Thursday, September 29, 2011

A bunk bed too...


What's that?  It's a bunk bed!


  Hooray!  Beds for all three kids!

This brace supports the weight of the bunk.  The notch allows us to fold the bunk up and latch it to the ceiling.

Speaking of a ceiling latch, we used a (slightly modified) window latch....


We haven't found old-style bunk bed brackets yet.  (Do you have a set for sale?)  In the meantime, we've installed three brackets: one on each end and one in the middle. The brackets keep the bunk from flipping when someone climbs onto it...












We had one more mystery to solve before we could install our new bunk bed.  After carefully planning out and fabricating the bunk we brought it to the trailer for a test fit.  We had a problem.  The bunk was in the way of the window crank.  OOommmphh!  Now what? Well, I set off in search of bunk bed photos...


Mystery solved!  The windows under bunk beds have knobs for cranks!  We added a set of knobs.  (Thanks again for the photos, Norm.  They've been indispensable!)


 The ultimate test.  The bunk with a mess of kids on it.

Oh yeah, we put in two room dividers too.  I used vertical blinds and fabric to make these accordion dividers.  (The original dividers would have been vinyl.)

 This is the door that is between the kid's "bedroom" and the bathroom.
note: you can see the bunk in the "up" position in this picture
 This is the bathroom side of the divider.


both room dividers

The worst part about making the vertical blind dividers?  Buying vertical blinds.  In public.  
"Hey, honey... why don't you ask the nice sales person where the vertical blinds are."
"No. YOU ask."

I used binder rings to hang the dividers. 

Our front sconces finally have a cover!  We got these great fiberglass shades from Moon Shine Lamp & Shade

You might think we're running out of things to do on the inside.  Well, we're not.  Not yet, at least.  Our list is getting shorter though.  Our trailer is sure starting to feel homey.  I think it's time to do a little camping...

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Camping in Luxury


We've been working really hard on the trailer since our last camping trip in July.  Here are some pictures from our trip to Cloudland Canyon State Park for the TAC rally this weekend.

Check out the inside of our trailer: 

This place is starting to feel like home. The girls were excited to sleep in their beds for the first time. 
Brian telecommuting from Cloudland Canyon State Park.  
Our friends said "The world is ending! The Sanders got a cell phone."






At the TAC rally on Memorial Day weekend Kristi the vintage awning lady gave me lots of tips and pointers for making my own vintage awning.  In August, she emailed to tell me she had an awning available that would fit my trailer, if I was interested.  She caught me at a weak moment!  After having taken a month off from sewing the curtains, I was back at the sewing machine again, in the middle of sewing the pillows and seat cushions.  My answer was a resounding "Yes!  Yes!  I would love to buy that beautiful awning that I don't have to make!"

Brian spent lots of time and energy reaming out our awning rail before we left.  When it was time to put up the awning it was as easy as pie (that I didn't have to make!)


With such a pretty awning maybe no one will notice the air conditioner. 

Seven trailers and families showed up for the TAC rally.  We had a great time visiting with other trailer folks, looking at their pretty trailers, picking up bad habits new hobbies (I think Samuel will soon be addicted to Geocaching) and making new friends.  We were even gifted a beautiful and delicious chocolate-cheese ball.
Thank you Natalie, Terry, & Paula Deen

We also got to meet some new vintage Airstream owners.  They weren't camping this weekend but came to the campground to visit some friends.  We gave them a quick tour and loved hearing about their plans to bring their new '57 Flying Cloud back to life.  (I hope we didn't scare them off with our horror stories!)

Cloudland Canyon has a trail to the bottom of the canyon, it has 600 stairs.  So, we did manage to get a little hiking done.


Watch out for cracks!

What's going on here?

There was a lovely waterfall at the bottom of the canyon.  
< insert best Wizard of Oz voice > Pay no attention to the water bottle in the picture!


The weekend was too short.  Shorter still because we left Sunday evening to avoid driving home in Monday's Hurricane Lee downpours.  Can hardly wait to go again... but there's more work to do first.