Well, I did it! I took the plunge. We now own a trailer frame upon which to build our dreamdrop.
Since we, The Husband (Rob) and I (Lauren), live in the city of Baltimore in a row house, we had to find a garage to rent, which I finally did. It is even walking distance from our house, so we don't have to worry about driving down there and finding parking. It is gonna be a bit of a tight fit, but I think we will make it work in the short term. Our overly optimistic plan is to build the whole thing to camp-able in 2 months. Given how type A I am, and how skills the husband is, I think this is reasonable. I am just getting over pneumonia that has had me stuck in the house in front of the computer or TV as my only source of entertainment during the days for the last 4 weeks, so I have been ashopping. (That is right, not just plain shopping, ashopping....and I only make up words when I am really serious about something.
) We bought the trailer frame last fall, from a local guy on craigslist who had it for a couple of years and hadn't done anything with it. It apparently used to be a teardrop that was in rough shape, so he bought and tore it down with the intention of rebuilding. He was losing his storage space so it was our big fat win to get it, and a bunch of the parts he had saved for the rebuild for a mere $375.
It came with hub caps, fenders, the back bumper, a donor door, and the bottom section of the old hatch which has some cool old tail lights on it.
What a bargain, and he hauled it to my dad's driveway for winter storage for free since I don't yet have a hitch on my Honda Element. I also found a window on eBay that is perfect for the "drivers side" where there won't be a door, it doesn't have a trim ring, but it is 28x36, and was $36 shipped. We will build a wooden frame around it anyway, so no need for a trim ring I think. I also found $4.00 brass 12v lights, 4 of them. Found pillows on sale at Target for $4.95 a piece, and have been good-willing it up to stock the galley with vintage camping/cooking/eating paraphernalia. This included my most prized find of a 6quart dutch oven with hanging handle that I paid $20 which looks to have never even been seasoned. I will post pictures of that stuff once we move it all to the garage. I also bought a roof vent on super clearance sale online, and the husband has assured me that he can install a 10" computer cooling fan to the opening, so we order that too. The total for our roof vent with 3 speed fan was $28.
We are planning on a modified slouchy design that will allow in as much light as possible, hence the big window, only require 1 door, and allow us to convert a U shaped dinette into a bed. Initially, I thought we would want to build a foamy, but given the limited interior space and the husbands skills with wood, (hahaha, oy....apparently I am 12.
) we decided that we would build a sandwich walled construction with insulation and framing to allow for strength and height. I m stressed about building a door from scratch, with all the hinges and metal trim etc. But I am hoping that Grant will be my champion and walk me thru the process of what I need and how to use it. I am also concerned aboutb having enough space to include a galley kitchen with storage. I had hoped to find a frame that we could extend off the back to increase our length but this frame had a great old chrome bumper on it, that I feel obligated to show off, so no extension for us. I think our initial plan was something like the modern TAB trailers, but I require a galley, and we only have 8 feet. We are going to really limited on space so we might have to change course as we go. Perhaps we will end up with something like the Lil Diner. Ok, I think that is enough words for my first post. I will be asking dumb questions and hopefully some really good ones as we go forward. The husband is an security system installer and an IT guy so wiring and electrical will be his department as that stuff scares me, but I will be going 50% on everything else. We start making actual sawdust this weekend! More pictures after we begin!
