Wow! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve made a blog entry! I guess it’s been busy around here. We went on a few more camping trips after the Modernism Show – Estes Park for Scotfest, Grand Lake for fun, and Palisade for WineFest. The Silver Streak was the house on wheels for all of those trips. It’s just so darn comfortable!
So, you remember how we bought a 1960 Holiday House? Before we could begin work on it, we had to enlarge the garage door to get her inside. Our garage had 2 small doors, and we decided to enlarge it to fit a single, bigger garage door. The garage is cinderblock and it was quite the undertaking. Of course, George did it himself. So glad he’s got mad skills.
These pics aren’t great. There is another door behind the Silver Streak. As you can see, there was no way to get a trailer in there:
It was daunting….cutting that cinderblock, and praying that the garage wouldn’t collapse before we got the header installed. No worries…the door was installed with very little drama. Here are a few pics of the process:
So, at long last the Holiday House is at her new home!
As we began to look more closely at the trailer, we realized it was an even bigger project than we had originally thought. The wood rot was incredible. Once we pulled the outer skins off, the framing DISINTEGRATED. Now, we knew we were going to replace the framing, but we assumed we would have the original to use as a template. Well, that wasn’t possible….the walls, literally, fell apart. UGH. It’s hard to believe this was towed to Denver from Idaho! The trailer gods were smiling on this little Holiday House during that trip.
Have I mentioned how happy I am that I married a handy guy? George was very apprehensive to start this. He putzed around the garage for weeks….looking at the trailer, then finding something else to work on (it’s a surprise for a later blog post. It’s pretty cool, I promise it will be worth the wait). Eventually, he dove in head first to this little horror show. Removing the front window was scary, but we got it done and didn’t damage the fiberglass “eyebrow” thing. Wooo Hoooo!
He ended up building the new side walls right next to the trailer. He would then attach the framing to the old walls, and tweak it until it was just right – or at least as right as it could be considering there were pieces missing from the original. It was a long and tedious process. When the framing was complete, it was sitting right next to the original trailer – it was pretty cool looking.
We pulled the bath unit out of the old one and did a test fit in the new framing, and – holy crap! – it fit perfectly! That’s pretty amazing considering that the bath unit is in the rear of the trailer and there are all sorts of crazy angles. The true test was fitting the front window frame – more damn angles, and this HAD to be perfect – it’s the thing that makes these trailers so amazing. I don’t need to tell you, we were pretty freaking nervous.
Once the frame was constructed we could finish the demolition. So much rot and nastiness! We are planning to install the original the stove and fridge. The fridge is gas only, and does not work. We are going to figure out a way to either put new “guts” in it, or try to retro-fit the door on a new fridge. George wanted to just get a new fridge, but I had to slap that idea down hard…the original fridge door and vents are so cool! Getting the original floor off the frame was a “pain in the ass” according to my patient spouse. Evidently, the David and Harry Fruit Company didn’t want these trailers to be torn apart easily.
While tearing the roof off, we uncovered a little bit of history:
Our title states this is a 1961 Holiday House, but according to the magic-marker-wielding builder, this is a 1960. It says “Harry & David, 17, 6/23/1960”. Cool beans.
Once everything was torn off, we prepped the frame with some rust inhibitor and then painted it. We are now ready to start building it back up! Yay!!!
From this point forward, our plan is to take several pictures from the same vantage point and then stitch them together in a “time lapse” fashion. Of course, just because that is our plan doesn’t mean it will actually happen. It will be a minor miracle if the camera doesn’t get lost or broken….did you notice how pristine and organized that garage is? NOT. I’m so excited to see this Holiday House come together!!! I will try to post more frequent updates.
On a side note: Besides all these goings on in trailer rehab land, I lost my dad right before Christmas. He fought a brave and valiant battle with cancer. He got such a kick out of these trailers. I credit him with my willingness to learn new things and give anything a try – at least once. He was a successful business man and entrepreneur. He did so many things in his life….selling seed corn, being a bank president, starting his own trucking company, racing sprint cars, and when he got bored in retirement he got his real estate brokers license at age 70. He was successful at most things, and failed at a few. There was no shame in that as long as you learned something. Doing something and failing is not something to regret – but never trying anything new is. I love you, Dad.
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