Visions of Sugar Plums Danced in Her Head...

Time to spill the beans...
What's in store for this exactly?
What's the vision?
Where are we going with this, besides Maine?

Because every vintage travel trailer should have a theme...

~her name will be~

*Summer Holiday*

and she will be decorated in retro Christmas decor and graphics,

because- who doesn't love Christmas, and who doesn't love a vacay?

ebay.com

The colors aaaaaarrrreeeee.....

spearmint aqua (as you can plainly see),

ruby red,

antique white,

geranium pink,

and a wee bit of green.

modes4u.com

We're gonna need some of these...

blogs.smithsonianmag.com

some of these...

kaboodle.com

and some of these...

etsyvintagemarketeam.blogspot.com

We're going bright and festive,

with vintage color pops inside.

doyoulovewhereyoulive.com

She is going to have her names scripted on the sides in red-

I really like this style of script,

typophile.com

she will have a Santa graphic somewhere,

vintagefangirl.com

a grouping of retro trees,

thegraphicsfairy.com

AND, the coup d'etat,

a tasteful holiday pin-up girl on the side.

pinterest.com

Yes, I will be doing the painting!

How's THAT for glamping??


Sharing with
 Common Ground
Ivy and Elephants
Share Your Cup
Funky Junk

Installing Windows in a Vintage Camper

Once the paint was set, 

we knew we needed to get the windows installed 
because rain was coming today.
It hasn't rained in three weeks, and now it starts.

We began yesterday, and took the two broken windows

to a place called Windows Enterprise 
and they will repair them, 
but they won't be ready until the end of the week.

We bought the materials for installing the ones we did have...

rope caulk, for the back seal of the window to the siding and frame,

weather stripping, for the interior window seal,

rubber coated washers and screws for a water seal,

and clear caulk for the outside of the aluminum frame.

Dan cleaned the window frames as best he could with 

an electric wire brush.

This removed much of the gunk, but admittedly not all of it.

Some of it will have to be cleaned further,

but we had to get them installed today.

After rope-puttying around the backs of the windows and installing them

with new rubber backed screws and washers,

the trailer began to sparkle with her new *bling*.
The weather stripping went on the underside
of the louver windows
and inside the door frame.

We unfortunately did not get to the caulking this morning,

because it did start raining on us,

and we had to throw tarps over the trailer

because the front and back window are still MIA

and we DON'T want the interior floor to get wet.
So, here she is with side windows, but not a front.

Hopefully, it will dry up this afternoon 
and we can finish the job.

Dan re-installed the door,

and we finally did get a new door knob, 

but it doesn't *fit* quite right, so it will need more time.
I am also going to paint the stripes
on the lower half of the door
to mask some of those dings,
and I need to paint the repaired step, too.
When we first got this trailer, I stepped on the step,
cranked on it, and it tore off and just about broke my ankle.






And that's all she wrote for today.
Soon, we will be taking a break from the restoration process
to get 3 kids and 2 adults ready for back-to-school preparations, physicals and shopping,
but I will continue to post plans for the wiring, detail painting
and interior work as they are imagined 
and come to fruition.
Every product we use we have to purchase new...
there is virtually nothing we have on hand for this job.

At this point,
the imaging part is a lot cheaper than the actual restoring part.
Can I get an amen?!

Primed and Painted

Well, with base colors anyway.

I did not get to detailing yet, which will be quite extensive on this ride.
Priming felt so good,
getting rid of that ugly brown stripe it once had.

I'm fighting the evening sun in many of these shots,
and Peanut who wants to be everywhere I am.

We selected an array of aqua greens, ombre style.

The gradation of value included a strong block of light aqua on top,

with darker shades below.

It's currently very bubble-mint, or spearmint-y.

I'm loving it so far.
I painted it all by hand today,
I just finished it around 7pm.

There will be detail paint coming soon.

I haven't revealed our theme to the masses yet,

on what she's gonna be and what her travelin' name is,

but I promise you

it will be super super cool,
retro,
and festive.

Tomorrow

we work on windows, 

which should be fun,

since Dan broke two of them
and we don't know what we're going to do about that yet.

He also lost the key for the door,
so we need a new doorknob.
Adding it to the list.

I'll be sharing our progress at
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
since she is nifty and we are thrifty 
only slightly over budget so far.

Back ON

It's not glamorous, but it's back on.

The vintage camper has been reattached to its new floor.

Here's a look a the floor.

It's a new exterior plywood base, insulated with styrofoam boards, 

and covered with more plywood.
The wheel wells were coated with Bond-o to lock out moisture, too.
Here's an ~in the moment~ photo.

The bottom of the floor was covered with sheets of metal,
before it was reattached to the trailer pull,

to prevent moisture from coming up underneath

and also to deter critters from chewing through the bottom.
It was an extremely involved process
that I was not a part of.

Sheet metal...

Once inside the vintage camper now,

you can see the floor is taking shape.

Remember the before-floor?

And now, same corner...

Next up, priming and base coating the exterior, 

new wiring, and new tires.

Royal Blue

Newspapers report

that the British royal baby is a boy.

I'm hooked.

I'm a Diana fan (I watched her get married), a Kate fan (I watched her get married),

 and of course, 

who isn't a *new baby* fan.

There Goes the Circus

Uncle came over last night,

and the first part of 'Cut off trailer, LIFT and SLIDE"

is complete.

No one was injured in the process,

and nothing fell apart.

I have a trailer on cinder blocks 

on my driveway now.

"How do you like me now?!"

Then, D got up early and ripped off the rotten floor

of the trailer, 

cleaned it with an electric wire brush,

primed and painted it.

Let's all admit,
Dan has done the near impossible so far.

Vintage Trailer Progress

It has been so hot the last few days,

you can get nothing done outside.

It's literally 97 degrees.

SO

Dan took a nap yesterday

because it was too hot to work.

Here is what he has done so far.

He has completed framing this back corner-

as well as this back corner.

The roof is reframed and patched as well.

Here is the back wall, reframed.

It's so humid, my lens got foggy really fast.
We also put the paneling back over this back framing, too.

Next step:

 caulking the corners and priming the exterior,

which we can't do until it cools down to 90 degrees anyway.

WHAT A COOL DOWN!

But, we have the products in hand, and just may get our &*^%s

out there tomorrow morning at 5am while it's still 85 to do it.

I think it will look a lot better sitting on the driveway primed
than with that dated brown streak on the side...blech.

AND the floor

will be sometime next week!

My Boys Needed A Desk

And it has not been a good summer for street finds

because let's face it,

gas is freakin expensive,
especially if you live in Illinois,
which has the HIGHEST gas rate of the nation.
I last heard they charge more here than Hawaii.

So... I directed myself to the thrift store and 

I picked up this art deco desk for $50,

which was high for me for a desk,

BUT I needed to get this done before they go back to school.

Subby is going into 5th grade and has reached ~desk age~.

The boys' room is blue and has a nautical/navigation theme.
Here's my transformation.
(I still need to find a cool looking chair, too!)

I used mostly everything I had on hand,

except I was out of polycrylic sealer and needed to pick up a tub,

which was another $20, but that will last several more projects, too.

I used my signature white chocolate finish by Ben Moore,

which is my favorite antique white.

For the drawers.

I had some sample pods of different blues

that I picked up on clearance last year.

None of them were a suitable blue for my desk,

so I mixed them all together

and came up with the perfect blue that way,

it's more of a blue-grey.

I had left over dark red and grey that I used for the stripe

and compass on the desktop.

Are you still with me?

Of course, I distressed the whole thing

because that's how I roll.

They're going to ding it up anyway,

so I might as well give them a head start so it blends in.

I also lined the drawers with old maps.

I did not paint the drawers this time,

I usually do,

but I'm trying to conserve a bit of paint and primer.

The bottoms of the drawers definitely needed

something to cover them up, and maps did the trick
and Subby is obsessed with geography anyhow.

I just redid the boys' room a month ago anyway,

in soft blues,

and now there are maps everywhere in their room.

They also have a huge sailfish which we redid as well.

And there's my three day re-do,

I'm takin' my time, it's summer!

Linking to:

Savvy Southern Style

Primitive and Proper
Miss Mustard Seed
Common Ground
Redoux