Well, it rained

it rained HARD last night. I was hoping the rain would hold off for awhile, because we havent done the roof seal coat yet, and the people we bought the trailer from had replaced the vent- so I wasnt certain of its holding power considering all of their other “repairs”.

Plus, all of the cushions are currently piled in the driveway under a tarp. Oops, but nowhere else to put them, frankly.

So I just wandered out to take a look…

NO WATER IN THE TRAILER! NOWHERE! I checked every seam, every corner, every vent, every window… nada!

 

 

 

 

…..sadly, cushions act alot like sponges when completely and totally waterlogged. Woops.

Too funny not to share

Remember…

Wallpaper

Its harder than I thought…..

It also will need to be painted, despite their claims that it doesnt have to be….

BUT, really its looking quite nice and three rolls ($60 total) to do the whole trailer is pretty affordable!

Looks like real beadboard, huh!? I think once its all painted, trimmed out, and finished you wont be able to tell its wallpaper. And it saved us so much weight and cutting to use paper instead of real beadboard. Hooray!

Just some adorable inspiration trailers

I believe this one may be an Aloha, but a smaller version than ours. The colors are so close to the original yellow! We are doing the tape trick the same as they did here, as well.

Cute cute paint job!

Same body style as ours, but its a Shasta not an Aloha.

I cant get over how adorable that little flower box is… probably not practical for cruising down the highway though!

A Bike rack is on the must have list!

This will in fact be the scene at our girl campouts! Pretty dresses, pretty trailer, pretty scenery, pretty girls!

 

More kitchen inspiration

I’ll do a post in the future showing our pump sink system, its very simple but I know instructions and pictures help sometimes. Its a two tank, 5 gallon bottle system. One bottle holding clean water, the other for grey water.

The sink water is pumped by hand out of the clean water tank, and the drain goes into the grey water tank. The two tanks will take up almost all of the under sink space, but a functional sink is something I really want.

I have 49″ of space to work with for the “kitchen” area, from the bed over to the dining/folding table bed area. First I’ll put in a 36″ sink base cabinet, it needs to be wood because we must cut a large notch out of the back for the wheel well. I’ve tried cutting particle board before and what a nightmare… especially with a jigsaw, so wood it will be. This cabinet will hold all of the “plumbing” and our sink.

Next to that I will add a 12″ base cabinet thats perfect for holding cutting boards, small pans/pots, knifes, and random items that wont fit on my wall storage system. Together thats 48″ of cabinets, PERFECT for my space, and more than enough storage for our needs. It wont be light, so I am going to keep that in mind and have scrapped plans for upper cabinets, but I think wood is the right choice. They are unfinished so I can paint or stain them any way that I like. I’m actually considering red or aqua, depending on the rest of the decor I decide on. We’ll see!

There are two sinks at IKEA I have my eye on… the first round, the second rectangular.. both pretty affordable and the right size for the space.

I’m sure I’ll go with the square, but I wanted to share the round because how damn cute is that? Who knows, maybe that extra $20.00 is worth it, its pretty unique. There already was a pump sink faucet in the trailer, from the previous owners, so we’re set on that! That does save us $24.00, so maybe the round sink WILL end up being the winner. Time will tell. For countertops I’m leaning towords IKEA precut butcherblock, its affordable and easy to cut to length, and the excess makes lovely cutting board. I dont really want to mess with tile or anything complicated, so thats likely the direction I’ll go.

Wallpaper inspiration

We need to re-wallpaper the walls, as they are not smooth enough for my liking, for paint. I remembered a product that we used in my nephews bedroom years ago, and decided to try and hunt it down. It was a paintable beadboard look wallpaper. Turns out, there are a quite a few resources for it, Home depot has it (its martha stewart brand) and the reviews are great – but Lowes has it in stock, in their Allen+Roth brand, which I have had luck with in the past. Time is not on our side, with winter coming, so I will be picking it up at Lowes as soon as possible.

Its pre-pasted, thick (so it covers imperfections) and the reviews are fabulous. It doesnt give specifications on how much it covers, but 56sq feet is standard, so I’m going to assume its around that. Based on that, I will need 3 rolls for the side walls, and for the front and back walls I have something special in mind….

Maps! This is an example of a wall sized decal but I may work more along the lines of a decoupage road map look. You can find old road atlas and road maps from time to time, some wallpaper paste and bam you’re in business. I think it would be super cute on the dining area side of the camper, if not the bed side as well.

I know these are furniture examples but it will work great on the wall as well.

Kitchen Storage Inspiration

If we end up not having enough space for a wall cabinet in the kitchen, I have some other fun options to play with.

For cups, hooks. These literally are “cup hooks” but there are S hooks that would work nicely along with an IKEA wall storage system….

A little inspiration

 

Moroccan White Leather Poufs

Old Lace curtains turned into screens

Magazine holders as wall storage!

 

IKEA BOLLO folding tables

 

A lovely inspiration trailer

Space Planning

Heres what we want our trailer to have:

• A Queen bed (unheard of in a 13′ trailer, usually!) with storage underneath
• A wide bunk above that bed, that would fit a child up to 70 pounds
• A small sink (it will be a pump sink, as this trailer has no tanks)
• A small food prep area, may use butcherblock countertops
• Wall storage above food prep area
• A table area that turns into a twin bed
• Wall storage where the closet previously was. Storage for books, magazines.
• 3 lights. I want one over the dining area, over the kitchen, and over by our bed for nighttime reading. Make that four, I’d also like an outside light.
• A few plug ins, one by the kitchen area, one by the table. We will have a battery installed, it will have the ability to run off our truck, and the ability to be plugged in. Mostly the plugs will be for charging laptops, cell phones, and running DVD players or DSI’s for bored kids. Wouldnt hurt to be able to run a blender from time to time. You know, margaritas in the mountains….

What we dont need:

• A closet. When we’re camping, I dont expect my clothes to be unwrinkled. There will be plenty of storage under and over the table, as well as under the bed, for clothing. I love the wide open space we have currently, adding a closet back in would close it in. We may add a lightweight bookcase, such as an IKEA Billy, that is less than 12′” depth. The old closet was 24″
• A fridge, microwave, stove, or oven. If possible we may put the stove/oven back in, but only if it works- we still arent sure. Frankly when we’re camping I ENJOY doing my cooking outside. I plan meals that dont require the use of a stovetop, or if they do, I use my small propane stove. So I wont be heartbroken not to have a stove. In a camper this small, its just not our priority.
• A bathroom. Simply too small of a trailer for a potty. We will be eventually buying a portapotty and a “shower tent” (about $200 for both) as well as a portable shower bag. This all will sit outside the trailer, but offer privacy for showering, and potty breaks if we’re camping somewhere that doesnt have facilities.

Knowing all this, we can start to plan out the space.

So, this totally makes sense to me but only because I did it. Let me explain it…. the boxes inside the space are the wheels. They are 13″ tall at the center, slope down, and are 12″ wide. They are 32″ long. The red square is the queen bed. It will extend to halfway over the wheels, and the whole underside will be storage, big enough for my craft show tent, our large coleman easy up tent, sleeping bags, chairs, fishing gear, basically everything, We can fit ALOT under there. ABOVE the bed will be a 3′ wide bunk, wide enough for me to feel safe with a child sleeping up there, and supported by more than a TEENY metal bracket.

Measuring from the bed over to where the benches for the table/bed combo on the other side is 49″. In that 49″ I need to fit a sink, and the rest will simply be countertop space. The cabinet will have to go over the wheel well, so we will just cut the cabinet so it fits over the top and conceals it nicely. I may put up a wall cabinet if I can find one that fits nicely, otherwise I’ll use other solutions for the wall storage.

On the reverse wall, over the other wheel well, I may put a narrow bookcase, but more likely I’ll work with unique wall storage options. I like the idea of putting a few “poufs” (such as Moroccan poufs or ottomans) in there as well, for extra seating. It looks so small on paper but truly the space feels SO LARGE right now, all empty. We debated the queen bed for some time but in the end I agreed it was the most comfortable option, and we will use it as a couch during the day if needed. I can make some big cozy body pillows to turn it into a day bed.