She's Home.

She may not have a name yet (Thinking about "Lola" but, I'm not sold on it. Suggestions welcome!) but, she's home. All 31' of her. The Handy Hubby and I drove 4 hours to get her and bring her back from NC.

The man we bought her from is the nicest and most helpful guy I've ever done a deal with. When we initially went down to check out the Sovereign he agreed to put new tires on it for us, as well as fix the brakes and install a safety release on the hitch so that the camper would stop if it became detached from the truck. A great feature. No one wants to chase a runaway Airstream down the highway... and then try to think of a way to stop it! He's a mechanic by trade and he sells cars that he's fixed-up from his home. If you're ever in Rutherfordton, NC and need a "new" car or truck ask me for Louis' info! I would certainly buy from him.

We agreed that one week later we would drive down again to pick her up. Louis had her all ready to go and he helped us get her hitched-up. We headed out on the road after about an hour and a half of chit-chat and prep and we were proud new owners of a 1975 Airstream Sovereign. I am still in disbelief. I'd like to give a shout out to my sister's father-in-law, Bob Donnelly, for lending us his truck for 2 days to pull this beauty home. His truck is a boss and drove like a dream. Thank you so much! If any of you reading this need any construction or remodeling done, Bob is your man. Check out the Donnelly FB page here!! They are awesome! (Gonna be helping us build my own home if that tells you about my confidence in their work!)

Anyway... We have a lot of work to do, as you will see in the photos below.  I will be posting as we work on her so, I'm going to skip the explanations of future projects on the photos for now. The list of projects looks something like this:

(Not necessarily in order and I will link up to relevant posts as they happen.)

1. Clean and Paint walls.
2. Pull out the goucho bed in the front and replace or repair it. (It's too small and isn't working properly.    
    We want it to be queen sized when it pulls out.)
3. Remove side cabinet in "living room" and all cabinets for cleaning/painting/repairing/replacing.
4. Finish the current floor (if we can find a match) or replace.
5. Find out if stove works.
6. Replace plumbing.
7. Wet sand and clean-up bathroom and the repaint and finish the surfaces.
8. Tile bathroom.
9. Make curtains.
10. Make new covers for the couch cushions.
11. Clean-up and seal the windows (exterior).
12. Strip and polish the exterior (probably won't happen this year).
13. Polish and paint the emblems.
14. New fridge.
15. New toilet.
16. Sand and paint hitch.
17. New AC/Heat?
18. New tankless water heater.
19. Win the lotto to pay for this stuff.
20. I'm sure I'll be adding to this list as we go on.

We are accepting donations! If you have any lumber laying around we'd love to have it! Or... a fridge. Or... a decent toilet. Or... cabinets. Or... money. ;-)


So, without further ado, I present: The Breinich Airstream!

 

My little helper.

And for a bonus, check out this sweet little chair we got for $35 at ReStore in Asheville! I plan to sew a slipcover for it to cover the worn and not particularly my style fabric. :-) It should fit perfectly in the Airstream.