A weekly list of things accomplished, enjoyed, learned, tried and remembered.
1.The Summer Projects. I weary myself with my constant list of projects. I love making lists. I just don’t always love doing the things on the list. This summer I completed two projects.
The camper. Last summer we purchased a new to us camper. It has good “bones” but needed some interior updating and repairs. The curtains were pink, the cushions were musty, the floors and cabinets were scratched up, one of the zippers was broken on a window, and there were a few small tears in the canvas.
I started with the most practical–I made new curtains right away. I love wearing pink, but I do not love being surrounded by pink. I took them down and threw them away the day we brought home the camper. Since curtains are necessary for privacy, this became priority 1.
Next, I replaced the zipper on the window and repaired the canvas as best I could. It’s always amazing how mosquitoes can find the tiniest of holes to get through. I didn’t want them to have any access.
I removed the old mattress and cushion covers and took them apart so I could reuse the vinyl backing and zippers for new ones. This was probably the most time-consuming part of the project. Ripping seams is not easy and it’s very tedious. And sewing zippers on is the bane of my existence. I’m just so glad they turned out ok and hopefully I will never have to do that again. One trick I learned is that I used the old covers as patterns for making the new. It did seem to speed up the process a bit.
The cabinets were kind of a pinkish hew and pretty badly scratched up. I decided to paint them brown, but it looked kind of boring. So, I added a little black paint wash over it and thought it looked a little more like the “cabin y” look I was going for.
The original floor was white vinyl and in pretty bad shape. We found some cheap wood floor looking vinyl at a garage sale ($5). I used newspaper to make a pattern of the camper and then cut out the shape on the new flooring. It didn’t go exactly as planned, but Super Rockstar was able to help me patch up the places I goofed.
Since I had some gaps around the edges, I decided to cover them over with some quarter round trim. It worked out ok, but as with all my plans–it never is quite as easy as I think it will be.
The last part was the counter tops. The originals were a sort of turquoise blue. We found some cool looking contact paper and even though it’s not as sturdy as I would like (especially for a camper), it looks pretty good. I used an iron on wood trim for around the edges. I had no idea such a thing existed, but it looks really good.
I can’t wait to take our cabin on wheels out again and I’m sure we’ll enjoy making many memories for years to come.
My second project was repairing our front patio wall. I built this a few years ago without having a clue what I was doing. Over the years the ground settling has caused the cement to separate and even crumble. I didn’t want to have to tear it down and start over, so I realized that I could remove the top pavers, secure some chicken wire down the gap and then pour cement in to seal up the gaps.
It worked out just fine, but working with cement is very messy and laborious. To save a few bucks, I asked Super Rockstar to help me chip off the old cement on the pavers, so I could reuse them for the top. What I thought would be just a few hammer swings and maybe take an hour, turned into a long day of blood, sweat and tears (with a lot of cussing). He got it done and is my forever hero.
I still have some work to do cleaning up my sloppy slops from the cement, but it’s a lot sturdier and will hopefully stay put this time.
2.High School Football. Grayson started playing tackle football as an 8th grader last spring. He got to participate in a summer camp for high school and has been hard at work with daily practices since late July. It has been a huge learning curve for us as high school sports have changed a lot since Super Rockstar played many, many moons ago. There is varsity–for seniors and some juniors, Junior varsity for Juniors and Sophomores, and C-team for freshmen and some sophomores. The coaching staff has been great, and I love that they do weekly team dinners (the families contribute potluck). He has had two games so far (his jersey is #46) and is having an absolute blast. And we are having a great time cheering for him and his team.
3. Red Leg Brewery Gig–Part 2. SofaKillers played here earlier in the summer. The huge crowd showed up again and it was a great night of fantastic music and fun dancing.
4. Movies and Shows to Watch–Episode–73. Just click the link to read our reviews of the two shows and movie we watched.
5. My Favorite Memes of the Week.
As always, I would love to hear from you. I hope you have a great week!