thought this would be a great way to bring greenery up here. How nice does that look?

[00:11:24]Right. And then I thought about doing the same on this shelf.

[00:11:35]See? Doesn't that look good? I think that's going to be good. Then I have these pieces. These are the ones I replaced that were in my van. I replaced this with this. And then I thought like I have another one, another piece of this. It's in the garage. I thought these little wooden shelves right here.

[00:11:55]I could put those right here like this.

[00:11:59]Right. Doesn't that look good?

[00:12:03]And I can put some things up there.

[00:12:04]Maybe my spices or something. And then I have this one right here.

[00:12:10]I could do the same.

[00:12:14]So, that's that's something I'm thinking about doing. People were asking about a bathroom. There's no bathroom. There's no shower in here. I suppose if you wanted to put a shower in here, you could make this closet into a shower if you really wanted to, but I don't need a shower. Right inside that door into my house is a half bath. So, I can go in there and use the bathroom easily. Just it's right on the other side of that door. And then I can just go upstairs and take a shower anytime I want.

[00:12:43]Although, it did come with this cassette toilet, which I haven't used yet. I don't think anybody's used it yet.

[00:12:54]I just I really don't need this either.

[00:12:56]I just don't need it. I don't need to take up that much space in that closet with that because I'll just use the same method I use in my camper van. It's the uh the pea jug with the sheiwi and the bucket system because I'm not going to always want to go into the house. And those two systems work perfect for me.

[00:13:20]So, I'm going to incorporate those two systems in here. And I will not use that porta potty. So, this has a rod up here that I can hang things. And I brought all my dresses out here. So, my dresses have been moved in. I want to hang my dresses. I could hang everything and take this whole thing up, but I kind of want to use this space for storage.

[00:13:45]Like I want to put like some shelves or some chest of drawers in here for things because I'm thinking about just putting all my clothes in the packing cubes. The packing cubes work really well for me on the road. Why wouldn't they work here?

[00:14:02]Right in these three cabinets. I have all this space. I also have these little baskets that I I've I've had these in in the house and I thought, I wonder if they fit there. And they do fit there.

[00:14:15]Okay. But I'm thinking all this space.

[00:14:18]Look at all that space. That would fit all my packing cubes. Maybe like socks and underwear right here. Packing cubes stacked here. Packing cubes stacked here. That's what I'm thinking. Or maybe if I have a drawer in here with for socks and underwear. And it's just like I think that all my you know how many clothes I have. You know how what I take on the road. So, I think my packing cubes would fill up these three cabinets, and I think that would work out really nice for me. And then this cabinet right here is huge. It's absolutely huge. So, it looks like it's about, you know, 18 in deep, probably 18 in wide, and it goes really high up there. So, this has a ton of storage, too. Ton of storage. This doesn't have much storage because of the wheel well.

[00:15:11]So, it has a wall right here. So, that's where I do that's my recycling.

[00:15:17]Same thing over here. That's the wheel well. So, I just This is where I keep my trash barrel right there. And it has this little this little drawer that's just got junk in it. And then it's got this cabinet right here.

[00:15:34]Yeah.

[00:15:35]These are the flowers that my son got me for Mother's Day.

[00:15:40]I'm very happy for these flowers. And since I've been spending a lot of time out here cleaning and dreaming and scheming, I brought these out here. Oh, I'm going to put them on the table over here.

[00:15:59]Oh, look at how pretty that looks.

[00:16:03]So, now I have these little hot plates, right? Um, and they're like place mats, little place mats. But the reason I like to have this here is because this uh this table has a little crack in it. Um, so yeah, you know how bothers my eye. So I just keep that over there and everything works. I put my plates on here, eat on here. So I guess I'll be using the table.

[00:16:29]Yeah. What are you going to do?

[00:16:31]Plan B. And I also thought that perhaps I could put the Berky right here. I do have a Berky stand. It's they sell them.

[00:16:40]They they for to hold the Berky and they come up high like this. Berky sits on it. So I might do that. Um I also thought about putting it in here on something. It has to be on something so that you can put a cup under it. And I really can't take up any of this counter space. My idea over here was perfect, but I guess it wasn't very perfect after all. So, I'm going to work all this stuff out and I'm planning to move in here very shortly because I don't have to wait until all the pavers are put in cuz that could be a few weeks. I don't have to wait because I'm plugged in. I don't have heat or AC, but I don't think I'm going to need either one coming very soon. In fact, today is nice. Yesterday was chilly. You know, the heat's still on, but Tuesday is going to be 91.

[00:17:36]It's crazy. So, we got some nicer weather coming up is what I'm saying.

[00:17:40]And I also have a space heater. It's right under here. So, all I have to do is plug that in and this whole place is toasty warm. I don't think I'm going to need AC. That 91° day is is a one and done. So, all my windows are washed. The paint's freshened up. I've got some ideas on what I'm going to do to um cover this to make this look nicer. It's just all fun. But but if the very first thing I need to do is pick my fabric in my uh bedspread, I want to get these colors going on so I can decide what kind of rug I want, you know? So, even though I had to move on from plan A, which I thought was the perfect plan, sometimes you have to just surrender.

[00:18:23]You got to surrender to what the truth of the matter is. The truth of the matter is is that there's a big wheel well here in the middle of the floor that I can't work around for that plan.

[00:18:35]So, plan B. Stay tuned. Bye for now.