Last week at this time, I was basking seaside with a Mint Mojito in my hand and a smile on my face. This week, I'm itching all over from manhandling fiberglass insulation, bleeding from multiple abrasions on my body, nursing a goose egg on my elbow and questioning my sanity...but I still have a smile on my face.
For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted a little place of my own...like a fort. Guys have man-caves, ladies have she-sheds, kids have playhouses, I've got my sugar shack. I've been tossing around options for quite some time and, well... the week before last, I bought a trailer.
It's a 17' 1977 Fleetwood Taurus Terry. The idea is to rent it out as an Airbnb, have a place for Brian's friends and family to stay when they're in town, and then I'll hang out in it myself the rest of the time. Once it's paid for itself and generated a little income, I haven't really decided if I'm going to keep this exact trailer long-term and eventually put it on a piece of property, or if I'll sell it. We'll see how attached I get to it in the process ;)
I found it online at a dealership and managed to get them down a few hundred dollars, and it seemed like perfect timing because, once we got home from Mexico, we've got 2 months with nothing much planned before our next big trip. The goal is to spend no more than $1500 getting it perfect (walls, floors, electrical, furniture, linens...everything) and to have it finished by the new year, so that gives us 6 weeks (or 4 weekends considering the madness that is Thanksgiving and Christmas break at work) to get everything done. I'm not terribly worried about the exterior until later on...it's gonna be a big job.
I spent a solid 2 days cleaning out the area next to Brian's garage - no small feat, let me tell ya. It was kind of a catch-all for old gold-mining equipment, various horticulture experiments, sliding glass doors, toilets, windows, discarded pieces of furniture, rocks, wood, tires, tons (literally) of scrap metal, motors, and random electronics - all buried in mouse droppings, spiderwebs, dead lizards, snake skins, and the skull of some small rodent.
The interior of the trailer looked to be in pretty good shape from a distance, but I had plans for some updates, and as we started getting down and dirty, we realized that much of the interior would need a major overhaul. The outside, well, we'll get to that eventually. In the meantime, demo has begun! Here are some before pictures:
I knew that I wanted to open it up as much as possible (also relieving it of a ton of weight), so the first thing to go was the bunk above the sofa and the booth setup. There was some water damage behind the walls, so we tore out all of the walls and the ceiling and replaced the 2x2s that were rotten. The ceiling and walls will be mostly stained 1/8" wood and then the kitchen area will be aluminum sheeting that Brian had in his garage.
While everything is exposed, he is updating the electrical and moving some switches and outlets around to make everything much more user-friendly. In the meantime, I pulled about 13,000 staples and nails out of the framing and bloodied every single knuckle in the process. I'm going to install strip lighting on quarter round around 3 of the walls a few inches from the ceiling for some really cool cove lights and then were doing a few recessed puck lights for task lighting. Before we took them all out, you had to turn all of the lights on by hand and they got really hot, so now, all of the lights will connect to switches and remotes...I think it will be super cozy and much more efficient once it's all finished. The old lights were in good shape and actually pretty neat looking, but they're too bulky, inefficient, and hot, so they're going on ebay. I'm going to make some curtains out of old wool army blankets that will help insulate the windows when they're closed and can totally block out light for guests that want to sleep in, and use a worn Pendleton blanket we found in the garage to upholster a little headboard and hopefully a cozy chair.
I was going back and forth about the upper cabinets as well, opting to just tear them out too, since it was more of a living area and we really don't need that much storage. I'll be putting in a solid 16x38 hunk of old wood above the kitchen counter for dishes and (hopefully) a couple of chairs and a table where the booth was. The wheel well was under there which takes up A LOT of space that I wasn't planning on, but I'll figure out something. The cabinets will be painted and I'll put on new drawer faces and cabinet doors and install a aluminum over the refrigerator door to match the stove, sink and hood. I took all of the window frames and handles out, the ceiling vents and all of the hardware to the cabinets and will be spray painting them to look like aluminum.Oh, and I'm going to be skim-coating the counter tops with concrete...wish me luck.
Don't worry, I got all of the trash out and it's all swept and tidied up since these pictures were taken. It's just an empty, exposed space right now while we wait for the lights to come. Can I mention how much I love Amazon Prime...especially since the closest Home Depot is still 20 minutes away? I love being able to shop online and have it delivered right to the door. Yesterday we had to make a run for lumber, wiring, caulk, liquid nails, stain, rollers, and some supplies for the bathroom and 2 1/2 hours and $435 later, I was pooped. I have a hard time in stores like that because, I walk in knowing exactly what I want, but then they either don't have it, or have so many different options that I get overwhelmed. Like stain for example: I had in my mind the color I was going for, but couldn't find it as a tiny 1x1 sample, so had to decide between 7 colors that all looked exactly the same. I sure hope it turns out because they entire trailer is going be that color. Fingers crossed. I also have ridiculously expensive taste, so it takes me 3 times as long trying to find a cheaper version of what I really want.
The bathroom needs an overhaul as well, so we will be tearing out the shower, reinforcing the framing, and then we got new white plastic panels for the shower and an epoxy kit for refinishing the tub white, and a new faucet and shower head is in my Amazon cart as I write this. I'll be skim-coating cement on the counters in there too, painting the cabinets, and installing peel-and-stick white subway tile on the wall. Brian's going to be cleaning out and updating the septic system/black water situation and then installing the new toilet once we get the flooring in. I'll be putting in a dark laminate wood in the main part of the trailer and vinyl in the bathroom which will hopefully stand up to water and careless guests.
Hopefully I can keep on budget and get this thing done. The outside is what I'm really worried about...it's going to be so much work. Thank goodness for Pinterest (if you'd like to peek at my inspiration board for the project, you'll find it here)...I've got so many ideas and the handiest, most helpful boyfriend ever, so I'm pretty excited about it. I'll be documenting the progress as we go, so stay tuned!