Vintage Airstream Re-do
By now you probably know how much we love our friend, Angie Andrews of Sweet Memory Garden Photography. She's always got lots of fabulous projects going on & today we're lucky enough to share one of our very favorites-- the makeover she & her hubby did on their retro Airstream trailer. They were able to take a disaster of a trailer & make it into the hippest thing around. Now they're traveling in style. Here's some info from Angie on the cool story behind this massive undertaking...Every year I try and take my kids to Disneyland right after Thanksgiving. Last year when I figured the cost of taking my kids there, I realized I had just spent $5000 for a week. Now I realize that isn't a huge amount of money for some, but it was a wake up call for me. I still want to make vacation memories with my kids and occasionally we will go to Disneyland but not every year.A vacation to my husband is just going camping, but with little kids, I was not going to sleep in tents. Call me an over-reactor, but there are bears out there. So we discussed buying an old trailer for $1500, paint and reupholster the inside and make it our own. That way we are not limited to 1 week a year but we can pack up anytime and make a weekend out of it.I had been looking at old trailers on KSL when my husband decides, if we are going to do this we should buy an airstream. A few days later we found a 1972 Land Yacht Airstream. Buying it meant we would have to go all the way, the inside was disgusting. People had been living in it for the past 10 years and let me tell you, cleanliness was not a concern. Mice droppings everywhere, a greasy film on the walls, and the smell.... WOW!!That is when we decided to do a total gut job, keeping only the refrigerator. It only slept 4 and we are a family of 6, so we built 2 sets of bunk beds and the dining area that converts to a double bed. I wanted the trailer to look clean and fresh and so we went with all white walls with teal and a bit of yellow.Storage was another concern. Before there were only small bins under the beds and couch and small compartments above.With the custom build we were able to build large compartments under the benches, big drawers under the beds a huge pantry area and lots of storage space under the sink. We now have at least 4x the storage we had before.When buying old, be prepared to find issues. The back end had rotted out which meant welding new support beams. We also had to install a new black water tank and a gray water tank which they didn't have back in 1972.This remodel took us 6 weeks from the time we gutted it until the first time we went camping. I worked everyday for hours on the inside with the carpentry work and my husband worked on it when he got home from work on the plumbing, electrical and welding. We are not done yet, we decided to wait until next spring to finish the bathroom and the final 4 drawers that need to be installed but we are super excited on the outcome and we look forward to many years of memories with our kids.
