Our Travel Trailer remodel…Part 3

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!!!!

Jun 16

Back at Winthrop

Comments 2

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!

Jun 02

Piggies 2012

Comments 2

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.

May 30

Great Wolf Lodge

Comments 3

Summer began this year with a surprise trip to Great Wolf Lodge. We had a wonderful time and I’m sure we will visit again. It doesn’t seem to be that big of a water park but there is something for everyone.

I love this photo for obvious reasons but, trust me, he did not get hit in the face. Otherwise he would not look like this…

By the second day Oliver was having a blast in the water and trying all the different little kid things they had to offer.

Zeke catching up on a little light reading.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with this site this is the 1,000 gallon bucket that dumps every so often. There is a bell that dings a few times before it goes. There are two types of people…those that run TO it (Zoe and Greg), and those that run FROM it (the boys and I). Abigail is somewhere in between as she just goes with whichever type has her. Greg heard the bell and ran over with Abigail in his arms. After the dump she gave a shutter and said “wooo” and that was it. He came back with a soaking wet girl that look just like this, just a little more wet. The next time he took her she heard the bell looked up at the bucket then lowered her head with a sigh and took what was coming.

I have so many favorite pictures it was hard to choose. So I’m going to show you a bunch. Why not?

See! She had a good time.

Ooooo. The hot tub. This is where the boys first got comfortable in the water. That was fine with me. It was my favorite place.

In the evening the Great Wold Lodge has a story time. Zoe just HAD to go so in their jammies the kids went down to the story. They open with this song about not being afraid if you get lost in the woods. Just trust mother nature. hmmm…OK. Sure “mother nature” will just eat you. Anyway. Greg and I laughed and rolled our eyes (well I did at least) when the song started and had a chat with the kids afterward. But they got to have their picture taken with Oliver the raccoon. Zeke was a bit giddy. He couldn’t stop laughing. Our Oliver, on the other had looked like this

He almost went up to him but at soon as the raccoon opened his arms to welcome him Oliver jumped back. I don’t think he is into trusting mother nature do you? Or at least a giant raccoon.

The final pose. Isn’t she cute!

May 01

One Year

Comment 1

Yesterday Abigail turned the big 1.0! It has been such a joy watching her grow and change. She is weighing in at about 17 lbs and 27.5 inches but don’t let her petite stature fool you, she is one heck of a scrapper. She still loves to wrestle and chase the kids screaming. We affectionately call her Abiyoyo from the book Abiyoyo. (Abiyoyo is a terrible giant that was said to eat people). It is, of course, on of the kids’ favorite books.

She still remains a little picky in her eating but we have discovered she loves potato soup…at least for now. One of her favorite activities is going into the pantry and picking at the onions and potatoes. She is pretty good at getting the outside of the onions off. She loves to be outside playing with the kids and following the chickens around with their bucket. She remains pretty serious looking most of the time (great poker face) but when needed she turns on her sweet charm.

Apr 26

Rite of Passage

He has risen!!!!

Our Travel trailer remodel…Part 2

Before D Day

One of the biggest things I learned from taking everything out of our unit was how poorly the overall construction of travel trailers are. It encompassed everything from how poorly they glued the walls together and how poorly the furniture was made. The furniture was made with what looked like left over pieces of lumber and used plastics in weird and “unnatural” ways. I do understand the reason that you use some of those materials is to decreasing overall weight. But the problem I have is that if anything happens its hard to repair and will in the end break. You can take it to a shop and spend tons of money or you just live with it and trade it off to someone else. Which is probably what happened when we bought ours. The crack was probably really small when it first began and was repaired poorly because we didn’t notice it wjhen we bought it. When they sold it to us the repair failed and that crack just kept growing. I am not bitter about it just saddened by the overall construction of the of the unit. It just felt cheesy.

Before Merriann and I decided to remodel we first wanted to go purchase a brand-new trailer. We didn’t want any more of those problems that you can have from a used travel trailer. We went down to the Seattle RV Show. But what we found was even with the newest and larger RVs the same level of poor construction existed in addition to what I thought were crazy prices. To be honest with you when it gets to about $80,000 the quality issues all but go away. But below that price you get lower quality stuff with more shiny bells and whistles that try to make you forget the poor quality.

Let the destruction begins!!

Okay enough with rants, let’s began with de-construction.

Removing most of the interior of the travel trailer was just time consuming. Take the millions of screws out of the walls, floors and furniture. Then I first off scaped off the insulation from the inside of the wall panels to get to the crack in the fiberglass. Here, I learned that the walls were vacuum sealed together. Meaning the manufacturers make a sandwiched of a materials to build the walls. Glue them together under pressure usually by placing the walls in a large vacuum sealing device similar to what we would use to preserve meats for the freezer. The makeup is 5mm thin plywood, foam insulation, then another 5mm sheet of plywood. You need to be careful when you are taken off the old foam insulation not to make another hole in the other wall (if you are dealing with fiberglass..

Once I got that done, next up I fixed the crack itself in a none conventional way. I used 3M™ Marine Fast Cure 5200 Adhesive Sealant. The reason way was because I don’t have a shop, and here in the Great Pacific Northwest it is rainy most of the time during this part of the year (you know between January to December). This product cures in or out of waterso rain was not a problem. Plus it is flexable But this was expensive stuff 8 oz for about $30. But it sealed the crack wonderfully, the only thing that I messed up with I should have fixed the fiberglass then used this underneath the patch for a better over all strenght. But with that said I am still heappy to know that this leak will never leak again.

After fixing the leak and letting it cure I place the foam insulation and glued it back together. I took out the windows in order to fix this so while the windows were out I resealed all the chalking with this Marine grade Sealant.

While waiting for the adhesive to dry I installed a new door to the bathroom,(or head) for you navy people out there. Our old door has always been a pain be cause of the placement of the rear bed. We could never fully open it. It could only be opened about a third of the way. (And yes it was designed that way).

Another before picture, Please notice the door.

Can you imagine being 7 months pregnant , your husband dragging you camping and having to “slip” in to this door a hundred times. I must say Merriann was a real trooper. I am not sure I would be able to bare it. But she did.

So what we did to make the space more people (especially pregrant people) friendly is to install a accordian door. So far it has been a welcome addition to the trailer. It was lighter than the old door and way easier to go into and out of.

Mar 31

Our Travel trailer remodel…Part 1

Comment 1

I just wanted to share with you a wonderful adventure we have almost completed. We have repaired and remodeled our travel trailer. Here is the deal. As many of you know we love to go camping/RVing as a family. And as God has blessed Merriann and I with more children, space was becoming more and more a concern for us. A growing family and the fact that the fiber glass siding on our travel trailer was failing. Yep, a big long crack which was going the length of the trailer.

Our Camping Command Post....

So that motivated us to start looking around at a few new-to-us or as some like to call them “Used” travel trailers and toy haulers, we even looked that some brand new travel trailers and toy haulers (yes, I know that we don’t have any “toys”….yet!) We looked and looked and to make a longer story short we couldn’t find a used one we liked or a new one that we could afford.

So begins our adventure into remodeling our trailer. But first the plan!! Like I said earlier we looked a tons, and tons of travel trailers, 5th wheels and RV. So in that process Merriann and I fell in love with the Airstream’s floor plan and since we were fresh out of $80,000 we decieded to recreate it. Which began like this:

Then transformed into this:

Then to the scaled drawings.

Tips I wish I would have known at the beginning: For those of you crazy enough to try this a home:

When planning a remodel of your rv. Take in account the hard to move items like the kitchen, bathroom, hot water heater, holding tank, doors, windows. etc. and plan around them. It is just easier to work around these item verses the cost of moving them.

Another major tip is pre-plan all storage, keeping in mind what goes where. It is easier and just plan smarter to plan it now at the beginning. Not that we did this but I could have used a few places a little more efficiently.

One last tip in planning this is you should look at boats (yachts, and 30 ft or larger boats) for storage and floor plan ideas. They fall in the same “boat” do to the size of living size and are build to a higher standard.

Needless to say that this becoming the Thames episode of “Pimp you ride”.

Next up is the gutting our RV and fixing the crack and leak.