Sunday, May 22, 2011

Restoration Project

Good Sunday afternoon Friends,

Summer is here, and no rain is predicted in the near future. We are in drought conditions so I am hand watering to keep things from crisping up. In the shade isn’t too bad but once the sun comes up over the trees, it starts becoming really miserable, especially when the humidity is high.

We are working on a restoration project. It has been on our mind for a few years now and it feels good to be making forward progress

We are calling it our Gypsy Wagon. Size is about 6’x9’. It was a Datsun Chinook Pop-up Camper, from the late 70’s. We bought this from a friend of ours who was dying of brain cancer. It was a rust bucket, but still had some life. Then three hurricanes brought down heavy, hard sections of the melaleuca tree in our back yard, right onto the little Datsun.

We popped the top after hurricane Wilma as the camper had a propane stove so I set up camp as we were without electricity for 13 days, and this was our little cookshack.

This past winter we decided to save the camper and sell the Datsun body to a junk car dealer

We wenched the truck out from under the camper shell. The guy hauled it away, we moved the shell back, made a floor on a base that is anchored into the ground, and have started working on it.

I love the project. We are using curbside shopped materials that we’ve had in our stash, trying to buy as little as possible, although, we’ve had to buy some pressure treated wood for base and flooring.

I’ve already got the garden area going to the east of it, which is where the clothesline and the picket fence garden are too

I will just give a some teaser pictures as to how it looked before. The first picture shows how it looked with a pile of cut up pine branches, from our tree that smashed into our back shed and into the neighbor’s yard. We were cutting it up in our neighbor’s yard and bringing it into ours. From here it went out front as the trucks were able to come by and pick up more debris. It took weeks and months to clean it up all over the county.


camper

I put a piece of marble over the little stainless steel sink for counter space to set hot pans.

cookingahack2

cookingshack

The pop top is gone as it was wrecked, and DH is making a solid top with a tin roof with extra windows above the lower windows too.

I’ll show pics when we are all done with the project. I just wanted to share this much with you all.

Here’s a picture of a camper that is similar that I found online.

camper

I am writing this post using Windows Live Writer and will see how it does posting it to my blog.

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL


17 comments:

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

Looks like you're doing well with your little project!

Jean Campbell said...

Oh, F.L. what fun! and your signature blue glass in the window.

HolleyGarden said...

I know exactly how you feel about being in a drought, hand-watering, yet high humidity. It's not fun. But the camper seems like a fun project! That will be a handy little get-away.

Susan said...

Can't wait to see more. You two are so industrious!

Steve Asbell said...

Cool! Someday I hope to have a camper too, but for now using a tent is just fine and dandy... as long as it's not the middle of summer. :(

F Cameron said...

What a great project -- and one that will give you so much enjoyment for your vacations!

Nellie from Beyond My Garden said...

Reminds me of my old Volkswagen camper. Good luck with your pictures. keep the photos coming.

Unknown said...

I love a good restoration project! Can't wait to see the finish!And,yes,this drought is something else,isn't it?

Diana Studer said...

A camper with a marble counter ;~)

I did try Windows LiveWriter, but have a batch of posts that slipped into a black hole. I can see the pictures on the posts, but clicking takes me to a dead end, instead of an enlarged image. Will be interesting to hear, how you get on with it?

gld said...

FL, I love your projects! This one looks to be a great one too.

Sorry about the drought.

Darla said...

What a big project....yes we need rain very badly!!

NanaK said...

We certainly need rain here too. Hope we all get some soon. Last week was nice and cool for working outside but I do believe that was the last cool spell.

I'm not sure I understand what you are doing with the camper......will you use it as a camper or a garden structure? Whatever you and your DH do I'm sure it will be just the perfect thing.

Take care in this heat outside.

Unknown said...

That looks like a nice little set up and easy to drive. Linda

Ami said...

Wow, that sounds a big project to me! Can not wait seeing the end result. You and your DH are really talented!

GRACE PETERSON said...

I hope you all get some serious rain soon. Cool project!

Masha said...

Good luck with your project, I can't wait to see how it comes out.
I have been watering for weeks now, and probably will be till about October :(

Amrita said...

Its very hot and humid here too, not good for our flowers. Your camper looks good