A dream realized

This Summer my husband, Dusty, and I took a huge step forward.  We became the proud (and super excited) owners of this beauty, (more on that in a minute.)

Dusty and I own a construction company.  He has been a craftsman his entire life and over the past year I have taken a bigger role in the "business" side of our business, by sharing the load of our company our relationship and our business have become even stronger.  Dusty is SO talented and I am notorious for coming up with, as he calls them, "hair brained ideas", he is the only person that can not only see my vision (imagine arms flailing and a lot of "I want it kind of like this, with not so much of that") but also make it come to fruition. 

Case in point:  2 years ago I was casually trolling craigslist for a vintage airstream, only dreaming because buying one was NOT in the cards at that moment, when I found this:

It was listed for $350 and I was instantly smitten, when I called, the owner explained to me that the pictures were old and they had already started work to "rebuild" it but just didn't have the time to devote to the project.  I made an appointment that night to go see it.  We schlepped our 3 boys 50 miles to go take a look, when we got there, it was rough, really rough.  Like didn't have a front or back or anything inside rough, basically she was asking $350 for a large pile of toothpicks and some sheet metal on wheels.  Dusty was unimpressed, even more so when it became apparent that she was unwilling to budge on the price (Dusty is not only the best carpenter I know but also the best bargainer).  We left that night empty handed, and I was disappointed but since I was not the one that would be doing manual labor to rebuild it I understood. kind of.

We came home and I browsed pinterest, my heart rate escalated every time I thought of the possibilities that pile of sticks held.  I badgered Dusty some more until he finally relented, "if she will throw in the clean water tank, we can go get it tonight".  He made me make the call, I don't bargain well, so it probably came off more as begging when I called her, "please, we want it so badly, could you maybe include that water tank too.  pretty, pretty please?"  She agreed and I had the kids loaded into the car before she (or Dusty) could change their minds.

Another 50 miles to get the thing, we took 2 cars this time.  Dusty's "work truck" (also known as , the Clampett's do construction, he seriously has EVERYTHING on this truck) and my kid hauler just in case we encountered problems roadside.  Dusty was sure to throw some extra straps, emergency lights and other assorted tools into his already loaded truck.  When we arrived there was a lot of gathering, this sweet lady had pieces and parts of this trailer all over her shop, a cushion there, a window here, oh this, just a box of assorted nails and screws that had been removed.  We started our journey home, praying the tires would hold and the straps wouldn't come loose, to say I was giddy was an understatement.

She (the trailer is obviously a girl) made it home and was hardly in the driveway before I started in.  Knowing little to nothing about the construction process Dusty made me back off, he laid out the plan and methodically began.  Did I mention that there was an annual camping trip 2 weekends from when we picked the trailer up that I wanted to be her debut, we work best under pressure.

We started with demolition, most of the old wood paneling inside and all of the wood framing on the front and back had to be torn out and tossed, years of rot and who knows what else were more than could be repaired.  Dusty replaced the original couch in the back with an almost full sized bed, framed in the back wall and replaced the paneling,  In the front he re-framed and paneled the front wall, and added a bunk bed above the table.  We worked until midnight or later most nights, (I'm sure our neighbors hated us).  While Dusty was at work during the day I would source and pick up parts, sand, clean, paint anything that made it easier for him to jump in and pick up work that night.  I even put the kids to work with power tools, never too young, and obviously their FAVORITE part!

Eventually everything inside was assembled, sanded, clean and ready for interior paint, I totally failed at my job at this point.  I forgot to go to the paint store before they closed for the weekend to buy our favorite oil based paint and just picked up some semi-gloss latex paint at Home Depot instead.  What felt like 17 coats of sprayed primer and paint later we still had bleed through on some of the areas where we had left the existing paneling and 2 days later the paint was still tacky.  We were out of time though and had to make it work, it was so disappointing to have worked so hard and have something as apparent as the paint go so terribly wrong.  However, the difference was astounding and to most it looked fine, but we knew what the difference could have been if we'd used the right product.

I took the kids and left town the second weekend we had the trailer, at this point the exterior had been completely rebuilt, including a new tongue and jack and platform for the boys' dirt bikes and was ready for exterior paint.  We are so lucky to have a friend with a paint booth so Dusty hauled it there while I was gone and shot it with automotive grade paint, I was so excited to come home to this:

We had originally planned to mask polka dots and paint over them, however I couldn't find a product that would have been easy to cut as precisely as they needed to be and place easily for masking, I suggested we put vinyl on after paint and it was a great decision.  I used a t-square, tape measure and vis-a-vis marker to mark a grid for spacing then placed an entire row at a time, once I got the rhythm down it was mostly done in an afternoon.  The vis-a-vis marks wiped off easily with a baby wipe when I was finished.

In the two nights leading up to our trip I worked to install the curtains and cushions that I had been sewing like a mad woman and made the bed with the new bedding I picked out while Dusty finished installing the hardwood and tiling the counter.  We accessorized and primped, loaded and we were gone on our first trip.  There was even caulking done in the grocery store parking lot while I was inside buying food for the weekend.

It was so much fun taking the boys camping in Dottie, they were as excited as we were, as they should have been.  They were by our side wielding sanders and paintbrushes right along with us.  Radlee, our middle son, took a nasty tumble out of the front the first weekend we had her and cut his earlobe badly on the hitch, he has a gnarly scar to remind him of the work we did.

Last spring we decided to repaint the interior, we were just not happy with how it looked or was holding up.  I decided to do a different color on the walls and the ceiling.  We used a high gloss oil based paint and brushed everything.  The ceiling and trim is white and the walls and cabinet fronts are a watery blue, it was the best decision we made.  It now wipes clean easily and has such a polished look.  We also replaced the knobs on all of the cabinets and re worked some of our storage.  It is now as close to perfect as it can get, unfortunately it still doesn't have a bathroom.

This year we continued to accessorize and put more of our mark on Dottie.  Unfortunately we were preoccupied with a certain turn-of-the-century schoolhouse to actually use her more than once...