Art

With our new soft blues and greens, the perfect artwork for our Airstream was watercolor paintings by our dear friend Laurie Brooks.  Check out her wonderful paintings at http://lauriebrooks.net/  The colors in the photo don't do justice to the beauty of the paintings! This painting is of our son:

And this one is of a Holstein cow in springtime under a flowering tree:

I will take a better picture soon!

Fake Fur

As a BB (baby boomer) I happily remember when fake fur first (like the alliteration?) came on the scene.  Happy days! 

I am writing about fake fur because, in our version of the Airstream, there is a 4 inch gap between the end of the mattress and the wardrobe - or between the mattress and the end wall.  Sometimes a draft from where the bedframe doesn't quite meet the wall is a little chilly. We decided to slide the mattress toward the wardrobe, and fill in that gap with a couple king size pillows.

I promised to make cases for the pillows, but I wasn't fast enough.  Max took up the challenge, and went to Target and came home with lovely cream colored fake fur body pillow cases.  Wow!  They are that super-silky fake fur. 

And, when I cut them down to fit the king size pillows, there was enough left over to make a couple extra throw pillows.  More happy days!

Kvissle

Another nifty product from Ikea - the Kvissle. It is probably made for files, but we will use it as a magazine rack.   

Chairs - Redux

Our nice new blue plastic Adirondack chairs have now given way to the chairs we wanted originally. We were fortunate to sell some of our model home furniture recently (yay, Craigslist!) and thus had some wherewithal to indulge in the nice Ikea chairs we wanted.  They fit perfectly, and swivel around also. 

We can turn and look out the front window - here at the empty space where our good friends J&C&HG used to store their motor coach before they returned to full-timing.  Or, we can face each other for a meal or a mean game of cribbage.

I know, I know.  We are camping and eggshell might not seem the most practical color, but they are leather and should clean nicely.  We also took the nylon button feet off and will cut a non-skid rug pad to put underneath so they don't slide.  Add a shock cord while traveling so they don't swing around, and we are in chair heaven!  P.S.  Rosa approves.

Nifty Table

Max made this nifty table for the Airstream.  It has an Ikea tray on top, and the post is the same pedestal table leg from Camping World that we used for the stove.  Since the screws have to come through the top, we used acorn nuts for a decorative and smoother look. And, best yet, the top comes right off and the post comes right out of the base.

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Fabric

I've been sewing since I was a child, so I LOVE fabric.  I have met many women with this ailment, and there is no cure.  "She who dies with the most fabric wins!" 

The dinette cushions were looking a little worn - again the front part of them was pale blue!  Looking for replacement fabric, I checked out my favorite stores, but nothing had that right Retro-vation look.  So, I chanced going online, and found this beauty: 
You always risk the unexpected when you order online, but this turned out to be a nice heavy weight upholstery fabric which I hope will hold up for several years. 

Re-using zippers and cushions, the final result looks like the photo below. The wrinkles are in the original cushions, and give it a little
give without stretching the fabric.  I know it is wild and crazy and not for everyone - just for us wild and crazy types.

Of course we didn't stop there with fabric.  We needed new curtains.  I tried to be a little more subdued with these.  For the "great room", I choose this pretty blue pattern (below).  I bought the tool to put the snaps on so they would be firmly anchored.   And we re-installed the existing sliding rails - both top and bottom - but only ran them over the actual windows (no coffin curtains!).

The store where I purchased this fabric did not have enough for the bedroom curtains also, so it was back to the Internet.  This fabric is slightly heavier that I would have liked, but it is quite visually stunning.

The curtains have Roman Shade type folds instead of the pleats that were in the original curtains.  That means they can fold back into a smaller space.  Instead of the Velcro on the inside fold of the middle edges, they just overlap in the middle. 

A matching duvet cover completes the bedroom fabrics.

The final fabric was for the chairs. The couch was gone, the leather chairs were in our living room, and we coveted some Ikea chairs but they weren't in the budget. So, we settled for plastic Adirondack chairs from Lowes with new cushions.  They have a couple advantages.  Unexpectedly, they are lower than the old chairs, so there is more headroom.  Also, they weigh nothing, and thus any movement during travel won’t cause problems.  And, finally, we can easily take them outside – once we figure out the best way to get them through the door.  This is an interesting fabric from a local store, and is quite soft and comfy! 

A Project

When we tore apart the inside of the Airstream, Max decided it was time to consolidate all the miscellaneous electric stuff that used to be behind the couch. Sorry, I really don't know what it is or what it is called, but here is a photo all consolidated.

As proud as I am of his electrician skills and as fascinating as all these wires are, I decided a cover would be a good thing.  We debated - as we always do - various options.  (A digression.  Our first house - about 150 years old - was a handyman's special.  While we were "debating" whether to remove a small porch on the front of the house, the nice old man across the street came over and we apologized for "debating" in front of him.  He told us, "Anything worth doing is worth arguing about."  We've had many occasions since to follow his sage advice.) 

But, we had a piece of luan already painted blue - the one that broke if you have read earlier posts - so we economically used that.  It needed to have good ventilation, because that grey box has a fan on top.  Thus, the cover had to be open on the top and bottom, and some vent holes in the front seemed a good idea.
I found a pattern for an Art Nouveau Rose online, altered it, and managed to cut it out with a utility knife. For the sides, we needed the shape of the walls. After a few stabs at it, I found the best way was to take a piece of cardboard and cut and test and cut and test.  Because of the curve of the wall, the cover is about 1/2 inch wider on the top than the bottom.

It is all glued together with Liquid Nails, then strengthened with some side pieces. The final touch was decorative screening and aluminum edging. Again, we debated how to fasten it, but when we added the dog leash holder, inspiration struck. We found the same system at Lowe's, and added these little receptacles (right). 
  
To cover the wires on the bottom, a piece of the sticky vinyl wall base made for a neater look: 

And, Tada!  Here is the final cover.

Whimsy

The really fun part of renovation is when you get to the whimsical stage. That's the stage beyond just indulging your own tastes. We loved this object as a hook by the door for - of course - the dog leash.

Retro-vation - Blue

Husbands are not accountable, in my experience.  Max took off all the window frames during the demolition phase.  They hung around garage for a while, getting in the way until we found a handy hook to hang them on. By chance, they were apparently near a can of Wildflower Blue spray paint.  Next thing you know, the elves (or maybe Max) had spray painted them all blue. It was a shock, but not the first I'd ever had in a renovation project, and the color is absolutely perfect.  (Thank goodness the elves didn't go with the Nutmeg Brown paint or the purple or the stove black!)  Next time I went into the garage, there was the range hood painted in blue also.  As usual, this was presented to me after the fact.  "Doesn't that look great?"  "Yes, dear."

   Fortunately, I like blue.  So much so that when Max decided to reverse the refrigerator door (the open side is the bed side - for midnight snacking I guess), we removed the panels and painted the reverse side with the same Wildflower Blue, so we could have a matching fridge.  BTW, don't bother to take yours apart - the door doesn't reverse.

The final touch was a blue Bali blind for the kitchen window.  Curtains get splashed from the sink, so we wanted something washable.  Although people don't like the gap because of the wall curve, we ordered it a little wide (about an inch extra on either side) and ordered the bottom fasteners so it is pinned to the wall.  Since the curtain/blind/shade issue is so thorny to so many Airstreamers, I will update on whether this works or not.  They are not inexpensive - this tiny one was about $75 - but they certainly have the Wow Factor with the color.

Retro-vation - The Wood Stove

We have a new heat source.  Max, being a big fan of boats, knew they made wood stoves for boats.  So he did a little web searching and discovered this nifty little wood stove for the Airstream.  It's a Newport by Dickinson Marine, and it will burn wood, charcoal or pellets.  It's 14 inches high, by 7.75 inches wide by 9 inches deep.  Max cleverly mounted it on a table pedestal leg from Camping World.  The legs come in different lengths, so you can choose whatever you want.  The only downside is that it calls for a permanent 3 inch fresh air intake - the same size as the vent pipe.  But since we are basically burning twigs, for our purposes we can crack open a window when we use it. 

You can see in the photo below that the spot we chose was right next to the smoke detector.  We didn't think that would work out too well, so we will have to remount the smoke detector in a different spot.

I cringe at making any holes in the Airstream, but Max is braver than I, so here is the Smoke Stack on top.  Looks pretty sporty, doesn't it?

Retro-vation - Floor

Although we had replaced the powder blue carpet with Pergo, when it came time for Retro-vation, we again replaced the flooring.  This time we used Armstrong laminate flooring left over from our last house project.  We thought 4 boxes (18.82sf/box) would do it, but ran a box short, only to discover that Armstrong had discontinued it in the 6 months since we first ordered it for our house.  Thanks to an incredibly persistent and wonderful Lowes’ employee (Melissa – you know who you are!), we scrounged up another couple boxes – one for the Airstream and one as a spare for our home.  I have higher hopes for the durability of this flooring.  It seems a little harder finish and has a groove so the edges shouldn’t be as susceptible to moisture.  The color is lighter, and seems to brighten things up.  (What is that pole thing on the left?  Stay tuned.)

The one mistake we made was to decide to run it all the way to the bathroom door, taking out the vinyl(?) tiles that were in front of the bathroom sink.  Big mistake.  Those tiles are attached to the plywood underneath with some glue that does not let go.  The tiles split in nasty splinter-y layers, the plywood underneath came up in chunks, and every little ¼” piece didn’t want to budge, making the whole removal of about 3 square feet take hours.  Just a nightmare all around.   When we finally finished getting it up, we had to use floor leveler to fill the gouges so we had a decent surface to the put the laminate on (it floats on a thin layer of foam underlayment).  It looks good, though, and means we didn’t have to have lay down a threshold until the shower/toilet door.

Retro-vation - The Walls

So, given that the walls were aluminum, but full of unsightly holes and overlaps with sharp edges and covered with a yucky residue, what were we going to do?  That was the BIG QUESTION which occupied many sleepless nights.  We looked at vinyl at the fabric store – could we spray adhesive it on?  Could we buy sheet aluminum?  (The craftier Airstream renovators seemed to do that.)  What about that fake tin ceiling stuff?  How would that look?  Maybe we could strip and sand the walls and paint them?  What about buying a real wood veneer?  (Found a great website selling it.)  Everything had negatives.  The vinyl would show all the bumps, aluminum is expensive and any mistake would cause catastrophic remorse, sanding didn’t seems like a great idea, the curves would distort the patterns in the fake tin ceiling stuff, and real wood veneer would be sure to crack at the slightest pressure on an uneven surface.  What to do, what to do?  (You think like this in the middle of the night – when most major decisions are made.)

The answer for us was luan, a wonderful  product introduced to me by Max’s Dad – another Max.  I’d used it before to mouseproof cottage cabinets, so it was always a big hit with me.  It’s actually a laminated wood that is thinner and smoother than plywood.  (Sometimes it is spelled lauan.)  It’s about 1/8 inch thick, so bends fairly easily – a big issue with the curvy Airstream.  And, it can be easily painted.  I am a huge fan of high gloss oil based paint  which would give it a smooth, hard, washable surface.  (I know I’m supposed to love latex, but I just can’t.  It’s always so gloppy and the gloss is so dull.) 

We decided a two-tone look – upper pale green (it looks yellow in the photo, but it is really a nice soft green) and lower pale blue (shades of the powder blue carpeting!).  Knowing that we could not fashion pieces from measurements because of the curves, we made templates using craft paper and freezer paper, putting seams at places that seemed reasonable.  They did have significant arcs where the corner curves are.  Then we placed the templates on sheets of luan – really cheap stuff – (and a shout-out to the nice gentleman in the parking lot at Lowes who helped me load a couple sheets into my Ford Escape which wasn’t really large enough for them!) and cut them out with a Skil Saw.  The system I finally used was to prime them before cutting them, then cut them and then paint them (2 coats) with a good sanding between each coats.  There is still a grain visible, but overall it is a great look.  Here is photo showing the middle of the project. 

You can see the pieces of luan cut out and ready to install.  We found that it was a 2 person job to bend the luan.  The one on the left of the picture cracked when Max tried to put it in place.  We tried to strengthen the cracked place by gluing a piece behind it, but then it just cracked along the edge of the support.  So, we had to do a whole new one.  We had to push them in just a little, brace them (a paint bucket works well), then leave them overnight, then a little more, etc., until finally we were able to push them into the curve and secure them with screws. 

After we got the luan in place, (and it does snug behind the cabinets nicely), we used aluminum threshold from Lowes for a divider trim.  Max attached it with tech screws - it already is pre-drilled.  It cuts easily with a hacksaw for the curves where it meets the window trim.

 This is the "master bedroom" portion of the Airstream, showing the walls of the storage area under the bed still aluminum. (I later painted the floor white!)





And to the right is the "great room" section of the Airstream.


The "interior" walls, were painted in place.  Behind the dinette we removed the old fabric (the U-shaped trim piece can be pulled off with gentle persuasion - it just has tiny nails in the bottom of the U holding it in place) and where there was vinyl we sanded it and painted over it (discovered it was better to skip the primer on this).  Thus, see the bathroom sink area below.

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.