Chatter Boxes

Drying out

Birdie was good to us during the storm

Friends joined us on Friday

A rousing game of Beat the Parents

The kid's team (minus Levi, the designated card reader)

We had fun despite the rain.  Thanks friends for a fun weekend. Next time lets try for sunny and 75.

Most of the work has been done on Birdie (Our Vintage Trailer).  John installed new flooring yesterday and has worked behind the scenes on things like water hook-ups.  We still have some trim work to do but I wanted to get interior pictures taken even if those little bits aren't quite done yet. 

So without further ado...I present Birdie in all her glory with a few reminders about what she used to look like.

Before

After

Dinette Before

Dinette After (check out the new floor!)

We left a few cabinet doors off and will use those spaces for shelving instead.  The camper is stocked with board games, cooking supplies, camping gear, and more.  We are all set for a summer of camping fun. 

It was a lot of work but I'm so happy with how it turned out.  It's helpful to have such a handy husband.  And a special thank you to our neighbors who gave us lots of materials during their barn clean-out. 

Thanks for following along in this adventure.  Here's to many more adventures to come!

Okay so it may not be that big of a deal but it feels that way to me.

I don't have any good "after" pictures of just the trailer remodel yet.  I'll hopefully get some taken this week.  But for now...here we are enjoying the trailer on her first official camping trip (with us anyway...she's an old bird...This is not her first go-round.  Have I mentioned I'm thinking of calling her Birdie.  I don't have a good reason.  It's just what has stuck so far.)

Anyway...onto the pictures.

Board games

Posted this on Instagram...I love how vintage it makes the trailer look.

Our set up.  Boys in the tent.. mommy in the trailer.

Chillin' by the lake.

I'm participating in Throwback Thursday just so I can share this picture my mom recently found.

Here's a look at the kitchen so far.  It makes it look like the trailer is finished.  It isn't. It is coming along though.

Just for fun here's the before...

So...the not so fun part of redoing a vintage trailer has begun.  I've been doing the fun stuff like bringing the dark dingy cabinets to a bright new life, sewing curtains, and shopping for red and aqua kitchen decor.  But John hasn't had a chance to work on it much until now.  We knew there would be water damage to deal with.  The previous owners had covered up portions of the walls with plywood.  And no one ever covers pretty things with plywood.

After some initial investigating we discovered fairly extensive water damage so the plywood and original birch siding had to be removed.  Last Saturday was mostly demolition day.  We've been pulling out rotten wood and insulation since then. I think we've turned the corner so the fun stuff can begin again.

This is something fun...the ice box was painted the same burnt orange color as the cabinet doors so I painted over it with chalkboard paint.  I envision some fierce games of pictionary on rainy camping days.

This is the current state of the back beds.  This is where most of the water damage was.

The front dinette area.  Not as bad as the back but still not good.

After removing the broken water tank and pulling out rotten wood...John's face appeared in a giant hole in the floor.  Not encouraging despite how handsome he is.

I busied myself with recovering the dinette cushions.  I researched buying these online but after seeing the jaw-dropping prices...I moved on to finding an online tutorial on how to recover them myself.  And that's precisely what I did.  You'll have to see the finished product later.  The dinette where they will live is still dismantled.

Seth is helping put the cabinet hardware back on now that the cabinets are painted.  He's been a huge help with this project!

John comes home from work and gets right to work on the trailer.  What a guy!

Current state of the dinette area.  We're installing this wainscoting on the side walls.  I love the way it looks.  It's proving a bit of a challenge since none of the walls or windows are even or square.  Lots of measuring and piecing bits together.

Colin has also been a big help...mostly with painting.  Since he's such a messy painter most of it is done in his underwear.  Hence...no pictures. Rest assured he's pitching in to help.

I can't wait to get it up and running.  The vision in my head looks so cool.  I hope it translates into real life soon.

Thanks for following along.  Hopefully we'll be coasting into a completed project in the next couple weeks.  Camping season is quickly approaching. 

Our plan was to head out to Douglas State Fishing Lake on Friday for the maiden voyage of our yet to be named trailer.  However, on Thursday afternoon (my birthday) I started to feel not-so-great.  I thought stomach flu and figured it would be done in 24 hours.  One person in our house has had it several times.  But by 5:00 that evening when John and I headed out to my birthday dinner...the pain got worse and worse and by 9:45 that night we were headed to the emergency room with what would be diagnosed as kidney stones.  Sticking close to home took priority over a "try-out" camping trip.  I rallied Friday, feeling much better but still not 100% so spending the night at a camp ground with limited facilities did not sound safe.  So...we appeased the boys with getting to watch lots of basketball on tv and stay up late.

Then on Saturday we took yet to be named out for a day trip to Louisburg State Fishing Lake.  Much closer to home should something with the trailer or mommy's insides go terribly wrong.  We both powered through and had a fun day. 

Mommy cookin' hotdogs on the pretty stove

The boys enjoying the hotdogs mommy made. It took John approximately 2 minutes to get his kayak down from the roof of the car and into the water so he had to eat later.

Mommy, Colin, and an assortment of Colin's menagerie chillin' during nap time.

We fixed lunch, went for a hike, rode bikes, fished from the kayak and the shore, and made smores.  For just a day trip we did pretty well.  One of these days we'll actually sleep in it.  And we'll call that the Maiden Voyage for realz. :) 

In other news,  while Daddy and Seth took a long bike ride around the lake (sort of...word is they didn't make it all the way around), Colin and Mommy worked on a music playlist to go with our vintage camper.  We had a few criteria;  we wanted mostly songs written in the 60's,  songs that are about traveling or trailers.  Here's our list so far.

Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles (this link is to a group called Niki Bluhm and The Gramblers.  They make these videos in the van while they travel from show to show.  I encourage clicking on their other van sessions.  Cool!)
Daydream Believer - The Monkees
The Dock of The Bay - Otis Redding
Walkin' after Midnight - Patsy Cline
My House - Kacey Musgraves
On the Road Again - Willie Nelson

I'm sure more songs will be added the better we get to know yet to be named.

Just a quick update on the vintage trailer redo. I had two nice days this week to get some initial work done on making the trailer a bit more homey.

Seth removing cabinet hardware and getting them ready to paint.

It is very hard to paint in a 12 x 6 ft space without getting paint in your hair.

Cabinets primed!  And there are a lot of them.  This trailer is mostly beds and storage cabinets.

The backsplash has textured wallpaper glued right to the plywood so it stays with a few coats of paint over it.  I wouldn't have chosen it but it's growing on me.  So is that yellow color on the walls.  The front and back walls are a mismatch of plywood they used to patch this hole or that.  So we plan on putting white wainscoting 3/4 of the way up the wall so there won't be as much yellow as there is now.  And when I say "we" it really means "me".  The thought of putting wainscoting in a camping trailer would never have crossed John's mind.  I'm the mind...he's the muscle.

I've been researching and planning the purchase of a vintage travel trailer for a while.  I've been fascinated by rvs/campers since I was a little kid.  My sister and I would play in my grandparents motor home in their driveway.  We never took it anywhere.  Using it as our playhouse was fun enough.

Now that I'm the wife of an aspiring fishermen and a long-distance bike tripper and the mom of two very active outdoorsy boys.  I was feeling left out of all the camping fun.  Not enough to jump right in to the long bike rides or even sleeping in a tent.

Now listen, I would love to be the adventurous type who can sleep under the stars by the campfire.  I probably pretended to be that kind of girl to impress a boy in my younger years.  But these days I can be honest about my camping limitations and own them.  I need a comfortable bed with adequate support and I need walls.  That's just the way it has to be.  You can judge if you'd like.

So after searching on Craigslist every hour on the hour for the last 4 months.  I finally found the vintage trailer I've been looking for.  It has a lot going for it but still needs some work.

It's a 1961 Sante Fe travel trailer made in Belville, Kansas.  It's 12 feet long and is just the cutest thing!

The interior - most everything in here will change except for that gorgeous stove.  It was a huge selling point.  And bonus...it works!  That cannot be said for a lot of vintage trailers.  Behind the kitchen are two bunk beds that slide in to make a single or pull out to make a double.

The front of the trailer has a dinette to seat 4 and the benches fold down to make another double bed.  So technically we have room to sleep 6 but those six need to either be tiny or they have to like each other a whole lot!

Doesn't it look awesome with my car?  Seth thinks so too!

We're at the start of Spring Break here so this will be our family Spring Break project.  It's not a ski trip or vacation somewhere warm but if we put in the work now...someday it could be.

We'll keep you updated on the fixing up process.  It's already begun.  The old bedding and curtains have been removed.  The cushion and bed foam have been disinfected and left outside to dry in the sun.  The cabinet doors and drawers have been primed and all the cabinetry bases have been primed.  I am estimating that the last time the interior was painted it was sometime in the late 60's or early 70's.  Everything in it was painted mustard yellow, burnt orange, and brown.  Thank goodness they didn't touch that stove.

Wish us luck!