Postcards from Mosquitoville

So can you do me a tiny favor and just pretend that it hasn’t been a year and a half since we started our trailer restoration project?

Thanks!

I don’t want anyone to think I’ve been sitting around being lazy all that time! Since we started our trailer project we have moved twice (both times required some major remodel and redecorate) and had a daughter get married. So it’s obvious that we’ve been a little busy and our poor little trailer had to take a backseat.

I am proud to announce that last weekend was our maiden voyage in our “new” and improved glamper!  We spent two nights at beautiful Bear Lake, and everything went as smooth as silk.  Our daughter loved having the big top bunk and those cute cubbyholes all to herself. The twins were less thrilled about having to share the bed we made for them from the dinette table, but they stopped fighting the moment they both fell asleep!

I have lots of pictures to share, but first I want to show you a couple of things we had to work on along the way. We had a lot of rotting wood in the ceiling that had to be replaced.

Every inch of the electrical wire and plumbing had to be redone. She needed a new axle, wheels and tires before we dared to pull her very far.

The bottom cupboards needed a major overhaul.

The closet at the back of the trailer was a total mess.

For a while there it seemed that our trailer had exploded all over our yard!

But, at long last, everything started to go back together. After Mr. Handy finished his rebuilding projects, I painted every square inch of the wood, and added some stenciling for color.  I finally cut into that beautiful fabric and sewed curtains. I painted and stenciled the vinyl floor.  And I got to find some cutesy decorations in an attempt to pull it all together.

We are far from finished!  There’s still the bathroom to fix and the outside to paint, but we were able to take her out for the weekend and we got along just fine. We had lots of other campers poking their head in and asking if they could take a look inside. Everybody seems to love her!

Here are lots of pictures of her beautiful interior. I hope you enjoy them! (Click to enlarge and scroll through the gallery.)

Although it’s taking much longer than I would like, things on our sweet little trailer are moving right along. Since it’s been a couple of weeks since my first post about our vintage trailer project, I figured it was time for a little update.

More demolition! We tore out all the rotted paneling…

Gets worse before it gets better, right?

Got rid of all these nasty cushions…

EW! Never gonna sleep on that nasty stuff.

And have the bathroom torn down to the studs.

The only thing still giving us a hard time in there is that the entire floor is made of one big shower pan and the drain just doesn’t want to come out. Mr. Handy says all he needs is the perfect tool and he’ll have that sucker out in a jiffy.

Stubborn little thing!

Another update: sadly, it seems that the refrigerator is not working after all. We are trying to decide how to deal with this development. New fridge? Try to tear into it to get it working? Just use it as an ice box? So many decisions.

Since all we’ve done for the past couple of weekends is get our hands dirty, make messes, and destroy things, I decided it was time for a weekend spent doing something a little more fun for me.

SHOPPING!

I’ve been pinning like a crazy person to my Pinterest board, {Click here to follow my Glamping board} and I have a million ideas buzzing around in my head. But until I found the perfect curtain material, I felt like I was stuck in the mud when it came to decorating our little beauty.

I’ve spent hours upon hours searching fabric websites, roaming the aisles of local fabric stores, and, quite frankly, praying for some inspiration to strike. And finally it did! About 45 minutes into my last trip to JoAnn’s, I found THE ONE for me. Don’t laugh too hard, but I must confess that my heart actually did skip a beat when I saw this amazing fabric. I think it is perfectly retro, with a modern twist, and the colors could not be more perfect.

Love at first sight!

It was quite an ordeal to get enough of this fabric, since my local JoAnn’s only had about 4 yards left on the bolt. They checked the computer and found an entire bolt at a store about an hour away from me. A huge shout out to the lady at the JoAnn’s in Draper, Utah who spent over 20 minutes on the phone with me locating and then saving this fabric until I could make the trip down.

I just can’t get enough of sitting here, staring at this beautiful fabric, imagining what it’s going to look like as curtain panels. I guess I better go dig out my sewing machine and dust it off!

Plus, Mr. Handy made a fabulous find!  This adorable welcome mat will be so perfect!

Welcome everyone!

Since we were so close to IKEA, it only made sense that we spent some time in there looking for treasures. And treasures we did find :-)! I’m really excited about the colors of the kitchen accessories. They match perfectly to the curtain fabric.

Stocking up the kitchen is so much fun!

One thing I am super stoked about, is this awesome lighting that we stumbled upon. I’d read this blog about hacking IKEA lights to run on a trailer’s 12 V electrical system. We were after some under cabinet lighting, but there is a big surprise in store for you once we get this little treasure hooked up! And right near the cash register lines we discovered the most adorable solar lights and they just jumped right into our cart!

Lighting!

We also made a stop at Ross, and I’m not kidding, some of my wildest dreams came true in that store. I found the bedding I had been dreaming of, and the first of what I hope will be many soft, fun pillows for the bed/couch.

It’s all coming together.

It was super fun shopping with Mr. Handy. He was a very good sport, and didn’t complain a bit about waking up early and spending half of his Saturday shopping shopping shopping.

So now I guess it’s back to hard labor. While Mr. Handy works on plumbing and electrical, I will be sewing up a storm, making curtains and pillows. I have a lot of ideas swimming around in my noggin, and I can’t wait to get them done so that I can share them all with you!

Until next time, Happy Glamping!