More Weekend Work!

I got more furniture stripped today. It was beautiful outside, but very windy! By evening it was actually getting chilly. Here are two of the closets, some doors and the curtain rod for the doors in the hallways.

After a visit and warning from our local police department this morning, my husband decided that it was time to make the trailer look like it is drivable, at least from the outside. We got egged with quite a few others in the neighborhood, so the policeman let us know that our van was egged. And while he was here, he let us know that we weren't following the vehicle ordinances in town because it's not drivable, so if it wasn't movable in the next couple of weeks, he'd come back to give us a warning and we'd have a week to move it!

Well, that got my husband working on putting the tires back on, but he found that the rims aren't going to work. The tires are on for now, so we don't get into anymore trouble, but we'll have to get different rims, because they don't fit. My husband got all new lights put on the outside and the lisence plate holder on so they can't claim that it is a junk vehicle anymore. We'll see how that goes over... we may have to move it back to the back yard!

My husband actually used a buffer. He got two of the lights on before I realized that he wasn't cleaning underneath it first! Well, he was busted, so then he buffed off all the rust lines under the fixtures around the outside. Once he got going on the rust, he had to get them all. I just had to document it to the world that he does buff once in a while! (For those of you that didn't know, he doesn't have enough patience to get it done nicely, so I did the 1953. I'm not really liking the looks of this one!)

Super Saturday - Part 2

As promised, here are the rest of the pictures of what we did on Saturday when the weather was beautiful. I got all this furniture stained. We had gotten it stripped last fall. It was truly a family project. All the kids and my husband worked on the stripping one day. My husband did not care for that job, so it was decided that I would finish up that project in the future. Between coats of paint on the tub, I got the furniture stained. My husband replaced some of the pieces of the furniture that had been water damaged and couldn't be saved.

Replacing parts of the furniture, now that is another issue that we have been going around and around on! It seems that most of the wood is a thin plywood with Oak Veneer. Unfortunately, we have so many things that need replacing, the Oak Veneer ends up being a huge cost to us, so we started to discuss other options. For now, we are using floor under-layment, which as similar wood grain in it that the oak veneer has and is the same thickness as the wood that was there. We decided that we would stain it and see how it works for this year, and if we are not happy with it, we will replace it in the future.

While I was in the painting mood, I spray painted the light fixtures with Metallic spray paint, which in my opinion emulates shiny aluminum. Anything shiny that looks like aluminum is almost as good in my opinion! My husband thought that the martians had landed, because we had some flying saucers in our front yard!

Super Saturday - Part 1

We finally had enough time on one day with both of us home to work together at getting a bunch of things done. We had beautiful weather too, so that was quite a blessing!

As you can see above, we took the tub to DWO Enterprises to get the bottom patched with Fiberglass. We picked that up yesterday, so when the weather was so nice today, we jumped at the chance to get the tub and sink painted. Here are the before pictures!

The first coat of the Rust-o-leum Tub Restorer was awful to figure out. It has a different texture than paint, so it was difficult to tell how thick to put it on and how much to put on. Added to the curves of the tub, it wasn't the easiest thing in the world. I am the painter in the family, so this job was all mine! Of course, the reason I am the painter is because I like perfection, so I found this job to be difficult. Overall, though, the sink and tub look awesome compared to what the originally looked like! The part I didn't care for was that it dries sort of lumpy instead of smooth. For the most part, it looks really good.

Here is a picture of them both on the cabinet and floor after we got those stained today! We think they look great! Can't wait to get the plumbing to work now!

I will post another post to show you some of the other things that we did today. It's getting more exciting now!

Tiling is finished!

Well, my husband's biggest worry on the camper is done! He has worried from day one on the installation of the floor tile, but did find that it wasn't all that bad. In fact, once the first few tiles were in, the rest was pretty smooth sailing. We put in an Armstrong linoleum tile that calls for a glue.

The color is Candy Apple Green, which we had to special order from Home Depot. We decided to go with Home Depot only because they didn't charge extra to have a special order. Unfortunately, we had a bad experience there, yet again with employees in the process of picking it up. It took 45 minutes for the Customer Service to get one of the guys to bring it to the front for me, and then he took off right away without helping me load it in my car. I didn't have the time to wait for the guy that was called to the parking lot to help me, so I loaded the heavy boxes myself! Then, to my dismay, I found that two boxes had been thrown around and cracked the flooring, so after another 30 minute wait for help at the Customer Service, I got it at a reduced price. This experience seems to be the norm, as I have this difficulty every time that I go to Home Depot for something. I highly recommend Menard's! They have the flooring, but charge a delivery fee on it. We have gotten the rest of the materials at Menard's.

My husband followed up with two coats of sealant that also adds a shine to it. The tiles look absolutely fabulous! I can't wait to see how it all looks with the cupboards and furniture in place too!

Spring Fever without Spring!

Well, we are having a case of spring fever, although there doesn't seem to be spring in sight! We can't wait to get on the road with our new Airstream, although when that will be is up for grabs! On Monday, I painted a final coat of paint on the entire inside - English Oak is the color! It is two shades lighter than the Chocolate brown in the couch. It seems dark in theory, but in reality, it looks light in the camper.

We got started on laying the flooring, an Armstrong tile in Candy Apple Green. We got a little section of the front laid. We didn't realize that it would take 45 minutes or more for the glue to set up before we could actually lay it down. My husband also learned that you cut all the pieces before laying the glue (I tried to tell him, but he was so excited, he went ahead with the glue.)

Unbelievably, my husband was going to sit and watch the glue dry while I painted. I finally convinced him to go ahead and start getting the electrical installed while he waited. This he did listen to me about and got some of that finished! We then ran out of time and had to run the kids to activities!

Other items that have been getting done:

• My husband is chasing leaks down with a new sealant - Alcoa Gutter Seal from www.vintagetrailersupply.com. Close to getting them all.
• Cleaned up the door-in-a-door to shine on the inside!
• Black water tank is at the Fiber Glass shop getting the fittings put in and fixed - thank God because I think it stinks everything up, while my husband thinks the poop is too old to smell. (I think he's too old smell it! =})
• More parts are on order from www.vintagetrailersupply.com including more of that sealant, lights, the never ending need for rivets and a lighted licence plate holder.
• Tires are off and new bearings put in. (more on that later, as I have no clue what anything is in the mechanical department.) It's sitting up on blocks right now in the driveway.
• Cabinets are getting pieced back together and finished stripped.

On to the rest of the floor, finishing cabinets and getting it back together. It's hard to believe that I was just complaining about it never going back together! Stay tuned for much more work soon and pictures to prove it!