How We Set Up Our Site For Stationary RV Living

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How We Set Up For Stationary RV Living

When people hear the term “rv living”, they don’t often think about stationary RV living. Usually, the first thing that comes to mind is full-time travelers. While we do get to do a lot more traveling, we are primarily stationary on our own land. There are so many reasons people choose to live in an RV. Some do it because their jobs require them to travel often and they want to keep their family together, while others do it to explore the country. We chose RV living for the financial freedom and the flexibility. Our five (+/- a few years) year goal is to build our dream home. Stationary RV living gave us the flexibility to live on our own land, travel more, and save for our future farmhouse. We often get asked about our stationary set up, so we are going to break it down for you.

Concrete Pad & Lighting

First, let’s start with the foundation, the concrete pad! It is the thing most asked about. We had our 20×30 concrete pad poured professionally for about $4,000. It was the perfect size for our 32ft travel trailer. We have since purchased a fifth wheel that is just shy of 40ft and it is a little snug. When we pour a new pad in the future, it will be 30×50 to accommodate the larger RV.

Next, the patio lighting. We used five 16ft pressure treated 4×4 posts and buried them 3 feet in the ground. Added hooks and Edison string lights and we had ourselves a nice little lit patio. I’ve also seen people use barrels or barrel cut offs and poured concrete for their string light posts. This is a great option if you don’t want to dig holes, but it makes the project more expensive.

Water, Sewer & Electric Hook Ups

I’ll be honest, the hook ups are probably the number 1 reason most people shy away from stationary RV living on their own land. There are a lot of factors and a lot of thought that goes into this. And quite honestly, it’s expensive.

First of all, if you’re going to live in your RV full time, you’ll want full hook ups for any long term stay. It’s a convenience thing and the lifestyle will get old very quickly if you don’t have them. What does full hook ups mean? It means that you have electric, water, and sewer at your site. This could also mean cable and internet, but we don’t need those things to live, so we are going to forgo that.

So, how do you get full hook ups on your land? This simple answer: dig a well, get a septic system, and bring in power. But the reality is, there’s a lot to it and it’s really pricey. You will need permits and I highly recommend seeking professional help so you know it’s done correctly.

If you plan to build on the land in the future, you will want to plan it out with your future home in mind. You won’t want to have to redo this later to accommodate a house. Again, hire a professional. They will be able to help you with this. We started with a utility barn on our property and built it knowing we would needed RV hook ups. You can see the beginning stages of this on our property highlight on Instagram. By the time we moved onto the land, we already had full hook ups.

Power and water are a necessity, but septic has some flexibility. If you aren’t able to install a septic tank, you can get an above ground septic tank. Obviously these will have to be emptied and treated often, so factor that cost into your budget. You’ll also want to decided if that added work of emptying it is worth it to you. You can either take them to a dumping station like a truck stop or you can have a septic company come empty for you.

Grilling Area

If you’ve read our post 11 Tips for Keeping Your RV Cool In The Summer Heat you know it’s important to have an outdoor cooking area. We personally love our Blackstone Flat Top Grill. It’s a great universal grill and you can cook pretty much anything on it. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Doesn’t matter. It works for everything.

We also set up a portable outdoor sink to make grilling and clean up extra easy. You could hook it up to a hot/cold water system, but we just hooked it up to our hose to make it simple. You can find the sink linked on our Amazon Storefront with other necessities for your outdoor living space.

One of our favorite features about our Keystone Sprinter is the outdoor kitchen. We can keep all of our grill utensils, condiments, and outdoor dinnerware in one spot and not have to run in and out to get supplies. We’ve found it especially great when we are entertaining. If you’re in the market for an RV, I would definitely keep this feature on your list.

Outdoor Dining & Patio Furniture

One of the nice things about stationary RV living is that you can set up your outdoor dining and patio area to be an extension of your tiny house. Here in Florida, wintertime is the best season for hanging around outdoors. We enjoy most of our dinners outside on our picnic table and love to entertain during that season. We’ve created the perfect outdoor dining space so we can enjoy family dinners with our extended family in those cool months.

Maybe you need more hang out space for lounging or entertaining. You can bring that space to life outside. We personally don’t have outdoor lounge furniture because the Florida sun destroys EVERYTHING, but I desperately wish we had a nice place to hang out. Particularly, a wicker swivel or hanging chair. It’s my dream. One day I will have one.

Don’t forget about bug repellent though! If you plan to spend any length of time outside, especially in the evening, you’ll want tiki torches or tabletop bug repellent. We personally use the tiki torches you can put into the ground and we move them around as needed.

Outdoor Storage

Tiny living means tiny storage. If you travel full time in your RV, that means you have to get creative with your storage or go without. As stationary RVers, we are able to get weatherproof storage bins to store stuff like shoes and toys. We have a taller cabinet where we store our farm boots, rain boots, and old play shoes. I’m personally a big fan of this because I don’t want my kids to wear their farm boots in the house. I can only imagine what’s on the bottom of them.

We also have an outdoor toy box for our kids larger toys and anything they keep outside, like water toys and balls. This is a great way to keep outdoor toys in one place and prevents them from being brought inside (sometimes).

Kids Play Area

Lastly, the kids play space. Honestly, our patio space is mostly for them. It’s the place where they play the most and have pretty much taken over the whole area. One of the things I love the most about stationary RV living is that the kids still have a place to be kids and call their own. They have a playhouse, their own picnic table, and lounge area. They love to draw with chalk and do arts & crafts. I never know what’s going to be sitting outside the door when I step out. It’s a kids world and we are just living in it.

Is Stationary RV Life For You?

If you would’ve told me two years ago that I would be living on a homestead in an RV, I would’ve thought you were crazy. This lifestyle is not something I ever imagined, but now it’s something I can’t imagine not doing. It was a huge lifestyle change, but it has been so good for our family and has given us so much financial freedom. Next week we are going to be share all about why we chose RV living. If you’re thinking about RV living or stationary RV life, you won’t want to miss it. Subscribe to our blog to get notified when it goes live.

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