↓ Episode 171 – Revive Your RV: Transforming Spaces with Innovative Solutions

In staying on the road. Today, we're going to be doing an interview with Alex from Revive, then enjoying the RV life.

We're going to talk about essential multipurpose tools and products for easy RV living. Then the next stop, we're going to visit the heart of the Silicon Valley by visiting San Jose. Then in shadows of the past, the towns that once were.

We're going to visit Carmel by the Sea. Then in RV Envy, we're going to talk about Harbor Freight icon tools and how they stack up against snap on tools Sniper.

This is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, your trusted source for tips and insights to embrace the RV lifestyle without worries. So let's talk everything RV today. It's episode 171, so let's jump right into it. So, Alexis, you all fired up and ready to go today?

Fired up, fired up. Cheetos.

Cheetos, right on. What are those other things? We have Takis. That's what we need in the morning. Takis and donuts.

Start your day. Oh, yeah. Heartburn city.

Heartburn city. All right. So one thing that comes to mind before we dig into this, I want to give Michael.

I forget what state he's in, but he was looking at new and looking at a new rv. Now I'm going to give him the Smart rver award. We got an award here, Glasses. So we don't have an actual award.

Maybe we need to have award, little trophy like a baseball player. We can find him at thrift stores or something.

Yep.

So he was looking at it, buying a new rv, you know, so he's going about it very methodically, like he should.

And so he sent me some questions and we went through it and then he kind of backed off that RV because he realized maybe it's not the RV he thought it was. Then he found another one that's been sitting on a lot for a couple years.

So we kind of went through that and some of the pros and cons with sitting around. It has to be a really good deal.

But.

But he decided he's going to pass on that one as well. There's just enough there that it wasn't it now. So I bring this up because he's not really shopping by emotion.

Yeah.

Thank goodness he's going through it and he realizes that there'll always be another best deal. You know, they're not a one off. Every time you find the best deal, there's already another best deal.

Yep, absolutely.

So it's not by emotion. So I want to give him the smart rver award of excellence today. So he did a good job with that.

So we're ready to go and we're gonna jump into enjoying the RV life and Alexis is gonna share with us the tips and tricks on using multi purpose tools without cutting your fingers off.

Yes, we've all been there. Oh, yeah, No, I think this was a really good one because I always think about what I need to bring with me when I go out into the woods or when I RV.

It might not be in the woods, but our RVs only have so much space. So we really try to, you know, collapse everything down in something we can just small that we can use. It's still useful, but we don't.

It doesn't take up a ton of room and it doesn't weigh a lot. So a few things on my list and I'll read them off, but I won't tell you everywhere you can get them because that is on our website.

But a couple of the things I was thinking about were collapsible kitchenware because those cupboards in the RVs are not very big. So if you've got these bowls that shrink down, I mean, you could fit so much in there. So that's one of the things.

The other thing is the Swiss army knife. Hopefully we all have one of those. Or a multi tool, you know.

Right, those multi tools, what are they called there with. Leatherman.

Yes, Leatherman. Yep, one or the other. So another smart thing to have, great for quick fixes. Bottle opener, all kinds of things you're probably gonna need on there.

One of the next things is an instapot. And this might not, and I say instapot, it's instant pot.

I don't know why I do that, but this might not be for everyone, depending on what kind of power you want to use in your rv. But it is super useful.

It cooks food so fast that you know, you got your hungry kids and your husband waiting so you can throw the food through the window at them. Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry hippos. And then I think every camper probably has this. But a folding camp table, again, condenses space saving.

Great to have either inside the RV or outside the rv. Yeah, So I like that one.

Yeah, gotta have one of those.

Maybe I'll skip down a little to number seven, space saving hangers. Okay, this is a huge one because in our rv, the closet is that wide. And maybe I'm exaggerating, but it is not a lot of space.

So for those of you that couldn't see, that's about four inches.

Four inches, yeah. It's very small fish. So that is another good thing keeping still keeping things organized but condensing that space.

Something you know more about is foldable solar or solar panels, right? Yeah, that's something nice for boondocking. People want to use that but it doesn't take up a lot of space.

And then the last thing is the dual use camping chairs. Some are built in, some have built in coolers or storage pockets. That's a must. So that's the last thing on the list.

And really we, we've listed these, we've put links in them to where you can buy them, the approximate price. So my tip to you is just think about the space that you have, things that you really need and try to make them in the condensed form.

There you go. And also, you know a lot, there's a lot of stuff today like fold up shelves. You can mount that. They fold up and go out of the way that you don't use.

Like when you're using the RV or maybe if you don't need it for whatever you set your phone on it while it's charging. I don't know. Then you move it up out of the way.

Yeah.

And you had magnetic spice racks were on the deal which are kind of cool or racks in general. A lot of these guys that live in their vans or do that van camping, they use magnets everywhere. A little harder in rv but it's still doable thing.

You can actually mount some round discs on the wall if you wanted to put it up in a certain place.

Yep.

Like in our, our store we have those posters, round discs and magnets holding them up. Yeah. So that's pretty cool. So those are some good tips. And you know, of course everybody's RV is a little bit different.

How you store how you travel is up to you. But like the space saving or the classical containers.

So when they're in storage they're great but you have to take them out and unclaps it to use it. But when it's all done, it collapses back down again. Gets it out of the way. So it does give you more room then.

Yeah, it's easier to see what you have too. You're not having to move 485,000 things to get to one thing. Exactly. Which you know, it becomes a hassle but. No, that's great.

Along with lines of that, you know, it's about falling in love with your RV again. You make some room inside and buy some cool things and you're Kind of falling in love with your RV again. That's gonna be our theme for a while here.

You got to fall in love with your rv. If you don't, you're not going to use it. It's gonna be like your dog, you hate. It's just gonna sit in the corner. You're gonna ignore it forever.

That's right. Money saving tips. Kind of forgot where I was at. So the money saving tip this week is.

It's a little story about Harbor Freight and their icon wrenches. Now we're focusing on the icon wrenches. Now there's a lot of comparisons online.

About 485zillion of them using icon wrenches and snap on wrenches and seeing which one's better. And you know, the bottom line is the icon wrenches almost perform the same as the snap on wrenches. It even depends on the size.

The larger ones aren't as good. Like you'd have seven, eight, you know, three quarters, but they're still really good.

And now they're great wrenches. I've had the same snap on wrenches since I was like 14 years old. Been working on cars and stuff that long and they're the same exact ones.

Not one of them has been replaced. So that says something. Now when you buy cheap wrenches like Craftsman, other brands, a craftsman will just break and that sucks.

Other ones will round the bolts, the head of the bolts because they flex and bend. So you can't use them the same way as you can a snap on. Now the icon wrenches though, they test with all these different test people have done.

They're really close. And for like 129 bucks depending on the set you get what a difference, you know, and you're getting a quality wrench.

They almost look like snap on wrenches. Nice chrome finish on them. They're rounded. The ergonomics are good.

So if you're looking for tools, I would definitely shop at Harbor Freight and see what they have. Harbor Freight used to be known as just like throwaway tools. Yeah, if you needed a drill, like a half inch drive drill for one project or you know.

Yeah, that's. Or a hammer of some kind, you just Go there and buy it. If it lasted for the project, great. You throw it away, you know, but they've changed.

Their power tools are better. They have different brands now within the Harbor Freight name. I mean, I wouldn't buy everything there, but you have to do a little research there.

But they are coming around and they're trying to get into this professional tool game. So they're doing a good job there.

So for saving some money, and even if the Harbor Freight tools are a little bit more than what you would normally buy, let's say a set of wrenches at Home Depot or someplace, you're not getting the quality, buy it once and be done with it.

Yes.

Don't buy it two or three times. And if you ever had a wrench slipper break on you, you know what I'm talking about.

It sucks is your knuckles go tearing across something and blood's pouring out everywhere, you know, so it's, it's, you know, no fun.

Nice visual.

All right, so that's our money saving tip and enjoying the RV life. So think about the different things for your RV to make, you know, a little easier, more compact, give you more space, because it's very important.

RV as you know, and a reminder to shop local before you shop anywhere else. There's so many businesses that, that want to see you come through the door. They want to earn your business.

Give them the opportunity because I guarantee they're selling better quality products than you can get online. And then if you need help, return support, they're there for you. You can't get that from the Jungle website. It's not going to happen.

All right, so now that's going to bring us to staying on the road. And this is going to be an interview with Alex from Revive, so let's go ahead and listen to that.

So in this staying on the road, we have Alex from Revive by Genesis, and he's going to share the product line with you. How. With us. How to fall in love with your RV again. You know, maybe your RV has gotten kind of old and ugly.

Hate to say it like that, but you know, hey, life happens. So it's time to bring that RV back to life, fall in love with it again with the Revive product line.

So the Revive product line refreshes the inside of your rv, makes it look brand new. This product line is absolutely awesome.

It's probably the best product I've seen in decades because of what it does and the simplicity of it and the cost savings and everything else about it. So we have Alex here So, Alex, welcome to the show today.

Thank you, Eric. Thank you for having me. Really excited to be here.

Yeah, no problem. We're glad to have you.

Because this is a product that I think everybody that owns an RV, even new RVs, can use it, because my wife saw it and she's like, you know, we got it. We can do something with this wall in the rv. Just change the color of one wall. You know, it's a new RV and makes perfect sense.

A little what we call a contrasting color, you know, accent wall.

Right. Accent wall.

There you go. Perfect. Yep. All right, so, Alex, what's the. So you're the. The expert at Revive.

We'll just start off with that so you know everything there is to know about this product. At least we hope so. So what's the purpose of the Revive product line?

Well, I mean, Eric, you said it best. It's. It's to fall in love with your RV again.

It's going to help end users or consumers to really be able to make the unit that they live in or that they travel in it look exactly how they want it to look inside. And it's also going to help dealerships with upfitting used units that are on the lot and just making.

Making RVs, the interiors of RVs, look exactly like consumers would like. So there's a few different product lines here within the Revive collection, and the first and main product line being a wall overlay.

So it's just a peel and stick overlay with the same exact film that you. That you're seeing in RVs today with a specialized adhesive. So. So in other words, it's not going to fall off.

There's going to be a bunch of different colors that you can choose from, 10 to be exact. And you're able to see a wide variety from your lights to darks to wood grains to, you know, a little bit more design forward that. That could work.

As you said, the accent wall, we also have two different colors when it comes to ceiling ceiling kits, so it's still just the same thing. It's a peel and stick overlay. With the two most popular designs for.

For ceilings today, it's that pebbled look, that pebbled white look, and then like a. Like a speckled look that is more of a bright white. And then we also have some overlays for cabinets that you can do as well.

So if you wanted to brighten up your kitchen or your bathroom with cabinetry, you can brighten it up. You can make it darker, or you can make it White or black as well.

All right, perfect. So that's interesting because that's the entire inside of an RV basically, other than the flooring.

Yeah, yeah. Anything decorative inside of the RV that is laminated. Genesis products, which, which Revive is, is part, is the aftermarket for Genesis. It.

Revive is able to, to handle for you.

Right.

So what really got me, I mean, the walls and the ceilings are totally awesome, but doing the cabinets, making them look brand new, that was just, that was just ideal because, you know, you make your walls look nice, but you still got these cabinets that look like they're from the 90s or something. It just doesn't work, you know, but you can do the cabinets. I should say not in every case, it won't work.

But you know, I think you get certain cabinets you will beat up and man, you can refresh them, revive them. Fall in love with your cabinets again. Absolutely perfect.

Yeah. And just to, to go a little bit deeper with that too. Eric, I think that, I think you said it well there.

Most of the time you're able to, you're able to overlay your cabinets. So you don't want to overlay anything that's too ornate because that's just going to get really difficult.

But you know, your standard shaker door, your 90 degree angles and everything, completely easy.

But we also have a cabinet door program that if you go to a dealership that is stocking Revive, you can order brand new cabinet doors from Revive with your dealership and they'll land to that dealership within four to six weeks in the color that you want. And then you will just be responsible to overlay the cabinet boxes.

So you could have brand new cabinet doors in the Revive color of your choice, or you can overlay the cabinet door.

Right, See, that's perfect. Some cabinet doors you couldn't do yourself. Well, you could. They look horrible. But just buying new ones makes absolute sense.

Then they're new too, depending on the rv. You might need them at that point, you know. Exactly, exactly. A little bit beyond repair.

You know, screw holes are all massively, you know, widened out or made bigger because screws stripping out and so forth. All right, perfect. So. So that's pretty cool. So that's definitely an awesome product.

So now I was looking at your website the other day, the Revive website, and the installation looks, you know, pretty easy to me, you know, looking at it. And I know that it's not a hundred percent shown every like minute little step in the videos because you can't do that.

You'd be there Forever doing it. So is this something your average RV owner could do themselves?

Absolutely, absolutely. So especially with, with your wall boards. So, you know, your standard wallboard is 4 foot wide by 8ft tall.

And then there's, there's a little bit taken away with, you know, your trim pieces and everything. This, this material is super forgiving. It's a really thin, thick vinyl with, with a nice embossment on it. And all it is, is, it's just a peel.

It's just a peel and stick. So you start from the top and you work your way down, making sure that you're, that you're making sure that there's no air bubbles left inside of it.

That being said, I'm, I'm pretty pretty average at, at any, you know, being, being handy. We, we can say. And reviving a wallboard is, is no problem for me.

All right, so you said peel and stick. It kind of makes me think of, you know, people have bought like a, a laminate, you know, a vinyl type laminate.

You know, it has a wood grain on it and they, you know, put it on their walls and you see all these bubbles and seams and, you know, it just looks horrible, creases and stuff. It's like probably what looked worse than what they had to begin with.

Yeah.

So is this. So this, if you use the putty knife that's provided they're the, I guess putty knife you'd call it.

There's no problem if you just take your time, kind of think about the process and what you need to do. The air bubbles are the thing to get out. And the way your videos show it, you're working in one direction. So that makes it real simple. Right.

It's pretty much bulletproof at that point.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So what's really nice again is that you can rework this. So this vinyl, it's, it's, it's nice and thick.

You can even crease this vinyl and you're going to be able to work that out with the putty knife. So, so you get multiple tries with this.

It's not one of those, it's not like, like that super, super sticky material that once you, the contact paper that when you, once you touch the wall, it's, it's done. That's your only, that's your only chance.

No, this is something that you can mess with easily for, for an hour, trying to make sure that you're, that you're getting this correct. And after 72 hours, that's when it's, that's when it's cured and that's when it's going to be permanent. But, but yeah, it's.

The main thing is just working the bubbles out with the putty knife that's provided and, and. And just making sure that you're going in straight lines.

Right. So I've done some wrap on vehicles before. Like on my trailer, it has my logos and stuff on it. You know, it's like a sideshow going down the road.

But it sounds like the product's totally different because those things you put on, you got a little bit of time with water, you know, a little alcohol in it, and, and you can move it around, but you get to a point where that's it. You can't do it anymore. So any air bubbles in there, Even though the manufacturer says air bubbles will come out, they don't.

You know, you're kind of stuck. If you put a pin prick in it, it doesn't really do it. You know, it's kind of an interesting thing, but yours sounds like it's even better than that.

And it's probably because the. Just the way the materials made the laminate a little bit thicker. Like you said you could crease it. And I forgot about that.

You said your installer folded it up, or someone did. Made like a ball and put it on.

And we had, we had a tech that. A tech at one of the dealerships that we partnered with and said, oh, I want to see this made into a six pack.

So they folded it up a bunch and then we stuck it back on the board and in it, the creases came out. You couldn't even tell.

Yeah, so it's, it's, you know, obviously if you're, if you're crumbling it up into a little ball and the adhesive is touching the adhesive, that's not great. But what's.

What makes this way different than what you were saying, Eric, with the car decals is that, you know, with, with the decal like that, if you, if you crease it, you're going to see that crease, and with this, you're not going to see it. You're able to remove it. As we, as we've shown at the shows and everything like that.

And if there is an air bubble that you find later on, the pin prick. Prick absolutely works. The pin. The pin prick. Or just a little. A little slice with a sharp razor knife and you can work that air bubble out.

Yeah, I'd use a pen, not a razor knife.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oops.

Yeah, right. Right.

But you got plenty of time to take it off and start over.

Yeah.

So that's pretty cool. You know, I'm thinking about that. You know, some people are very particular, so, like, the time you have to move it around and adjust it.

Not that you really want to spend an hour trying to get one, you know, panel done or something, or a half of it. That's crazy. But giving you that time, it relaxes.

You can be a little calmer and rational about it because, you know, something like this, you get a little nervous and you start putting it up there and you feel like once you're committed, you're committed and oh, my gosh. And you just start rushing through it. But, you know, to get it done now, you know, that's pretty cool. You got the time.

And time is on your side in this case.

Exactly, exactly. Something that we do at the shows, which is where you and I met, is that we have a. We have like a wallboard that we.

That we have up, like a piece of wallboard that we're overlaying, and we use the same piece of revive to overlay for, you know, 30, 40 minutes at a time where we're taking it on and off nonstop for every single person that comes to visit. So, so for any viewers that come to the Hershey show or, you know, the, the Tampa show or any of these major shows that we're at, we have.

We have a wall board that we're. That we're overlaying and we just. We use the same piece for. For a very long time to show that it's super easy to use and that.

That you can be really able to. To maneuver it after the initial stick.

All right, so that's, that's great.

You know, so when you have that rv, you want to think about these types of things that you can bring it back to life, give it that whole new look without it being a total nightmare. Because replacing wall boards or ceiling panels is a lot of work and is very expensive. So this makes it much simpler.

And that's the whole point coming from the manufacturer who makes these products for RVs anyways, mean that's a win win. It's not somebody else trying to do it. You guys already are doing it. You just kind of made it in. Put it in a different direction.

Now with that being said, you know, so you've, You've got the product, you're ready to get going, and you watch the videos. And in the videos, it, you know, they make it look really easy, like cutting out around Some of the window rings and things like that.

Would you recommend it's better to take the rings off the window or leave them on and then cut out around it and the little wall plates and things like that strip the wall of everything or cut out around it.

Yeah, so that's a great question. Just, just I guess I'll get into like the, like just prepping for it a little bit.

And the first thing is, yes, I would, I would make sure that I would want to take all of that off first. But before you do anything, you're going to want to clean the wall. You're going to want to wipe it down.

You can spray it with, you know, you could spray it with some like, some water that has, you know, mild soap in it. Wipe it down. Make sure that there's absolutely no citrus or oil based cleaners that you're using because that will eat away at our adhesive.

And that's super important to understand. Just uninstall any of the light fixtures or, or, or the window, the, the window rings and everything and then overlay and then cut.

And then use those guidelines to, to cut the material. The material is really easy to cut as well. You just want to make sure that you have a shar.

And then when you're, when you're reinstalling everything, it's very important to note that if there's any like screw holes that you're going to be, you're going to be screwing anything back into that you, that you've previously overlaid. You want to mark that as you're overlaying it. And then you want to puncture it before you screw anything back in.

Because that'll, that'll cause what we call creep, which is like the little veins that, that you can see. But if you, but if you, if you puncture it before then it won't, that will not happen.

Okay, great. So one thing I want to say though, if you take the rings off your windows, you got to make sure your window's not going to fall out.

Yeah. Yeah.

Because that is the clamp that holds it in. You know, there is probably going to stay in there by itself because of it. It's sealed in there.

But I would make some small little clamps just to hold it in place. Some temporary ones which would be pretty simple to do. Little piece of metal or something.

Have two or three of them or four of them around the window using existing screw holes.

Yeah, you don't, you don't have to. Just taking the trim off around it is, is Is ample.

Yeah, yeah. Any meaning, if you have someone that you don't like to have them stand outside and hold it for an hour or so.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But hey. Or, you know, that's. That's the thing. It doesn't take very long to do this, so they won't be out there for very long.

Maybe if it's cold, you have them go out. If you don't like them, then you have them and you can take your pen.

Now it's when you. So let's say you. You do a wall with a window in it. And so you take the ring off, you put the revive on there. The laminate looks great.

And can you put that ring on right away? You don't have to worry about it like the revive setting up or anything like that.

Yeah, as long as. As long as you're happy with what your overlay looks like. The bubbles are. The bubbles are gone. You've removed bubbles and. And the lineup is there.

Yeah. You can, you can put the ring back on.

Okay. So you can just put it right on. And that's pretty cool. So you're not wasting time having to wait. You can get it back on there and kind of move on.

Then you see the finished product. You know, as soon as you see it, you're like, oh, this is nice, you know?

Yeah, yeah. It's really nice to see the contrast, the before and afters.

Then some RVs, you know, they might have wood trim at the wall and the ceiling and a lot of them have that plastic beading in there. I know it's two different features things, but putting the overlay on there, does that make it harder or you have to take the trim off.

If you have wood trim the beading, would you cut it out or just leave it there and just carefully put the overlay up to it?

So. So great question.

You.

I guess you can do both. You could do either one. Right. So the. The overlay. Absolutely. Go. Can. Can go over that as long again, as long as it's not too ornate.

But if you remove it, we put into each one of our kits there's an inch and a half seam tape that matches the roll that you can wrap the battens or the inside corner, the small incident corners and everything like that. Or what you can do is you can. Is you can over. If it's easy enough to overlay, you can.

But you really want to make sure that there's no air bubbles that get left there. So you want to be careful. My, my best suggestion is that you Would want to remove that and then overlay the battens and then, and then reinstall.

Right, okay.

So like some RVs, like if you have like you know, say a brown panel, look on the walls and it's going to have a brown bead between the wall and the ceiling. So that be might be better off to cut out and then get some trim or battens and then wrap those and then put them back up.

Exactly, exactly.

So that can make it a little more involved, but it's not the end of the world. Especially wrapping those battens.

I mean they look like they'd really be easy to do to lay them out, put it on there, flip them over and wrap the backside.

Yeah, they're very easy to do. Yeah. Intentional for that as well.

Yeah.

So that, that makes me think that before you started this project, even measuring and figuring out what material you need is to look at the overall project, what you might have to do before you ever start.

So when you go to buy the material, all the overlay that you're, you're getting the right quantities and thinking about, well, I might have to put in you know, 40ft of battens or something like that.

Does the kit come with enough and just make sure you're covered and to just plan that out rather than just get it, pull a release liner on it and put it up and start doing it. Right, right.

That's a, that's a great, that's a great point. We spent a ton of time looking into this kind of stuff as we were trying to come up with the different sizes and everything.

So again, Genesis Products, the, the, the company that revive is the aftermarket for, they do this thousands and thousands of wallboards, panels of, you know, anything from wallboards to ceiling panels, cabinets per week that, that we're sending out to all of our OEM partners which are, you know, any OEM in the industry. And what, what we noticed was, you know, like so obviously the standard wallboard is 4 by 8.

So we wanted to make sure that we made it as easy for the retail customer as possible. So we made it a 2 foot wide by 50 foot or 2 foot wide by 100 foot.

So you can put, you can easily but butt the, the material up in the middle and then that will give you your full width of the wallboard. And then with a 50 foot roll, you're able to overlay three full wall panels. And with a 100 foot roll, you're able to Overlay six foot wall panels.

So the, the colors that are more of the Mainstays that we see more commonly within RVs today that we would probably recommend that you'd want to do a 100 foot panel or 100 foot roll. And the, the roles that are more of the accent colors, the fashion forward designs I would be that'd be more ideal for the 50 foot rolls.

Okay, that makes sense.

And you know, in looking at an RV, 100 foot roll maybe doesn't sound like a lot at first, but you really look at your RV windows, sofas, furniture, cabinets, 100 foot roll will go pretty far.

Absolutely.

You know, it's not going to have to have six of those rolls so that you get that out of your head, I guess. Really? Because I was thinking about it, you're all of a sudden you're slicing and Dyson, you're not going to use 100ft real quick.

It's going to take a while to go through that.

Yeah.

In most RVs, you know, because there's so much stuff in there packed in on the walls that there's really that not that much wall in some cases.

Right. It's perfect for, for a finish. Finish one of the rooms now and come back to a different room, like a bathroom later on.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah. If you do one room, you're just going to have to keep on going. There's no stopping.

I think it's going to look, you're like, man, that's a new house.

Yeah, it looks brand new. These are all super clean designs as well.

You want to hug that RV and show it some love, fall in love with it again.

Right.

So someone does this, they go to all this work and they make their RV look, you know, totally awesome again. How long will this material last on the walls?

This is so, so that's the beautiful thing about revive. With its specialized adhesive, it's going to be permanent, 72 hours. The only way that after 72 hours it's cured.

And once it's cured, the only way that it's coming off is if the material behind it that you're overlaying comes off as well. So this, this becomes permanent after 72 hours. If you want to change it, you just overlay it with more revive.

There you go.

So if you had some, some of the previous laminate overlay coming off and you're going to use a revive product, you'd want to pull off as much as that. That would just come off and then sand down the edges and kind of feather it out.

You're like a pro already, Eric.

So.

Yeah, you just Want to lightly tear off the overlay that is the film that's there. You want to just lightly sand the threshold, the edges of where the film is and then overlay. And what's nice about it is that with.

With the thickness of the vinyl and the emboss that's there, you're not necessarily going to see that where you made that tear. So it's really nice. It's just going to lay flat over it, and it's going to be able to hide any of those where the film came off before.

Right. All right. Perfect. Yeah. So this really sounds like the ideal product. You know, it looks like it.

And the installation, I think anybody could do this pretty much with just taking a deep breath and go at it. Now with the walls sound pretty easy. Now the ceilings might be a little tougher because you're working up. Is that really the only difference?

You're just working up. And maybe two people need to be there, one holding it as you're weezing it out.

So ceiling. It's really the same type of process. Obviously, it's. It's up on the ceiling, but it's the same overlay type of process.

What we've seen is that in some dealerships is that they have panels that they're just overlaying and then installing or for retail. What it would be is that you know where your lineup is, you make your initial stick, and then you just work it across the top of the ceiling. Yeah.

I would recommend making sure that your space is clear so you're not. As you look up. You don't trip over anything. And having someone that to help would. Would be nice as well. But what you can do. And you.

You'll realize this as you're. As you're overlaying walls as well. Just unroll the roll, have the roll kind of like rolled out, and then just work. Work the material towards.

Towards the bottom or the side of the panel that you're. That you're working on.

Right. So starting off with walls would be the best way to go get a little practice done on a. Yep. And then do the ceiling.

It's funny. So. So I'm assuming most of your.

Most of your viewers and listeners and then most techs already, they're going to be able to get the hang of this super quickly. It took significantly faster than it took for me to be able to get this down. DIYers they always surprise me.

People come up to us at shows and they have really cool ideas on how to make the installation process easier and they just, there's always great ideas with this. Yeah. I would say starting with a wall with some practice is great. And I have a feeling that a.

Lot of people that are going to.

Be listening to this will probably already be pretty good at this.

Yeah. It just made me think that this probably would start a lot of businesses.

People will buy this and go into the renovation work for, start doing renovations for a living because it's so easy.

Absolutely. So this is a dealership and a mobile technician's dream product. Never before have you been able to just overlay like regular wallpaper. It's great.

It's, it's, you know, it's a great product, but it's, it's meant to be in your home. And when you, over, when you, when you wallpaper things in your home, you know your house is staying right around 72 degrees.

There's not a ton of humidity, it's not getting super hot or super cold. And, and let's be honest, your house isn't moving unless you're, you know, there's like an earthquake or whatever's happening. But. Right.

But an RV is a house on wheels and you're gonn hot temperatures, super cold temperatures, very humid temperatures and you're going. And again, you're going to be moving. This is not going to stick. This is meant to stick for, for the long haul.

The adhesive is different than a regular wallpaper and that's, that's what makes Revive so special. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. So this product just sounds awesome.

Now one thing I do want to make sure our listeners understand and because it's important and why you would use Revive. Revive over buying panels if you can find them.

Panels aren't exactly the easiest thing to find, whether it's wallboards or the ceiling panels and of course cabinets. You know, to have cabinets remade would be crazy. So buying panels versus using your product, what do you think the cost difference would be?

Right.

So really what people, what people can do is if, you know, retail, when you're looking at a 50 foot roll that's going to overlay, you know, three up to three panels, retail is going to be right around the $220 mark. So less than $100 a panel.

If, if, if someone wanted just a brand new panel that they can overlay, they can use our product Revive on brand new panels and replace if they wanted to do that. But if they just wanted to overlay, they're going to be able to, you know, get away with almost an entire room for, for under $2. Hundred twenty.

Now the 100 foot rolls, they're, they're a little bit, they're a little bit more expensive. Double the, double the, double the, the product. But the value is there.

It's, that's going to be right around that 380 mark for, for a 100 foot roll that covers six full wallboards. And like we said earlier, you're going to be able to cover most of your RV with that.

Right. And you know, the panels to buy them, you know, it doesn't matter what RV service center gets them.

They're going to have to have them shipped to them. They're going to come on a truck.

Yep.

So you're going to pay trucking freight, which is, you know, you could spend two to three to five or six hundred dollars on that and then they're going to have to crate them at the factory, put all the panels in a crate. So there's a crating charge.

Yep.

And then when you get them, it's going to be inevitably corners will be broken, edges will be rough, the material might have rubbed wrong and wore out spots in it. So you can have wear marks. So I think if you bought 10 panels, you might have eight, seven or eight that would actually be good panels.

Right. And you're paying a premium for the shipping because to palletize a 4 by 8 panel is unbelievably expensive, just like you said. And you have to wait.

There's long wait times there because when you go through, when you go through the dealership, who then goes through the oem, who then comes to, you know, Genesis. It takes, it takes a while. We're, we're, we're in production.

I would say that our, our manufacturing skills are phenomenal and we're very fast with what we do. But we have a ton of work that is going, going on at all times.

So we'd have to wait for that color to come back through before we can, we can do some extras and then, then we would be able to ship, ship everything off. So it takes some time. It takes, it takes some time. It takes a lot of money. Revive is immediate.

There's over 230 dealerships throughout the country that's better that are carrying Revive right now.

And retail customers are able to go there and able to get the color that they, that they need, the design that they need and they can have, you know, new wallboards and new interior very quickly.

All right. So yeah, and yeah, you can go to Home Depot and buy a Luan panel and put the Revive on It.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

So if you feel you need new panels, there you go. There's a simple solution. But buying them, even if you could find.

You're not going to find the panels like a finished panel at Home Depot, Lowe's, or any place like that. You have to go through an RV service center. And again, it's the time, it's the money.

So doing a room with the RV with this product is going to be less than half the price, you know, probably 30.

There's going to be tons of cost savings, tons of fun.

Yeah, it'd be phenomenal. And then if you mess up and you ruin a panel, you got to get one more. Right. It'll be a long wait and very expensive so that this is the way to go.

You mess up a wall, you can redo it, you know, so, yeah, the Revive product line. So, Alex, I think you've answered all the questions.

So for our listeners out there, you know, if you have any more questions, you can contact me at our website, the smart RVR.com or you can go to Revive or. What's your website, Alex? I. Forget it.

So it's. So it's Genesis productsinc.com and then there's the slash Revive.

Okay, so there you go. So any other questions? You could also go to Revive and ask them. They're the experts.

I mean, I'm an expert, but they're the true experts on this product. So, Alex, I want to thank you for coming by today. We really appreciate the time and sharing your expertise with us.

Eric, thanks for having me. Really excited to be here and happy to answer any questions that any of the listeners have.

All right, so we appreciate the time Alex spent with us.

And just a reminder to go ahead and check out the Revive website, and as always, there'll be a link to it in the description of this podcast, and there's links to them on our website, the smartrverver.com. you can find them no problem.

And they got a great product as brought out in the interview, and we've talked about them a little bit lately because the product is so awesome. It's just unbelievable, man. It's really nice. All right, so now that takes us to the next stop.

And today we're going to start with San Jose, the heart of the Silicon Valley. So, Alexis, why on earth would you want to go to San Jose?

Well, I'm in Santa Fe, so. Hold on. All right, so today, Eric and I have traveled all the way to San Jose, California, in the heart of the Silicon Valley.

If you didn't know that. I'm sure whoever lives there, they do know that. So I'll go ahead and share top eats and RV tips.

Let's dive right into the food scene for amazing falafel. You know, bonus falafel.

I thought it was just mispronunciation of a waffle.

Real thing.

Really falafel.

I don't know, it's like a bread thing, right? Yeah. Check out falafels Drive in. Very cool. If you're craving brunch, Bill's Cafe has you covered every kind of breakfast food you could want.

And don't miss love Victoria's Taqueria. Their orange sauce is legendary, I hear. Legendary.

Legendary.

So you have to try it. You have to order something with orange sauce.

And for the RV travelers, we know not everybody does this, but we do focus on the RV travelers, of course. Coyote Valley RV Resort is an excellent spot with fantastic amenities.

If you need a propane or dump station, there's a U Haul near there on North 13th Street. And the Coyote Valley RV Resort have you sorted out on that. So they've got things for you to be able to hook up to and dump. Great.

Because, you know, we all need to know where that is and if we plan ahead, that's perfect. So knowing where you can do that is perfect.

And then on the cultural side, San Jose, the museum and San Jose of Art and Tech interactive are must visits. Very neat art. A lot of interesting things there, either for a couple or a family. Either way, very interesting.

And Japantown, it's a hidden gem with a lot of cultural events and fantastic food. Food, super cool. Google it. Japantown is very neat.

And so, all in all, we want to make the most of your travels here, and we want to talk about things that interest you. And that's really what all next stop is about. We want to just sprinkle some things in about where to go, you know, both of us.

I mean, you might have been there. I haven't been there yet, so I can't talk on it like a professional. But you guys know that we just.

We throw these things out, we do research on them, and we want you to be interested in where you go.

Awesome. So, yeah, San Jose is a great place. And Alexis was laughing pretty good there. And we got in this. We had a little technical glitch.

Either that or that instant pot she was talking about is something else that we need to have a conversation about later, maybe. It's hard to tell, you know, so San Jose is a great Place, you know, they wrote a song about it.

Yeah.

Do you know the way to San Jose? Blah, blah, blah. So that was a long time ago. San Jose is probably changed quite a bit.

But like every city, they grow and grow up and become big cities. But it's still a cool place. And what's nice about it too, it's a good hub.

Yeah.

Because of where it's at. You can go to different places. You got the coast nearby, you got all sorts of stuff nearby, inland.

One thing about California of them cities that sometimes you're an hour away and. Yeah, from a lot of different things. You know, like here we're an hour away from the mountains. If you go north, if you go south, we're an hour away.

If you go east, we're an hour away. Just from the mountains.

Yep.

We're surrounded by mountains.

We are.

Wow.

Crazy.

That happened. All right, so now that's going to bring us to shadows of the past, towns that once were.

And we're going to visit Carmel by the Sea and we're going to do one of these readings about it again. I just happened to got another script. Gotta gotta, man. I gotta learn how to talk. So my grandpappy Popeye came by again last night.

He gave me a fresh one I had, was all crumpled up.

Where did that go?

Gotta read it. All right, so here we go. So this is about Carmel by the Sea. Now Carmel by the Sea is a cool place.

And I just want to preface that because sometimes you might think it's near San Jose and it's a big city, but it's not. It's still a small little place. It's quaint, wonderful thing. All right, so here we go. Put on your listening hat.

Carmel by the Sea is a charming little town on California's central coast. Like something from a fairy tale. With its cozy cottages, artsy vibe and stunning ocean views, it's a place full of adventure and wonder.

As you stroll through town, you'll find amazing shops, helicopter colorful art galleries and friendly cafes. The Carmel Art association has amazing paintings and the forest theater puts on magical shows under the twinkling stars.

Book lovers will adore Carmel's literary history. Famous poet Robinson Jeffers built a beautiful tor house by the sea. And Pilgrim's Way bookstore is packed with stories waiting to be discovered.

Hungry? Stop by a la Bicyclet for yummy wood fired pizza or enjoy Mediterranean flavors of Dimitra Cafe.

The Tuck Box is a perfect spot for tea and warm buttery scones. For nature lovers, Carmel beach is the perfect place to dig Your toes in the sand and watch the waves.

Nearby Point Lobo State Natural Reserve has wild trails, playful sea otters, and jaw dropping ocean views. While Carmel's tiny streets aren't great for RVs, there are awesome spots nearby to park and stay. Carmel by the river park is peaceful and green.

Marina Dunes RV Resort has ocean views. And Laguna Seca Recreation area is perfect for hiking fans.

With its artsy charm, cool history, and beautiful scenery, Carmel by the Sea is like stepping into a sensational world. Whether you're watching a play, eating tasty treats, or exploring the beach, you'll always find adventure here. I'm ready to go.

It's lovely all these places that now I've been to San Jose, but I haven't been to Carmel.

Yeah, cool. Yeah, very quaint.

You know, there are some good places in California. I hate to give it credit, you know.

You know, as we talk about this, one of the things we'd like to get from you out there in listener land is your experiences from places you've gone to. Pictures, stories. You can use the contact Us page on the smartrver.com website to do that. We'll also have a link to it in the description as well.

But we'd like to hear this stuff because we know you guys are going to places that we're not probably seen or maybe there's places we're going to. We're missing some things you'd like to bring out. Now we talk about these different places we go to, like Silicon or San Jose.

There's much more on our website than what we covered in the episode, like always. And we're really digging in on this where Alexis is working hard. She's bringing out all the campgrounds, RV dump stations, maps, pictures galore.

I mean, we're really working at it. So we appreciate you looking at that, but also sharing where you've been, especially pictures. Pictures really tell the thousand words, right? I do.

All right, so that's totally awesome. Now we don't have an RV Envy today because the interview is.

Oh yeah.

Taking place of that. So we're just going to skip right on past that.

Sounds good.

So without that RV Envy, which actually, you know, goes back to the icon tools, really. I was going to say that's really what was scheduled, but it got moved around. The icon tools kind of fill that gap as well.

That's a two for a two for one. Two for today. You're expecting one, you got two. All right, so as a final reminder here, check out our YouTube channel. We're still growing.

We're looking for more subscribers, as always. So we haven't reached that 10,000 mark yet. We're still a little shy, you know, a little over 7,000, but we're getting there. You guys are trying, man.

We appreciate that, too. All right, so our next episode is going to be episode one.

So we had a great show today and want to thank Alexis for hard work on what she does for the show as well. So this is Eric Stark with the smart rver podcast, your go to guide for smarter RVing and unforgettable adventures on the open road.