Camper People

When we started the Camper project, we planned to do all the work ourselves, just Annie and I. Even if doing it ourselves meant not having a clue WHAT we were doing or probably even doing things absolutely wrong. Here, Annie ponders our next move while checking the integrity of the ceiling.




Lindsey does some work to the newly rebuilt top bunk.









Although we have done the majority of the planning and work ourselves, we have found the help of Zach and Matt invaluable at times. Here Matt fixes the hole where the furnace used to be.

Zach contemplates the wiring.

The guys also modified the axle around so that the camper would have more height. Annie and I had no clue that was a possibility. The camper used to be low-rider, now it is all-terrain. They have also helped with the flooring and other technical stuff.

We would like to think that they are helping because they want to see us succeed, or simply because they love us. We know better. They want to take the camper elk hunting. Nonetheless, we are happy for their assistance.

Besides the guys, other people have helped out also. Thanks to Ky and Andy for researching things for the camper. Thanks to Renae for convincing her grandparents to sell us the camper. Thanks to Renae's grandma for hooking us up with extra sheets and dishes for the camper. Thanks to the Academy for nominating us. Thank you...

We are so close to being "mostly done." We will have some minor things to do later on, but it's time to get this show on the road. Look for the reveal next week!

All Work, No Play

We sincerely apologize for not having any updates or posts lately. This camper business has been all work and no play. We've been slaving away with repairs, painting, and preparations for its maiden voyage. It's a wonder we've been able to hold down our day jobs!


Here Lindsey prepares the bunk for installation. After she made some modifications to it, we installed it and she convinced me to climb aboard to see if it was stable. Kind of like the time she, our other sister, and our two cousins convinced me to get in a sled in the creek. They all reassured me it would float. Needless to say, it sank and left me soaking wet in my snowsuit. They begged me not to go to the house and change for the fear of mother finding out. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, we were all sitting inside, getting a lecture about the dangers of playing near the creek.

This time it turned out a little better. It didn't sink but it definitely needed some reinforcements.

As you cans see, we barely took the time for breaks...

Here Matt shows his suprise at finding yet another rotten wall.

Zach works on the gas line for the stove. I think it helps to stick out your tongue.

No, not quite a chain saw but it works just as good...or something.

Lindsey is all too excited about wearing her new "sitting-around-the-campfire" coat. Gag! I'm sure on those chilly nights, we'll all be fighting over it.

Doing a little Guitar Hero with the flooring. Can you guess what song I'm singing?

Like I said...this camper business is all work and no play. Lindsey had to catch a nap while Annie convinced Matt to finish the flooring.

Our goal is to take a test run this weekend. Our folks are branding their calves and we thought it would be a great time to see if it could make the 115 mile trip. If there are no posts on Monday, you will know that it didn't go so well...

CAMPER CUSHIONS

Countless hours, blood, sweat and tears went into reupholstering the camper cushions. I should rephrase that...Lindsey put countless hours, blood, sweat and tears into it. I sat on the couch eating bon bons while telling her how it should be done.

The previous material was a lovely floral pattern that basically crumbled when you touched it.

Once again I was petrified of mold and could feel my throat tightening up so I'm not sure why I was so eager to model the old material.

Picking out the fabric was a tough decision. Ultimately we wanted some red faux alligator material. However, when you're camping in 112 degree weather, the last thing you want to do is stick to the cushions when you are already playing a heated game of spoons.

We wanted it to be funky and make a splash yet practical and somewhat basic so that it flowed with all of our other design elements. Being on a budget was also a key component in the decision process.

So we ended up going with this combo, which I might add, was all on sale!

We topped all the cushions off with over 100 feet of piping. I was going to go into the riveting details of how to make piping but I will spare all of you. Your welcome!

Here Seamtress Lindsey slaves away on one of the cushion's zippers.

Cushions are complete!

A CAMPER UPDATE...

We haven't posted much about the camper's progress recently. You are probably thinking that we have been eating snack mix and watching TV. Well we have. BUT we have also been slaving away on the camper.

We will post more pics of what we have accomplished so far, but to summarize we have done the following: removed the old furnace, rebuilt the cubby in which the furnace sat, put subfloor down, painted, rebuilt the top bunk, put up trim, painted hardware, picked out fabric, drank a few beers, painted some more, scooped snow out of the camper after one blizzard managed to completely fill the camper after the wind tore a window off, replaced more rotten wood, fabricated a new backsplash for behind the stove, painted the appliances, drank a few more beers, painted a lot more, and completely reupholstered everything. This is not even a complete listing of things we have done so far.

Our original goal of having the camper completed by Easter was severely overshot. We were upset for a moment, then decided to enjoy the journey.

The following pictures show some of the stuff we have done to the kitchen area. It is not finished, but it is closer. The upper cabinet floor had completely rotted out. We unded up ripping that out and replacing it.


Although the green/copper walpaper is neat-o, we thought that it was time for it to go also. That was a mistake. Evidently the wallpaper was the only solid piece of that wall. We had to replaced the wall behind the stove completely also.

We wondered what to do with that wall after we put the OSB in. We bought a roll of aluminum flashing and cut a piece for the backsplash. Can't show that yet though.



We primed the cabinet and decided that it was much better. Notice the canned-pea green stove? It's not canned-pea green anymore. It's rockin' some new paint! We can't show you yet.

BEFORE AND AFTER...

4/Today I will be showing you a before and after redo project that I had done. This redo project was a chair that I purchased and refinished several years ago. But before we get into that, I must confess something.

A few years ago I had a problem. I fondly refer to that stage in my life as the "Chair Era." It started innocently enough. As a newlywed, I needed a couple of chairs in which my husband and I could sit upon as we ate the homecooked meals that I so lovingly prepared for him. So I acquired two antique, somewhat shabby dining room chairs to fulfill that need in our lives. Then I had the opportunity to purchaes a couple more chairs that were quite similar to the others. My rationale was that we may someday have guests and they too would like to be able to sit and enjoy my cooking. It seems that that particular style must have been common as I found and purchased many more of the like. I also thought it would be fun to paint them all different colors. I now realize that was probably violated some interior design law. Not the first time, not the last.

Shortly thereafer, a dear friend purchased a new dining set and generously gave me her six matching antique chairs. Then it seemed to consume me. I would find miscellaneous dining room chairs at auctions or garage sales or people would just give them to me because they knew my love for chairs.

At one point, I took a rough count of dining room chairs, which at this point had been scattered throughout the house. There were 17. I had a full-blown problem. Matt started to question the need for so many chairs when there were only two occupants in the house, and we rarely had guests. Like a junkie, I started to hide them from him. I hid them under piles of clothes; I stacked them on top of each other in less-used closets; I even started stashing them in the crawlspace under our house.

The addiction soon spilled over to chairs of the upholstered nature. I would buy any simply upholstered chair that I thought I could ruin with my rudimentary upholstery skills. This is one of the acquisitions during the "Chair Era."



I purchased it in an antique store in Mitchell. The wood's finish had faded to an ugly olive color. The joints needed to be tightened up. The upholstery was of a hideous nature, somewhat resembling Velco-like Astro turf. It hurt my eyes.

An interesting note about this chair (I don't have pictures of the actual redo process) was what I found when I ripped away the old material. No it was not a mouse nest of Guinness book proportion. It was a note inside the springs of the seat.

In scrolling cursive writing on yellowed paper, the previous owner had written the date and a few other details explaining that they had reupholstered the chair back in 1978. I wish I had taken a picture of the note, or at least remembered exactly what it said.

Before I put the final tack into the upholstery, I slipped the original note, along with my own note into the seat of the chair. Someday, someone will think that this fabric is ugly and "What was she thinking!" and decide to recover the chair in Velcro-like Astro turf. They will find both notes inside.

In case you were worried, I have since downsized my chair collection drastically. I now have a very healthy number of chairs in my house and only a couple stashed underneath in the crawlspace.

A BEFORE AND AFTER...

Annie and I plan to post before and after pictures of different projects that we have done and plan to do in the future. The camper will be one of our big before/after projects. But until we get that finished, I thought I would post a very random Before/After.

Let me paint the picture for this Before/After. This past summer, Matt was a groomsman in a close friend's wedding.

As you can see, he is smartly dressed in suit and tie, complete with the standard dress shoes, versus his usual cowboy boots. Just couldn't lose the hat though. He would feel naked then. He is carefully shaved and groomed. He looks daper.

After the nuptials, the dance started heating up and so did Matt's dance moves. Here he demonstrates one of his signature moves - "Air guitar" complete with rock and roll face. At this point, you can see that the suit jacket has been discarded.

Here he rocks the Hokey-Pokey by putting his right hip out. The nice black dress shoes have since been traded for cowboy boots.

And finally.....

The After shot.

The dancing is over and it is time to relax. The cuff links are lost and the tie is gone. Evidently, Matt's shins were overheating from all the dancing, so in an attempt to cool them off, he rolled his pants up. That happens when you bust some moves like that.

HUNTING PORCUPINES

The recent blizzards that had us snowed in the house takes me back to memories of snowstorms that occurred during our childhood. As most young kids, when we did not have school due to a storm, we jumped with glee at the prospect of staying home unfettered by the confines of the education institution. Our minds raced of all the possibilities of how to fill this free day.



During one particularly bad winter, that of '96-'97, an anomoly occurred. We actually almost got sick of snow days. The winter was so bad, that we actually ran out of things to do. Sure, we helped our dad feed cows in the mornings and then rode or drove through the cows to check on them. Then the rest of our day was free to do as we pleased.



We filled these days with whatever entertainment we could find. We did not have television (gasp!) and this vague concept of the "world wide web" evidently was world-wide except for our area. So therefore, after feeding, losing a few games of cribbage to dad, and 1/2 hour of torture, otherwise known as "practicing our piano lessons," we soon grew bored. It was then that we did what every other sibling group does when confined, they fight and bicker. "Bickering" was only briefly tolerated by my parents, and then we were instructed to take it outside.




Once outside, the frigid air would rally us together and we would try to find something to do until it was determined by mom or dad that we were through bickering and would be allowed back inside. It was during one of these outings that we discovered one of our favorite winter activities - Porcupine Hunting.





Our creek was plagued by porcupines that eat bark and kill trees. So we were free to kill porcupines at will. We would take dad's little pump-action .22 and set off down the creek in search of the ever-elusive porcupine.












(Disclaimer: We had been taught proper handling of firearms from a young age. Porcupines were extremely overpopulated in the area. Any e-mails to us about killing of harmless creatures or gun-control will be promptly deleted. As Joe Dirt says: "Don't focus on the wrong part of the story.")





In an effort to maximize the experience, we pretended that we were on a televised safari, like those on the hunting channel, hunting the cagey, wild porcupine. How we even knew about such hunting shows is odd because as mentioned before, we didn't have television. But, anyway, two of us commentated the hunt in loud whispers as the "hunter" pretended to be stalking the sly porcupine. A special note here, the commentators always talked with an Australian accent for whatever reason.





Someone would then say "to hunt the porcupine, you understand the porcupine" and then we would all errupt into giggles. The hunt would usually be over because we would be laughing too hard.

Here is Ris demonstrating porcupine behavior. I laugh everytime I see this picture.

Gosh, we were odd kids. Probably still are.