If you know my family you know that we frequently come to the end of a project high-fiving, smoothing down frizzled hair, and patting out flames on our shoes. The College Camper fiasco was no different.
I lost 4 shirts, 1 pair of shoes, the knuckle of my right middle finger, and countless hours of sleep to the project, but we made it to the finish line.
And forgot to take pictures.
Oldest took pictures after he had been at Texas Tech for a week. He cleaned for you. Be impressed – it’s probably the last time the camper will be clean this semester – but his version of cleaning and mine is a tad different. So that’s why you had to wait three months for the before and after pictures.
Thanks to the Coronavirus, the College Camper is once again parked in front of my barn and Oldest is raiding my refrigerator.
Before …Now.Before …Before …After. Excuse the mess. It’s spring at the farm and there are implements and projects strewn everywhere in various states of repair.
Before …
After. Advice? Don’t let men decide where the toilet paper holder goes.
The College Camper made its maiden voyage with a 4-hour drive to Lake Somerville, TX. Not only did it survive the trip there, but it also came back in one piece and has since driven to Austin and back – another 8-hour round trip.
It took Hubs and me about an hour into the trip to stop worrying about something falling off the trailer.
What we’ve learned:
Problem #1: Oldest can’t drive over 65 when towing the trailer. The fix: Suck it up buttercup.
Problem #2: The brand new shower head was defective. The fix: Get a new showerhead.
Problem #3: The aluminum windows are sealed well but the metal conducts whatever the outside temperature is to the inside of the trailer. The fix: Thermal curtains.
Problem #4: It takes twice as long as normal to get gas because people keep coming up and admiring the camper. The fix: Who are we kidding? This is not a problem, this is awesome.
We parked Grant’s trailer next to ours at the state park and spent the week touring Washington County in Texas. Once the most populated and wealthiest area, it’s known as the birthplace of the Republic of Texas. The entire county is full of history and also home to Blue Bell Creamery.
Yes, we ate ice cream. It would’ve been rude not to.
We cooked our meals in a dutch oven over the fire, spent hours talking under the stars at night, and didn’t work on the trailer one bit.
Glorious.
Lake Somerville State Park
Then we came home and Hubs built the desk, the pantry, and cut out all the new cabinet doors.
I painted.
Again.
New desk. Dinette with new table legs and cushions.The newly built pantry cabinet.
Plans for the next week?
paint the new cabinet doors
paint the dinette walls with black chalkboard paint
I’m not gonna sugarcoat it – we’re grumpy. The camper takes its inaugural trip soon and we all feel immense pressure to get everything finished.
Make no mistake – it’s not going to be completely finished. Oldest will be camping next to us so he can use our 5th wheel for most things. For now, he has a working bathroom, a bed, a heater, and his refrigerator works.
I mean, what more does a 19-year-old guy need?
I’ve spent the last 3 days in various yoga positions painting the interior of the camper. Grant chose Valspar Gravity for the ceiling, walls, and upper cabinets. Naturally, it all needs 2 coats even after the primer coat but the final product is really smooth.
Besides painting, we got the bathroom counter installed, the bed frame finished, the wheels painted, and new tires.
Old wheels and tires.
Fancy wheels and new tires.
New bathroom counter and sink.
The list of things to complete is shrinking.
Unfortunately, new items have been added. All new cabinet doors and drawer fronts must be built. The old material is like foam covered with a laminate sticker. As soon as it gets wet, the foam-like wood bursts through the laminate sticker and that substance will not take paint.
Yay.
Oldest was able to reinstall all the ceiling fixtures last night and the camper survived the trip to the store for tire installation so today is a good day.
I’m sore. Like just-cut-it-off sore. You’d think I’d be used to it by now. I’ve been sore since the beginning of August.
The good news? The skin-melting temperatures are behind us. The bad news? Now it’s freezing. Literally. And let me tell you, these kinds of temps cause fights.
Hubs and I argue about whose turn it is to go out of the heated camper to grab missing tools.
So we’re sore and freezing but hopeful because now we’re putting things back in the trailer.
Demolition is kind of exciting. Fixing is demoralizing. Building is glorious.
Except for the occasional splinters and smashed fingers.
Youngest can usually be heard exclaiming, “Language!” when he makes rare appearances at the worksite. I swear we don’t abuse the english language that often – the kid just has amazing timing.
I know, we’re terrible parents. We’ll worry about it after the camper is done. Like every other thing that has fallen into disrepair since its arrival.
Okay, enough editorializing. Lots to update.
The bathroom wall and bedframe were built this weekend.
New bathroom wall and bed frame. You can kind of see the new chrome shower fixtures.
Hubs and Oldest gave in to my floorplan change and Hubs built a wall cabinet over the soon-to-be desk.
The ceiling is still awaiting its turn to be tacked up.
Boring stuff like the propane installation, toilet plumbing, more caulking, new shower fixtures, filling uneven walls, and lots more priming took way too much time.
We rebuilt the bathroom counter since we couldn’t reuse the one I fell through. The new counter got a laminate surface that looks like concrete. Unfortunately, we couldn’t install it after we read the contact cement instructions that clearly stated the temps had to be above 65 degrees for 72 hours. The thermometer read 23 degrees outside, so the counter is in time-out in the basement.
New bathroom counter. The laminate sheet. It’s going to recover the kitchen counters and the kitchen table too.
Great progress, but the most exciting arrival was the newly finished rock guard. This awning-like piece locks over the front windows during travel to prevent rocks from breaking the glass. Previously, it depicted an ugly mountain scene.
Grant’s rock guard looked identical to this one. Somehow, we missed ever taking pics of it before we primed it. The rock guard has already been primed here but you can see the ugly mountain scene. The surface has a crazy texture of hairy fiberglass.
Now?
Snoopy.
Hubs came up with the idea and his mom, Mary Anne, worked her magic on a surface no one thought could be painted. We all adore it. It’s perfect for Grant since he’s a pilot and loved snoopy as a kid.
Hubs favorite part of the weekend? Moving the camper to the barn. Now it’s closer to his tools.
The camper couldn’t be moved previously due to two windows that wouldn’t close. Thanks to blacksmith Eric who forged new hinges and mailed them from OKC, we were able to install the windows and move the trailer.
Forged by a real-life blacksmith.
We also got this package in the mail.
Did you know you can have an air compressor emergency? Me either. But that’s what the box says. Many thanks to Ingersoll Rand for fast-shipping out the part for our broken air compressor.
Because building things the old-fashioned way is overrated.
For those of you that RV, you understand. For the rest of you – tanks that hold what they are supposed to hold are THE most important aspect of a camper.
Except for tires. But those will come soon.
The black tank, the gray tank, the water heater, and the freshwater tank are now installed and have been tested. No leaks!
Hubs used residential PEX to create a complicated system of valves that can be shut off easily if any plumbing fixture begins to leak in the future and will still allow the other fixtures to be used. Oldest will be able to walk into any home improvement store and get new parts and install them in minutes. All the lines can be drained for winterizing the trailer when not in use. PEX won’t freeze and burst but Hubs mounted it to the underside of the future bed to keep it in the heated interior.
It all makes sense – trust me.
We also installed the toilet. Never has flushing brought me so much joy.
Seriously.
There might or might not have been a fifteen-minute period where the three of us stood around the kitchen sink turning the faucet on and off.
Just because we could.
I also finished filling the hundreds of holes in the wood walls this weekend and completed the priming of the walls and cabinets.
The only complication? We decided to change the floorplan of the kitchen and bedroom.
And by we I mean me.
I know. I know. But, as I reminded Hubs and Oldest when they rolled their eyes at my idea, we haven’t started building the furniture yet. So it’ll be easy.
You know that smell you notice when you walk into an old home? The one that suggests dead things are in the walls? Oldest’s camper definitely had that smell.
Now it smells like oil-based primer.
So. Much. Better.
Unfortunately, the primer has to go on by hand. My cheap spray gun can’t handle the viscosity of primer and thining it doesn’t get the coverage we need.
Hubs got the shower re-set and braced up. If you are an RV owner and have never added braces under your shower, you WILL have a leak. All RV tubs float above the floor and, sooner or later, as people stand on the thin fiberglass, the drain will begin to separate from the trap. The leak won’t always show up near the shower either. Grant’s shower was leaking but the floor was rotting in the bedroom. RVs are rarely parked perfectly level so the water travels until it finds a way out.
We also got the peel and stick tiles installed on the bathroom walls. And by we, I mean Hubs did all the difficult work and I handed him things. The difference in the room is astounding. The plastic tiles are washable and lightweight. Perfect for a camper. The install was not easy with all the cabinets and windows to cut around in such a small space, but the job only took about 2 1/2 hours.
Next up on the worklist? Filling holes in walls, priming, installing the freshwater tank, building the bathroom wall, and installing the bathroom countertop.
And finding a way to keep the goats out of the worksite.
Our oldest son turned nineteen in June and bought his first house in August.
A house on wheels.
The idea is that he can take his house with him to college, internships, and even his first job. The problem? College students are not known for having much money and our son is no different. He spent most of his meager savings on his travel trailer and it still needed to be pushed off a cliff a lot of TLC.
Bathroom
Bedroom
Dining and Kitchen
Kitchen and Bedroom
Dreams of a fresh coat of paint were replaced with the reality of roof repair, replacing the water heater, installing a new sub-floor, replacing corner braces, all new plumbing and all new wiring.
Welcome to home ownership.
Old roof patch job.
Removed bathroom wall to replace subfloor.
Removed bedroom floor, water heater, pluming and fresh water tank.
Yes, that is the shower in the kitchen.
Free air conditioning.
Removed windows and doors to prep for painting and resealing.
Maybe we should just start over …
For the last month, we’ve endured demo mode in 100-degree heat. This past weekend we finally turned the corner and started putting things back into the trailer. Oldest seems more hopeful.
New pex plumbing, insulation, and support beams.
New subfloor in bedroom.
New subfloor in bathroom and hallway.
Probably because he won’t fall through the floor when walking from the bed to the shower.
You know you’ve reached adulthood when you are learning how to rewire your house at the same time you are studying for a Calculus test.
The plan is to have the trailer completely remodeled by the time Oldest transfers to Texas Tech in January. Stay tuned to see if we make it!
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