catching up

Wow, has it been that long? Life sure keeps you busy! It's been a few weeks since we have been able to work on the TW. We decided to plant a garden, been busy making curtains for our Airstream friends, and trying to find a dang piece of plywood that will work in our bathroom!!! For some reason, Lowes nor Home depot have the piece we need. We did find it at a local harware store but they wont sell us the size we need, which isnt much,lol, they want us to buy the whole sheet and then it will get to sit around and rot, geez. One thing I like about Lowes, other than the fact that it is about 5 miles from my home, is that they sell small pieces of wood.

Prepping the bathroom

Today I decided to prep the bathroom to be painted. We have been avoiding that room, saving it for last! I took down the towel holder and shower wand holder and cleaned them with dry steelwool. They turned out nice. Look good as new! I got everything taped up and ready to paint. At this point we cant remove the entire thing to paint it out doors, so I will use the Krylon Paint. We used it in our Overlander and it worked great! I will post more once i get it painted.

Changing the curtains

Well after much debate, I decided I wanted to go with a country theme. So it was off to the fabric store again! I chose a red checked fabric for the front and the kitchen. I wanted the bedroom to be a little different so I got online and found some Route 66 fabric and she had just enough to make my bedroom curtains and 1 pillow. Love it! Had she had enough, I would probaly done the entire thing in Rt 66!! Also found 2 Pink Flamingo Key chains at a flea market! They are hanging in front of the side curtains for the moment, havent figured out what to do with them yet! I am Happy with it now for the time being. I'm sure if I see a fabric that I cant live without, I will change it again. Next saga, the fridge!

New Gaucho and Curtains( First set of curtains)

As many of you know, I make curtains and gaucho covers. Sewing is something I love to do. That can be a bad thing sometimes because if I see a fabric I like, I have a tendancy to change the entire interior. I think I changed it 6 times in the Overlander we had. Finally John said it was enough,lol! So when I found some fabric I liked for the Tradewind, I was so excited. I knew I wanted a red gaucho but wasnt sure about the curtains. I initially thought I would make it more elegant so I made some curtains and valences to match.

Putting in new floor

I so wish I had taken pictures of John repairing the couple of holes and the old floor before we started laying the floor! There was a small place under the fridge and one by the edge of the gaucho. But anyway. We bought some laminate flooring from Lowes and replaced all the old carpet that was up front. Under the carpet was old, I am assuming, original tiles. The glue had came undone and the carpet was holding them in place! Also added a picture of how dirty the wall was behind the fridge, YUK! We also took out all the window frames and painted them and replaced all the screen. John took all the little clips and hardware from the windows and painted them.

Cleaning her up

It took about 3 months after the initial visit to the Tradewind to finally get to bring her home. The PO had lost the title and had to go through hoops to get a new one since everyone prior to her was dead, she had to post it in the paper for 7 days to make sure no one could claim it. Once she had it in the paper, we decided to go ahead and buy it.
Pick up day! Boy was this fun! We were so excited! We thought it would be pretty simple, go over, hook it up, and bring it home, NOT! The tires were flat, understandable from sitting so long. We put air in them to get it home. Got everything hooked up. Called my dad to come and follow us just in case. Luckily we only lived about 5 miles away. Started to pull out and the brakes locked. Husband got out and checked everything and it looked ok, so we tried it again. We got maybe 100 yrds when they locked again. So hubby decided to unhook them just to get it home. FINALLY! We spent 2 days scrubbing the walls,, cabinets, stove, etc.. boy were they nasty.

66 Tradewind

A little late for starting a blog since most of the Tradewind is complete. Wish we would have taken detailed photo's along the way, but didnt think about it at the time. You live and learn!
These photos are of the day we decided to buy it. We had already restored a 72 Overlander so this time around we looked at potential instead of everything that it needed. Had this been our first Airstream, we would have passed on it. The PO had never used it. She bought it from her uncle some 12 years earlier with the intention of using it and never got around to it, I know that feeling. Lucky for us, she moved it to her daughters house to try and sell it. It just happen to be behind my sister in law. We drove by it probably a hundred times lusting over it. Finally one day I decided to stop and ask about it and sure enough, it was for sale! And the rest is history! As you can see in the photo, the bathroom was the worst! It had aparently been leaking for some time. Good thing, it is a small area and will be easy to replace. We found 2 more places in the floor up front that needed replacing. The rest of the floor is solid, yeah!