Nearing the finish line

With the cabinets installed, and the cupboard doors painted and hung, it was time to put in the dinette table. My friend Scott had made us a butcher block kitchen cart a few years ago and I decided to repurpose the table for the camper. 

Then, our friend Jen finished the curtains. We had chosen a red pattern that goes with the counters, with a retro Route 66 pattern for the valances. 

I dressed up the icebox with a $20 faux aluminum facade made for back splashes. 

Only things left are the dinette cushions and to finish the beds. 

New floor

After replacing part of the sub floor it was time to install new flooring. 

I went with peel and stick faux hardwood flooring from Home Depot. The whole thing cost about $70 and took a whopping hour to install. 

Since the weather has finally warmed up I've been busy priming and painting the interior walls and the cabinets, and installing new vinyl laminate countertops. Went with a retro red pattern. Later I'll finish it with aluminum counter trim like they used to have in the old diners. 

Another development that has made this project substantially more time consuming than originally planned: my wife asked me to change the entire floor plan, which is requiring me to completely rebuild most of the cabinetry. As I've never created cabinets from scratch before, this is a learning process. One good thing is that camper cabinets are built a lot lighter and more simply than the furniture in your home- so I'm building with 2x2's and 1/8 inch veneer

Winter hits

Once the subfloor was repaired, it was time to decide on new flooring, cabinets and counter tops. We are pretty sure we want to go vintage, with seafoam counters, cupboard doors and drawer facings, on off-white walls and doors. On the floor, either vintage black and white checkerboard or faux hardwood. But first all the walls and cabinets would have to be primed, and with the low temps that northwest winters bring, painting was going to have to wait.

So...I tackled the outside instead. 

Cleaning, repairing the canvas, and applying waterproofing to the canvas and vinyl. There were only a few rips in the canvas which I hand sewed. I replaced all the bungee cords, which were worn, and frayed. In some cases the previous owner had tied the bungee in knots to expertly repair it. 

There were several short tears and only one major rip in the back end bunk area.   

Chapter 1 - Exploration

There she is. Only $1000! Pretty good shape...  A little relatively minor water damage on one end of the floor. Canvas and structure all pretty good, for being 27 years old. 

After pulling out all the cabinets, I started ripping up the linoleum to get a look at just how bad the damage to the subfloor is. 

As I suspected, pretty minor. About a two foot swath of subfloor will need to come out.