Pulling off a patch. Power Tools. And Paint.

So, it's official. My hobby is really a hobby. And, I have the blister from this weekend to prove it.
Since the weather warmed up (to just under 30 degrees) sweet hubby, my little man, and I tackled the first assignment(s) of project renovation.

It started with this: exposing what was under the mysterious patch. Yikes.

That thing has been a sore subject for sweet hubby since the day we made the purchase. He was bound and determined to see what was under the make-shift patch from the previous owners. Looks pretty rough, huh? Just wait Henry Higgins. Just you wait. It got way worse.

Sweet hubby decided to clip away at things to take a closer look. And, what he found was disgusting. The previous owner (or the one before that) tried to "fix" the issue by sticking a bunch of old t-shirts and some random pieces of trim to "fill" the area. Which basically just resulted in a place for things to get wet. And, begin to rot. And, stink. And, yes, you guessed it, we found the source of the smell!!!! So sweet hubby removed the disgustingness and clipped the metal, and removed the wet, yucky particle board and rotten insulation and we found ourselves with a hole looking into the camper.

And, kind of like John Locke staring into the hatch at the end of a LOST episode, I found sweet hubby staring into the little vintage camper with a little disbelief. No words. Just staring.

What was he thinking? What was I thinking getting us into this? What were we thinking? Could we sell this thing with a hole in the exterior? I literally asked that question out loud. Was this too much work for us first time renovaters? How would we fix this? Why does it still smell so bad? He spoke.

Like always, Mr. Creative, my sweet husband, has an idea. Stay tuned. It's a good one. Until then, here's the view from inside. Yep, it's duck tape.

The rest of the day wasn't nearly as eventful. I removed some of the brackets and hinges so that we could eventually paint. Lesson #1: power tools make things easier.

We pulled the weird looking formica-like, paper-thin backsplash off; still working on getting that off of the countertop and table. It looks better already. 

We removed an old water tank that we don't plan to use from under one of the seats. And, we had another surprise! Another hole! Since we don't need the drain in this area, we'll have to figure something out. Sweet hubby has another idea for that space, too. Stay tuned!

Our last project for the weekend, after bleaching the floor was to seal the space with some mildew resistant/water resistant primer. We plan to add new flooring, but thought it would be good to get started on this task which would hopefully reduce the smell in the camper, seal things and just clean things up a bit. Little man was super excited to help with this part. 

Though we planned on just covering the old floor with primer to start, someone got a little excited to start on the other areas. But, that was ok. This is his vintage camper, too. And, it's going to be awesome. Mostly, because we're doing this together. Which is simply wonderful. Stink and all. 

This is going to be a lot of work.

So, my hobby? It's going to be a lot of work. So far, hubby has been managing the project. I'm more of what one might call the creative director. Or, at least the gal with the camera, the blog posts, and the opinions. And, through it all, the love of my life keeps smiling.

I'm sure that somewhere behind this sweet smile is a man who is a little worried that his wife's hobby is slowly becoming his renovation project. I'll get in there, eventually. When it is warmer outside (or at least in the garage) and when we figure out how to get that weird smell out of there.  It's just an old stale camper smell that I'm sure is par for the course when you set out to restore a vintage camper. But, come on! It's a little overwhelming. Dear hubby thinks getting a little paint in there and adding some cleaning products and elbow grease and we'll be just fine. Again, with the optimism. In the interim time, I might search "removing weird smells from vintage campers" so that we're prepared.

As you can see we've sweet hubby has taken out the drawers and removed all of the cabinets. He pulled that creepy (slightly moldy?) contact paper from some of the drawers and shelves. I, on the other hand, just keep taking pictures so we have evidence of what will be an amazing transformation.

One of the things I've been trying to decide is whether or not we should put a larger mattress in this space (that seems to be the trend on many of the Pinterest-inspired renovations) or whether or not we should keep the flexibility of the couch/pull out bed with a flip cushion like mattress. I haven't actually made it back in there since taking these pictures to measure the area but I think it would probably handle a full size mattress. That would reduce the "seating area" in this space, but really, having a larger mattress to sit on would probably work fine, too. And, likely be more comfortable when we actually spend the night in the camper versus a seat cushion. What do you think?

Hubby removed the freaky-looking water damaged area under the window. It's starting to look better already. Oh, and check out the turquoise stove. That just has super cute written all over it. If nothing else, I'm finding that encouraging. 

Looking forward to the weather getting above zero so that we can make some more progress. Until then, I'll explore some fun fabric options for curtains, pillows, and cushions.