Wednesday, August 28, 2013

A Little Renovation Therapy

Time sure flies when you're having fun! So far, we have scrubbed and scoured everything from the ceiling to the floor, ripped out and replaced the flooring, and reupholstered the sofa bed in the Twinkie. What  a difference!
This is a terrible photo of the couch area. This was just a piece of fabric draped over a pale blue and yellow striped, awful smelling couch that was probably redone at the same time the lovely berber carpet was installed; circa 1992. Think Golden Girls décor and the smell of rat excrement. Lovely, yes? I could barely breathe in here, and I sure as heck wasn't sleeping on that mess!
 
 
 
We began by removing the bed and couch units. My husband snapped this photo of me just before I let out some my "adoption crazies" on pool lil' old Twinkie. Not the prettiest picture, but he loves it so here it is. And yes, if you are wondering, I am that short. 1 inch too tall to qualify for disability benefits, yet several inches too short to reach anything above the bottom shelf of my kitchen cabinets.
The next person that tells me we have another delay on our paperwork might get to see this girl in the flesh. I have a hammer, and I know how to use it. Kidding! Maybe...
So, we fired up the shop vac and removed the nastiness. Some of which was not G-rated!
*shudders*
This camper has seen 35 years of Lord knows what fun and debauchery... Lysol! STAT!

 
 
Then we laid the underlayment and Richard assessed the situation while chewing on the right side of his cheek, as you do. It's a thing. Don't ask.
Our daughter took this opportunity to dance, as she does. She can't help it. :)
We chose this "Hand Scraped Hickory" laminate flooring from Home Depot because it was a little less fake looking than a lot of laminates and also because it was in stock. And lets keep it real, we're kinda cheap, and so was this flooring. 99 cents a square foot! You can buy it here. http://www.homedepot.com/p/TrafficMaster-Handscraped-Saratoga-Hickory-7-mm-x-7-2-3-in-Wide-x-50-5-8-in-Length-Laminate-Flooring-24-17-sq-ft-case-34089/204135461?N=5bx#.Uh7WvLoo45s
*I do not work for Home Depot. Just trying to help you out. That being said, if you work for Home Depot and want to pay me for the shout out, I am ok with this. Just send my check to my adoption agency. That'd be awesome. Thanks.*
"Now pay attention, son. This is how we pretend we are doing something very involved because mom is taking pictures."

The afters! We still need to add some trim, but wow! The funky smell is gone and this I can CLEAN! Hooray!!!

Now on to the couch. We originally got a quote to replace the sofa cushions, and have new covers made, and the price made me spit out my coffee. ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Not kidding. So, I took my happy little self to Hancock Fabrics. I looked so lost, and I am pretty sure an old lady laughed at me when I asked if I could use this very precious, plaid fabric on a sofa.  Turns out, not any fabric will do. Ok, so I knew that much but the rest was fuzzy. I am not the Pinterest mom. I just am not that mom. I admire her, and I (kinda) want to be her, but I am just not that mom! I lucked out, and found a beautiful grey tweed for less than $10 a yard on clearance! I got confirmation that the fabric was suitable for my intended purposes by a concerned citizen at the counter. She sounded very much like Betty White. "Oh my. That is pretty.What might you do with all of that?" "Um... I need to recover a sofa?", I replied hesitantly. "Oh, this will be just perfect then" she replied with a saccharine sweet smile. Now I can't be too sure, but I think she may have been my Guardian Crafty Store Angel.

We were able to salvage most of the foam cushions, and had the upholstery shop do the work for us, and the new total was less than half of the original quote! YAY! Still a bit of a splurge, but no couch means no bed for us and we have camping plans this weekend! I feel just fine sleeping here!

 
The orange pillows I robbed from my living room sofa, the white pillow is from a sweet little local business called Walmart, and the owl pillow I grabbed at Hancocks for 40% off. Owls are kinda my thing, so you will see them in almost every corner of the camper by the time I'm done with it. No better place to have a cheesy theme than in a vintage camper!
 
The kids sleeping area needed a little glamour too, so I added simple white bedding, fun and funky pillows, and these precious prints from Berkley Illustrations. I am a tiny bit obsessed with them.


You can buy them here!
 
Looks like the Berkley family is on vacation. I sure hope they come back because I will need therapy if I can't get more of these little creatures in neck ties!
 
*I do not work for Berkly Illustration. Just trying to help you out. That being said, if you work for Berkly Illustration and want to pay me for the shout out, I am ok with this. Just send my check to my adoption agency. That'd be awesome. Thanks.*
 
We set out on our first adventure this weekend! Looking forward to some down time with friends and family, roasting things over an open flame, swimming, and just living life!

 
 UPDATE: The Twinkie now resides in Austin with her new family. We hope they have many a grand adventure! :)
 
 

1 comment:

  1. I LOVE the twinkie, your writing, and your cute decorations. So smart having something fun to do with your family to give yourselves an outlet during the wait! Have fun on the twinkie's maiden voyage in her new digs!

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