Family of 4 Turns RV Into 350-Sq-Ft Dream Home on Wheels
Andy and Kris Murphy, 32, and their two sons, Kieghan, 12, and Kinsler, 6, are a pretty normal family. They have a dog, Jesse, and a cat, Luna, and Andy has a tech job that he works remotely while Kris homeschools their kids.
And they do all this in 350 square feet.
That may seem limiting, but the limitless possibilities that travel offered them made the initial leap of faith well worth taking.
Just a few years ago, the family lived in a 3,000-square-foot home in Texas. It was during a road trip to see a solar eclipse that Andy and Kris realized the only reason their trip had to end was because their youngest needed to get back to school.
Their older son was already being homeschooled, so they decided to do a trial run of what might seem to many like an impossible feat.
They spent months renovating an RV and decided to try out six months on the road.
“We knew we didn’t want to live in Texas anymore,” Andy told People. “We were done with that. We knew traveling, at least for a short amount of time, sounded like a lot of fun.
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“We had lived in Dublin for three months for a job I had, so we knew the short-term living with less stuff was actually fun. So we knew we could do that pretty easily, at least for three months.”
“We headed out and we said, ‘We’ll do this for six months and we’ll see,'” Kris agreed.
And at the end of the six months, they had their answer. This was the life they wanted.
But it wasn’t necessarily the RV they wanted — after a year in their initial gig, they had a solid understanding of what worked and what didn’t.
They bought a 60-foot-long 2019 Keystone Fuzion 424 toy hauler and tweaked it, with help from what Andy refers to as “YouTube University.” The couple did all the upgrades themselves thanks to informational YouTube videos and ended up with very respectable, stylish living quarters that even include a fireplace and a washer-dryer.
The boys have their own room, the parents have their own room/office, and there are 1.5 bathrooms onboard. They’ve had to learn to buy only the essentials, but it was a process that they found educational in its own right.
“We figured out what wasn’t working and then changed that process,” Kris said. “Getting groceries was really different, because you just don’t have a ton of space. So once you figured out some of those complications, you’re like, ‘This is kind of working out and this is how this works.’ Then it really got fun.”
Of course, the set-up wouldn’t work for everyone. It has worked out extremely well for the Murphys thanks to Andy’s remote position, Kris’ homeschooling and the family’s sense of adventure.
Drawing on her own personal experience, Kris also creates materials for and runs “Roadschooling” classes where she helps other people learn how to educate their children on the move. She also updates fans and followers through their various social media platforms and blog, called “Where Wild Ones Roam.”
With so many jobs switching to remote work and more people being interested in homeschooling, perhaps this is a trend we’ll see more of. Would you be up for this lifestyle?
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
