Monthly Archives: June 2012

Our Travel Trailer remodel…Part 5 The Grand Finale

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OK, here is the rest of the story….  A few months ago, we remodeled our travel trailer due to a crack in the fiberglass shell and our family was growing and we needed more space.  These are the pictures of the completed job.  There were a few things we did to upgrade that I didn’t have pictures for and I wanted to share.  The biggest of those was we added a solar array to our RV.  It was a surprisingly easy upgrade thanks again to the Great Library of our day: the Internet and YouTube.  Here is the link I used: Solar Panel Tutorial.  Also we added an Olympian Wave Gas Catalytic Heater, and LED lights: the reason that we added these things to the upgrade was because we do a fair amount of “Dry” camping (aka Free), where power is not available.  The setup of the trailer before often caused us to bring the power generator and we still would still run out of power.  Meaning on cold nights it was as cold inside as it was outside because the heater fan would suck all the power and die.  Sorry for not including pictures of these upgrades.  But with out further ado here is a completed project.

This is a picture of the front of our trailer. It’s all about storage in these picture. Under each bench there is tons and tons of storage. The couch in front is where the table is kept, along with the extra chairs if needed. We love this because most of the time we never bring it out. If we come in for a quick snack, the kids grab a sit and eat (and that is only if it is not nice outside.) Without the table there is enough room to put Abby’s play and pack and have enough room for the rest of us. With all the storage there is a place for everything and everything in its place

The before picture

Here is the kitchenette, one fun thing we found when we when breaking everything down was the frig’s door cover with black on one side
(which what it was before) and silver on the other. So we where able to flip the door cover around for a updated look. We also added some clearance glass beads to the back splash. That was the only things was changed in the kitchen but I think it looks better than the old one. What do you think?

The Before picture….

This area had some major changes.  The sink and medicine cabinate were removed and a floor to ceiling closet added.  This was a number one requirement for Merriann.  Pre-Remodel the trailer had NO place for clothing/towels ect. Now we have ample storage for the whole family.  A full size bunk was also added above the main bed.

Another before picture, Please notice the door.

This is a picture of the New LED lights we got. They use 1/10 of the power the old light used. Meaning more light per battery charge. We got them from the local boat supply store which was cheaper that the RV store. And there was more of a selection to choose from.

The interior light we had before.

 Here are a few pictures with our family models.

Overall this was a great project.  Like all projects, it was time consuming, a lot of hard work but fun and there is nothing like having a fully custom travel trailer.  It looks like we are ready for camping!!

Our Travel Trailer remodel…Part 4….and sew on and sew on…

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The next major upgrade to our trailer was updating or I should say sewing our new upholstery.  What we looked for here was something that was easy the clean and again something that says Maui.  We decided on this:

And since we now had a fabric picked out it was time for us to get to sewing.  Here are some of the “sausage making” we went through in this process.

Real Men……. Sew!?!?! Yes, real men sew.

After all the hard work….  One person with skills (Merriann) and One person with not a clue (Greg) completed our task.  Because we have everything to hide I took all our pictures from a distance.  So those of you that can really sew couldn’t be able to pick out my work but as we tell the kids as long as you try your best its good enough for us. We are not sure if our hems are done right, but none have come out as of yet.  Yep, we are happy with it so far.

One sewing trick that we found online was to use shower curtains.  They are already sewn and they are usually are made of a heavy duty fabric.  So all we had to do is hem the bottom.

Next time I will share with you guys the finished pictures of the the travel trailer remodel project.

Our Travel Trailer remodel…Part 3

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OK after the wall repair was completed we went and picked out colors to paint the  travel trailer.  We wanted it to be fun, easy to clean and say something Hawaiian.  Maui, Hawaii is where Merriann and I proclaimed to the world that we made a covenant to God and each other that we would be husband and wife for a lifetime.  No surprise to anyone that our time in Maui is one of our favorite married memories.  So the colors which I can’t remember  say “Aloha” to us.

By far and away this is the most time intensive thing we did.  From priming and painting, it took about two weeks to paint everything from the walls the cabinets.  It actually took longer because we had to paint all of the new surfaces that we were installing as we went.

But after we completed painting the inside shell. We installed the benches.  The idea of the bench was that we could use benches as benches most of the time.  But when it was dinner time we could easily bring out the table.  We decided to use a small folding table in order to save on weight.  The table that came with the trailer was one of those great unstable ones that rocks (or rockets) back and forth whenever touched.  We could always count on someone hitting the table and the person on the other side either got the drink thrown in their face ( Merriann or I) OR their plate of food thrown baSck on the person who hit the table (the kids).  Which always add unplanned “fun” to our camping trip.  So it is safe to say that Merriann and I DID NOT like the table.  We used a small Costco folding table.  It seems to do the trick.  It is lite enough to just fold away when it’s not need.  And big enough to use when we sit down to eat we all can sit at the table at the same time.  But most importantly there is no more flying drink or food.  Another nice thing about the large bench is that it is large enough for the kids to sleep on.

Another plus to using the Airstream design is that it gave us more kid’s play space.  By moving the table to a different location it opened up the the floor but gave us a place to watch the “entertainment” (our kids). Because there are extra benches around most of the cabin space.

Next up Merriann takes on sewing????  Oh I mean Merriann takes on SEWING!!!!

Back at Winthrop

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This memorial day weekend saw us back in Winthrop this year.  We had an awesome time.  It was relaxing and mellow.  A perfect way to start out the camping season.

The cutest crew ever!

Deer leg found in our campsite. We found the other three legs in a site a few spaces over.

This little boy buried himself in the sand and Abigail really couldn't understand the point.

Beautiful!

 

 

Piggies 2012

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Our piggies have arrived at last!  It was so nice to be able to put them right into their already made pen and not have to build them something first.  It only needed a few touch-ups after the winter.

It’s no surprise they are hanging out in front of the food.  We were running out of pork type names for this batch and since all meat amimals have to have food names we decieded to name them after different cheeses.  The orange one was easy, Cheddar, and the blueish/black stripped one is Blue.  The other two are Feta and Swiss but I cant really tell them apart yet.  They will probably get some freckle spots on them as they get older and we can be sure who we are calling what.

And here’s the handsome Shaun.  We finally go the end of his winter coat off.  His rump got a little stuck on him.  For the most part though his hair came off in one big lump.  It looked like a dead animal in the field. 🙂

And the new animal of the year is Turkeys!  So far they haven’t been the best but we are still liking them.  In the first week we lost 4 of them.  Apparently turkeys are so dumb that sometimes they will just not drink or eat when they are little and of course, die.  We lost another one a few days ago and it may have been attacked by another one but we’re not sure.  So starting with 10 we now only have 5 lest.  Their price just doubled.  We better have mostly boys in there to make up for it.  🙂  That’s the farm update for now.  Shannon and the babies are at a freinds house gorging themselves on 8+ acres of pasture and fertilizing it for them in return.