I've been lurking on here for about 3 or 4 months - really enjoying the community, information, builds, and of course photos. A little history on how I ended up here. My wife and I have two boys - ages 5 and 7. Our camping was all via tent up until 2 years ago. My wife hates camping (a hotel without room service was camping to her) so two years ago we invested in a Forest River RPod 172 to make things more palatable for her. I also figured it would be much more convenient and easier to get away at a moments notice - plus I assumed setup/teardown would be a no brainer. That wasn't entirely the case.
First, we have no space for an 18' trailer so we had to pay for off-site storage. Second, getting it level, deployed, and hooked up took about as long as setting up a tent site. Similarly, it wasn't much quicker to tear down. We did 6 trips in the Rpod over 2 summers, and while I enjoyed them (and my wife was happier), it was more than we needed. We didn't need AC, the microwave, the DVD player, the inside stove, etc. We found that we hated cookie inside where we slept and prepared our meals on our coleman propane stove. We have iPads - much better than the DVD player/TV. AC only worked when plugged into shore power - I'd rather not be tied to shore power. The microwave doesn't fit when camping (IMO).
I've always been fond of teardrops and decided that this would solve many of our issues. I didn't want to deal with gray and black tanks anymore as well - without them things are simpler. So at the end of last summer I decided we would migrate to the smaller teardrop. Initially I wanted something suited for overland travel like the offroad variety made by SoCal Tears or the Moby1 - until I saw the price (not saying they aren't worth it - just not in my range). I spent the next 6 months researching different trailers and trying to understand what we needed (I've reviewed many of your builds and am envious of your talents - I would not attempt a build as I'm a complete bumbling fool with tools and wood - plus I have zero patience). In December I came across http://www.oramateardroptrailers.com/ in Tenino, WA. A few emails later and I was down their on a Saturday checking out his work. One thing that really irked me about the Rpod was the horrible (and I do mean horrible) build quality - so I was really focused on looking for a builder that had a strong focus in this area. Mike, at Orama, spent 3 hours walking me through his trailers, process, and shop. I walked away very comfortable with the quality of the product he would deliver. I liked his attention to detail, solid cabinet skills, and very clean wiring. He had the right feature set that met our needs and a reasonable price (IMO). So, I ordered and he built us a trailer (I could pick it up now but plan not to take delivery until late April/early May - wishing to sell the RPod first).
The one area not solved by the teardrop directly is the bathroom. However, we are totally fine with picking up a popup shelter and luggable loo style toilet. We only used the rpod toilet at night to pee - we had a strict no #2 policy. A popup shelter solves this easily as the biggest annoyance was the long hike through the campground. As for the kids, if my wife goes, they will be in a tent...if not, they will be in the teardrop with me.
Things left for me to do - need to get a mattress (plenty of recommendations on here have me pointed in the right direction), porta potty and shelter, and an upgraded cooler or fridge (still undecided which direction I'm going to go here). I would buy the fridge in a heartbeat if I wasn't concerned about off-grid power.
Here is a link to the details of the build with a TON of photos from the build: http://blog.paulandsteph.com/2013/03/24/teardrop-trailer-build/ I didn't want to post/upload all of the photos here so here are some from the completed trailer.
. 
