Monday, June 28, 2010

Hooray for a Sunny Weekend!

Last weekend was terribly rainy! Not at all the kind of weather we had hoped for. Consequently, no work was done on the Lil Loafer last weekend.

It was a different story this weekend with loads of sunshine, so in between attendance at various social gatherings, Jim was able to make further progress on the Lil Loafer's transformation. He worked on the other wall frame, and also replaced a section of the floor that was rotten.

I haven't contributed much in the way of skilled labor to the project thus far. Hopefully I will be able to do more in the future! I spent an hour or so on paint stripping this weekend, but was bothered by the knowledge that I was exposing myself to VOC's (volatile organic compounds). Maybe I should find a respirator/filtration mask....

Here are a few new pics. One day I'll have to get Jim to write the photo descriptions....mine are very basic and won't give you any technical information unless that information has been fed to me immediately prior to posting! Maybe he can even write the entire next post :) It might be a little more interesting for those of you who are restoring trailers of your own and want more of the 'how-to' details.



Jim, sitting on the floor, replacing a section of rotten wood.

Jim prying off a piece of wood that needed to be replaced.

Jim, attaching new piece of wood above the wheel.


We noticed an old sign on the back of the Lil Loafer, covered by paint. It says "You're following an ARISTOCRAT" I thought that was kind of fun!





Tuesday, June 15, 2010

One Wall Frame Done!

I laugh as I look back over our first blog post.

Back in May when we first purchased the Lil Loafer, we thought we would simply 'refresh' the interior, or 'spruce it up'. We were thinking in terms of fresh paint, new curtains, new cushions and covers, and maybe a new toilet and new fridge. Ha! Little did we realize how much refreshing and sprucing would actually be required!

After discovering water damage in the walls, Jim decided to replace the walls and floor. We pulled everything out of that trailer. In order to install a new frame for the walls, we had to remove the skin. I have posted some pics of that process, of removing screws to lift panels of the exterior skin. The second-last photo shows the brand new, completed wall frame.

As previously mentioned, Jim found spiders in the trailer - hundreds of tiny spiders! We thought we had eradicated them, until we found hundreds more of them on the outside of the panel we were attempting to remove. Hopefully we have now seen the last of those creepy crawlies.

All in all, it was a productive weekend, with lovely weather that was perfectly conducive to spending many hours outside. We also scored a 'new' fridge for our trailer on the weekend! A local lady with a 1962 trailer had decided to gut it and was giving away the contents for free. She is turning her trailer into a commercial food cart. We had been looking for a fridge that would run on propane as well as electricity, as the fridge that came with the Lil Loafer only runs on electricity. We're pretty sure we'll be taking our trailer to some unpowered camping sites in the future, so we don't want to be limited to 'electric-only' appliances. We're thankful for our freebie fridge, and are hoping it actually works!!












Saturday, June 5, 2010

New Frame Construction..

Last weekend we finished taking everything out of the trailer. This weekend, we are working on the new frame. Jim spent a few hours at Lowes and Home Depot this morning, picking up timber, insulation and other bits and pieces. Right now, he is outside with the saw....cutting out pieces for the frame.

Here are some new pics:


A dusty scene...Jim taking out the lino. It came out quite easily.

The last piece of lino to come out.



Sweeping the floor after removing the lino.



Cutting out pieces for the new frame.