Retro-vation - The Demolition

So, first you take everything out.  Well, not really.  Although we would have loved to replace the cabinets, this was a project on a budget, and that would have been an extravagance.  The good part is that we didn’t have to empty all the cupboards.  And a lot of things were just thrown in the closet.   Other items, such as the mattress and the dinette, were stored in the garage.  The bed frame had an adventure.  Max put it in an open shed at the RV lot with a note that it was just stored there temporarily and put his phone number on it.  A couple days later, I was working in the Airstream, and noticed that the shed was gone.  Yes, the previous day the shed had been demolished by the HOA.  Where was our bed-frame?  At the bottom of the demolition pile.  Well, when we recently put it back together again, we discovered that we luckily were able to find all the pieces, except for one piece of plywood on top.  Whew!   

With the furniture out, the ozite could be pulled right off, leaving a residue and a not-so-pretty surface underneath.  Apparently some items required “test holes” before the final screws were inserted.  And, there are places the aluminum overlaps.  It does not leave a lovely CCD shiny finish. 

When the flooring is removed, there is a nice layer of good-looking plywood with staples from the foam carpet underlayment (screw driver and needle nose pliers needed) and some round fasteners that manage to stick up in places even if you take an electric drill and try to screw them in.  I should have taken photos.  We finally removed the last of the pale blue carpeting from under the bed – which is in the outside storage compartments.  That was pretty foul.   

But, there we were, looking at a very bare and surprising spacious Airstream, that a few months ago had been Home Sweet Home.

Retro-vation - The Idea

In any remodeling project, there needs to be a vision.  Fortunately, Max - my partner in crime (and it always feels slightly criminal tearing up a perfectly adequate home or Airstream) - and I usually agree on a look we are trying to achieve.  It also usually begins with each side having certain non-negotiable items.  Max's was eliminating the "carpet" on the wall (it's actually called ozite) and what he called the "coffin curtains".  I actually liked the carpet, because you could put the hook side of Velcro on anything and stick it to the wall.  I did that under the dinette with the modem, wireless router, and computer cords.  Keeps everything tucked well away.  Here's a photo of patches from various parks we visited velcroed to the wall.  
But, it was true that the white ozite was showing some age.  It tends to develop black spots that are actually fine aluminum shavings from the wear and tear on the rivets. 

And, here is a photo of the "coffin curtains" that, to my way of thinking, ran on beautiful tracks around the interior. 

But then I had a non-negotiable item, also.  A new toilet.  Enough said.  BTW, it's good to pay attention to the height of a toilet when shopping.  We first bought a full-height one from Camping World, only to discover we forgot the toilet sits on a platform.  Well, the only one who might have been able to use it was a basketball player, and that's not who Airstreams are really optimal for.   

So, having discussed non-negotiables, we then got to the more fun part of deciding on a look.  That was easy - it was definitely a Retro-vation!  Airstreams have a lovely history, and we love looking at photos of them through the years.  Although we are not fanatics about authentic details, we knew we would love to try to achieve a retro look.

Retro-vation 2011

Having lived in our Airstream full time for a year (2010 to 2011), we were ready for a change.  I should mention that we have lived in 7 different houses in the last 10 years, many of which we renovated or finished ourselves. (This does not include a lake cottage which we also fixed up, or a rental property which we renovated, the year in the Airstream, or some miscellaneous other building projects.) Thus, the only thing consistent about us is our inconsistency.  Change is good!  As such, the Airstream actually had a pretty good run in going ten years without a “renovation”.  But, there were a couple minor projects.   This photo shows the results of both (did I mentioned we also had a real estate business while we were living full time in the Airstream?).  We call it Home Sweet Office.

Carpet

     

The first (which probably should have been done a lot sooner than we did it) was to eliminate the baby blue carpeting that it came with.  (Yes, you read that right – pale blue.)  I know the Airstream brand has a certain sophistication to it, but someone apparently forgot that it is for camping. 

The first solution was, of course, put throw rugs everywhere.  But, we finally broke down a few years ago and installed laminate flooring – a nice Pergo medium brown.  It was great, but not indestructible.  There was the time the lock on the closet door failed and the TV tumbled out and made a serious dent in the floor (the TV was fine!).  And there were a couple dog water dish accidents that raised the edges on some of the boards.  Thus, stay tuned for the new look.

The Couch

Airstream comes with a wonderful couch (see above picture) that pulls out into a bed, has storage underneath, and has storage bins under the arms.  Too good to be true?  Yes.  It was, sad to say, uncomfortable to sit on.  We inevitably ended up sitting on the dinette cushions and letting the dogs sleep on the couch (on horse blankets – which I highly recommend).  So, when we were moving full time into our Airstream after selling our house, we took out the couch, traded it to a local dealer for some maintenance work, and replaced it with a couple leather wingback chairs.  They were wonderful as long as we weren’t traveling.  We did put non-slide pads under the feet, which really helped on the road, but they were heavy and awkward.  Now that we have a house again, they are in our living room, so we are again challenged with seating.