Day 420, The Traveleze Restoration

Removing the skin and exposing the sever rot in back.

On Thursday last week, Justin was able to pull the windows out of the Traveleze and it took over 4 hours to get them out.  Today he was able to remove most of the outer skin and reveal true extent of the water damage.  We knew there was damage, but Justin was completely surprised by the amount of damage and to the extent of the repairs that had been done to the trailer over the years.  When the back skin was removed the back end of the trailer basically let go and fell to the floor.

Justin texted me and said I needed to come look at the trailer and we needed to talk.  This was not a good sign in my mind and I wonder if the Traveleze really just needed to crushed up and deposited in a landfill.  I said I could be there shortly after 5pm and that I would head his way after work.

Preparing to paint the living room wall

When I got to Justin's shop the Traveleze was looking a little worn out, but it still had its awesome shape that had originally drawn me to it.  Justin showed me what he found and you could see the major alteration that had taken place to the front end in an effort to beef up the front frame.  The back end is really were the water leakage had taken its toll, and it dictated that a complete rebuild was going to be in order.  Justin sat me down and down and told me what we were looking at and he wanted to know what my thoughts were.  The price to restore the trailer obviously just jumped.  I seriously thought about scrapping the project and moving on.  After a few minutes of talking with Justin, I decided I really wanted the trailer restored and we needed to proceed.  Justin said great and that he would get started on a complete rebuild.  When it is all done I will have a new trailer that will hopefully still have some of it's nostalgic old charm.

The living room after paint

I headed home around 6:15pm and I still needed to finish painting the trim on the barn.  I had picked up three gallons of paint, one for the barn, and two more of the inside colors.  I really wanted to paint the west wall of the living room tonight.  By the time I got up on the ladder it was already starting to get dark.  I estimated it would only take me about 20 minutes, so I painted quickly, as the last bit of daylight faded into darkness.

I was wondering if I had enough energy to start painting the living room, but I tried not to think about it and just started.  I started painting on the west wall around 8pm and hoped I could have it done by 11:30pm.  There are a lot of windows to cut in around and it was going to take some time, but I figured I could watch TV and get it done if I just kept at it.  Sure enough by 11:45pm I was touching up the last coat of paint and the wall really looked good.

Again, I had forgotten to lock up the chickens for the night.  I had three eggs, four for the day, but one had no shell and was just the membrane.