My New Project

When I cautiously informed my husband that I wanted my next project to be remodeling a vintage camper (there’s a whole trend on this, called “Glamping”), I expected his answer to be not just “no,” but, um, “really really no.”

Nothing could have prepared me, in that instant that my request hung in the air between us, for what he actually said, which was… “OK.”

Before he could come to his senses, I started combing Craigslist for a cool old Shasta or Airstream camper that wouldn’t need much “real” work, but just some fun redecorating.

Turns out those are hard to come by, at least at my price point.  (Except for the one scam out of Las Vegas, but one thing I’ve learned in life is that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.  But that’s a whole ‘nother story.)

Fast forward a few weeks and many “discussions” later, and here is my new baby:

It’s a 1976 Apache Mesa hard-sided pop up camper.  While not a tin can type, we decided this one really did just need a little TLC, as opposed to a complete overhaul, so it was a better candidate for our first foray into vintage camper restorations.

Before us, it belonged to an adorable family whose 2 little girls grew up having camp-outs and sleepovers in it.  Those little girls are now adults, and the family decided their camper could go to someone else to start making more happy memories.

Part of the reason I love restoring old things is because they have history.  When we met the family, we fell in love with this camper’s history, if not its orange and brown polyester interior.

So check back here over the course of the summer to see how we get rid of the polyester and vinyl while keeping, and creating more, happy memories…

Update: We did it! See part one of the process here or skip to the finished project here.