Aloha Camper Restore Update

Macy M5 comments7943 views

We had a dud work week last weekend.  I was all excited to get going on the camper but we spent our whole work day ‘talking’ which was totally necessary but completely frustrating!  When I was building my tiny house I only had to answer to me!  Now James thinks he wants a say ;-).  It was ultimately a good thing, we are on the same page (ish) now about the direction we are going with the camper.  This struggle is real though, communication is key!  I was inspired by this to get some fancy ideas.

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I may have been a bit too convincing in my argument (James was not initially on board but now is excited about having a fold down office/play room), I waffle back ad forth on if it’s going to be great or ‘too much work’… I modeled up some logistics, figured out the details and am so slow on progressing anyway that I am hesitating to add the couple extra work days to the project…  that could amount to weeks at this rate!

Long story short, we aren’t sure which direction we are going.  We went to go pick up our lumber anyway and get started and we started the day right off with a tantrum from Hazel because she didn’t want to wear ANY clothes, not just some, she wanted naked.  All day.  Finally get her dressed and head out to the camper (building it out at my folks for a bit) and we get a flat tire on the way… blah!

Got it all fixed up and get to work.  I got to use dads ATV to move it into the shop (lucky us to have that spot!).  We were afraid that if we started taking it apart the wind would be more likely to catch it and move it about (it already got knocked off it’s jack stand by some strong wind).  Once it was in there we took off all of the pieces-parts, all the vents, drip edges over the windows, decals and even the window and door.  It’s just a shell pretty much now, I am going to spend some time trying to remove the gucky paint and then we will take it down to it’s skeleton.

We didn’t initially plan on taking it down this far but some of the pretty important pieces of wood framing are pretty rough, they need replaced and there isn’t an easy way to do that without some major deconstruction!  We want to seal it up really well and I’m trying to see this as a good thing, it gives us a chance to reseal the windows and clean everything up really nice before putting it back together!

Now that we have it down this far we are thinking about taking the floor up even, it is saturated in some chemical concoction that has made it stand up really well through the test of time but I have no doubt the flooring is asbestos ridden, I am not stoked knowing that there are probably some pretty awful chemicals in those floor boards.  If it was a week here and there that is one thing but if we are really thinking we could take this and live in it for 1/4+ of the year then I’m not really comfy with that being in such a small area for my kids and us to breath…

Here are some pictures from today:

And some quick family shinanigans from our wedding/camping trip yesterday:

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5 Comments

  1. Cool idea for a fold-down wall, but what will support it level? The trailer framing isn’t designed for that. Not to mention a rather long seal required that is anything but square.

    Early on, I had the idea of renovating a small motorhome to suit my lifestyle. But I didn’t have quite the travel bug to make it happen. 🙂

    1. We were thinking something like these, http://www.vintagetrailersupply.com/Swing-Down-Stabilizer-Jacks-p/vts-2254.htm would support it. The trailer framing is shot anyway, we are pretty much re-framing it which is why we wondered down this path. There are OODLES of ways I can imagine sealing it pretty easily, those are all just design issues, I can do that!

      We’d LOVE to travel now but the kids are a bit young for it so we are just taking the opportunity to get our act together before we can go! For us it is less to do with traveling (I am not looking forward to many MANY hours in the car) and more about seeing those cool things, in person, and making memories. We want the kids to get involved, we want to volunteer at national parks, and just do cool things!

      1. Cool. Yeah – post-diapers is much easier. You may want to plan on a leading (forget the term) protection for the seal when driving so the front edge can’t get caught by the wind.

  2. Hi Macy,

    Just a note to say, again, how incredibly talented you are. My daddy also took their last home down to the studs and it emerged like a Monarch butterfly from a tiny caterpillar.

    Secondly, Miss Hazel and I have wonderful taste in clothing! We have matching “hobo” jackets. She’s just a wee bit cuter in hers though! 🙂

    Lastly, we both own the same tent. After purging more than 6 trash bags full of clothes, 18 totes of scrapbook and card making materials and hundreds of dollars of unnecessary junk, I am well on my way to simplicity.

    On the same note I feel like having my “Tiny Tent”, gift, and recently acquired “Tiny Tea Set”, (Fiestaware), are a fair trade-off for getting rid of the above. My “Tiny Treasures” are L♡VED and take up much less room! 🙂

    Keep the pictures and progress coming. So happy for your little family.

    Jane

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