In week two of our Airstream renovations we actually moved in with my dad for a week and worked on it non-stop. Well, my husband Trevor worked on it non-stop. My dad, my daughters and I helped while also working my job, getting my mom out of the nursing home for visits, making meals and cleaning.
Renovating our Airstream has become a family affair and it’s really nice to be able to spend the extra time with our families!
We got a lot done during week 2 but there were also some problems.
We lifted up the plywood floor in the kitchen area where we were hoping to find our fresh water tank in perfect condition! Unfortunately it was cracked all the way down the middle. We did try and do a plastic weld on it to repair it, but that DIY didn’t work! It had too many small cracks in the plastic and wasn’t worth the time we were spending on fixing it. That left two options: order an exact replacement tank from the Airstream parts store or purchase a different water tank and find a place to put it. With our goal of leaving on October 1 we really didn’t have time to wait for an exact replacement to be shipped to us so we decided to go with this tank from Amazon!
I love ordering from Amazon because I have an Amazon Prime account. This means I can get products really quickly and get free shipping. I also chose this specific tank because it was one of the few I could find that weren’t really tall. I wanted to be able to fit it under one of the twin beds behind the kitchen. This 20 gallon tank measures 12″ x 12″ x 32″ so it fits perfectly and still holds a decent amount of fresh water. We won’t be boondocking for very long without buying additional water but that was never our plan anyway! (Tip: boondocking means camping off the grid with no water, sewer or power sources. Think backcountry or Walmart!)
After we decided to go with a water tank in a different location we welded the frame back in place and prepared the area for a new plywood floor.
We also had trouble with some electrical connections inside the Airstream and one of the tail lights needs replacing. All in all not too many problems!
This week we hooked up a new hot water heater and created a new aluminum cover for it on the outside of the trailer.
We painted a LOT of the walls, ceiling and built in cupboards white.
Trevor tested out more of the wiring including the speakers, battery meter and got the fan above the stove working.
And the biggest thing of all: we scraped all of the old caulking off the windows and replaced it with new caulking so that the trailer would be waterproof!
Trevor popped out some of the dents in the exterior panels of the trailer. My dad got one of our propane tanks inspected and filled which means we don’t need new tanks thank goodness!
We also bought a used white propane stove for the kitchen off Kijiji and ordered all of these accessories from Amazon! More free shipping and incredible prices on these trailer parts that are normally way over priced in local stores.
And I almost forgot. I also bought a lot of fabric from Fabricville for our curtains and some pillows. I got it all for $3-4/yard. The leaf pattern is outdoor fabric so we can use the pillows outdoors on chairs as well.
We were exhausted after this week and it was time to go back to Nova Scotia so our kids could go back to school. There’s a lot more to come before we leave so stay tuned and follow me on Instagram for more pictures!
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