More Grammy Camp 2011

Grammy Camp and Sisters on the Fly

Well, I fnally took My Sanctuary out for her first campout. With all the work and love that the grammy girls have contributed to my trailer, I thought it appropriate that her maiden campout was Grammy's on the Loose.

Ray got the water running, the toilet leak temporarily repaired, and everything was a go. We stocked her up, bought the grammy girls a new tent, did a trial set-up the week before and last Friday, we hit the road. They were all so excited. I took 4 of my 6 grammy girls. One stayed home with her other momma and one was a little too young yet, next year Riley.

We arrived at our campsite at Cave Creek Regional park and found it was perfect. Great hook ups, pull through space, beautiful blooming palo verde trees, close showers and bathrooms for the grammy girls and a playground right at our site.

The Sisters were in the adjacent group/dry camping area. I wasn't quite ready for dry camping. Wanted to try it all out with the hook ups. Everythg worked great. The winds were high, however, so we couldn't get our easy up out yet, and we had to tie everything down. But the girlies were little camping champs with cousin Jennah in the lead, experienced camper that she is, she set us up and got the tent ready for the cousins.

We played, blew bubbles, ran around camp, worried about snakes and rode scooters up and down the road. The desert was beautiful and the sunset was gorgeous. We walked on over to the Sisters camp and introduced ourselves and ended up staying for a potluck nosh, visited, got to know each other and watched the sun go down and the stars come out. It was great.

The stars were aplenty for the before bed S'mores. The girlies roasted marshmallows, and had their fill before wandering back to our camp to get ready for bed. I tucked them all in, set up a movie on the computer and headed to off to My Sanctuary.

The warm desert breeze blew across my bed all night long and I awoke to cactus wren signing, sunshine on my face and intoxicating smell of warm creasote.

We spent the morning eating breakfast, playing with the other grammy campers, making necklaces and visors, painting tshirts and having a generally great time.

I had to be rescued by the best man alive, my sweet husband, who drove an hour to come change a trailer tire and help me pack up late in the afternoon. It was fun to spend time together and get My Sanctuary out on a campout. Lookin forward to the next one!

Back in the Saddle Again

It has been several months since we last attempted to work on My Sanctuary. I was frustrated and not sure what to do next. On Valentine's Day, though, I came home to a gift from hubby. The leaf springs had been flipped and now we could drive the trailer out of the driveway. Yea!!

I went straight down to the MVD and got her registered, even insured her. Had some trailer driving lessons and then on Saturday March 3rd, I took her on a drive to Cabelas for my first Sisters on the Fly trailer show. So fun to be there with the sisters, parked next to Sister #1, Maurrie.

Since then I have taken her down to Camping World to get the black tank and potty fixed and to service the gas system and stove. Did I mention they wanted $120.00/hr to diagnose the problem, for which I had to tell them where to look for the problem..Needless to say, we drove right back out of there and parked her in the driveway again.

So now what? Hubby is going to put a valve in the water line so the water will be turned off to the potty, I'm going to shut the bathroom door and ignore it for awhile again. We'll service the stove ourselves and hope the water pump and tank work now. Cuz, on April 30th, the long awaited Grammy's on the Loose campout with the granddaughters will arrive. Gotta be ready for that one!

Curtains and Shades

We're getting closer to being done. At least the interior will be beautiful even if I can't get it out of the driveway or use the bathroom. Ray hung the curtain rods and shades, which were all on clearance. Yea, I love Target!! I got the curtains up (thank you Kylie for hemming them). I transformed the 54" shades into 20" shades and they look so cute. I'm loving it. I can't believe how this trailer has made herself what she wants to be.

Plumbing Woes

I was so excited when Jared, our plumber, decided to come finish the plumbing. It was the final step to getting ready to go on my first trip. The fresh water tank, hot water heater and water pump were already in. Now for the undercarriage plumbing. This is the unglamorous part of the redo. He worked for two days, made several trips to CampinWorld, Home Depot and the local plumbers supply. When he finally said ok, let's turn on the water, fill the water tank and get her running. I was a "happy camper", yes, pun intended.
But alas, we had not vented the water tank properly and so water did NOT run into the tank as expected. We were also anxious to test the water pump, as some little muggle had come along and flipped the battery switch one night, running my pump all night without water. ARGH!!!. So Jared gave up on the water tank and moved on to filling the toilet and testing the blackwater tank. The minute we filled the toilet, water began running everywhere out the base of the toilet !@#$$%%. Then we filled the black water tank, guess what. There's a big crack in that too. Apparently, the trailer plumbing was not drained after a freeze and most everything was damaged. It all needed replacement as the old lead pipes were completely corroded, full of rust and also extremely heavy.
Final chapter to the plumbing saga. We were frustrated and grumpy about the whole thing and just ready for the day to be over. So we hooked the trailer up to move it back to its parking place, backed it up and SCRAAAAAPE!!! The plumbing drags the ground. !@(#%)$(%^)_$%(

So now, I am advised that we need to flip the leaf springs to raise the body of the trailer about 3-4 inches and that will fix it all. Needless to say. I am very over plumbing right now.

My lovely, lovely tile

When I first saw my tile at Home Depot, I knew I wanted to put it somewhere. Little did I know it would be in a restored 1959 trailer. But once I brought the trailer home, it was one of the first things I bought. I was so excited to finally get it up. Thanks Rob for such a great job.

A wave of destruction...

Well my favorite plumber and tile/countertop guys came. The old counter and tile are now officially out. My plumber recommended a new sink. I've been trying hard not to tear out or replace anything original. However, when Jared offered a brand new bar sink and faucet for less than $100, I had to say "yes". We still aren't sure if the stove works, but that's another day.

Out with the old, in with the new!

I was really hoping my old butter yellow, gas/electric refrigerator would fire right up once it had electricity to it. Of course not! So, out she goes. I'm not really sure how we got it out the door cuz it measured 1/8th inch bigger than the door opening. But hubby worked his magic and ta-da. It is out. So we cleaned 50 years of who knows what from the fridge space and now we have to build a little floor for the new little stainless steel fridge. Little by little she comes together!

Here's my little are piece I created for My Sanctuary. I found these really great table cards a few weeks ago when I was out to lunch. The pictures were so beautiful and the colors were just right I took a few hoping to find a way to use them in the trailer. Last week Audrey, my daughter, found these little frames for $2 a piece. Perfect fit. So now I will attach a ribbon to the back and have a sweet little art piece for $6.

CEILING CONUNDRUM

So we started the ceiling panel replacement. First the cabinet had to come off to get the panel off. Screws came out and there that dang cabinet still hung! Really is nothing simple? It's glued to the dang wall. So once again, we tried to fix something but found we had to tear something else up to do so. Argh!!! So the damaged panel is staying up, getting cleaned and tung oiled and awaiting something creative to come to mind to cover those holes that the last owner thought was so important to poke into the ceiling. :{

ANY CREATIVE IDEAS?

Work is slowing

Well there is still much work to do. However, most of it requires the experts. The electrical is all finished. Power on!! The plumbing is almost complete. Should see the end of that by the weekend...I hope. Still cabinet work to complete. I'm finishing the last of the sanding and oiling, putting on the newly refinished hardware and hanging them back up. Still 100+ degrees so working mostly in the early morning. Darn last bits of stubborn paint is resistant to the paint stripper. Ray says we gotta use the stuff they use on the big commercial jets. Where in the heck to you get that stuff? The airplane store??? Really so done with the pain stripping thing. I want to wash her one final time to get the residue off and than polish her til she shines. We'll probably get complaints from the neighbors due to the glow from the driveway.