Monday, April 11, 2011

Wasps Nests, Wood Rot and Leaks, Oh My!

Boy hubby sure wanted something to keep him awake yesterday (it was prom Saturday night and he worked post-prom until 5:00 a.m. and then slept till 10).  He kicked butt on the Forester and pretty much completely gutted her.  Lots of clean up which I'll probably attempt to do later today but most of the inside is ripped out.

All in all it was in pretty good (dry) shape except for the kitchenette area.  Once the stove was out we found what we were hoping not to find and that was wet, rotted wood!  :(  The whole area below the front window will need to be re-framed but we first need to find the source of the leak and patch it.  I don't see anything right off the bat except maybe it came in from the 2 vents ... heck I don't know. 

We also found a ton of wasps nests behind the paneling in the walls ... how could someone camp with all that buzzing?  These were old and dead by the time we got to them but there were mud wasp nests and paper wasp nests ... yikes!  Ignorance was probably bliss at one time! 

Once we get this all cleaned out, then we're going to try to figure out a game plan for the restoration.  I'm debating whether or not to put a little dinette in the front instead of the kitchenette area.  Where the 2 closets were along the street side wall, that might end up being the kitchenette section since I don't really need a clothes closet and a port-a-potty closet and would much rather trade that room for a small one-seat on each side dinette.  We'll see.  We're definitely going to put a twin bed along the back wall horizontally for more room. 

This is the fun part ... trying to figure all this out.  I can't wait!


2 comments:

  1. We have done two trailers with the skin on and this one we just started we are doing with the skin off...just because it is just so bad the whole under body needs to be replace...sometimes I think basically what we are buying is a title and the axles...lol..

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  2. Ain't that the truth! I was telling my hubby today that I bet when they built these things they figured they were disposable and never in a million years imagined someone 50 years later would attempt to restore it. They're really flimsy when you look at the innards ... ha ha!

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