Trailer Update/Removing The Decals

I'm taking a break from our posts about France and I'm back with another trailer update.
We are getting excited for some cooler, camping weather.
We've had a terrible heatwave so camping hasn't been our top priority.

Did you ever get a song stuck in your head? 

That is what happened to my husband during our next project on the trailer. 

"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. 

Merry, merry king of the bush is he. 

Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be."

Painting the trailer was difficult but at least it was inside and I could turn on the air conditioning. 

Removing the decals was terrible. 

The trailer had an Australian, Outback, Down Under sort of feel. 

Hence the reason Bill was singing the song. 

I'm not sure why since it was manufactured in Mansfield, Texas. 

It seems like they could have chosen a theme a little more connected to camping in the South West.

After 8 years in the elements, the decals were peeling off in spots. 

I wanted them off. Bill was non-committal about the ones that weren't peeling. 

I am a picker. This may be more than you want to know but if something is peeling off,
I just can't leave it alone. 

Scabs.
Sadly this is true. I hope I haven't grossed you out. 

When we would go out to look at the progress I was making on the inside,
I'd start peeling stuff off of the outside. 

Some of it peeled off with no problems but it was weird.

How well it peeled depended on the color the decal, the area of the decal, and the type of decal.
The bronze color seemed to peel easier than the blue. 

 The Outback scene was almost impossible to get off. 

The front logo on that fiberglass stuff was the worst. 

It also depended on whether the decal had started to peel off on it's own.
 Oddly, those that had started to peel off were harder to get off than the ones that were still firmly attached. 

We went to the internet and looked at YouTube videos but this is a trial and error process.
No two types of trailers seem to be the same.

We saw something about a heat gun. It worked pretty well for most of them. 

Sometimes the glue came off with the decal. 

Sometimes it did not. 

We went back to YouTube for the next step. 

One method, which turned out to be Bill's favorite, was a credit card and WD40. 

There he is humming Kookaburra in his head. Bless his heart. 

I tried Goo Gone. 

I stopped that right away because it removed the bronze paint. Yikes. 

That would have been another can of worms.

I needed a break and a dip in the pool.
I needed to sleep on it.
Some of my best ideas hit me when I'm dozing. 

I woke up the next morning thinking about Sticky Tack. 

At school we had cinderblock walls. We couldn't hang anything without Sticky Tack. 

It is a blue, sticky stuff available at the office supply. We used it to hang children's art or bulletin board characters. 

If its sticky residue stayed on the walls once the art was removed, we used more Sticky Tack to remove the residue.
I brainstormed about something sticky enough to stick to the decal residue as it was being pulled off of the trailer.

I decided to try duck tape. 

I stuck the duct tape onto the glue residue. 

Then I used the glue gun to reheat the duct tape to soften the residue. 

It worked! 

It was time consuming but I do believe that I got almost every bit of residue off of the trailer. 

We love it. 

The classic shape is highlighted now that all the swoops, swirls, Joey's, and gum trees are gone.
 Thanks for stopping by, 

Katie

For all other trailer updates click on the links below.

Read about primer. 

Read about paint. 

Read about curtains. 

Read about the sofa.

Read about the privacy curtain.
Read about the carpet and the mattress.
Read about the art and accessories.

Join a great group of bloggers next week for a fall blog tour.

Fall In Love With Texas Blog Tour

Day 1

Poofing the Pillows

Botanic Bleu

Decor To Adore

Hyacinths for the Soul 
The Aspiring Home
Kitty's Kozy Kitchen 

Day 2 

Let's Add Sprinkles

Just Plain Jilly

County Road 407
The Dedicated House
Estelles

Day 3 

My Thrift Store Addiction

My Heart Lives Here

Bluesky At Home

Our Home Away From Home
Ash Tree Cottage

Art And Accessories For The Trailer

Which do you like better the mountains or the beach? 

The beach does terrible things to my hair so I prefer the mountains.

 However, I am terrified of road trips through the mountains.
We discovered this on our first trip up to Estes Park, Colorado.
I was in the back of the Suburban with a blanket on my head. My four year old was patting my head and saying, "It's okay, Mommy."
I'd never had a panic attach before. No fun.
If I do the driving, though, I am fine.
We have had some great vacations in the mountains and I wanted that sort of feel for the trailer.
I didn't want it too lodge looking, if that makes sense.

My first painting was white mountains on a stained board.

I stained the board and then let it dry. 

The stain is from Minwax. 

I painted snowy looking triangles once the stain was dry.

I saw one like this on Pinterest.
Cute, cute, cute.

For the second project, I printed out a photo that I took on a train ride up through British Colombia during our trip to Alaska. 

Printing it out on regular copy paper caused it to look like a vintage print.
I didn't expect this and I love it! 

Oddly, I can ride a train through the mountains without having a panic attack.

This snowy Canada Goose print didn't make it into the trailer but it has been freed from the terrible frame. 

I thought this was an original instead of a print.
It might show up at Christmas. Who knows? 

A watercolor painting was also recruited for the area above the coffee bar. 

The black mountain painting was also inspired by Pinterest.
This one was so easy.
I almost didn't use it either but it looks cute hanging on the side of the cabinet.
I just drilled it into the wood.

Anything black was rounded up for the accessories.

It is always fun assembling stuff we already own.

I love the black and white dishes. 

Here is a sneak peek. 

That is about it for today. 

We are nearing the end of the inside. 

Please pop back by for the change on the outside. 

Have a wonderful week. 

Katie 

Here are all the posts about the trailer. 

Read about Primer. 

Read about Paint. 

Read about Curtains. 

Read about the sofa.

Read about the privacy curtain.
Read about the carpet and mattress.

As Boring As Blood Pathogen Training/Carpet and The Mattress For The Trailer

Most of my regular readers know that I retired from teaching in May. 

I made the decision in January which was heart wrenching. 

In February, I realized that one the "bright sides" was not having to endure anymore blood borne pathogen training. 

I don't know if you've ever had to sit through one of these training seminars. Boring.
I guess they assume that teachers will start touching blood in between refresher sessions because this training has to be done once a year.
Maybe they know that teachers would give their own life for a student so therefore expose themselves to blood if it were required to help a child.
Who knows?
This post may be as boring as Blood Borne Pathogen Training but it is necessary to get to the wonderful reveal. 

There was carpet next to the bed. The area under the bed was chip board.
We needed to re-carpet because of the winter long mouse party a few years ago.
We wanted to put carpet under the bed as well to possibly improve comfort. 

Bill went to Home Depot and got a few samples.
We picked out a nice dove gray that coordinates with our other elements.

It was around $10.98 a square yard.
I really can't remember how many square yards we got but we had plenty.
Bill calculated how many yards we needed because it was math. Math makes my head hurt.

He did a measurement and cut it.

He took it to the trailer and tacked, stretched, and trimmed it all around the perimeter.
We stretched it as much as we could but we didn't have one of those carpet stretching tools.
We used the electric staple gun he got for Christmas.
I love this thing.

Cutting carpet is a little nerve wracking but it does have a little give if you make a mistake and need to pull it tighter to the wall.
We used a razor blade knife.



We didn't do the closets. The mice didn't have their wild dance party in there.

Next to the couch there were some very groovy drink holders made out of plywood and covered in the palm frond fantasy fabric.

They were not permitted re-entry into the trailer.
They didn't really hold anything but a bottle of water and Bill needs a spot for his coffee.

We were going to make some nice teak trays but we were nearing the point of, "I'm over it."
We decided I would carpet the area next to the couch.
I should interject at this point that I wanted to take the couch out and put in a regular loveseat but the slide out mechanism made that impossible.

The strange fold down couch bed will have to do but at least it has nice new carpet next to it.

Bill ordered a new Memory Foam mattress, mattress pad and sheet set off of Amazon.
We tried to shop local but they didn't have what we needed.
We got the Zinus Sleep Master Ultima for $379.48.
The mattress came all rolled up and shrink wrapped.
It needed to be unrolled within a day.

The mattress pad came from eLuxury Supply.
This company had a hand written thank you note inside and is owned by a veteran.
 They were amazing to deal with.

We really hope this is way more comfortable than the old bed which came with the trailer.
We should have gotten an upgrade years ago.
Hopefully our backs will notice that this is an upgrade from the old mattress.

That is it for now.
Thanks for sitting through this post.
I appreciate you all so much.
Thank you to those that take the time to leave a comment.
I try to eventually email you back unless you are a no-reply blogger.
If you are a no-reply blogger, please know that I always read and appreciate very comment.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Maybe you get to go camping!
Katie


Read about Primer.

Read about Paint. 

Read about Curtains. 

Read about the sofa.

Read about the privacy curtain.

Linking with,
Essence of Home

The Trailer Privacy Curtain

There is a curtain that separates the bedroom from the living room and kitchen in the trailer. 

At first I didn't think we needed to put that curtain back up but Bill insisted that it was crucial.
 He likes to get up early and read. I like to sleep in.
I can be a tad grumpy before I've had my coffee.
I may or may not make angry faces when I'm grumpy.

For the sake of harmony, this curtain needed to be made.

Shopping for the trailer fabric took some time.

We wanted coordinating grays.
I couldn't find the same fabric for the window curtains and the privacy curtain.
When I went back to Walmart to get more panels for the privacy drape, the slate color was already discontinued.
It ended up being fortuitous because there was a lighter weight, black out option instead and it was cheaper too. The four panels were only $20.00.
Harmony doesn't have to be expensive.
 This curtain measured 120 inches wide by 66 inches long so it took a lot of fabric.

The privacy curtain had a special plastic tape sewn onto the top of the treatment.
White plastic clips interspersed along the tape, glide along a special track that is attached to the ceiling.

We were able to get the curtain off by unscrewing the last screw near the wall. Once that was done, we were able to bend the track away from the wall.
The curtain slipped right off of the track.

Saving the old curtain with the plastic tape was very important.
We had a throw away pile and a save pile when we cleaned out the trailer in June.
The old curtain could not be thrown away until I removed the tape with a seam ripper.

To make the new treatment, I sewed the four panels together.
It was time to attached the plastic tape to the tops of the panels.

I used the zipper foot to sew the tape onto the new curtain.

The zipper foot maneuvered perfectly around the clips.
Sewing through the plastic was not a problem.
Once the new drape was hemmed and ironed, we slipped it back onto the track and screwed the end of the track back into the ceiling.

A tieback with a snap holds the curtain in place when not in use.

All our grays coordinate!
Yahoo.

Now the early riser will not disturb the grump.

That is the latest in this series.
Thanks for stopping in.
Be kind and pin! You just never know when there is a trailer remodel in your future.
Katie

 Read about Primer.

Read about Paint. 

Read about Curtains. 
Read about flooring. 

Read about the sofa