The Zimmer family is making the preparations to head west:
......to CAL-I-FORN-I-A!!
We leave on Friday, and are very excited about our trip. Along our journey we will be visiting and camping at National Parks: Mesa Verde (the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings), Four Corners, Grand Canyon (South Rim), Joshua Tree, Zion, and Arches (Moab).
We'll be camping on SoCal for 3 days, with one of the days spent at....
wait for it....
DISNEYLAND!!!!
Yes, we are heading to Anaheim to visit the Disneyland Park. Our kids volunteered this winter and earned free tickets to the park. So we will spend an entire day (8am-midnight!) enjoying the Magic Kingdom. Kim is very, very excited to see all of the princesses. She's not sure which dress she's going to wear -- she has about 6 to choose from.
If you've been visiting the blog lately, you've seen that I've been working on restoring our Airstream. Most of what I've been blogging about is polishing the exterior. But what I haven't been sharing is the restoration of the interiors. I figure I've spent over 200+ hours this spring working on getting the bullet ready for the road.
It all started with this:
A stock, 1963 twin-bed configuration. For whatever reason, I guess it was taboo for mom and dad to sleep in the same bed in the '60's. Hmmm? So when we bought the trailer, I immediately recognized a critical design flaw: my snuggle partner and I were separated at night! Had the original sleeping configuration allowed for the two beds to meet and turn into one, I would have saved myself a TON of trouble. But nope. Instead...I got busy with my hammer and power drill!
This is a stock photo from the summer of 2006. Ahhh, that young man is only 32 years old *sigh*.Here you can see the young pup removing the drawers and framework for the benches. All this CRAP would be stored in various areas of my back porch and garage throughout the next four years....patiently waiting to be brought back to life!
Let me put this timeframe into perspective for you. This young man is 4 YEARS OLD!!!
This is the same young man (and the same haircut!), but he's now 8-years old, and just got baptized at church this past weekend!By his "earthly father" and "spiritual brother"
So after the dust had settled, and the asbestos tiles had been removed, I laid down a masonite floor and began my plans for the interior restoration.Ummm....then life got in the way. I could blame a whole list of reasons why I left the interiors alone for so long: the economy, the house addition, the kid addition, bad weather, good weather, fishing, etc. Truth is, we were fine sleeping on the floor and not in a hurry to get it done. In fact, because of my need for perfection, I knew that I had to have certain factors lineup before I could rebuild the interiors correctly: time, money, material, tools, skills, help -- I needed the stars to align before I could begin my project.
Since the fall of 2006, this is how my interiors sat. A big, open storage space. Sure, we would move the stuff around as needed. And we would inflate our airmatress at night and sleep on the ground. It was great! No hurries. No worries.p.s. This picture was taken less than 2 weeks ago.
And this picture was taken 2 nights ago:
Certain things began lining up for us. We had set aside some money to begin the restoration. I found a friend with a HUGE wood shop. His shop is closed on Fridays (my day off), so he let me use the shop for my construction needs. He also taught me several useful woodworking skills: joining, doweling, gluing (who knew there was a technique for this?!), mitering. And he gave me helpful advice and tips from years of experience.
You can see in the picture that the plain surfaces are custom White Oak 1/2" veneer that I had fabricated (less $$ than buying it at the store). And the marbleized darker pieces are walnut benchtops that I built. The picture doesn't do much justice. You'll have to swing by our place and check out the interiors in person. We can share a pint of homemade root beer while kicking back!
For the past 5 weeks my garage has been transformed into a makeshift woodshop.I've been cutting, planing, sanding, doweling, squaring, sanding (again), shootin' squirrels, gluing, staining, and finishing the various pieces.
It's been a fun and highly rewarding experience.
Plus my little 5-tap buddy (pictured there in the background) has been keeping me company during the long working hours.
Custom wood-working is a meticulous trade when you're dealing with the nearest 32nd of an inch -- and sometimes smaller.It takes a great deal of patience and devotion to make it all work.
Fortunately my family has been very supportive and understanding these past few months. In turn, I plan on completely spoiling them with my time and attention during our Cali trip!
One of the coolest toys I was introduced to was an antique doweling jig. Okay, so it was only 20 yrs. old, but they don't make them like this any more!It was a fun little tool that was indispensable for helping me piece together my project.
Just another way that the stars aligned to help us get the interiors done. Correctly, that is. Like I've said to Kathy numerous times -- I could have done this on a weekend for a couple hundred bucks. But I didn't want a quick, cheap fix. I wanted a vintage-looking installation.
Yea! Me, my box, and my lucky shirt!
...and a GREAT lookin' kegerator in the background!
I'm not naming names, but let's just say that some of the holiest of holies has partaken in my homemade rootbeer and specialty beers, and have blessed the sacred spirits. :-)
Okay...now I'm bragging ;-)
Interior Update: Just took this panoramic shot during lunch. Trying to get a better picture for ya. One good question is how this new configuration turns into a bed. What's missing in the picture is the custom table that I have yet to build. It lowers to fill the gap between the two benches, and then the cushions (not sewn yet) fold down to create the bed. These will be summer or fall projects. But building/installing the benches was a starting point.
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