What Trailed is Complete?

We are making slow, slow, slow progress on the trailer. We basically have to wait until our budget resets at the beginning of next month. In the meantime, Jeremy has been researching solar panels + wiring which will = our lighting in the trailer. The other thing he did was join a trailer forum and pick their brains about an argument we've been having. We really only want the trailer to sleep in and to get out of bad weather or mosquito craziness.  However, we are also interested in going to trailer rallies too - they look like a lot of fun. I was concerned that if we didn't put back in the sink and stove, we would lose resale value and be laughed out of the trailer rallies. He checked in at the forum, and it turns out that people want to use trailers for the same reason we do and that most people do not actually cook in their trailer, whoo-hoo! We are all on the same page.

Very good news, what trailer would be complete without a set of flamingo tumblers? No trailer! Which is why I picked these up:

Additional trailer photos

First thing we did was to get everything out of the trailer. Next we pulled up the linoleum tile squares. Took the walls and ceiling off and a previous owner had already gone through and installed foam insulation, that's going to save me a bunch of time and money.

We bought a trailer!

It all started when I noticed a medium sized airstream for sale down the street. I drive by it a few times a week and I started thinking about it a lot. How much does it cost? Is it a steal? Does it need a lot of work? Well it's listed for 5K. Probably a decent price considering the size, but it's way to big for our car to pull around. But the seed had been planted. We could get a trailer and then revolutionize the camping experience...we could be....glamping! No more rocks in my back or getting dressed in a vertical position. But I could still sit around a campfire and be close to the ocean and have an affordable vacation - this is ingenious! So I put a bug in Jeremy's ear and described to him my dream, my dream of a new way of camping: a revolution, the perfect hybrid!

We started checking out eBay and Craigslist. Turns out that all old trailers are going to need work, maybe even a lot of work. OK. So since they are all going to need work, why not get the cheapest one we can find? We might have to rip it a part no matter what, so does it make sense to spend several thousand dollars on something that needs to be rebuilt?

There was a trailer on Craigslist listed for $315! But it was in the outskirts of Modesto....but it was so cheap! But the listing made several references to trading Prop 215. What's that? Marijuana. OK. I really didn't want to drive 3 hours to some field in the middle of  nowhere to buy a trailer from someone who was hopefully just a pothead. But, I was seriously considering it. Telling Jeremy to plan for a day off of work so we could drive down there and get it. Luckily he called me that week to tell me he had really good news.

It had occurred to him that Jackson highway, the road he takes to meet my mom twice a week, is full of those rural houses where old junk collects in their yards. Surely it's possible there would be a trailer sitting in one of those yards? Well it was possible, because shortly after that thought, he spotted one! On the way back he slowed down and guess what? There was a for sale sign in the window! A little old lady was selling it because the family members she bought it for, never made the trek out to California.  A few hours later, we were pulling it home with the help of my Dad, because...well, we don't have a hitch, let alone a truck. But that's another story.

Say hello to our new vacation home!

Small projects completed

I got a few small house projects completed this weekend, quite a few I got from Pinterest.

First was this spice rack on the inside of a pantry door. Here's the "pin":

Here's my version: 

Next was this custom utensil insert:

Here's mine:

The next two weren't found on Pinterest. First, I replaced the toilet paper holder in the grey bathroom because a normal sized toilet paper roll wouldnt fit on it and actually spin: 

Before

After:

Lastly, I added a clothes rod to the laundry room so that clothes could be hung up in there that needed to hang dry: 

The kitchen pantry

Nearly from the beginning of moving in, I've been frustrated with our kitchen pantry. It's super narrow and deep. What's worse, whomever built it added this 6 inch "wall" to the right side which makes it even narrower and prevented me from adding pull out drawers. So, like most folks, we use the first 4 inches of shelf space, when we buy new food we shove it in and whatever was there somehow finds its way to the back of the shelf. Rachel forbade me from sharing the oldest out of date food item I found when clearing out the shelves.

Two weeks ago I began disassembling the mini "wall" thinking there must be a logical reason for its existence. Perhaps there was, but after removing it, I haven't figured out what it was.

Here's the breakdown of how it happened:

This pic is after I began getting carried away with demolition --- the door and door frame have already been removed and I've begun to tear off the sheet rock at the bottom of the door jamb:

Stuff hiding behind the wall:

Here's another pic of the wall:

Sheet rock removed, two 2x4's:

2x4's removed, shelf supports removed

Added new spacers to make mounting the ball-bearing drawer slides easier and to space the slides out from the wall so that they'll clear the door trim:

First three drawers made and installed:

Everything put back together, all I need to do now is paint:

The hay is gone!

This no longer exists:

My parents came over on Super Bowl Sunday and my dad spray painted the ceiling in Behr Ultra semi-gloss white. Monday night, I began painting the hay wall a minty color.

Tuesday night after work, I finished painting the kitchen:

For now, were going to leave the tan lower half, were thinking either white or maybe even a grey. Now, the cabinets all need to be painted glossy white. Nothing like a fresh coat of paint to make old dirty cabinets look worse. 

Red door

In the days before the family arrived for Thanksgiving, I got around to painting the front door. Our black door was beat up, and the handle had seen better days.

Here's a before of the handle:

After painting it Hammered Oil Rubbed Bronze: 

We had bought this brass pineapple awhile ago, like months and months ago. Apparently pineapples are welcoming. 

Anyway, here she is all done: 

the Shop

Here's some photos of the garage, though I'm no longer referring to it as that. Garages contain cars or clutter and this really has none of that. It's a shop.

Built my last workbench and incorporated the metal drawer cabinets that I got off of Craigslist.

Still more work to be done, but it's really nice to have an organized place to play in.

Adeline's Nursery

We've posted a bunch of photos of this room in various stages of completion, but here it is in it's most recent and final stage.

Our theme for our little girl’s room was “woodland” and we incorporated that with various stuffed animals (foxes, owls, etc.) as well as some of the prints which were from etsy. But before we got started on the decorating, we pulled up the carpet and refinished the hardwood floors as well as painted over the dingy/dirty/ugly tan wall paper.

We wanted the room to be feminine for our little girly, but we didn't want a pink Pepto Bismol explosion. To combat the inevitable pink we brought in oranges and yellows, all in sherbet tones.

The best before/after in the room is the dresser which was $7 at a thrift store but it had really old and ugly yellow paint and a drawer was broken. We painted it glossy white around the tops and sides and the drawers themselves are a gradient of a coral color. Because we only needed a little paint we used the Home Depot $3 paint samples for the drawer fronts. Then, because the sample paint comes in flat sheen only, I sprayed them with a gloss clear spray paint.

We saved a bunch of money by getting most of the items at either IKEA, thrift stores or Craigslist. The room has a nice bright and cheery feel to it and we love playing with our little girl in there. There are some special family touches in the room, including the pennant flag banner made by Auntie, the embroidered squirrel, made by Mom, and the Raggedy Ann, made by Great Grandma.

Now the photos:

Rachel's Grandmother made this little Raggedy Anne:

Paolo the Fox series from etsy: 

Rachel needlepointed the little squirrel ---- which is hanging from a brass owl: 

It's pretty obvious Adeline loves it! Thanks for reading.




Crib: IKEA
Paint: Behr Ultra Custard Cream semi gloss with White trim and ceiling
Rug: Home Depot
Bookshelf: Craigslist - it came painted white so bonus! Though we added the wood effect backing
Dresser/changing table: Thrift store for $7 though it was hideous yellow and a drawer was broken.
Prints: Felix the Fox, and Paolo the Fox series in IKEA frames
Flag banner: Kaitlin, Rachel's sister made the awesome flag banner over the crib
Rocking chair: Craigslist
Floor lamp: IKEA