Updated Photos

We have built and installed the custom door and have begun working on finalizing the interior and other details to make this trailer complete. Below are a number of images of the work that has been done! Enjoy!





















More photos to come as we keep working!

Getting Ready to Sell

Well we've completed the exterior and only have a few things left on the interior to fix up, including the floor and the painting, and we are getting ready to sell this project!

It has been quite a project and we are ready to sell it to someone who will be able to use it to its fullest potential!

Here are the latest shots of the exterior. I will post pictures of the finished interior as soon as it is completed.

Rainy Day Post

Due to the fact that the weather has taken an odd turn towards fall and the day is foggy, wet, and about 60 degrees, it seemed like a good time to put up the most recent photos of the trailer, as no work can be done in this weather!

The sides are on, and the interior is nearly finished. Photos proving these facts can be found below:



Door side with new aluminum.


Driver's side with new aluminum.


A new kitchen!


Retro-styley table.

Long time no Post!

Due to some unexpected developments in the life of sheeboobles, I have let this blog fall by the wayside. However, things have sorted themselves out in the way of life, and I have new pictures for you today!

After a bit of a break (due in combination to a move and 100+ degree weather that made it impossible to work outside for longer than 3 seconds...) we have completed the interior plumbing and the wiring, have started work on the insulation, and soon will begin work on the new aluminum skin! It's very exciting, and here are some shots to give you an idea of how things are looking now.




Additionally, here is a glimpse of the remodeled interior: rather than re-create the old fold down table and picnic style benches, we worked a U-shaped dining area with a platform table in the middle. The PVC pipes adjust to allow for the table to be lowered to the level of the surrounding benches, creating a large sleep space.

Interior Construction

The paneling has been completed and the interior construction has begun! Give us a few more days and we might actually be able to sleep in the trailer instead of in the increasingly cramped makeshift bedroom in the back of my pick-up.

We had to get creative to make sure the warpy paneling actually stuck to the frame with the liquid nails we used to apply it - as you can see, we spun a web of craaaazy-ness! (yes, I'm giddy...deal with it!)



With the windows cut out, the paneling up and the beginnings of a frame for the benches/bed, the trailer is beginning to take on an actual form, and look less like an exercise in L-bracket installation.

For the record, if I have to buy one more package of L-brackets, I may blow up in the middle of Lowes:

"Clean-up in the hardware isle."

Alternatively, I may lose my mind all together and start dressing dogs in funny clothing, completely humiliating them and making me laugh maniacally; a non-sequitor, yes, but I had to figure out a way to include this picture in this post:



p.s. - it should also be noted that "non-sequitor" isn't in my computer's spell check. I find that shameful.

We are approaching our deadline, however now that the trailer is closed in things certainly appear to be moving along quicker than they were. We are still frequently victims of the weather, however, and I have blown dry the walls with my trusty hair-dryer more often than I care to admit. The tarp is now permanently erected as a makeshift tent, giving the trailer a decidedly blue glow but keeping the majority of it dry...mostly.



Monsoon conditions aside, the water tank is now in as well, and we are working to get the other appliances to follow - aside from some trouble with the fridge, everything works and the originals will be going back in. Here is the water tank and the bed frame above it coming together:



We have even taken to sitting in the trailer in our make-shift sitting room (below), although given the fact that the weather has decided to stay unseasonably cold, I don't sit out there as often as I'd like.



Next on the list is complete framing the interior and stain the walls - will certainly post again as soon as I can, possibly with more silly animal pictures...

I have walls....kinda....!

With deconstruction completed, the partner in crime and I began our ambitious re-construction phase last week. We basically (as I'm sure you saw) started over from scratch. For those of you who may be reading this as a result of an interest in classic trailers, the following list contains the materials used in our reconstruction:

12 2x2's (floor)
3 sheets 1/2' plywood (floor)
3 sheets 1 1/2' foam board insulation (floor)
40+ 1x2's (aka furring strips - frame)
1 sheet 1' plywood (shaped frame)
2 4x4 (ceiling corner supports - shaped with skill saw!)
6 2x4 (ceiling trusses - tapered at ends to 3/4' as was done in the original construction)

Additionally, we used an obscene number of L brackets, a few T brackets, approximately 24 bolts (to bolt the new floor to the old trailer), and a few framing ties when necessary.

The process was basically to build the frame for the floor based upon the measurements taken from the original construction. This was done with the 2x2's. Once completed, the floor was squared up and the three sheets of plywood were screwed into the 2x2 frame. Keep in mind we're working outside, not on flat surfaces, so squaring up the floor was more of a challenge that it would have been in a garage or other indoor workplace. Suffice it to say, we got quite creative.

Once the plywood was screwed into place, we flipped the floor over and cut our 1 1/2' foam insulation to size, fitting it into the spaces created by the frame. A blank square (which you can see in the photo below) was left so as to make room for the holding tank for the toilet.



Once this task was completed, we then removed the aluminum under-skin that sits under the floor (the only piece of original aluminum left in this trailer) and flipped it over, placing it atop the newly insulated floor. This was done by lining up the edges of the cut outs in the aluminum with the appropriate section of the frame. Once done we screwed it in, careful to avoid the places where the steel frame of the trailer sat, or where bolts were to be located, and then hauled it over and set it on the frame, the end result looks like this:



The floor of the trailer was by far the most frustrating part of this project (so far) because so much work was required and there was barely anything to show for it. However, this was soon forgotten when, once bolted in, we moved on from the floor and began framing the walls. Again, we did our best to square everything up and make sure all was level (difficult due to our being out of doors) and managed to keep a consistent width and height throughout. However, the driver's side is exactly 3 inches longer than the passenger's side.

I have no idea how this happened, but if it means I get a bigger bathroom (even by 3 inches!) then I don't care.

The framing was fairly straightforward, the only exception being the shaped pieces that created the corners of the trailer. We created a template and as a result the angles of the back and front are the same, whereas in the old construction, we're pretty sure the back was more acute, resulting in less length. As a result, my trailer is approximately 5 inches longer than before...which means more counter space! Yee-ha!

You can see the construction progress below:


The beginning of the work!


Note the shaped edges.


Trusses up and me working hard...kind of.

Also, note the beautiful grain in the 4x4 below. This is the main corner support and as a result of it's loveliness, rather than cover it with molding, I'm going to stain it in order to bring out the grains (p.s., this is over the kitchen):



And last, but certainly not least, because the frame was finally completed this weekend we began the task of paneling the interior! I was lucky to find 3/8' birch plywood at the local Lowe's for a pittance, and we have completed the front wall. For the time being we are adhering it only with Liquid Nails, seeing as almost every piece of paneling will be nailed to the frame as a result of cabinetry and interior walls. I haven't decided on a stain yet, so we're putting the wood up "naked". I plan to stain it in one fell swoop when it's all up.



Stay tuned for more pics - next on our list is wiring, gas lines, and plumbing, and after that will be interior framing (closet, bathroom wall), staining, cabinetry building...actually if I list any more I'll get tired.

Trailer Porn!

Fully exposed! Like you've never seen before! The following post contains graphic, even shocking images. You've been warned!

Deconstruction has been completed and the project has moved on to the construction phase. Due to a tendency to be thorough and an overwhelming amount of rot, the deconstruction phase led us to a point we had not anticipated going:



Yes, that's correct gentle readers, we took the whole thing apart and decided to start from scratch. When you have finished with your guffaws and "wtf's", please read on for the explanation as to why we were forced to start over completely. And no, it's not because I'm crazy.

If you will recall, this whole project began as a result of obvious water damage in the front driver's side corner of the trailer. As we removed paneling we noticed that not only was the wood rotted, but the frame was falling apart. Since I wanted my new home to be structurally sound, the decision was made to completely demolish the existing frame and start over. This demolition led us to the fact that all the floorboards were rotted out, and since it would be impossible to adhere brand new walls to rotted out floors, we bit the bullet, and ended up with the shiny piece of metal you saw above. An example of the state of the frame - the picture below is the most structurally sound portion of the entire trailer before demolition:



Unfortunately the roof also collapsed once we had removed the paneling from the entire passengers side, a lovely picture of which is below:



If anyone has ever wanted to know what a trailer's worth of trash looks like, here it is:



The advantage of having finished deconstruction is, of course, the fact that I get to construct! We bought the materials for and began working on the floor yesterday, and had we not run out of wood (we were short 6 lousy feet) we would have been done with the whole thing this morning. Thanks to the skills of my partner in crime, we even managed to recreate the angle in the frame to allow for the curve of the trailer. I've provided more pictures below. Hopefully the next time I post the floor will be finished and *gasp* there might even be a wall or two!

Fridge-less

Much progress was made today on the trailer! Removed was more of the paneling, all of the doors (both to the cabinets, the closets, and the front door itself), and most excitedly we took out the refrigerator and the propane heater.

Work really seems to be coming along nicely, and if the weather continues to cooperate, I am hopeful that we will have the deconstruction complete before the end of the week, which will mean that we can begin actual construction before the end of the month! You can't see it, but I'm doing a little happy dance in my chair.

The work is generally fun, but I'm finding that the main reason I'm enjoying it so much has more to do with the fact that its my project than with the specifics of the project itself. I think that this is appeasing my biological clock to a certain extent; allowing me to create a nest, etc., and providing an outlet for all my "settling" energy.

Which frankly isn't all that settled, but the idea of having my own home has been appealing to me for some time. The fact that this particular home is mobile seems to be the best solution to the problem of integration which I have faced in the past. Regardless, I'm having a great time!

Below are the photos of the specifics:


Here is the fridge with the door off, prior to disassembly.


Here is the fridge vent on the side of the trailer (this is now a hole for the sunshine!)


Here is the counter area without the fridge - you can see the sun peeking through now.


This is what the area where the fridge was looks like now.

And lastly, the heater before:



And after!

Is it summer yet?

I have returned to my trailer after a week of vacationing in the luxurious apartments of my mommy. Thanks mommy :) Sleeping in the truck is still oddly comfortable however, which is good to know. I'm glad I didn't get soft during my stint in civilization!

Upon my return I was saddened to see that my plants had suffered the worst of the cold weather while we were gone. I fear my orchid may never recover from the ridiculously cold evenings Santa Fe got last week. The poor thing froze, possibly to death, and is currently on life support in the relative warmth of my father's house. I, being a girl, will weep if it succumbs to the freezer burn it appears to have suffered.

Note to self: do not leave tropical plants in a trailer in New Mexico in April.

Deconstruction-atin' the countryside!

Lets hope someone gets that reference...

Regardless of my internet dorkiness, much has been accomplished in the world of trailer trashing! Benches have been removed, walls have been exposed, floors have been scraped, and the cat has slept through all of it.



Minor arguments have been had over the level of pure neolithic demolition necessary to remove the paneling and insulation, however for the most part the process has been smooth, resulting in the exposure of nice, shiney, aluminum siding, chock full of holes.

It has also become blatantly obvious that the previous owner's attempts at "refurbishing" involved hiring a group of chimpanzees and equipping them with all the improper tools. There is a literal spoog of caulk located in the most water damaged section, ostensibly to keep more water from coming in. Unfortunately, the placement was so inappropriate and the technique so poor, that they failed miserably.



However, aside from the few leaky spots (such as the corner mentioned above and the pieces directly supporting the roof) the majority of the wood is still in good shape. It will require reinforcement, as the wood staples originally used are doing a poor job of holding everything together, however it doesn't appear as though we will have to re-frame the whole thing. In addition to normal wear and tear, the occult evidence of the accident this trailer was involved in is more obvious in the frame now that the paneling has been removed. A part of me is amazed it has stayed together as long as it has.

All in all, things are coming along nicely. Stay tuned for more pictures of the trailer and funny anecdotes illustrating my lack of patience and inability to laugh at myself!