Tragedy

The Peanut was sadly destroyed when it was caught in a November wind storm that lifted it off the trailer and smashed it beyond all saving.  The shell was scrapped and John has kept the trailer to use for his "mobile man cave"; a hybridization of a slide in truck camper married to the trailer base.  He is enjoying working on the project and has a vision for it that he is working towards himself. 

Finally, Demolition is Finished!

We finally have finished stripping the interior!  When we started we sort of thought we would do the basics to get it ready to go but as we got into it the plan evolved and we decided to basically take the interior down to the outer skin and redo everything that needed it.  It makes for a more intensive process but in the end we both feel that it will be well worth it in the end.

The next step was to remove the upper kitchen cabinet.  The panels here were the original wallboard, sort of like a thickish cardboard.  It peeled off in layers.  As I expected, the right front corner showed some rot; although not anywhere near as much as we found in the back.  We're going to reconstruct the facing for this cabinet, so after taking measurements John went to town with the pry bar and it came out relatively easy.  The screws that were used to fasten the frame in were put in on an angle and didn't want to come out without a fight.  John eventually won.  :)

Kitchen uppers about to come out.

These are nice little fluorescent light fixtures that are wired in, we've kept them and may reuse them. 

Removing the front paneling.

Once the front wall was opened up we pulled out all of the old insulation and had a look at things.  Aside from the rot at the front corner it doesn't look too bad on this wall and won't be too difficult to get sorted out.

Front right corner before taking it down to the wall.  

Front wall opened up and insulation out. 

Right front corner showing water damage...

which obviously leaked down into the floor.  

Next came the trim piece from around the vent and then the ceiling panel came off.  The previous owner had replaced the ceiling so it wasn't all that old, but it had to go.  I have some definite ideas on what I want to do with the ceiling and they didn't include the shower board that he had installed.  We found the usual rot around the ceiling vent, more on the aft edge than the front, not a huge amount and it will be easy to get those beams replaced once we've resealed the vent...and removed the wasp nests.  Ick!

Water damage around roof vent, those beams will have to go!

Here I am peeking in the door, watching John do most of the work.  Right now I am basically the assistant to the process.  I am not about to step on the floor as it is right now and risk damaging the under skin and it's far too small an area for us to both be swinging hammers anyway.

Cheese!  I am not used to being in front of the camera, I'm much happier behind it.  

The next area to tackle was the closet.  I made sketches and took measurements of the wall and cabinet area before John got to work tearing it all out.   The wall was basically two pieces of thin panel board and a frame, so a couple good donkey kicks got it loosened up and the pieces came out fairly easily.  I have traced the outline of one of the paneling pieces to use as a pattern for cutting my new walls.  That pattern will come in very handy when it comes time to re-panel the walls.  We continued to pull out the old fiberglass insulation as we went so that we could see what we were up against.

Getting ready to remove the closet and cabinet.  The panel on John's left came out intact and was traced as a pattern for the curve of the ceiling and the angle of the front wall.  

Pulling out the ceiling and walls of the closet area.

Lo and behold!!!! We have a corner with NO ROT!!!  As near as we can tell the left corner is dry and there is no sign of rot or water damage!  It felt like Christmas!  We do have to pull up the last bit of the floor in that corner because we're replacing the floor front to back, but as it stands now it looks dry and intact.  It's a small battle, but I'll take it as a win.  John did put a small hole in the skin of the front wall as he was pulling out the panel, but it's barely noticeable on the outside and we will be sure to patch it well and seal it before we close up the wall. I didn't rib him too much about it.

My lovely pristine corner...25% isn't bad is it???

John's little "oops".  From the outside it's barely visible and will be an easy fix. 

The last area to pull out was the cabinet area.  We pulled out my teeny tiny fridge and got the walls and facing out fairly easily.  The old furnace vent had been covered with an old margarine lid and duct tape.  We're going to pull it out and patch over the hole.  There is a vent cover on the outside of the trailer that we will leave in place so that we don't have to figure out how to cover the patched area.  There is also a hatch area that was behind the fridge that we will leave intact.  I am debating on the possibility of replacing the teeny tiny fridge with a bigger one and the hatch is good for allowing air circulation behind the fridge compressor.

Removing the closet walls.

Last wall to come out.  You can see the hatch and the furnace vent. 

Duct tape fixes everything, right??

Look at that pile of trash!

Our next steps will be to make sure that we have patterns and tracings of everything we are going to need to recreate along the way.  I am planning to make a new dinette table because I have discovered a large crack along the back edge of the old one.  I will salvage the hardware from the old one, make a pattern and go from there.  We are also going to make new benches and a new bed area.  We figure if we are going to make everything else we might as well make everything new and fresh and solid.

I have also started acquiring items for when I am eventually able to start decorating.  I have found plates, bowls and cups.  I also have picked up a couple of little tea light lanterns that are the perfect color.  I suspect John thinks I am a bit nuts for starting to shop already, but hey, you have to pick these things up as you see them, otherwise they might not be there when you go back for them.

Cleaned out and ready to start redoing.  Standing in the door looking towards the dinette/bed area.

Left front corner/closet area and front wall.

Right wall looking towards the back, you can see the daylight coming through the sprung corner. By far the most damaged corner but I have no doubt it will get fixed. 

We've moved out the trash and detritus and are ready to start rebuilding and repairing.  I am so excited to be able to move forward!

See you next time,

Mel.

Looks like I am getting a new counter front!

We decided to get a couple of hours in today before John left for his vacation to Oregon.  We wanted to get the kitchenette out if we could and check the drying progress.  We also wanted to get the old water tank out and decide the next step.  It was a cold day today and the wind was pretty strong so we didn't spend a real long time.  Things are looking really good as far as the drying is coming along.  I was very pleased to see that.

I also had a chance to check the upper right edge of the camper and found that there is a channel installed for an awning.  While no awning came with the camper I will be making one eventually.  I am happy that I will not have to go about installing a channel.

We've decided to remove everything from the camper and open up all of the walls.  We want to make sure that there is no rot in any of the walls and if there is we want to go ahead and repair and replace what we need to now.  We've also decided that, given the lack of support on the floor that we have found so far, we want to fully reinforce and replace the floor front to back and make sure that it is fully insulated.  It's a little bit more work but we believe it will be worth it in the long run.

We started by removing the sink and old cook top.  The sink looks good and solid, we had to cut the pipe leading from the drain and we will have to replace it if we put the sink back in.  I must admit that I am a bit torn about this.  I have never used the sink in any of the campers that we have had so I am not entirely sure that I need to put this one back in.  When I do dishes while camping I have a solar shower hung up that heats the water and I do them in two dishpans outside.  I know that some people might object to not having a sink in a camper, but I am leaning towards not re-installing it.  I'd be interested in your opinions.

The cook top came out easily, but is pretty old and corroded and we're planning to replace it with a convection cook top.  These cook tops are safer than propane, run on 110 power and look very nice once installed.  They are designed to either sit on top of the counter or be flush mounted into the counter.  I think I would prefer the latter.

Once we had the sink and stove out we got the counter unscrewed and pulled out.  We're going to replace the counter top, because the hole from the old cook top is too big and oriented the wrong way to receive the new convection unit.  This will also resolve the hole that would be left if I didn't replace the sink.

Counter top off and water tank coming out.  My cheerful demo/Mr. Fix it!

Old cabinet face.

Next came the nasty old water tank.  Even if we wanted to use it we wouldn't have been able to, the outlet valve was broken off from the tank and would leak if we had put water in it.  It will be going to the scrap man.

It came off in our hands, no interest in trying to repair this thing at all. 

Once that was out John started working on getting the counter framing and face out.  I am playing with the idea of putting the fridge under the counter below the cook top.  This would of course require a new counter face.  John was having some trouble with a couple of the screws and resorted to the simple expedient of cutting the facing in half and pulling out that way.  So it looks like one way or another I am getting a new counter facing.

Removing screws and shelf supports

Old counter facing, I'll measure it for when we make a new one.

Once we had the counter out we checked the floor and sure enough there was more rot and wet wood. We're not sure if this water was from the leak at the back that has run towards the front over time or if we have another leak to seal up.  I am sure that opening the walls will answer that question.  We pulled up what we could and decided to leave it at that for the day.

Taking measurements for when we replace the cabinet you can see the original flooring and the rot underneath it.  Yuck!

The copper pipe was from the old cook top and will be removed.  The horizontal pipe is actually the direct water inlet and was attached to the sink.

Prying up the old floor.

This corner was actually relatively dry, but we're going to get it out too when when we pull out the closet and cabinets.

Once John's back from his trip we will be removing the closet and cabinet unit and the upper cupboards and then get the walls opened up.  I'm anxious to get all of this done so that we can start repairing and rebuilding.

Let me know what you think about the sink question!

See you soon!

Mel.

Demolition Day 2

John decided to get back out to the trailer yesterday and work some more on removing the old flooring while I was sleeping after night shift.  Spring has definitely caught up with us finally and it's so nice to be out in the fresh air and sun shine.

Things had dried up a little bit in the Peanut since Sunday's demolition session but things are still pretty wet.  John started by working on pulling up more of the floor towards the back wall of the camper.  Turns out that many of the joists are either partially or completely rotted away.  They were providing no support for the floor at all.  I am starting to think those black and white tiles were made out of Kryptonite because they were all that was preventing us from going through the floor.  :) At some point someone had made an effort to reinforce the floor with 1" x4" boards, which were also pretty much destroyed.

Left rear corner.  The insulation will be coming out as we go, too.

Taken from the front area looking at back wall at those lovely 1"x4" 's

At least they tried, I guess?

This is the floor in front of the kitchenette area.  The door is to the right and the fridge/closet is to the left. 

 John also took some pictures of the under side of the trailer to see if there was any obvious concerns that he could see.  Over all I think it looks pretty good, considering it is almost 40.  I plan to spray the frame with one of the rust retardant sprays and then paint it.  I probably should take things down to the bare frame and redo it as well but I think that is more than we can get into.  The white pipe is the outlet for the sink.  Presumably the intent is to just put your grey water tank underneath while you're parked.

Shot of the under frame.  I see some rotten wood just in front of the tire that I will have to address. 

Overall doesn't look bad for being almost 40.

Pipes and hoses that we will have to sort out.  The white drain pipe is visible as well. 

The last thing that John did was to get a little more into the front kitchen area, specifically the lower cabinet.  His preference is to remove the propane cook top, even though it is original to the trailer, and replace it with a convection cook top.  They run on 110 power and are much safer than propane.

We had noticed a pump arrangement under the cabinet.  After poking around a bit he realised that there is a water tank under the cabinet at the front of the trailer.  The fill valve is outside on the front right side.   John is thinking that we should remove that as well, given that it's unlikely we/I will be needing to carry water in a tank.  I must admit that from the pictures, I think the tank looks a bit nasty too and I would be hesitant to use it.  I am pretty sure that we are going to go ahead and take out the front counter and fridge/closet cabinets so that we can just replace the floor front to back.  Given the extent of the damage to the rest of the floor I find it hard to believe that there wouldn't be rot under these areas as well.  

View of under the kitchenette cabinet

Floor of cabinet removed to expose water tank

Other half of water tank and pump arrangement.

Pipes from sink and from water tank.  The tank to me just looks nasty.  

That's about it for today, a bit of a shorter post than I usually make.  We're planning to go back out tomorrow and get the cabinets and cupboards off and the rest of the floor up.  Once we've done that the rebuilding process begins.  We want to rebuild the floor stronger than it was when it was new so we'll be re-framing and installing new joists and making sure everything is well supported before we move onto insulating and installing the floor.

We're enjoying the process so far, but I must admit that there have been a few times when I have looked at the scope of the needs for this little cutie and wondered what I have gotten myself into.  We're taking it one step at a time and I am sure that once this heavy work is done and we have the walls repaired, insulated and covered it will go a lot faster.

Thanks for stopping by, 

Mel.

Demolition Day!

We had a beautiful spring day here today and decided to go out and get started on opening up the walls and floor of the Peanut and seeing what we have to do for her.   While there were no real surprises as we got into it, we do have our work cut out for us.  While I say "we" throughout this post, in truth John did the vast majority of the heavy lifting today.  It didn't seem to be all that difficult, though and he only got one splinter.

Rear Wall

We started by removing the trim at the edges of the back panels and the rear window.  We also removed the table and all of the hardware that went with it.  As we pulled off the old paneling we could see how wet it was after the heavy rains from last week.

Trim off from around the rear window.  We've also taken the shelf/upper bunk down to prevent accidents. 

Dropping the table in preparation for removing it. 

Wet and rot around the rear window.

Another view of the same area. 

After the upper bunk fell and almost brained John while he was working under it, it came off too.  It would have had to come out eventually anyway and to be honest I am not entirely sure that I will put it back in.  It would never have been used as a bed, and I quite like how much more open and bright the back of the trailer was without it.  We've set it aside for now until we are sure that we won't need it.  

Demolition continued with the removal of the left and right benches.  We needed to get them out so that we could get to the lower sections of the back wall.  It was apparent that while some of the sections of the benches were original, as evidenced by the stapled construction, they had been rebuilt at some point in the past.  We've kept them aside to put them back when we're done.  I will be buying new foam and making new cushions once we've rebuilt things.  

Once we had the back wall opened up we decided to open up the rear side walls to further expose the wet areas.  We opened them up to probably just a bit less than half way.  We also removed the back ceiling panel that was installed by the previous owner.  I was hoping to keep it intact but it soon became apparent that it had to come down in order for us to properly repair what needed to be fixed.  

Preparing to remove the left bench.

Not too difficult, most of the screws came out easily.

Left bench removed, the power cord pulled through to the outside while we were working.  

Right bench removed and getting ready to pull off the rest of the paneling.  

Once we had everything removed we could assess what was going on.  As we expected the right rear corner was pretty rotten.  The rot is from ceiling to floor and several of the framing beams will need to be replaced.  Also, the large corner board that gives the upper back edge it's curve will need to be re-cut and replaced.  Once we've replaced the beams and supports we will have something to re-attach the aluminum skin to.  There was also some rot on the left rear side of the wall, although not quite as much as on the right.  

Right rear corner, showing rot that will need replaced.

Left rear corner rot, with some rot on the ceiling above the small window.

Right rear upper corner support piece that gives the roof it's curve at the back.

"I Didn't Know That They Made Liquid Flooring"

Along about this time I decided to do a Tim's run for some drinks.  John was still working on getting the ceiling panel off and said that he'd carry on while I was gone.  When I came back the decision on whether or not the checkerboard floor would stay had been made.   The floor overall felt very soft and spongy in most areas and we were pretty sure that at least some of it was going to have to be replaced.  The area in front of the door in particular felt very soft and I was quite hesitant to step too firmly on it.

By the time that I got back John had ripped up the old tiles and a good portion of the rotted wood on the floor.  It was absolutely saturated and John was pulling out handfuls of sopping wet wood rot. Once again it was obvious that someone had made an effort to repair or at least reinforce things at some point in the past.  The original floor was visible in places under the top layer of wood.  The original sheet linoleum was visible in places, as was the wood floor that was original to the camper. John had taken the floor down to the skin in places.  It was pretty stinky and quite nasty looking.  A large portion of the floor will obviously be repaired.  My preference will be to take it all down to the underskin and rebuild from there, adding some additional joists as we go for added strength.  Right now we have it airing out and drying out a bit before we do anything more.  

Taken standing outside in the doorway.  No way was I stepping on that mess. 

Down to the outer skin in front of the door.  This was sopping wet. 

The floor in front of the fridge/closet actually wasn't that bad but will be replaced anyway

Below the back wall, more layers need to come up but it needs to dry out a bit and we want to have the replacement wood ready to go before we get too much more up.

So there you have it.  So far the needs are about what I would have expected, given the age of the camper and the fact that it has been sitting for about three years.   I haven't made the final decision about the floor under the front sink/stove area and under the closet/fridge area yet, but I am leaning towards trying to replace them when we fix the rest of the floor.  

I look forward to your comments and appreciate any suggestions that you may have to offer. 

Mel.