The Daily Hailey

Welcome to our series, “RV There Yet?” It will be a six part series, where I will update you every week on the progress we make in the remodel of our camper! I hope you enjoy coming along for the ride with us! Whew! Good thing we have a camper so everyone can fit! (See me? See my lame joke? Ya ya do.)

We’ve had our camper for ONE week! Wait. 🤔 No. We’ve had access to the lot beside our house for one week. Lol! We got our camper on Sunday. Still counts. I’m calling it a week.

We don’t have a ton to show for our first week. Not tangibly, anyway, but its been a crazy busy week behind the scenes! The first priority was getting the obvious garbage out and getting the first layer of grime cleaned up. The worst of the mess was dust and dead bugs. Cher and I wiped and Lysoled up a storm, and the shop vac was never turned off for more than a couple of minutes between uses. Broken wood, nails, papers, old dishes, manuals, etc. lay everywhere! That first clean was a big job, but it was worth it.

Here you have it, folks! The “before” pictures. 😬

Unfortunately, as we cleaned and opened everything up, we discovered at one point or another, there had been mice in our trailer. Unsurprising, but still. Booooo 👎 There were none at the time we got it, and nothing was chewed anywhere that we could find! But there was poop, and one empty mouse nest. I was pretty nervous and discouraged, but Cher and my mom were SO encouraging that it wasn’t a loss, and Brady stepped up to the plate, pulling up the carpet and getting rid of all the mouseness.

Honestly, it looks so much better now.

There was a mattress in the bedroom that is in surprisingly good shape, so we’re going through the process of trying to salvage it and make sure its really good and clean before making the final decision on whether or not to keep it.

It is SO soft, stain-free, and has no chew marks whatsoever!

We’ve been doing a lot of demo this week, too! All trim and window valances have been removed, and decorative floral glass pieces (🤷‍♀️) have been pitched. Who knew gigantic moths like to hide behind stuff like that? 😳 I did not, but I do now. Its possible our shop vac has eaten a handful of alive things also. The things that were too big to eat with the shop vac were disposed of in other ways…

Brady took on the enormous challenge of the exterior!

Some of the siding had pulled away and edges needed resealing. It was pretty intimidating. He spent a ton of time researching and managed to find the best way to close up the sides really nicely and keep us safe and dry for as long as possible. Contact cement! He peeled back the siding in some places, replaced the plywood underneath, and has been cementing it all back together. This was a really big stretch for him, as he had never dabbled in anything like it before, but he was game to try!!

He’s such a hard worker.

That was a HUGE job. I’m positive Brady could write a whole post about just redoing the siding. You can see, he peeled it back to reveal the yucky plywood inside. He cut it out and replaced it with fresh new oak plywood. Its oddly pretty, hey? Piece by piece, he painted it with contact cement, let it cure for 10-20 minutes, and pressed it down (all sweepy) as hard as he could. It was labour intensive, and he crushed it. I’m very impressed.

Speaking of Brady and research, he has also been working hard on getting some prices for us! He’s been in contact with our materials guy for flooring, wall panels, MDF, etc. Meanwhile I’m looking online for second hand materials, like countertops and a kitchen sink. We’re making judgement calls about what to leave for another year and what we can make happen this year. In case you hadn’t heard, there is a pandemic on the go, so money is something we need to be careful with. I know it seems like we’re rolling in it with all of our projects this Spring and Summer, but we were fortunate enough to be able to use from a project fund we had been saving up. But as the project fund dwindles, we have to be aware of what can wait another year or two or five. But we have information and knowledge now.

Brady has had a couple of friends come through and give him tips and information about the plumbing and electrical parts of the camper. Those were the parts Brady was a little less confident in, and I know it helped a ton to have input from people who knew those trades, and knew about campers. I am pleased to say that ALL of the electrical works! Woot!! 🥳 There are some small fixes to do on the plumbing, but it all feels more doable now that he’s been walked through it. Thank you, Braden and Marlen! You guys really helped!

While I don’t have a lot to show you, there was still a lot to share and be excited about! There is much more to come, but I feel good about all we accomplished in this short week. We did a LOT of the legwork, and now we just have to get our hands on materials and get to it!

Here are our progress pictures after ONE WEEK!

This is JUST the beginning!! Eek!!

To throw a shameless plug out there, if anyone is looking to purge foam mattresses or a beater barbecue out of their lives, please sent them my way!

There you have it, friends. Week one, done and done ✅ If it were you rebuilding a camper, what would be your must-haves? What am I missing?