Trailer rehab

We picked up this Coachmen beauty from Craigslist in June for $850. Straight outta 1973, that 70's smell included. Had it rehabbed just in time for Burning Man. It was quite a project, but a fun one. I felt much more creative with the trailer than I could with the house; you can't just fix a hole in your bedroom with staples and duct tape, but it works magic in a trailer!

It went from a dank, wood-paneled dirt-covered fiasco to a light, tranquil, fresh-smelling oasis!

I started with new upholstery-- which could have been cheap. I found some awesome retro fabric from Home Fabric and Upholstery for $5/yard, but busted my sewing machine in the process. So, $200 later, got a used commercial strength Kenmore beauty to finish the job nicely. I learned how to make box cushions which will come in handy later. They are pretty simple, but some are really really odd-looking. Good thing this is "just" the B-Man trailer, and good experience for the sofa I hope to do in the next month or so.

The cabinets took a while... they are all wood, but the doors are particle board with wood-look vinyl on them. Ick. What to do? I tried painting them, even used primer but just ended up with a clumpy mess. So I had to strip them, which left them with a fake-wood whitewashed kind of look. It'll do. With the rest of the wood painted white, it actually looks great. The ceiling had some water damage, but instead of replacing it with melamine, I simply used staples to hold white duct tape together, then finished it with more duct tape. It matches really well, and looks just like a vinyl seal. Really, it does.

I found a beige berber carpet remnant for $40 at a carpet store and made a reverse template of the floor, then laid it out in my garage and did a pretty darn good job of cutting it up to fit. No more 70s brown and yellow!

There was some wallpaper in the bathroom and kitchen area that I painted over using oil-based primer. Also painted the wood paneling white after caulking every little hole. The foam I saved, but aired it out on the deck for a couple days after spraying with bleach, water, then febreeze. Also treated it with carpet powder and vacuumed it off. Don't know which one did it, but the 70s smell is totally gone!

Brandon revamped the water holding tank, refurbed the water pump, and made all the lights work. None of which was easy. But we finally had showers out there!! I painted the fake wood stripe on the outside to match the truck, and did flat black on everything else that wasn't white. We caulked all the edges and seams on the outside, and after 3 trips to the DMV that baby was ready to roll!! At Burning Man it performed beautifully!

We also got a solar charger for the battery, so actually had solar charging our battery, which we used only for the water pump and lights. The stove is propane, and unfortunately didn't have time to get to the fridge....which I hear is a major deal in RVs. Oh well, block ice worked fine, and we were able to sleep in till 11am some days!!