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Posts Tagged ‘sofa bed’

Project 15-17: Get LP And Water Systems In Working Order, Install Trim In Bathroom, Decorate

Posted in Airstream, bathroom, Before photos, Renovation, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 9, 2012| 4 Comments »

We are still planning on having our maiden voyage to Malibu starting in under 2 weeks! I’ve been spending my evenings sewing curtains, cleaning and decorating Airstreamy. I’ll have a whole post on the curtains, once I get all the parts and have them installed. I am sewing in the black out fabric tonight, on all my panels. We still have some work needed to get the LP and water systems up and running. We had RSVP Mobile RV Service out yesterday and the owner, Joe, is awesome and very knowledgeable. He came out and hooked up our propane tanks (regulator and hoses) and installed our water heater. Joe is coming back out on Monday with another tech to get us fully connected to LP and water. We have a few issues in the lines that they will hopefully be addressing come Monday. Matt is on task to get the black and gray water tanks installed.

We ordered a stabilizer kit and a break connection for Matt’s Expedition, which are being installed on Monday.

Our propane tanks are in!

Matt helped rivet some of the bathroom trim back into place last night.

He also bought me some edgebanding to finish the trim in the bathroom.

Here is the epoxied counter and the metal trim that all needed edgebanding.

Here is an example of the finished edgebanding….I still have to caulk around all trim and find a way to get paint off of metal, without scraping it. I think I am going to try nail polish remover.

The old trim was yellowed and gross…along with everything else in the trailer. I just looked at a bathroom photo from when we bought Airstreamy….ew! One of the first things I did last year was rip out the old trim and epoxy all cabinet, sink and shower surfaces. The epoxy is holding up good. I had a few small nicks in the finish….one day I will get around to fixing them.

Check out this ‘before’ and a ‘current progress’  shot….still gotta caulk, clean and get the flooring down, but whoa!

I have been working on making our hotel on wheels feel more like a hotel than a trailer. I bought a rug and took some pillows, stackable chairs and a long tall table from my pool house to spruce things up. The table will be perfect for working on the computer, eating meals or setting stuff on.  It will have to move around, once the couch is extended to a bed, but it will wake a good night stand, too. Magically, all of the colors work with the curtain material I bought. I just set up 1 of the 2 front curtain panels to see how it would look….still waiting for our order from Inland RV, which has all our T and S hooks that we need to install them to the existing track. The other curtains are the ones that came with the trailer…can’t install the new ones until our parts come in. 😦

Lala likes to work in Airstreamy with me.

One of our pantry cabinet handles decided to stop holding the door in place last night….gotta find a replacement and figure out how to keep it shut on the road, in the meantime!

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Airstreamy…picking up where we left off

Posted in Airstream, bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, living area, Renovation, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 20, 2012| 1 Comment »

Christie and I have been dreaming of going camping, so we decided to get serious about getting the airstream camp-ready. We basically took a long hiatus because the Airstream needs SO much work. We decided to focus on the plumbing, as this is the system that needs the most work. We already have the toilet. Today we went to Camping World to pick up supplies for installing the toilet. We bought black and gray water tanks last year. We need to mount them, which requires a lot of work. It’s amazing how much goes into making all the systems work. A 70s airstream like a classic car and a old house combined; repairs aren’t always as simple as they seem.

After a lot of research, we decided against getting a tankless water heater for the airstream. The reviews online are surprisingly bad. I was looking forward to reducing the trailer weight and contributing to a green renovation, but all research pointed to an LP 6 gallon water heater. We bought our new Suburban water heater through PPLmotorhomes.com. We’ll be spray-painting the new exterior door silver, so it matches the airstream.

I took some photos of Airstreamy today, as motivation to get it on the road! Can’t wait to go glamping! It’s sooooo dusty inside…time to clean!

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Making Progress…

Posted in Airstream, Flooring, kitchen, living area, Renovation, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 21, 2011| 4 Comments »

We have owned Airstreamy for about 1.5 months and keep working on getting her ready for the road. Our custom-order black and grey water tanks arrived a couple days ago. We now have the task of installing them, which should be a lot of fun (not!). Since this airstream was lived in, a lot of the traveling components were discarded, by a prior owner. We haven’t been able to test the plumbing yet. We have heard the water pump turn on when we use the control center on button, but we haven’t filled the water tank. The waste tank install is a major hurdle to getting us on the road. We also have to take the airstream in for service to have all our gas appliances pressure-tested, to ensure they are safe for use. We hope to do that in the next couple weeks.

There aren’t many things that Christie and I can do in the trailer, as we have no mechanical knowledge whatsoever. We’re good on the cosmetic/design side. We’ve been hunting for some good drapery fabric, but still coming up slim on options. Most of the patterns we find are too busy, so we think we’ll go with a simple off white. I put together a $10 table I got at Ikea for a coffee table; It’ll work just perfect. We got all the ceiling lights working and bought brand new plastic covers for them. The covers don’t fit properly, so we have to make a few adjustments to the power knobs to get them to fit snug. I got the old speakers all painted and ready to be installed, but Matt thinks we should get new ones. Speakers are low on my priority list, as we can just bring a stereo with us. I have been spray painting the screen door silver and working on some kitchen solutions. I wish there was a way to repair our existing kitchen cabinet tambour doors, but they are in rough shape. We might build new cabinet doors or buy new tambour…we haven’t decided yet. Here’s some updated progress photos:

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Project #11: Install Sofa Bed In Living Area

Posted in Before photos, Flooring, kitchen, living area, Renovation, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This project sounds easier than it was. We bought a sofa bed ‘site-to-store’ from Walmart called the Atherton Home Manhattan Convertible Futon Sofa Bed and Lounger (Pearl color) for $269. It had great reviews and was the cheapest, nicest looking one we could find online. We picked up the sofa in a big box last night that barely fit in the back of Matt’s Expedition. We decided to wait for daylight to move the sofa into the airstream. We kept it wrapped and carefully wiggled it inside. Once inside we had to install the short little legs and figure out the ‘click-clack’ function. The sofa bed can be a sofa, double chaise lounge or a bed, with a couple clicks. We got it all put together and tried to squeeze it into the area it was supposed to go….it didn’t fit! Boo! I took measurements before buying the sofa to ensure it would fit, but what I didn’t account for was the slight curve at the front of the airstream, which strips us of 1-2″ of square space.  The sofa base is square and can’t be changed. So, in the meantime, we have it set up as a double chaise. Matt is going to do some measurements to see if it will fit snugly, if we cut the countertop to the side back a little bit. It sure does make the space look cleaner and newer. Every project gets us a step closer to a modernized airstream. Don’t mind the filthy floors in the photos….we just finished laying them last night. We still have some trim pieces to install before they’re finished.

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