Tag Archives: renovation

DIY, Budget Backyard Patio

DIY, Budget Backyard patio for a sloping yard

When you have a small home, outdoor space can be such a blessing. Sick of your spouse? Go outside. Need a change of scenery? Go outside. Wanna feel fancy AF? Eat outside.

George and I knew we wanted to create a sort of “outdoor room” in our backyard, but we didn’t have a lot of money to do it. A deck would’ve been both expensive and time-consuming because we’d have to get a permit to do it.

Continue reading

Budget, DIY, Colorful Guest Room Makeover

Daybed with dramatic curtains

We finally completed the guest room and it feels good! Well… to be honest, “Guest room” is kind of a loose term. Our guest room rarely functions like a guest room. We use it to store stuff for our business, pack orders and take pictures. So, it needed it to be light and bright, have good storage, and function as a room for the rare guest.

First, let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

Continue reading

Little Projects

Our renovation process has hit a bit of a stalemate. George is extra busy with work right now and since we gotta make a living, it’s left me doing small projects around the house. There’s some things I’m comfortable doing on my own, but things like installing doors, I have trouble physically doing on my own. Real wood doors are heavy, folks. While small projects are not nearly as gratifying as large ones, I’m proud of the work I’ve done.

Here’s what I’ve been working on.

Continue reading

Our Home Renovation Progress in Less than 30 Seconds

I got a new phone half-way through our renovation progress, so I haven’t kept up with recording our renovation progress via video, but I found my old phone last week and thought this was still worth the post. Watching this video is encouraging to see how far we’ve come. We still have a ton of detail things to do. Which in some ways, is the worst stuff. Our house is livable now, thank God, but we’ve got a ways to go before I’ll be ready to post those beautiful “after pictures.”

In case you are wondering, I created this video with One Second Everyday. It’s an app that you can use on your phone to journal the everyday. If you can keep up with it, it’s a really neat way to remember your everyday life.

– Melanie

 

 

A Video Tour of Our New Small Home

I finally got this video uploaded and posted on YouTube! YouTube coupled with country Internet makes me want to gouge my eyes out. It literally took a full day to upload. Oh well, it’s ready now! I thought it might be nice to have a little walkthrough tour of the “before” version of the house. Sometimes it’s hard to envision layout and spaces in photos.

I hope that I can now move on to our progress shots which are scary, but encouraging. Ya gotta tear it up before you build it back up, ya know what I’m saying?!

As always, let me know what you think in the comments!
– Melanie

A Small Home: Before Pictures of Our New House

A Small Home: Before Pictures: Living Room

Living room from the front door

Ok ya’ll, so this is it. The interior before pictures. In all their glory. Since the pictures are pretty low-quality phone pictures, I must admit, the house doesn’t look that bad. But let me assure you, this was and still is one fixer-upper. Let’s point out some of the fun issues going on, shall we?! Continue reading

Ask Melanie: Should I buy a move-in ready trailer or should I buy a trailer to renovate?

"Should I buy a move-in ready trailer or should I buy a trailer to renovate?"

Today’s question is from a young man named Kevin. Kevin wants to know, “Should I buy a move-in ready trailer or should I buy a trailer to renovate?” Take it away, Kevin!

Hey!
So I’m 16 and my family doesn’t have much… I’ve always been into outdoor stuff. I ran across your blog somehow and I absolutely love everything. I now have a dream to live in a trailer like y’all have and live life like that. My main concern for my future is providing for myself and future family. I think this could help with those fears because of a significantly lower cost of living. I had a question about purchasing a trailer. I obviously have lots of time. I graduate this coming school year and plan on going to Clemson for forestry, but I’m planning out my future now to be “more prepared”. Do you think it’s better to find a already nice trailer or to find a cheaper one and fix it up?

-Kevin

Continue reading

Our 1978 Airstream Sovereign Land Yacht Remodel: The Interior Tour

Airstream RemodelAirstream RemodelYesterday I showed you all the before and after shots of the Airstream, well, today I want to show you a few glamour shots. We live in the Airstream full-time, so not only did I want the Airstream remodel to be functional, but I also wanted it to feel warm and cozy. (Even in the winter, when it isn’t so warm!) We had a tight budget, so we built most of our furniture. We bought very little for the Airstream, instead we used the things that we already owned.

In the shots above you can see our copious amount of handmade pillows. One of my favorite things to do in the Airstream is curl up in the queen-size bed and watch a movie.

Airstream Remodel

Airstream RemodelGeorge does all of his art work from the trailer, so we knew it was important for him to have his own space to work and conduct all his business. 

Airstream Kitchen RemodelAirstream Kitchen and Sitting Area Remodel

Fiestaware in the Airstream copy

Although the kitchen is small, I’ve managed to squeeze out some killer meals in there. Sometimes when the space is feeling too cramped or hot to cook, we’ll go outside and cook right over the fire— camp style.

Airstream Bench Remodel Airstream bench remodelThere for a while, the bench was something we didn’t use much. But since George built me a mini-desk, I’ve been sitting (and napping!) on it constantly. Again, it’s got plenty of homemade pillows and we covered the bench cushion in vintage fabric.

Custom Drawers and Shelves in an Airstream remodelRecords in an Airstream Pictures in the Airstream Record player in an AirstreamWhen we first designed our the Airstream, I had grand dreams of open shelving. We had open shelving for a few months until I just couldn’t stand the clutter anymore! I’m a minimalist and I love a clean space, but George is an artist and needs a lot of stuff for his business, so we decided to compromise and build drawers from reclaimed barn wood to hide our junk.

Bathroom in an Airstream remodeled Bathroom in an Airstream remodeledI like to think that I’m not prissy, but I couldn’t live with a composting or camper-style toilet. Just couldn’t do it. That’s where I draw the line. But since we are parked and hooked up to a septic system, a real toilet wasn’t a problem. Thank god.

What do you think of our little home? Let me know in the comments!

love,
melanie

1978 Airstream Sovereign Land Yacht Remodel

Airstream Back Before and AfterI think the best word to describe what I’m feeling right now is giddy. It took a lot of hard, sometimes disgusting, always sweaty, work to remodel our 1978 Airstream Sovereign Land Yacht, but we did it. This may be one of the proudest moments of my life. I may even be more proud of myself than when I graduated from undergrad and grad school. Not even kidding. But before I pop a bottle of champagne, let’s get to the details!

You’ll notice we didn’t restore the Airstream to original. We’re not purists and we only had a budget of $1,000 to fix her up. (We bought her for $5,000, more about our buying story here.) We went slightly over budget due to the amount of paint we needed. We severely underestimated that. Unlike many of the Airstreams you might see online, we also live in this thing. Full-time. We tried to keep the integrity of our original Airstream, but tailor it to fit our needs.

When you enter the Airstream and look left you’ll see what is in the picture above. We tore out the Cookie Monster blue carpets and replaced them with laminate flooring. We created a window in the wall beside the kitchen to open up the space, replaced the gas fridge, George built shelves, a desk and a bench for napping! We replaced all the window screens. (Here’s how to do that.) We also tore out some of the overhead compartments to open up the space. My main job was painting. The Airstream had gas heat which can leave sticky gross stuff on the walls and we think maybe someone smoked in here, so it was my job to thoroughly clean everything (bleach was my best friend), then coat pretty much everything in Kilz and cover it with a bright white paint and primer. In some places it took four coats. On the storage compartments and the weird plastic spots, we used Rust-oleum gloss white spray enamel. On the countertops we used a custom-color oil-based enamel. Overall, the paint has held up pretty well. Some spots have needed to be touched up, but I think the white paint was the most transformative aspect of the remodel.

Airstream Bed Area Before and After copy

If you look to the right in the Airstream, you’ll see our spacious queen-size bed. To me, a big bed was more important than a dining room, so we tore out the benches, and George built us a custom bed frame. Read more about tips on creating that here. I also made a ton of pillows because… luxury. (Here’s how I made the pillows here.)

Airstream Cooking Setup Before and After

I didn’t have a great photo of the “before” oven because we found a huge mouse den in there and I had to get it out ASAP.  We use a convection oven and two burners for cooking. It works out pretty well. There’s no Thanksgiving meals going on in here, but our oven fits a full-size pizza, so I’m happy.

Airstream from Back before and after

If you walk through the kitchen and turn back around, this is the view you’ll see. You’ll notice we took off the covers from the kitchen cabinets and replaced them with super-cute curtains that my mom made. From here, you’ll also get a better view of the custom bench and drawers we have for hiding all kinds of crafts and art supplies. George crafted the drawers out of barn wood from the tobacco barn that is on our property. The storage area also houses our large record collection. When we were purging all of our worldly goods, we decided vinyl is one thing that we just couldn’t live without.

Airstream Bathroom Before and After

Oh my god, the bathroom, the bathroom. I’m not kidding when I say that I was scared to even go in the bathroom before the remodel. That camper toilet scared me. A real toilet was priority 1 on my list. Cleaning this bathroom really made all the difference. The “wallpaper” was actually really pretty under the 10 layers of dirt. Then again, we painted with oil-based enamel on the countertops, replaced the lights and did this fun, washi tape design on the mirror. (Here’s that how-to.)

Airstream Shower Before and After

Then the shower! Oh my. Still to this day, George and I have no idea why someone would try to spray paint a shower blue (to match the carpet?!?!). To remedy this situation we took the easy way out and used a kit that we found at Lowe’s. I’d love to one day have a luxurious tub or at least a prettier shower, but sometimes the cheap way wins. We also purchased and installed a very nice shower head.

You can’t see it in these pictures, but we started off with the floors all laminate, but had to replace the bathroom floor when our hot water heater started leaking. That was unfortunate, but it’s been the only big issue that we’ve run into (fingers crossed).

This remodel was a whole hell of a lot of work. George and I have thought about doing it again, but we’re not mentally (or physically) prepared for it. Now that you’ve seen the before and afters, I’ll be sharing more glamour shots tomorrow!

Happy Airstream Week!

love,
melanie

 

A Faster Progression: Airstream Update

DSC_1143

How long does it take to get paint out of one’s hair? I still have paint in my hair from two weeks ago and I’m doubtful that it will ever come out. It took way more coats of paint to cover the walls than we expected. We had to use a primer, two base coats and a top coat to cover the icky, dated walls. But at least now the airstream now has a floor and painting is complete. We also installed a “real” toilet. No creepy camper potties for us! (TMI?) Anyway, what I’m trying to say is “we made some serious headway, people.”

If anyone is curious, we ended up using Kilz Premium as the primer, Valspar Contractor Finishes 2000 in Ultra White as the base coat and Valspar Paint and Primer in Ultra White as the top coat. We also put a coat of Kilz on the floor before we laid it to ensure the floor was sealed. If you can’t tell, I want the Airstream’s interior to be as bright white as possible.

Bed Build ProgressOur budget is getting a little tight as we are progressing through this project. Flooring is expensive! We chose laminate flooring to keep the cost down and keep the airstream light in case we ever wanted to tow it. And again, we had to buy much more paint than I ever imagined. It can be cheap, fast or good, but it can’t be all three– is that how the saying goes? Le sigh.

bathroom in airstreamWe’ll definitely be reusing old lumber from previous projects and trolling Craigslist for free stuff. My friend already found us a 3/4 size fridge for $75 bucks on Craigslist and I’m hoping to score a few more steals! (Gabby, you are awesome!)

Does anyone have any tips for acquiring free fabric or lumber? I need both! Let’s hear them in the comments!

love,
melanie