Holiday? More Like Work Day

On Saturday I drove up to Youngstown to celebrate Easter with my grandma and the rest of the family while Kevin stayed behind and continued work on the Scamp. 

While I did this: 

Kevin turned this: 

Into this: 

Kevin taped the seams of the Ensolite with double sided carpet tape after caulking and priming the seams. Then he primed the entire surface with Kilz primer, and then painted the entire inside of the trailer with a white semi-gloss latex paint. Kevin sent me pictures so I could see the progress while I was away, but I was even more blown away when I saw it in person. It looks so clean and new!!! 

Kevin even painted under the stove and heater cabinet where he replaced the floor. 

I headed back home on Sunday morning. While I was driving, Kevin headed to the store to pick up materials for the next step. 

He picked up the new flooring: 

And the paint for the cabinet doors: 

We decided to go with a gray color called  "Granite" for the doors. Finally!!! We reached a point where I could pitch in and help. I spent the afternoon removing the hardware from the doors, wiping them down, priming, and painting them. 

It's a good thing I was able to manage this on my own, because Kevin discovered one more soft spot in the floor and began the process of replacing it. As I write this, he is fiberglassing the new plywood into place while I wait for the paint to dry on the cabinet doors. It is perfect weather for this project today! 

Here is a picture of the newest hole in the floor. Fortunately, the hole is already fixed thanks to Kevin. 

The Scamp is coming along and we still have daylight left. We'll see what else we can accomplish today! 

Dancing a Jig

Today we took advantage of a day off from work to continue work on the Scamp. We headed out to Lowe's to buy a piece of plywood to fix the hole in the floor. While we were there I found some new silver handles for the cupboard doors on clearance for .61!! I scooped them up even though we won't be ready for those kinds of fun finishing touches for quite a while.

We also stopped at the Dollar Store in search of some "LA's Totally Awesome Cleaner" because it was recommended to us by another Scamp owner. When we got home we got to work scrubbing out the entire inside of the trailer from top to bottom. So much dirt and grime from 30 years came off before our eyes! 

Next, it was time to fix the hole in the floor. In a few hours, Kevin was able to install a new plywood subfloor. He still needs to fiberglass it to the trailer, but at least the floor is solid. Kevin even danced a jig on the new spot just to prove it. 

Up next: we paint the inside of the Scamp with some fresh white paint and we install the new wood laminate flooring I picked out today. 

A Can of Worms

Once we got the Scamp home and in our garage we started the renovations. We are in a bit of a time crunch since we plan to head out on our trip in about 6 weeks, so we've got a lot of work to do in a small amount of time!

First we took out all of the cushions. We want to get the 80s plaid fabric updated so we dropped them off at a local upholstery shop for an estimate. We also took out the curtains and have commissioned my my mom to make us new ones. (Thanks, mom!). 

After some discussion we decided to remove the bathroom. The previous owner took out the toilet, so a shower was all that was in there. The idea of toting around waste water with us is less than appealing, and we can use the restroom/shower facilities at the campgrounds, so we decided we would rather have the living space instead.

Here is what it looked like before: 

Here is what it looked like after:

It was right about at this point that the can of worms was opened. We plan to

Put in a small dinette table where the shower used to be so that one of us can sit there when the main table is down and the bed is set up instead. When Kevin took out the floor of the shower, however, he discovered that the floor underneath was rotted. He called me out to the garage to look at this:

At this point there was no turning back. Kevin tore out all of the rotted wood and is currently in the process of replacing it. It looks like a huge disaster, but Kevin insists he can fix it, so I've got faith that when all is said and done it will be as good as new. To be honest, I'm glad we discovered the issue now rather than while out on the road!

 

Our Next Adventure! We are SCAMPing!

While we were on our road trip last summer a truck drove past us towing a super cute small rv called a Scamp. Immediately I knew it would be perfect for our next adventure! What I didn't know is that these Scamps are quite difficult to track down if you don't want to spend a small fortune on a brand new one. This began a quest that lasted nearly a year. Every morning, noon, and night (NOT an exaggeration), I would check ebay, craigslist, and fiberglass rv forums for a scamp that was in good shape, in our price range, and close enough that we could go and get it once we found "the one." These suckers often sell within a matter of hours after being posted, so we had to be ready to pounce!

Finally, last week, after almost a year of searching, we found our Scamp! It is a 16 foot model built in 1985. It was located in Michigan, and the previous owner was asking just a little more than our 2013 tax return which put it right in our budget. 

It was almost too good to be true! My brother needed to borrow our truck to move a washer and dryer into his new house Michigan, and the Scamp was only a 30 minute drive from his house. After begging the owner to hold on to the Scamp until we could get up there, last weekend Kevin and I made the drive from Columbus to Michigan and bought our new home away from home! 

We are renting a parking space for it at a nearby storage facility, but Kevin found out that it actually fits in our garage after removing the wheels. So, right now our Scamp is temporarily living in our garage while we renovate and update it for our road trip this summer. 

Here are the pictures of the Scamp as we purchased it: 

As you can see, the inside is definitely 80s style. We've got lots of ideas for updates...I'll be posting the renovations as they develop!