Week Four Progress: Title Transfer and Demo Begins
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I suppose technically this may be week five or six, but at least there is real progress! The title arrived at our neighbors' home last week, so we were able to meet them at the DMV this morning to finalize the title transfer paperwork and put the Airstream in our names. So, as of February 25, 2019, we are the proud owners of a vintage 1975 Airstream Overlander. We are so grateful to Stacy and Leslie Dover, our sweet neighbors. When they purchased the trailer ten years ago, they were business owners of a wonderful coffee shop here in town, and they hoped to renovate the trailer to use as a coffee truck. But the reality of that mammoth project didn't fit their lives and so the trailer hadn't even been moved in the last decade. They are big supporters of our ministry to love and serve the hurting in disaster response, and after talking about it, decided that we would be the perfect couple to do the renovation and to actually benefit from the Airstream as we serve. What a blessing! Yes, we are definitely going to spend a lot of money on a complete renovation, but to receive the trailer free is just so nice of them. Everyone knows what a vintage Airstream in almost any condition is worth. We are humbled and grateful for their love and support.
While we were at the DMV, we went ahead and ordered vanity plates (because, why not?). Our new plate will read "SEWSHINY" and that makes both of us chuckle. (I am the owner of Island Time Quilting, a longarm quilting business, and have been a quilter for about 30 years.)
Dennis has been itching to get going on the tear out. He can tell the frame is "bad" but just how bad is hard to see until we get things apart. So, we came straight home to begin the deconstruction. Demo is a lot of fun, and since we have the grandgirls this week, they got in on the fun, too. (It's a teacher inservice day, so even the 7yo was home!)
It went remarkably fast. Most of the trailer was gutted between 10am and noon. We came inside for lunch and naps, and then the girls and I will have the dance lessons this afternoon, so it's up to Grampy to finish up today.
Enjoy a bunch of pictures of our messy fun! So far we think the only thing we'll reuse is the sink.
Gingersnap, 7yo, and Gumdrop, 4yo
Gingersnap was a big help adding debris to the pile.
Gumdrop mostly played in the bedroom...until the bedroom was destroyed.
Table and Fridge removed
There is the expected rot. But also really bad repairs done at some point in the trailer's history.
Probably the only thing we'll reuse!
Front half removed in no time!
All the way back to the bathroom dividers
Nearly done in less than three hours!
Dennis says the subfloor in the bathroom is completely gone.
Quite the pile of debris!
I did shoot one short video, so here's the removal of the very rusted furnace:
"We" have made great progress on the frame build. I can't call it a rebuild, because there was nothing to salvage about the original frame. Since this part of the build requires all of Dennis and practically nothing of Lori (except as a sounding board and fiscal-agreement-partner), I am definitely using the "we" part very loosely. Dennis has pondered this build from every angle and fraction of an inch for a couple of months now, so he's been pleasantly surprised how the actual build has come together really quickly. Those steel beams are not lightweight, and once he brought the steel home, he spent a not-small-amount-of-time just thinking about how to work with the lengths he needed to use safely. He briefed me this morning on how the A-frame assembly had gone. He had to set those members at a very precise angle to make them match at the front, which required some genius on his part. (I work with cotton, so everything he's doing in steel seems my
I am fortunate that I have worked from home for the last several years as a professional longarm quilter, so during this time of "staying at home," my clients and I have been conducting our drop offs and pick ups in a no-contact, scheduled visit. This week I had several beautiful quilts to finish, so Dennis decided to work on those front window frames. When we opted to remove the fiberglass end caps and install aluminum segmented end caps, that made the old plastic window frames, yellowed and brittle from age, virtually impossible to reuse. We tossed around trimming them to fit, and using fiberglass to finish them nicely, but then we'd probably just paint them silver to blend in. So, Dennis decided to give it a try at making the frames from aluminum, too. Dennis has built several aluminum airplanes, and has been working with aluminum regularly for over twenty years. Even so, he characterized his methodology as the "brute force" method of window frame bui
Pandemic and Quarantine. Dennis has been diligently working on all aspects of our ITQAirstream that we've named "Sew Shiny." Since our last update was July 4, 2019, there's a lot to see. We uploaded three videos to walk you through his progress. Exterior Walk Around Part 1 Exterior Walk Around Part 2 Interior Update We are both able to stay really busy at home. He's usually in the shop doing his magic on the airstream build, and I'm typically in the house pretending that Q still does indeed stand for Quilts. I have finished two small projects during our stay-at-home sequester, and still have a few customer projects to finish this month. Things he forgot to mention in the video: He installed the awning arms (new from ZipDee) while we still have the walls out and he was able to get to the inside. He painted the top with polymeric paint after sealing everything really well. We installed the vent covers, including screen inside the refrigerator vent an
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