Airstream Renovations: A Slow Progression

The past few weekends have been a whirlwind of work. I’m not complaining but, man, I could use a nap… or two… or five. Here’s the progress we’ve made on the airstream.

lights before and after

This picture accurately describes the first weekend we worked on the airstream. The lights at the bottom of the picture are indicative of how dirty everything was. The lights at the top were thoroughly cleaned by moi! We had no clue that the inside of the airstream was covered in mildew and mold. I guess it was hard to look past the ugly blue carpet!

I scrubbed every square inch of the trailer with a bleach mixture while George demoed. I even used a toothbrush to get in the cracks! A perfectionist’s dream! We had no idea the extent of the mildew, so we ended up demoing a lot more of the inside than we had imagined to just get everything clean. More demo means more building we will have to do, but at least I’ll sleep safely knowing we won’t be living in a petri dish.

DSC_1129

after primingGeorge cleaning out an old bee nest!

The weekend after the deep clean/demo, we primed! I think it already looks better with just a coat of primer on everything. What do you think?

Next weekend, we’re planning on painting the entire place a bright white. With such a small space, I think too much color on the walls would be overwhelming. And after seeing all that mold, I definitely want the place to look and be clean and bright.

There’s been a few obstacles, ahem, Mildew McMilderson, and our to-do list is a mile long, but we’re making progress. We won’t be moved in before I start my new job next week, but we’re figuring it out.

Living positive and living small,
love,
melanie

 

 

5 thoughts on “Airstream Renovations: A Slow Progression

  1. jasminecara

    This is just great. I’m absolutely loving reading about your progress here. I thought of your blog the other day when I was watching “How It’s Made” on the science channel. The particular episode I watched was how they manufacture Airstream trailers!! 🙂

  2. atreefor2

    Dear Melanie & George,
    wow! what an amazing project. I LOVE your approach of downsizing (space, money, natural resources,..) and upsizing (DIY-renovation-skills, flexibility, open-mindness,..) at the same time.
    You know what, M♥ and I were also thinking about renovating an old airstream (unfortunately these babies are way out of our budget, you have to pay more than 20 grand for a wreck over here in europe!) Now we are in the middle of a (tree)house renovation – also a fun project but still a lot of work…
    can’t wait to see the “After” photos!
    Good luck! I’ll stay tuned!
    xo from the other side of the world,
    Katharina
    PS: And of course this is downsizing in style! Airstreams are the best!

    1. lovelibrarianmelanie

      Wow! I feel lucky that airstreams are so affordable over here! Thanks for reading!

      1. Georg

        Those Airstreams are hardy. They’ve been used to trek around the world. There’s a Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI) for Airstream owners. The WBCCI go on trips all over the continents of N America, S America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia. I’m not sure if the Airstreams were ever brought to Antartica, but it would be awesome if Airstreams were brought to all seven continents. Here’s a video on the Airstream caravan braving the jungles of Africa and the sands of Egypt—–> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVtA0dyAQBY&t=1914s
        The person in the video who’s wearing the beret is Wally Byam, the founder of the Airstream company.

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