Before & Afters: the airstream

“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”

―Jack Kerouac, On the Road

The thought of traveling in an Airstream is so....romantic.

With the people you love, the friends you make along the way....

but have you ever seen the inside of 1975 Airstream bathroom??

Not so romantic-not even close! The yellowish gold, plasticky surroundings?? An odor that grew stronger as the years wore on from old plumbing??

 

We knew the time had come to update the bathroom, I had pitched the idea of a clawfoot tub to the mister-just planted the seed.  This is how we usually do the remodel dance: I pitch, sometimes they catch.  'Too heavy' he says, ' They come in acrylic' I say.
A few days later the mister says, "Let's do it," and the production begins...

TA DA!!

Once again, a bit of the material was recycled, some new, and some traded. The mister built in a cabinet around the pipes, and around the sink, to match the lower walls. A bit of Carrera marble left from our kitchen and maps from an atlas we found at a yard sale years before all found a place.  My personal fave is the mirror above the sink, it was probably the first 'vintage' piece I ever bought back in the 80's! 

(while photographing, Betsi couldn't resist a dip!)

We are all done with our Before and Afters...the road calls! If you have any of your own, please share!

Before & Afters: Kitchen & Living Room

The past few years have been a series of 'befores': kitchen, dining, flooring, upstairs attic room and then the Airstream bathroom...

whew.

Call it a can of worms, a series of fortunate events, a big ol' mess...

THE KITCHEN

The house is dated 1928 and was about 945 square feet-tiny, but it worked for years. The dining room was maybe six feet by eight feet: tiny. The kitchen was still original and was made for very petite people.

We took the wall out between the dining room and kitchen, re-worked a little here and a bit there until we got a much more functional space.

For a while we were able to set up a temporary space to use,while work was happening all around us.

Open shelving or cabinets? A bit of both! After laboring over which brackets to use for shelving-some were too ornate, some too small-the mister decided to custom make floating shelves. This created a more clean look, with so much else going on.Oh this ol' fridge! We loved this little guy. Though we hated to see it go, luckily a great young couple down the street adopted it!For a while, we moved the kitchen into the living room.
Ta Da!! We made it to After!!

We have cupboards and drawers on the left dedicated to baking, flowers, and tea making. To the right is the misters department 'the command center'. It's wonderful!

We were able to keep costs down with a bit of craigslisting, the mister trading service for product, and by saving for what we absolutely wanted: reclaimed flooring and the doors and windows. 

One of the items the mister wanted was the Sub-Zero fridge. There was one on Ebay and when he saw that it hadn't sold, he contacted the seller and made an offer: it was accepted! It had been used as a second fridge and only for drinks, otherwise brand new for a quarter of the price! Lucky us.

Last step, my dream item: reclaimed barnwood floors. The mister was willing to go along as long as we could find a company to tongue and groove them.  We did, making us both happy!

LIVING ROOM

And again, TA DA!!

We moved a small round table into the living room for sometimes dining, sometimes puzzles-although, when friends come over, we tend to bring a bunch of stools around the kitchen island. Before the remodel, the front room was much more floral, when I brought the Satillo serape we threw on the back of the couch, the vibrant flea market art naturally followed. Now, we can easily change out linens and art when we want a new feel, and keep the base pieces!

With the new year, we plan on enjoying more impromptu meals, gatherings, and most of all, glamping and camping!

Remodel Episode #2 (Couch Intervention)

As I mentioned in Remodel Episode #1, for years we had been planning and dreaming of adding an attic suite and remodeling our very tiny kitchen. My job had consisted mostly of the dreaming part.

As for the downstairs living room, I had one tear sheet (a Ralph Lauren ad.--no suprise there) which was my vision and would be my inspiration.

While at an estate sale about a year ago, there was a lot of excitement over all the small and art and my eyes were having trouble landing. I reached for my mantra (focus focus) and as I was standing there looking around, I hear one of the sales gals say, "I'm suprised this couch hasnt sold yet" and gal # 2 says, "Probably because it's loaded with boxes and merchandise and no one has even seen it!". I watched them unload the debris and what unfolded before my eyes was a version of the couch in the picture from the RL tear sheet I saved. This particular couch was chocolate brown velvet as opposed to the amazing leather one--but I saw what I saw and loved it.

I was lucky that John has a building for his buisness that I was been able to store my finds at during the process of building the attic. At times, it seemed like it would never happen, but the time finally came to arrange my rooms. The living room had some good pieces and I thought when John recovered from the craziness of attic add-on, I would ask him to build the bookcases or contract them out. We set up the brown couch, two leather chairs that I brought back from Colorado, and a rustic dresser with the T.V. on it. It was nowhere being done at this point but it was becoming clear that it was not looking like the picture...nor did I look like the gal on the couch. I knew I could get it there, it would just take more time and patience.

In the mean time, Ruby, John and I avoided this area because it just wasn't done. We were eating dinner one night and it was very enjoyable until Ruby said, "Mom, we need to talk." (I knew this couldn't be good). "We hate the couch." she said very cool, "It's so uncomfortable--the pillows slide and you have to sit up straight.". I look at john for a rope to help me, and he says "We hate it." (thanks for the help).

Our house is very, very small, so this room is really the main hub for our family and friends--for T.V. watching, Wii, and the fireplace...so you see, it really needs to work for everyone. Ruby and John continued, "We like the one you took upstairs.". Well, we know that bringing it back down wasn't going to happen--you may remember what we had to do to bring it up (see Episode #1). After dinner, I had to digest what they were saying. Hmmm, everything that they were saying was valid, I did have my comfy couch upstairs, and they were left with an unfinished, uncomfortable room. At this point, I realized my "Ralph room" wasnt meant to be for now. Who wants a room that only you can enjoy? I surrendered to re-group and go to plan B. I did get to keep the leather pair of chairs and the dresser, but everything else changed. I will show you the finished product in episode #3.

Remodel episode #1

About a year ago, we decided to break ground on a longtime dream of ours--an attic room. The original square footage of the attic was 945 sq. feet. For a junker and dreamer, this had been a long 12 years in coming!

Because we had such a long time dreaming about this said attic room, we really didn't have that craziness that a lot of couples have during reconstruction. It helped that we were able to talk about the new addition on a frequent basis, pull pictures out of magazines for inspiration, and spend a year with an architect that we trusted with our vision.

However, there were a few things that I was adamant about (deal breakers!). The first being wood casement windows (the retro kind) to match our 1920's house. We searched high and low for them, and when it was all said and done, we found the perfect ones by Marvin. These windows were probably one of the biggest expenses, but we don't regret it--they are perfect!

Ok, here's where the story gets good. The second thing we wanted was a stairway wide enough to bring up any furniture that we fell in love with. We couldn't make it too wide, as we didnt want to loose floor space, but it had to be wide enough. Fast forward to moving days....

John: So what couch did you want upstairs?

Me: The white one.

John: I don't know, that couch is long and it's a tight corner...

(Let me just say here, the roof had just been completed and we had recieved our final inspection.)

Me: Well, maybe we could crane it in and patch the roof.

John: I don't think that's going to happen! I will ask the guys to help tomorrow.

The next morning, I woke up to find John taking about 6 inches off our wall to make the corner. I then go to work. The phone rings at work...

John: OK, it's not going to work, it won't make the corner. We tried, how's about the brown couch?

Me: The brown one is not going to work. We now have three choices--the crane, you buy us a new couch in a shorter version, or you cut the couch in half and re-assemble it.

John: Let me call you back, I'll see what I can do.

Ring ring (about an hour or two later)!

John: OK, no problem, the couch is upstairs.

Me: What?! It made it up?!

John: Yep, I cut it in half and re-assembled it! You can't even tell!

I got home that day and couldn't wait to see if he really did it...and yes, he did! He was right, you couldn't even tell! John said he figured he would try, because the other two options were going to cost him!

We are now upstairs and there is still more that we will do...in time. But for now, it is perfect! Our perfect.