Alrighty. Now to bring you all up to speed on our current status. 

The kitchen is coming along nicely. The cabinets are painted and the sink is in! The countertop is still the original green but, not for long. I was seriously tempted to leave it but, it simply isn't an option with the cabinet color. We bought the countertop paint from Rustoleum and will be working on that next week (since we now have more time before we move). If you ask Rob about putting the sink in, he may make a face. It wasn't easy. You'll see in the photo below that he had to slide his upper body into the small opening under the sink to hook up everything and put the clamps on. He was very glad to be done with that part of things. The new faucet was a Craigslist score for $40. It was a floor model and was in great shape. I may have to move it into the new house when it comes time. It's so nice! Check it out: 

I painted the cabinet, as I've said, and picking a color was really hard. In the end, I wasn't able to get the color I had in my mind but, we like what we got. Beachy, coastal, fun. Definitely a welcome bit of color in an otherwise neutral area. What do you think about leaving that one strip white vs painting it, too? I can't decide if it's too retro from me.

And then there's the big news: the floors are in and they look fantastic! When we got the floorboards from Lumber Liquidators we were a) surprised they were single boards (not in boxes), b) slightly disappointed that there was a fair amount with defects that had to be cut off, and c) realizing how soft pine really is! We had to make 2 trips to Salem (about an hour roundtrip) to get it all because we stupidly though we could just put 250 sqft of pine boards in my van. My van is a beast... but not a truck. Oh well. And yes, my son slept through it all. Driving. Loading. Everything. We got home and he asked me when we were going to go get the wood. I said, look around kid. You slept through the whole thing! Haha. 

 Once the guys get to work putting it in it really started looking good. I'm totally in love now. It really looks great. It's got that cool beachy feel to it since we left it natural (only used clear poly) and it's nice and clean looking. It was definitely several days of work for Rob and we were SO thankful for James, who came to help get Rob going since he knew what he was doing and Rob had never done it before. I really think the floors make the Airstream look "legit"! 

                                      

Before poly.

After!

Before poly.

After!

Rob's parents come down again to help us out and while they were here Rob and his dad installed all new gas lines. I guess they just decided to play it safe and replace right off the bat. It was an all-day job but, by the end of the day we had a working heat furnace and stovetop! The oven doesn't work yet and we're not sure if it's just the burner or what. We still haven't gotten around to checking that and I can definitely live without it for a while. The water heater doesn't work either and that's more of a problem. No hot water for showers is a deal-breaker. We're going to have to take it apart and clean it and see if we (Rob) can tell what's going on and if we can't fix it we're going to buy a new, tankless water heater. We found this one and it's pretty cheap! I was sketched out at first but, it looks like this company has been making these for a long time with decent reviews so, we might go for it. Here are some shots of the new lines going in. 

I also want to mention that Rob built shelves into the closets so we would have more efficient storage. Yay! Storage space is crucial! I'm really hoping I'll be able to store everything I need in there... not that I have a choice or anything. I think we'll be good, though. See that shelf liner below? That roll is a whopping 4ft of liner. FOUR feet! What a rip-off! It was nice because it was wide enough to cover the shelves but, it cost the same as the other rolls of liner I bought and they had 24ft! You better believe I won't be buying anymore of that white one. Seriously. AND I have to tape/glue it down since it's not self-adhesive. Bah. I will be glad to have nice clean shelves to put my things on though. I'm probably going to get out there and finish putting it in tomorrow. I was going to do it tonight but, I think I'm going to sew the hallway curtain and clean-up in the house some instead. I'll post about the hall curtain when it's done. 

Well, that's pretty much it folks. For now. This week we'll be doing more to get ready to move in so, hopefully there will be some good progress there. If you live local, feel free to contact me to come see it. It's really shaping up! See ya next time!

I've got to do something!

I'm getting so restless! We brought home the camper on a Wednesday which, for my family, means that the Handy Hubby began his work "week" the next day, Thursday. He works 12 hour days, Thursday-Sunday, and then is off Monday-Wednesday. So, like I said, we brought her home Wednesday and I'm having to twiddle my thumbs waiting for HH to be off so we can get to work on this old girl. A lot of what needs to do done initially is demolition and that's his department. However, I just couldn't stand it anymore so I went out and started taking measurements of the windows for new curtains today.

There are 9 windows (counting the front 3 as 1) and I will need to make 8 sets of curtains (the side double windows will share a set). That's a lot of sewing! The kitchen window, seen above, will get a new roller shade which I will cover in fabric. (Like THIS) The window already has this crazy roller shade box with spots at different levels to secure the shade. It's totally weird and I'll have to get a photo of it to show you. I think I'll keep it though, just for kicks and because it's one less thing we have to rip out... and that's a good thing.

If you look at the photo here ---->
you'll see the curtain track that is original to the Airstream. I could take it all out and put in regular curtain rods OR I could leave it and use it. I would have to buy "g-tabs" to slide in there and then I could attach the curtain panels to those for a retro sliding panel. I haven't decided what I want to do yet. Again, it comes down to... do we want to yank those off the wall? I guess we'll have to see.














Here's another shot of the rail going around.

Could be cool to have the curtains all the way around like that. One solid line around the front.
Might be good for keeping the light out as well...











Ok, and here's a rant: Why did these people put so many holes in the wall that I now have to patch?!

Seriously. Why?

Anyway... I have a lot of work ahead and I've got to pick some fabric too! Do I buy fabric and sew them myself or do I buy ready-made panels and hem to length? Check out my Pinterest board to see some of my ideas for fabric, attachments and all kinds of Airstreamy stuff!

Also, I started cleaning the walls tonight. They were so grimy and sticky and yuck! I just used a good spongy/scrubber and a bucket of hot water with Dawn super extra power (not the actual name ;-) ) and it worked great. The walls don't feel tacky anymore so, we should be able to paint over them without a problem. I got about half of the front of the "ship" done and I've got a lot more to go! It'll be easier once we pull everything out, for sure. Can't wait for Monday!

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.