First Evaluation

My vintage Scotty has been home for a week now. Our HOA doesn't allow trailers or boats in the neighborhood so I had to covertly hide her behind my house so I can work on her.  She is right next to the chicken coop.  No, chicken coops aren't allowed by the HOA either...and when they have five laying hens as permanent residents it is practically a felony.  We have a tall wooden fence surrounding the back yard and a bunch of tall trees. So far so good.

My Scotty has never been restored so I expected to have some repairs to make before I started the fun part of decorating the inside.  These pictures are of some of the damage I found upon closer inspection of the trailer.  The first picture is a wet/rotted spot on the inside ceiling.  There were two of them.  I quickly learned that when you are looking at water damage on the inside it is literally the tip of the iceburg.  Water rots everything in it's path and I was staring at the END of the path.  So...... I ventured to the roof and found this...

and this....

So many layers of goop that it would take me months to scrape it all off.  One of the previous owners had screwed through the metal roof about 37 times with screws that went no where and each one had dripped water into the interior. 

Since there were so many screw holes I decided I needed a new roof.  An intimidating task since I have never replaced a roof before.  Call me lazy but I would rather learn something new than scrape off all that GOOP! YUK.

Inside My Trailer

Wow!  How do I explain the first walk through of my Scotty. Let's put it this way...the first picture from 30 feet away (in my first post) looks pretty good huh? Good bones. Cute paint.  Nice awning. I love the floor plan of this Scotty.  For being such a small trailer she will easily sleep two adults and two kids or three adults and a kid.  It has plenty of headroom for anyone tall who may happen to use it. (That wouldn't be me....I look up to everyone in my family....even my 13 year old daughter.)  Inside the Scotty, well it is drab, drab, drab.  Vintage can be nice but this interior has me yawning and grabbing a Clorox bottle at the same time.

The interior is original except for the fridge and microwave.  There are a few wall boards that were replaced that are not original either.  The plan is for all the interior walls and ceiling to be updated.  I am hoping that repairs will be mainly cosmetic but I am not that optimistic.  This gal is over 40 years old and it looks like she has some leaks, some rotten wood here and there and the roof is a Big Mama Mess!  I will post detailed pictures of the YUK YUK as soon as I can.  For right now I just want to bask in my day dreams of how glamorous she is going to look when I get finished with her and all the fun places we will go when she gets her shine on!

Here is my goal.  Transform her by October 2011 so I can take her to the Lake Eden Arts Festival and get out of the tents. Wow.  That is only 9 months away.  I will have to work fast.

My First Vintage Trailer Adventure

I recently purchased an early model Serro Scotty Highlander travel trailer and just got it home! There is just something really neat about these little rooms on wheels.  I thought it would be cool to get one, fix her up and hit the road.  I have to confess that the hubby doesn't share my excitement but I am holding out hope that if I make it comfortable enough he will reconsider.  Maybe the addition of the porta potti in the closet will be the ticket :o)

I thought I would venture into the world of blogging to document my progress.  That makes two new ventures for me.  You know what?  I am turning 44 soon so maybe this is my way of addressing the midlife crisis "thang".  My husband just shakes his head but he pretty much let's me do what I want....isn't that the secret to a good marriage?

Back to the Scotty. I picked her up in the Georgia mountains from a nice man named Dave. He helped me hitch her up and even called me during my 3 hour ride back to make sure I was ok.  Sweet.  Here is an outside picture.  I will be spending the next day or two taking inventory and prioritizing the repairs needed to get her ready for this summer.  I expect to learn a lot with this experience and am actually excited about it.