Travel Trailer Update – Bare Minimum

So, the budget is blown… ha!  we have had to take the camper SO much further apart than we intended, it is silly at this point to think of doing it well, like good enough for us to want to live here a year, for $1,500.  We didn’t bank of having to replace structure but we are down to the bones and then some, in fact, its just a flat trailer at this point, what once was a camper is no more…

That stinks BUT it’s also a pretty cool opportunity.  That means we get to redesign a bit… we could have worked with the window locations and what not but since we are re-framing we get to move those a tad.  James and I still like the overall geometry and shape of the Aloha, and for registration purposes it needs to keep looking like an aloha so that will stay the same but we are going to play with the windows and doors…

This is our new inspiration for the exterior!  We like the clean look and the semi industrial/modern feel.   I haven’t quite found anything that looks similar to how I picture the interior being built out… 

So… we are going to need ten 4’x10′ sheets of aluminum to re-sheath the exterior… the best deal I could find is for .040 thick pieces at $72 bucks a pop… so that’s $720 we didn’t plan on spending!

The interior is tricky… we don’t want ANY particle type board, if there happens to be a leak we don’t want a night mare to fix, wood, real wood gets wet, swells and then goes back into shape… BUT it has to be flexible to make wrap the curves… no stores near us stock 1/8″ thick plywood.  they have all sorts of other compressed sheet goods but plywood is a  special order at best.  Even Home Depot!  They have some, and it’s only $4.97 a sheet but since its special order only it costs $79 to place the order… we need 12 sheets (plus any for furniture we may want).  So it SHOULD be $60 but just to order it will make it $140 instead… and I have heartburn about paying more just to order something than that something even costs… not to mention we can’t see the product first… The other option, which I am leaning more toward is the small shop down the street only offers 1 type of wood in 1/8″ sheets, mahogany.  The issue is that it is $18/sheet… James gets a discount with them for being a VIP shopper (they don’t like me…or maybe I don’t like them.. yeah, that’s it!  A guy once told me that I should not be involving myself with ‘building things, a mom’s place is at home with her children’… but that’s a longer story… I don’t shop there any more…).  Mahogany is a much stronger wood, I would feel more comfy with it, even though it’s also a bit heavier… it is what a lot of boats and what not are made from… It would be better and since it’s only slightly more than some crappy old pine once the order fee gets tacked on I think we are leaning toward that direction…  We were going to just seal it so you could see the wood grain but that was when it was pine, I like the lighter color of pine… the mahogany is more orangey-yellow, sadly not my style… I think we would end up painting it white like the tiny house… which works well for cleaning up after the beasties (kids and dog…)

Right now we are at a blank slate which is a much scarier spot then having some parameters to work within in my opinion… James and I are working through it though!  It’s interesting because it’s kind of more complex than the tiny house was, it has all of the same things in less than half of the space.  On top of that we have to be able to be grid tied AND off grid… AND under 1,500#!  That’s a lot to ask!  We’re going to do it though! 🙂  All of the appliances and fixtures have totally different requirements (but I think we have picked everything and figured out a way to make it work!).

So, pretty uninteresting update this weekend but a lot of thinking went into things! Here are some photos:

We pulled the trailer out to give it a good power washing, this was before

And after! It cleaned up much nicer than expected, I was ready to replace the floorboards since we were hear anyway, I think they are good enough to keep though once we took 20 pounds of crap off of them!

this is that crap!

another angle

We also tested the stove ,works!! yeah! a knob got broken but we can fix it!

And the kicker, this is a propane/electric fridge that I had reclaimed for my tiny house but didn't end up using. Purely by chance I saved it, we tested, it works great! the obnoxious yellow is actually one of our accent colors so it will be ok! the front is a sticker to make it look like dark wood... that will be updated but having a working fridge saves us a bunch. The camper only came with an ice box originally!

In other news, I had an open house, her is photo evidence I can clean my house...

and that we still live there...

but also we live here....

Root beer and cartoon with the uncles! Hazel loves it!

my little champion sleeper, this is how we all sleep... except James, who laughs at us for sleeping this way!

Hazel is a lovey dovey gal, much moreso than her mom, I'm glad shes not a weirdo like me... no awkward hugs there.... 🙂

This is immediately following his first 27 consecutive steps! He thought he was hanging onto a support... it was just a toothbrush... well two. I'm lucky so far, both my kids love brushing their teeth!

And almost instantly after learning to walk he climbed into his sisters bed, unassisted... t-r-o-u-b-l-e!

He thought it was pretty funny, Hazel is getting pumped to move to the top bunk, she just has to master going down the ladder... Miles is totally ready to take over her bunk! And i am sure excited to get my bed back too!

Miles got his own calzone!

Little Miss M has enough hair for PIGTAILS!! 😀