Details

It's all about the trim. Roger puts so much time into figuring out the trim work for any project. And those little details are what make me love our house. He's doing it again in my trailer. And the exciting part is that I can finally start to see this space coming together!

 

This is the first completed window. Look! It has a window ledge! More space for me to display more stuff! I might even put a sacrificial plant in the window. It will look great until I manage to kill it...

 

 

See how the there is a little ledge at the top of the wainscoting? That will go all around the trailer. More space for stuff!

 

 

He worked on the other windows tonight, too. By the time he finished up for the night, they were completely trimmed out. These windows are going to be way too pretty to cover with curtains. I'm thinking that valances will be enough.

 

 

Remember the completely amazing metal table leaves I bought this past spring? They're next up to be mounted.

 

 

If you look closely, you can see a penciled letter "C" on the wood. That's the center line. The leaves fit into the space absolutely perfectly! Still my most favorite part of this trailer!

I was down at the flea market/antique mall this afternoon and found these three crisper drawers. The plan is to somehow incorporate these drawers into a storage cabinet. I'm excited to see what Roger comes up with. My favorite drawer is the one that says "Hydrator". It's hard to see in this picture, the other two have blue flowers on the handle of the one of the left and the one on the right says "crisper" on the drawer handle.

Still working!

Roger has been after me to get some more photos of the trailer remodel posted. He says we have stalkers and need to keep them happy. So, I apologize to our stalkers for my tardiness! These are pictures from the end of April. Roger has done even more work, but I haven't gotten those photos uploaded yet.

He began replacing the three vents in the roof of the Streamline. While he's installing them, he's also polishing the area around them. This is a very good way to get a sun burn. It's kind of like sunbathing with a pie tin in front of your face.

This is how he's been accessing the roof. He's also been actually on the roof which is quite scary!

The closets and shelves are painted, except for the insides.

The Pyrex Friendship pattern has been my color inspiration for the trailer. I think I nailed the colors!

Busy weekend!

It was not my original intention to attend any auctions this past weekend. However, when my Aunt Fern sent me the sale bill for an auction in Burns, I had to at least take a look. Well, the photos were too tempting, and I spent a bit of my childhood in this part of the state, so I couldn't resist driving out there. I'm glad I did. I didn't buy a lot. There were dealers there with deeper pockets than I. But, I got to see some of my favorite countryside and visit with an old friend.

I purchased a handful of these little advertising cards at the auction. Each one is two-sided and about the size of a playing card. They're amusing, especially if you have ever been to Burns. It's a tiny place! The school that I attended in the early 80s is no longer there. The bank that was there literally fell down. Parts of the movie "Mars Attacks!" were filmed there. But back in the old days it had a newspaper, a "fine City Hall", three churches, a "good catholic school", and was free from cyclones and crop failures! Not to mention that nearly all the farmers had telephones! Quite the progressive place!

I also bought this birdcage and stand. It's filthy! But absolutely fabulous! It needs a very serious hose down. I'm hoping I can get it into shape for the Red Barn Outdoor Market this coming Saturday. I also picked up a box of Christmas decorations, some wooden spinning tops, a pink aluminum canister and breadbox set, some silhouette pictures, tv trays, a toy ironing board and another vintage samsonite suitcase.

More vintage finds at Thriftasaurus!

Sunday afternoon, we went back to work on the trailer. Painting is one of my favorite parts, because the results are so dramatic. Roger won't let me paint. He's way too particular, and frankly, I don't have the steady hand that he does. I am, however, allowed to prime.

I am pretty proud of myself for picking out truly red paint. That is real red. Fire engine red! Cherry red! "Whore's lipstick" red. Thanks, Roger. That primer work on the inside is all me! The inside of the closets will be the same aqua blue as the ceiling. And, we will be putting doors back on them.

Just a reminder of what the closet looked like "before". Black is not an easy color of paint to cover up. But, I bet red won't be easy either!

If you want to see more before and during pictures of our Streamline remodel, you can check it out on Flickr. Here's the link.

Lookin' good!

The flooring is in! This was taken on the weekend. Roger finished the entire floor last night. I'm so excited that the trailer is actually starting to look like a real liveable space. While Roger was finishing the floor, I primed the inside of the closets. Painting is hard work. My arm and shoulder and killing me today! (I feel like a bit of a loser.)

I added some pops of color to the decoupaged wall. I think it makes it a little more interesting. I used some vintage children's book and magazine pages, some vintage pattern envelopes and a few colored encyclopedia pages.



Roger has been replacing bits and pieces on the outside of the trailer. Before he puts the new piece on, he polishes the surrounding area, so he doesn't have to remove them again later. So, we're getting glimpses of what the trailer will look like when it's completely polished. The future looks BRIGHT (and shiny).

Progress

Progress on the crafting trailer was halted for a couple of weeks thanks to Winter Storm Q. We couldn't get to the trailer without tromping through a foot of snow. The kids ending up having 4 snow days. A 6 day weekend! That's pretty much unheard of in Kansas.

Before the snowstorm hit, I did get a start on a big project. We're creating a reading nook in the back end of the trailer, and I wanted to do a special treatment to the wall and ceiling back there. I love looking at the fabric in vintage patchwork quilts. Real patchwork quilts. The kind that weren't all matchy-matchy, because they used whatever scraps were laying around to make them. I thought I'd create something similar on my walls using old book pages. Roger reminded me that I had a set of 1974 Wold Book Encyclopedias in storage. I think we paid 50 cents for them at an auction last summer. Perfect decoupage material!

I razored out a bunch of encyclopedia pages and got to work with my sponge brush and Mod Podge.

I started at one edge and followed the curve of the wall up to the center of the ceiling. Then I went to the other side of the trailer and did the same until they met.

Here's what I had at the end of the first day. You can see that there were a number of odd textures and patches and holes that needed to be covered. The thing I love about this treatment is that it really hides all those flaws.

Finally got in there about a week ago and was able to finish it up. I am absolutely thrilled with how this turned out. I was afraid it might be too stripey or too messy or too something, but it's perfect. However, I do still plan to add a few spots of color to it.

These are a few of my options. I'm picturing them randomly placed over the black and white pages to add little pops of vintage color.

Roger managed to get a little painting done, too. The ceiling and front wall are now this pretty shade of aqua. I love this color. I hate picking paint, because all you get to see is that little tiny square of color, and I can't ever imagine it enlarged onto an entire wall. When picking this one, I controlled my usual impulse to go too dark, and I'm very happy with the results.

Wiring is the next step. Our completely awesome, sort of retired electrician has been helping us out. I'm excited, because once all that boring wiring is done, the walls start going up. And then I'll feel like I'm really seeing results!

Progress

Roger has been busy, and I am impatiently waiting for the day when it's all done. It's hard work waiting for the "boring" stuff to be done, so that I can do the "fun" stuff. But, I'm glad I have a husband who is handy and smart and thinks about the details. The first step was ripping out all the stuff we didn't want.

The weird sitting area at the front is gone. We will be putting a built in desk at that end. Right now, there is a folding table to hold Roger's tools and supplies.

We removed the standing shelves and the shelves over the "kitchen" area. The only original overhead bins we left are at the back.

Now, we have a crumpled mess of aluminum behind our house. I think Roger is hanging on to them in case he needs to patch anything.

After some research, we became less worried about removing things and took out the back wall that originally divided the bathroom from the rest of the trailer. Roger will be putting up a new wall back there to create the reading nook.

Found a rotten spot in the back. It would appear that at sometime in its history, the trailer was in an accident. The rear driver's side is quite beat up, and that was causing moisture to seep in and rot the floor.

It's been patched and replaced, so now it looks like it did before we found the hole!

Our first wall is framed! Progress at last! The plan is to build walls in front of the original aluminum walls so that we can run wiring without having to open the original walls and then re-rivet them back into place. We'll also be able to add an additional layer of insulation.

One more thing! We bought an electric fireplace to go in this spot. Hurray for sales at Lowes! This is the model we chose. Now, we need to find a window air conditioning unit so I'll be set for year round crafting!

New BIG Project

Wow!! It's been over 2 months since I've blogged! I need to do better! But, we're not going to call that a resolution, because I never complete those.

The other day, I sent Roger a picture of a vintage trailer with a chandelier in it. He responded that a chandelier was completely impractical in a camper and maybe what we needed was a second trailer as a playhouse. Well, I didn't have any problem getting behind that idea!

On Saturday, we convinced my brother to haul this home for us. He's pretty easy to convince. Our bizarre requests don't even phase him anymore. Like I told Roger, when you begin your marriage by buying a church to live in, nothing else you do will surprise your family.

As best we can tell, this is a late 50s Streamline travel trailer. Possibly an Emperor model. When your serial number is only 4 digits long, you know it's old.

This trailer isn't going anywhere. It's going to be my craft space. I can hardly wait. In fact, I'm dying for Roger to get done with the boring stuff, so I can do the FUN stuff. He thinks I'm going to spend the summer polishing the exterior. He's so cute.

Here's a quick tour of the inside.

Someone has started a seating area in the front of the trailer. This is all coming out. My craft table will take center stage here.

The kitchenette would have been to the right of this built in storage cupboard. The sink and countertop have been long since removed. There's a set of rough bunkbeds in its place. Those are going away to make room for a waist high countertop where I can cut fabric without having to bend over.



Across the way is this big metal "thing". A fullsize range would have gone in the open space. The rest of it is two closets. The closets will remain, but I'm hoping we can remove the metal whatever-it-is up to the closets.

There is a nice open area at the back of the trailer which was the "bedroom". There would have been a twin bed on each side of the middle aisle. A bathroom would have been through that back doorway. All of the fixtures have been removed from the bathroom, so we are going to convert that to a nice little reading nook. Kind of like a window seat.

So much work to do! So much planning! I've already got a car seat full of paint chips and a pinterest board dedicated to ideas and inspiration for my craft trailer.

Stay tuned!