we are so very excited to share this renovation with you! we have spent quite a few months working on making this trailer suit the needs of our family of (almost) six and we just returned from taking it out on it’s maiden voyage up the california coast. it was amazing and i can’t recommend adventuring like this enough! some people think we are crazy to take our very young children out on the open road but we have found that there is no better classroom than the world for our little ones to learn (we just started homeschooling gracie) and also being in a small space for extended periods of time also forces us to interact and not just use the tv as a babysitter which can happen so much at home. we have to be very intentional about what items we take in the trailer, making sure they are beneficial for our time, space and usage. in the trailer, we all grow closer, we cuddle more, we get outside and adventure. we can’t bring many toys along so instead of playing with blocks, we go on scavenger hunts and then learn about the items and have hours of playtime in nature. it is also good for our marriage… instead of retreating into separate rooms after the kids for to bed, we read together, we talk, we have to be close and quiet and actually hang out and share life. and being able to listen to the rain fall on the trailer roof by candlelight is sure romantic! now, i will say there are challenges. such as, brandon getting the stomach flu at 1am one night and trying to figure it all out. we were sleep deprived the next day but we learned to bring lots of extra sheets and towels and a very loud white noise machine to enable to rest of the crew to sleep through things like that. it is an adventure, but we have the best stories to tell and memories for our children to have the rest of their lives. we figure they will be grown soon and will probably not want to be in a small space with us for long once they are teens, so we are going to really enjoy this time now and keep them cuddled close. :)
so about the trailer… it is a 1950 spartanette trailer! it is 23 feet long, has full electric, water, propane (and pretty much everything we need to live aside from a bathroom). we just have made sure we try and stay at campground with rv hook-ups and request to be as close to the bathrooms and playgrounds as possible. works out well so far but we have talked about doing a build-out for a little bathroom in one of the closet areas. as far as the renovation, we had to pull down the wood in the interior to re-do the electrical in some places and re-did some of the insulation. but other than that, we had looked for a long time at vintage trailers and made sure this one had good bones to start. everything else was about figuring out how to make the furniture and decor as functional as possible for our family (and cute, of course)! we hope you enjoy the tour! we are starting with a little video wrap-up of our trip, followed by the photos…
and here is a list of where we found some of the things for our trailer interior: fridge/freezer: authentic 1950′s westinghouse from savon appliances in burbank, ca. curtains: handmade/fabric by joel dewberry. child chairs & wall bookshelf: land of nod. sofa & chevron rug: urban outfitters. bed comforter: anthropologie. yarn wrapped antlers: http://www.etsy.com/shop/YarnBombedAntlers. typewriter table, lockers, quilts, kitchen stool & various other decor: vintage.
