Month: August 2015

I FINALLY made a decision about how to make the curtain tie backs, and I also decided to use the green ribbon.  It seemed like a simple enough project–sew some Velcro onto the ribbons and then sew the ribbons onto the curtains–but it took forever.  I made the first ones (for the front window) on August 16th.

I didn’t get the others done until August 23rd…

  

The ribbon I used was only 7/8″ wide, which meant that I had to cut tiny little pieces of Velcro and then sew it into place.  I was surprised by how tough the “plastic” part of the Velcro was AND how hard it was to push a needle through it.  So no pictures of my progress; my hand sewing isn’t all that neat, but hey–they serve the purpose.  We both like the color because it adds a nice, bright contrast to all of our blue!

The next project was replacing the chains.  A couple of months ago Wayne  sawed off the old chains and the bolt holding them because they were horribly rusted.  Getting the new bolt in place and tightened was quite the challenge, though, since there wasn’t a lot of room to work in the space where it needed to go.  It took some doing, but he finally got them on securely.

The new chain is much heavier and longer than the old chain and so NOW we’re wondering if we’ll have to find a bolt cutter so we can shorten them.  We’re also not sure how much slack we need to leave–certainly enough to make sharp turns–but when does enough slack become too much slack?  Currently they’re about 5.5″ above the ground, which seems a little low….

I thought I’d be able to let the extra chain hang down from the hitch, but it was too long.  I looped the end of it back into the hook, but I’m not sure if this is a good idea or not.

Also, our “break away” cable is too long.  That shouldn’t be too difficult to shorten, and I guess we’ll need to because I doubt if we should just loop it all around on its hook….  (I’m waiting to hear back from Scamp experts about both the chains and cable.)

After connecting everything, we checked to make sure that the lights and turn signals were working (yes), and then Wayne moved the trailer a few feet over in the driveway.  This will make it easier to get in and out of since we’ve been way too close to a flower bed on the side of the house.   It wasn’t an issue until just recently, and I guess that some of my Black Eyed Susans literally have black eyes since we’ve stepped on them!

On a very positive note, the past two weekends we’ve “camped” in our yard!  So cool!  The new Memory Foam mattress is very comfortable, and I’ve surprised myself by sleeping very soundly.  And so funny–the trailer seems really BIG when it’s dark inside and you look from the very back to the very front….

I can now fully understand why people sometimes use their trailers as “guest rooms,” and also why they just go hang out in them to read or to work.  I’m so glad that we’re finally able to use it–even if it IS in our driveway. 🙂

 

 

 

It’s been a good summer!  While our trailer isn’t quite ready for its first camping trip, we’ve gotten a lot done on it over the last few months, plus we’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of the other fun things we’ve done, too.  If we can find the time–given our crazy school year schedules–maybe we’ll be able to do some fall camping.

Aside from building the doors for the front of the bed extension (and painting or staining it), Wayne has pretty well finished up this project.  It looks really good, it’s very strong and stable, and we’ll have lots of storage space underneath.

Last spring we bought an air mattress, thinking it would be a fast and relatively inexpensive way to finish the bed, but when we measured the height of the platform a couple of weeks ago, we realized that it would be too tall!  We have outlets on the bed side of the cabinets and the air mattress would completely block them…. Well, darn….

A lot of folks with RVs–and especially with Scamps–have recommended Memory Foam, so I used the credit from the return of the air mattress and ordered a 6″ Memory Foam mattress.  I’d read that this type of mattress could be cut to fit the curved walls of the trailer, so that led to the search for a used electric knife.  I found one in the third thrift shop I visited. 🙂

On Friday, August 14th, we put a tarp out in the yard and removed the mattress from the box and packaging.  We unfolded it, and it immediately started to expand.  After waiting a little while, we unzipped the outer cover on the mattress and then cut and peeled back the inner liner to reveal the foam.  Using the curved plywood from the bed platform as a template, we traced the shape onto the foam.  We were so busy doing all of this that I neglected to take pictures!

After cutting the foam (actually very easy to do with the electric knife!), I pulled the inner liner back up over the newly-rounded corners.

I stitched this back into place, then we zipped up the outer cover and took the mattress into the trailer to finish expanding.  SO COOL!  We have a bed!

We also have a new spare tire (and cover), which fits on the bolts that I’d cleaned up on the back.

The current project is the installation of an air conditioner in the closet.  We temporarily removed the upper “floor” of the closet in order to have better access to the space.

There was an air conditioner in the closet at some point in the trailer’s history, so there is already an extra-large vent on the outside, some wooden support pieces, and a drain hole and tubing through the floor.  (We had an outlet for the A/C put in the closet when we had the other electrical work done.)

We bought a thin sheet of foil-lined Styrofoam insulation, as well as a small litter box.  Litter box?  We’ll modify and re-purpose it so that it will serve as a drip pan for condensation.  The insulation (and foil tape) will be used to create a sealed “box” within the closet so that the A/C will do all intake and exhaust through the vent, keeping it separate from the air inside of the trailer.

We are SO pleased with how pretty and how comfortable our little trailer is becoming!

Oh, yeah…. This is going to be nice!

Oh, my….  Summer is moving way too quickly now; we’ll both be back at school in a week or two!

We greatly enjoyed a short, mid-week trip to the beach, and we checked out a few campgrounds while we were there.  First Landing State Park has a nice campground, and our favorite sites were beach side in area “D”:

We also visited Holiday Trav-L Park near the resort area–and it was HUGE.  While I’d prefer to stay at First Landing, this place is open year-round.  Might not be a bad option for a late fall or early spring camping weekend when state parks aren’t open….

The last campground we toured was Virginia Beach KOA.  While I wasn’t overly impressed with the campsites, the cabins were really cute.

But back to work on the home front, this weekend Wayne put up the cross piece supports in the bathroom, and everything is so very sturdy!  Aside from figuring out how we want to secure the “Luggable Loo” when the trailer is moving, this area is just about done.  Still no firm plan regarding a door (eventually) or a curtain (short-term), but it looks nice.

He also finished framing in the bed extension–just a few more things to do to have that ready!

It was getting warm in the trailer, so I plugged in the fan, turned it on–and nothing happened.  Wayne reminded me that we weren’t plugged up to the house, but I honestly thought that the battery would power the outlets.  Wrong.  So this was my introduction to the reality of 12-volt battery power: it works with the 12-volt lights in the trailer, but it doesn’t work with things that aren’t 12-volt.  I seriously had no idea….  Looks like we might need to purchase a 12-volt fan for times when we might not have electrical hook-ups….

THEN I realized that the air mattress we’d bought last spring was going to be too tall for the bed platform.  Not only would it block the outlets on the back wall of the cabinets, it would also increase the odds of accidentally kicking out a window at night!  Not good…  SO not good that we returned it to the store Sunday afternoon and started pricing Memory Foam mattresses.  We haven’t placed an order yet, but I think that will be our next semi-major expenditure.  (Last week I ordered a spare tire and tire cover for the trailer.)

On the positive side, after returning the air mattress, we wound up at Lowes again (what weekend is complete without a trip there?) where we bought more wood screws, some dark wood putty and wood for the future dinette frame.  We also went to Michael’s, and I was simply astounded by the selection of ribbon–WOW!  Standing in the ribbon aisle with the full range of colors in front of me was similar to the feeling I get when I go to a greenhouse in early spring; I literally bask in the splendor of color energy!  So many choices, so much to choose from! VERY impressed!

I’m still thinking that I’ll try to do tie-back “bands” for the curtains using pieces of ribbon.  If it doesn’t work, I can always make them out of the pieces of fabric I have left.  I couldn’t decide which color of ribbon would look best, though, so I bought 3 different rolls.  I’m kind of leaning towards the green, just for the “accent” feature.  What do you think?