What's happening with the camper now?

My DH seems to be under the opinion that the free camper I've been restoring is too big for my truck to pull.   I'm not happy about the fact that he wants to scrap my project...

I looked at my truck's tow capacity in the owners manual. It's somewhere between 9200-8900 pounds. I'm not too sure what model the truck is and apparently there are three different ones that have a little bit of differences. But, for my purposes, lets just say it's the smaller one that can pull 8900 MAX weight. Meaning that the safe weight is really 8000 lbs, including all supplies, food and whatever else we decide to put in it.

I have all the paperwork with the camper we have (really nice) and the original dry weight for it is 4850 pounds. Since I've taken quite a bit out we'll assume that mine is 4800 pounds. That means that I can still safely put 3000 pounds worth of stuff in, or that we can go over mountains; At a slower speed of course, but it can be done. So, really I think we're OK.

I've been looking online at campers that are less than 20 feet. There are some really cute ones, but they are so expensive.

I've already put a lot of work into this one, and I'm not really wanting to start over with another one. I suppose I can just keep fixing it up and sell it, but that's not what I really wanted to do with it.

I'm thinking about taking the full out couch out to get the little strip of carpet out that is stuck in between the floor and the couch. The couch might still have some miles on it and it's cool to use as a bed, but the fabric is a little scratchy and ugly. And we don't need an extra bed. IF I can figure out how to get it out and put it back in I might recover it in a neutral fabric.
Or I could just put in a futon or a regular couch. Or we could build a bench to put in it.

I think that the real problem with the camper is that I got too excited about it and ripped a bunch of things out without finishing them and went on to another project. I'm really bad about that.
Updates on what I've been doing coming as soon as we figure out what we are going to do. I'm for keeping it...for now.
Eventually I want to get an airstream. But for now, this is what we have.

Water damage update and demo

I have to keep telling myself that this camper was free. I know that means that it comes with problems. But DH and I were talking last night and we haven't ever owned an RV, much less repaired and remodeled one! So, he's talking about scrapping it if it doesn't work out. At least we wouldn't have lost anything right?

So I decided if he wants to toss it out I'll at least try to see if I can fix it before he takes it to the dump (Not that he knows where it is anyways. HA HA) So, with my trusty tools and some gloves I ripped out the luan and some of the rotten boards (After I took some pictures so I would know where they were before so I can get new ones in the same place.
This camper, it killing me. I cleaned another section of the top and caulked where I think the leak was in the kitchen. It was still leaking, I felt wetness when I was taking the luan out.

This is where I thought to take a picture. Then I tore out some more of it. 

So much crap gone from here. I'm thinking about taking the window off and getting the luan from underneath it and putting it back on when the boards are up and the luan is cut to fit and back on. Too much? I'm not doing it today or anything, but I think it would make it look better. I'm going to need some more caulk though. 

Remember when I thought I might be able to reuse the insulation? HA, it's so wet that I would never be able to dry it out and then I would worry about it molding inside my nice clean and new walls. 

I'm really thinking about taking all the cabinets down in the kitchen and taking all the walls down then putting up new walls and putting the cabinets back. I'm a little worried about taking them out though. The one I took out already I had to tear out. I don't want to have to buy new ones. I already need a new backsplash. *le sigh*

This is only the kitchen. The rest of the RV is pretty good. 

Another thing I did was take down all the 'valance-esqe' curtains, and the other curtains. I also took the roman shades, blinds and all hangers for these things down so I could work a little easier. Also, they make the room look smaller and the fabric they used was ugly! With them all gone, I can visualize the space a little better. 

I took the dinette cushions inside and took one out to see if I could undo it and make a pattern out of them for my own fabric. I haven't decided what I want yet. It's a little early anyways. I need to get my walls back up still. A lot of people take the dinette out, but I kinda like mine. Plus, it folds down into a child's sized bed. When we have little ones I would like to have a place for them to sleep. (Or even just the dogs.) 

Since DH was talking about tossing it it shouldn't be too mad that I demolished the walls without him.(He's at work on last day of 12s)

RIGHT??

He has the next week off from work and I'm going to have him working on the camper with me for most of the time. 

Question for you, my readers, should I completely gut the kitchen or try to repair what's there first?

Camper update

A few days ago I did a little more demo work in the camper. Also, last weekend DH and I got the bathroom fan and cover on.

Here is a cool picture that I made featuring what we accomplished last weekend. 

Since the bathroom is so small, we couldn't both work in it at the same time. So, Frank concentrated on the bathroom and I worked on some things in the kitchen. I don't know if you can tell or not but the lower right photo is the kitchen after I took down a water logged cabinet. It's unfortunate that it was the one over the sink. We had to figure out how to get the light fixture out of the bottom of the cabinet. Also, the the left of that cabinet and directly over the stove there was a HUGE microwave. It was probably an 80s unit. It seemed like it was built in the cabinet, so it probably came with the camper. But, we don't use microwaves anymore. I thought that having one in the camper would be weird and I wouldn't have anything to 'cook' in it. So, we took it out. We decided that we would put the girdler in that spot when we finish, or even use it as a pantry.  

While Frank was applying the caulk on the vent in the bathroom I scrubbed down part of the roof side and back of the camper. There is so many/much lichens growing on the entire outside surface of the camper. It needs to be scrubbed. EVERYWHERE!

After we finished these projects we went outside and scrubbed the flip up awning on the front of the camper. If you remember the pictures before, it was black. We scrubbed together, taking turns scrubbing and the other one wiping off the blackness. Our cleaning rag was gray afterwards. YUCK. But, the camper looks better and even better than that, the bathroom is no longer leaking. 

Unfortunately, I found another leak. This one is probably worse and had been going on for a lot longer because it was hard to see the leak and it looks like someone had tried to finish it before. 

Ok, so this is behind the panel that I ripped out (In pieces) the black thing is a board. Or was a board. It needs to be replaced immediately. 

Here is a picture before I ripped out the ceiling panel and saw this board. 

It still needed the panel replaced, but now we have to do even more to it! GRrRRr. 

I know, I know. Someone GAVE us this camper and we knew that we would have more work because of it. But, still. I was hoping that we wouldn't have that much work to do on it. 

I can't believe that we still have repairs to do on it before I can even prime anything. (That's my annoyance at not being able to start the decorating!)

All of the rotted board needs to come out, the fiberglass insulation will probably have to be taken out as well. I don't know if we will have to replace it or if we can use that, I'm kinda thinking if it was wet we should replace it just to be safe. 

But, the good news is that after this board and the panels in the kitchen here and in the bathroom get put up we will have most of the repairs finished. At least the major ones. 

We are probably going to work on this over the weekend, assuming that the weather is nice to us. 

Thanks for looking at my annoying camper!!

One day it will be beautiful.

Camper Cleaning and update.

When we got this camper I was envisioning all the fun things that I could do to it to make it 'homey' away from home.
I had visions of soft pink cabinets with aqua cushions and a cute lace tablecloth with my fiesta in flamingo and turquoise on the table.
I wanted to recover the pull out couch in the same aqua or turquoise and pull up that nasty carpet and put down some laminate 'wood' on the floor.
All the curtains need to be replaced with something that flows with the wind and matches my vision (I don' know about it yet. Maybe yellow?)

And then it hit me this morning (Ok so by the time you read this is was actually a few days ago) "how do I know that's what it needs when I haven't even seen it?" It's under years of caked on dust and grease and the water damage in the bathroom. I'm envisioning the 'perfect camper' in my head and I haven't even done ANYTHING to this one yet.

Well, that settled it in my mind. So, I got up and got dressed, prepared some hot water and cleaning supplies and walked out to the camper feeling ambitious and ready to tackle some dirt. Oh, was it ever dirty. I don't think this camper has been used for about 6 years, maybe longer.

Scrubbing the kitchen was just so soothing. There was nothing in the camper. Everything that was just laying about I took out and put in the shop so I could see the camper. The carpet just kills me. It was mauve, but now it is an orangey-pink tie dyed mess. It looks like parts of it were faded in the sun and parts were covered by a rug.

So, in my perfectionist mind and haste to start (and finish so we could go somewhere) I forgot that all things take time.

I took out the mattress to make it easier to work in here.

Here are my elbow grease pictures for the day.

I took the wooden divider down, I might put up a curtain later on. But this makes it more open feeling. 

The kitchen is where I focused most of my efforts on today. It was filthy! You can still see where the panel needs to be replaced on the ceiling. 

The couch folds out into a bed and I'm still working on how I am going to recover it. Also, that carpet used to be pink, I checked inside the cabinets. YUCK!!

Looks better already doesn't it? I'm working on baby steps to the finished project! I'm so excited to take it on the road in December! But, we aren't there yet...still much more work to do.

We got a camper!!

Ok, so living up in MN it is apparently a thing to go up to the head waters of the Mississippi and camp.  We won't be able to do that this year but maybe next?

We're also going to IL and SC once it's fixed up nice and water tight. 

So here is the big shocker…we got it for FREE!! 

Granted, it has some issues that need to be addressed still. But all in all we are pretty happy with it. Especially because it was free. 

Ok enough of my blabber, here it is.

It's a 1985 jayco. 

My DH is waiting on me to help him put on the last tire. 

Welcome to our Camper. Let me give you a tour. 

This is the Kitchen. It is to the right when you walk into the camper. It needs work all over, but I'm up to the challenge. :) 

There is an oven inside. You could live in this thing full time! I always talked about having a tiny house, but I don't really think it is feasible for us. Still, its nice to think we can do it occasionally in our camper. The top folds down to make a larger work surface too.  Most of the older campers this is broken. So I was really glad to find it still in working order. When it folds up it acts as a backsplash. 

DH was walking around the outside while I was taking pictures. Also the old fabric here makes this cute dinette seating area look tired. No worries, I'll have it spruced up soon enough.

Over the back of the seat there is a small storage space. I'm not sure what  I would want to put in there yet, but once it's all cleaned up maybe. 

DH wants to (of course!) keep the "nice wood look" to the camper. UGH, I agreed to it in the house so here I told him no! I want to make this camper look nice. I can't understand why he wants to keep it all wood. Not to mention that it keeps it looking dark in a small space. I seems to be real wood, and I feel a little bad about it...but not bad enough not to paint it.

The whole kitchen and dining area view. It really needs some elbow grease before anything. Those curtains also...they make me want to hurl. I can't wait to take them down. This small space needs something airy in it. 

Here he is again! That silly husband of mine. I'm also pleased about the sink cover/cutting board being intact still. It looks awful, but even if I just use it for a template for another one I'm good. I'd really like a butchers block or wooden one here. I'll see what I can do about it later.

What is this?? I know what it is really, but LOL. I don't know if it works, but based on everything else in this camper and the way the people took care of everything I really suspect that it still works. I'm not sure if it will be staying or not though. (If it does, at least I can hide it!)

From the kitchen looking into the back of the camper. The fridge is open and blocking the view a little, but you can still see a good bit. Into the living room we go.

Can't you see the potential here?? And look...more wood. That clock is pretty cool. We think it just needs a battery to work. I LOVE all the glass work and the mirrors and the small touches like the clock(above) and the etched glass (left and below) in this camper. I'm suspecting that when it was new, it was top of the line. That couch folds down into a full or queen sized bed (can't remember which right now.)

 This is right next to the main door, but I think it's part of the living room. It would make a cute 'bar area' or just storage for things that need to be grabbed fast. It could be extra towels and/or sunscreen if we're at the beach or lake. And bug spray if we go up to the mountains or in the woods.

Next we see the mirror on the door to the bathroom. Isn't it beautiful? The mirrors and glass in this camper are really pretty. Into the bathroom. It's a little scary still, but we'll have it fixed up soon enough. 

Repairs needed here! This fan and the whole panel needs to be replaced.

Yuck right? It will be fixed up right. This is the first thing that we are doing. 

Strange light and ugly curtains. I alms like the wallpaper...I can't decide yet. What do you think? 

This hurts to look at doesn't it? Lights, curtain and shower curtain all gone!

Right outside of the bathroom is a massive storage area. I think the camper has enough space to sleep 6 people and hold all their stuff in this space. They might be a little cramped for sleeping arrangements, but they could stay if they wanted, or if they were children. 

From the hallway we turn right into the bedroom. The only real bedroom that is in the camper, but it'd just for me and DH and the dogs. We don't really need another one. And once we have children they can sleep on the pull out couch and the dinette set folds down too.

 The headboard idea is cute, but it is now outdated and stained and must be replaced. Along with those curtains.

The biggest problem? There are wasps in between the door and the screen in the bedroom. The glass/plexiglass on the door seems to have a space in it. So that will need to be fixed too. I hate wasps. They have been plaguing us at the house too. In MN they seem to be everywhere.

This concludes our tour of our new (old) camper. 

Come back to see what updates I do to it!!