Airstream updates.

Back in Ontario, parked at our special little spot behind the barn (courtesy of our good friends..!!) we had an opportunity to make some changes to the trailer. Having lived in it for a year now….there were a couple of things we wanted to do. For those of you who knew us in our house owning days you will not be surprised to see us making the wee tin house a little more our own.

No. 1 was the shower. It had never made sense to us…the glass door in a travel trailer (it’s heavy…and breakable..!!) and from early on the spacer at the bottom had failed, necessitating that one lift the door before opening or closing…..it was just awkward…!! It must have heard us grumbling about it. The day after we got back, we had just measured the gap to go and buy a tension rod for the space……when it quite literally …just fell off…!!! we were very lucky that this did not happen on the road, or when someone was standing beside it.

So….Scott set to stripping out the rest of the frame and the metal around the edge of the opening. I should probably have taken some pictures of that process….but I mostly just stayed out of the way…!!! ( Editor. That was, as usual, the smart play. It was not easy with ungentlemanly language or high volume being of no help )

The next step was to rethink the tension rod. We did not like the idea of that outward pressure on the shower walls…..so the solution to that was to install brackets, like you would use in a closet, to slot the rod in to.

…and the reno was completed with the new shower curtain….and removing that useless towel rail in there and replacing it/covering the screw holes with some bathroom specific command hooks. Waaaaay more useful…!!!

Next…to continue with the bathroom theme…..that blooming blinking big mirror in the bathroom…..!!! Its big, heavy, breakable…and the edge of it sits on the counter level…which means it tracks water up behind it and destroys the edge of the mirror. The photo of the mirror below shows a couple of layers of tape covering the surface. Amazingly it came out in one piece but if it hadn’t……

Solution, Ikea kids acrylic mirrors x 4, and once they were in…I alien taped a small magnifier between them…et voila..!!!

While we are pulling things off the wall……the television and its cumbersome articulating wall mount just had to go. We just don’t watch it…too much other stuff to do it would seem..!!! That and my work station spot is right there……and its sooo uncomfortable behind your head…….much better replaced with a pegboard. If we do feel the need for a movie on a rainy day there’s always the laptop which will blue tooth to the trailer sound system or our digital projector which will do the same thing.

The dinette cushions had their fabric replaced with a cool Sunbrella fabric in the winter. (Scott the seamster again..!!). We also took the opportunity to replace the High Density foam in all the seat cushions. It was really beginning to show its age and had lost any desire to be comfortable.

Next….the tabletop in the dinette. The before was this bland, off white arborite.

The after…..this very beautiful piece of elm sourced by good friend Bruce of Dunks custom log sawing.

Scott chopped the corners and varnished the underside…..for any of you looking replace the table please either lose the corners or radius them. You’ll know why the first time you catch your hip on it if you don’t.

Then the scary bit……our first attempt at epoxy resin. Its supposed to be the equivalent of 75 coats of varnish….so it seemed like the trick….!!

Once you pour it on, you have to heat out the little bubbles that form over the next 45 minutes…!!!

Then the hardware from the original table was swapped over…..Mr engineer made fancy little templates to get the screws in the right place.

….and the finished article. Turned out pretty well we think…..!!!

But now the other kitchen counter needs done…….and the curtains…!!!

Our last big problem to solve was creating some airflow under the mattress. A subject of many of the online forums for prolonged stays in RV’s…the accumulation of condensation under the mattress. Our short term solution has been to prop it up and air it out every two to three days…not particularly convenient…but effective.

We had been debating this one since the winter, and it was part of the plan for the Ontario stop, to build a slat frame under the mattress. (Another job for Scott…!!) Build it in situ, it won’t fit through the door.

It does make the underbed storage a little less handy to get in to….but it works a treat on letting the mattress breathe.

So much for any kind of break back in Ontario……but we got a lot done…..!!!