Way Behind on Posting

Well, I am a little behind on posting.  So this will be a long one, with lots of pictures! 
First Steve cut all the boards to start making the flooring and the assembly begins. He did a great job measuring everything out which made it really easy to assemble.  We even got Tyler and Becca into the action!

Here is the finished product.  It looks pretty good doesn't it?  but there is still sooo much more work to do. 

And so it begins.  The flooring is just linoleum that we got at lowes.  We ended up getting quite a bit more than we thought we needed, but in the end we used it all!  So it was a good thing. 

First, you had to brush on the adhesive.  That is some sticky stuff.  I had it all over me.  



Next you put linoleum on there and press it with a heavy roller.  Now, we have done alot of home improvement stuff, but we didn't have experience in this... BUT WE DO NOW!  Clint was home this day and was wrangled into helping! 

And here is the finished flooring.  Well, almost, we have to finish off the edges with moulding, and scrape some glue off.  But it looks really good!

I didn't get pictures of the next step.  I know, I'm sorry!  We used a biscuit cutter and cut little slits in the plywood pieces and glued along the edges with gorilla glue.  We used tiestraps to pull them all together and left them overnight.  It seems like we did an ok job, we will see in the end I guess. 

Next we screwed it into the frame on the sides.  The extra glue on the sides from the flooring really helped to hold it in place too.  That stuff is strong! 

 And here we have the second side.  again, hopefully we put them on there right!

 Next we painted the interior walls white, and the exterior I picked up an oops can at home depot of exterior grade paint to try to help protect it the next go around.  There was protection before and you see what we are having to go through now.  Hopefully that won't be the case 40 years from now! 

Steve is off all weekend and we have to make a quick trip to move my niece in the morning... but hopefully we are going to have some real progress to report over the weekend!

Down to the Frame

Well, I should be careful what I wish for.... we worked our tails off this weekend and made it to my goal that I had in mind. Thank you Steve for spending the entire weekend on the project! Now, we have to figure out how to start putting it back together.... First thing Saturday morning my mom came down for a visit...as you can see it didn't take me long to find something for her to do! She drew out the existing structure of both the front and back. I know that will come in handy real soon.

Next we took off the sides and that went pretty well. Next were the ends. Now that was a little scary. Rebecca and I were holding it while Steve started removing the bottom board... well it all came crashing down. Everyone was fine, but I didn't invision that happening!

Now everything is dismantled and in the driveway... yikes! No turning back now. Here is the floor, the sides, and the roof... this was quite an undertaking to get this far, so I can only imagine what lies ahead.

Next is the grinding and sanding and painting of the trailer. I bought some expensive gator something or another from the auto store but we found an undercoating already on there... so we went with the spray can method from Lowes and painted the trailer. I hope it works!

Right now it looks purdy... the white hitch is going to look great and we are hoping to paint the tank aqua like the stripe on her... so now the rebuild begins. We are out of town next weekend, so there is always the next...

On a last note, we went to the RV store and priced ac's. No go on the AC and we bought a fan instead. I just couldn't justify it. So we will not be camping in this thing in the summer here in Texas. Until next time...

The pretty stuff....

While I can't do alot to the outside right now without Steve here. So, I have been shopping. Those of you that know me, know that is what I do best! I bought the material to redo the cushions only to find out that our friends upholstry machine was broken. He said he would get it fixed, but I thought I would see what the local guy here in Greenville would do it for. I got all the cushions done for $200 labor. I thought that was a steal, especially since they have piping as well... so here is the finished product.

I hope that you like them! I know that I do. He did such a great job! So next I picked out the dishes... I was looking for a plain color melamine but NOTHING was matching. One was too blue, one was too green, these cushions are hard to match! The general concensus around here was the pattern below. I think they are going to look nice! This is a picture of the big plate. Yes, I realize it isn't to the era, but it is to the color!

Here is the whole set

And finally here is the material for the curtains. the stripe is to the outside, and the floral is to the inside. to open them, you are actually going to roll them up. When you do, the striped will be visible from the inside as well. We started cutting them last night and hopefully they can be done in a day.

I am so excited. It is Friday and that means starting tomorrow, we have two full days to work on the camper. I just couldn't be any more happier. Well, except if it was finished already... Pray for us, we have a long two days of disagreements coming our way.

And there goes the skins...

Steve was dreading it, oh he did everything he could not to tackle removing the skins. He built the kitchen cabinet (which we can't use because we got a bigger fridge)

But I finally said "I'ts time!" It was a little scary... we are still hoping that we didn't screw this thing up by removing the trim and the aluminum. But once we got it all off we were happy we did. She was really, really rotten underneath.Here is the beautiful before:

Here is the attempt to get the trim off without bending the pieces. I really hope that we can reuse this stuff...

And here is the after... They call this stuff insulation???

As you can see there is plenty of wood rot everywhere. We are really glad we didn't just cover it up, there is no telling how long it would have lasted in that condition.

So as you can see... we have alot of work to do now... We have 2 days of work coming up this weekend and I can't wait. I am hoping to show down to the frame and it painted this weekend! Hey, a girls gotta have her goals right?

Lots of progress

We got alot done this weekend, although it doesn't look like alot... does that make sense? The cabinets are totally out, the back bed is completely out. This is where the couch used to be.



Steve attempted to salvage the sink, but that sucker was in there good... it was so brittle it just broke into pieces.



This is where the sink, oven and fridge used to be.



Next comes stripping of more paint. This has proven to be a little challenging. I picked up some Aircraft stripper. Apparantly you have to apply it several times. There is probably 4 coats of paint on there. You have to apply it let it bubble, scrape it, put it on again, scrape it , put it on again, scrape it... are you getting the picture?





After that you have to wash it down with water, then a paint thinner as a final step.


Then finally you have something to show for two days of work...





One more side left to strip then the top... ARE WE HAVING FUN YET???

We were slackers this weekend

Between me taking pictures and both of us just being plain worn out we didn't get a ton done this weekend on the camper. I know...we are slackers. We did get a few things done and that hideous AC out of there! That was the first thing to go and boy was that sucker in there! Steve manhandled it until it came out.



Be gone ugly thing!



Next is the door window (the one that I am supposed to be cleaning tonight instead of pecking away on this keyboard!) As you can see here, Tyler is starting to get involved which is so exciting. He needs to see how much work something like this is.



Next is the door... it still looks to be in pretty good shape, just needs a little cleaning up thats all.



Then it was time for dinner and Barb, Jerry and Amanda had come over. Next thing you know Jerry gets in the action, lord I wish Steve wouldn't have been so tired, we could have gotten a couple of more hours work out of Jerry... but we were tired so this is the last thing that got accomplished. A cabinet as soon as you walk in to the left was removed.



It wasn't easy.



That thing was really in there!

\

Hopefully we will get more done this week and this weekend. We found out that there is a good possibility that the paint will come off with a high power pressure washer. Lordy I hope that is the case! We need it to be easy. Tyler is already tired of scraping and I know I am. Yes, we are easily discouraged. So that is the next step. I am going to clean up windows this week and over the weekend we will hopefully get the paint off and the metal off the outside. There, it is in writing, now we have to do it!

A weekend of working

I cleared the calendar for the weekend and was ready to get busy... The film was so easy, I was hoping the rest would go just as fast. Agian, I did my research on the internet (what did we do before internet?) I had a weekend of paint stripping ahead of me. The previous owners had apparantly rolled paint on multiple times. But, first I had to go shopping. I wasn't very successful except for getting paint stripper. It is supposed to work in 15 mins... and let me tell you, it works before then, but you have to do it SEVERAL times.. it was a slow process and after two days of it and only getting the front of it done I took a break... here is all I have to show after 2 days...


Steve took another route, one that made it look like we had actually made some progress. He managed to get all of the windows out. Wahoo...






I got bored stripping paint, so I helped out some too.





So we still have lots to do and a busy week, but we will pick it up again next weekend. Lots of things have to be decided soon. Curtain fabric, paint colors, and bench fabric, microwave, fridge, do we want a stove or not? I vote NO gas. AC is a biggee... here in Texas we have to have it, I just don't want it hanging out the front window... we have searched into lots of options, just haven't decided yet.