airstream architect

Staying Busy

Right now my hands are tied. I am waiting for some professional assistance on my plumbing and unfortunately haven’t had much luck with mechanics so I am on “trailer time” which means what should take one week is going to take a month or more. I still want to be creative while I am forced to wait so I took on a couple new projects.

The first one below is I started home brewing! It has been a blast! I made a batch of wheat beer (one more week till it’s ready) and I wanted to make an old style 6 pack wooden holder. There is a photo of two of them I made. They are not done yet. I am going to put a label, handles, and varnish on them but I just wanted to post the rough stage first and then the finished product later. 

The second is I built my mother a Potters Bench for Mother’s Day. It was a lot of fun to build. I was able to build it all for her on the day and the Steph helped me put on the protective clear coat.

Last but not least… I bought a bike today! I couldn’t pass up on this sweet little bike! I went in to get a tire lever and came out with a bike instead. I got it for $40 in a junk shop. The best part is that completely comes apart in the middle and folds up. I am going to restore this bike and make it look brand new! It is going to be blue and white. 

Laying Down the Floor

So its been a long time since my last post. I am working on putting in the sub-floor now. I need to do the plumbing and water tanks beneath the floor before I can actually bolt it all down. It took a long time to rip everything out and remove the inner panels to get at the electrical (which we be next after the plumbing). Unfortunately it still isn’t much to look at but here are some photos of what it looks like now! 

Destruction

So I have begun the process of tearing apart the inside of my airstream. It has been fun and definitely cathartic. I want to start with a blank slate. Tear absolutely everything out and build everything myself. It is already harder than I thought in some ways and easier in others. But already it has been incredible how much support I have received from my friends and family. My father helped me drive it down from Sacramento and my sister Stephanie, her roommate Lizzy, and their neighbor Don took time out of their day and spent a good hour and a half getting my Airstream backed into their backyard where I will be doing all my restoration. We had (literally) one inch of clearance between their house wall and the gate so it was a very slow and tedious process but with teamwork we got it in! So I have continued to work on it above are some before and after pictures.

…and then I found her

I spent hours, days, months on end searching and researching to find the perfect Airstream. I looked all over the country to find which make and model I wanted. I finally settled on the Airstream Overlander Land Yacht. I finally found one that was at the right price (low), in the right condition (horrible), and the right distance away (far). My father and I flew up to Northern California, rented a Uhaul, and towed her back down that same day. It went so smooth and I can only hope that is an indication of things to come. I was so worried at first. I was told I had old outdated “split rim tires” that were literally known to kill people. So I had them replaced which consumed the small nest egg I had set aside to put straight into my Airstream. It still went there but I was hoping it would pay for my wood flooring and not tires but in the end it was a good investment. The pictures above are what it first looked like when I picked it up and our trip back home.