Overview and Notes

If this is your first time with us, welcome! We only have two other vlogs that we’ve put together. If your seen the first two videos, welcome back. You’re a glutten for punishment! Explore the vast archives and our complete library! Today we are talking about this Airstream, what it’s like inside, and what our plans are for the renovation… THE PLAN! Wally Byam, the founder of Airstream (the grand daddy of all Airstreamers), and the WBCCI (Wally Byam Caravan Club International) is the creator of our trailer. Our trailer has the old WBCCI sticker and used ot have the big red numbers on it. Let’s go into the planning and design studio to learn more about our trailer and our reno plan.

Original Floorplan

Here the original floorplan of the Safari trailer. Lot of windows and an open, airy floorplan with clear views from the front to back.

We are not purists!

When we bought the trailer we were planning to restore the trailer to it’s original glory… original floor plan, fixtures, usage. We were what you would call purists, and we wanted everything to be exactly the way it was back in 1956. Since then, we have evolved in our design ideas from assessing our every day life and usability as we get older. Some of the major things we are changing is that we are going to remove the dinette. (There’s a whole 99 vs. 86 conversation on the video… I just can’t write out all the silliness!)

We don’t sit at the kitchen table much so we are planning to install a convertible sofa where the dinette used to be. This will give us a comfortable space to sit, relax, work, and eat (with a pop up table). This will also fold down into a bed if we ever have overnight guests staying with us. This will also open up the space quite a bit and give us a better flow from front to back.

Kitchen Plans

We plan to move the refrigerator to the other side of the door. For the size of trailer we have, the closet is huge. It’s about 4 feet wide, and we don’t need that much hanging space for our clothes. The current plan is to cut that space in half, and add a taller fridge to the left side just next to the door. We will replace the original under-counter fridge with a bank a drawers to give us more usable storage options in the kitchen. We are really excited about this new layout!   The old oven is going away too. In it’s place we will install a gas cook top with a convection/microwave oven below (This is still in the planning stage, so this might change in the final plan).   

Bathroom Plans

Let’s talk about the bathroom!   …Our teeny tiny bathroom. The original design of the bathroom had the toilet positioned so your knees would be in the kitchen. It’s seriously that small!   We plan to reposition the toilet under the window. This will give us a little more room to possibly put in a little sink. More importantly, by moving the toilet we can convert this space into a wet bath. This will include installing a handheld shower attachment and maybe even design some kind of outdoor shower access.   That’s pretty much it! We are getting excited to see these plans come together and hope that the few design changes we are making will improve usability for us.   Next time we will be discussing wheels. So much fun.  

Thank you for all the comments and encouragement. We are making good progress and need you to keep pushing us. Please subscribe and get notifications so you don't miss a single moment of our crazy adventures.

Find more of our adventures at: #moretiming #turihele

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Overview and Notes

This is our second video. Thank you very much for watching! We have had way more views than we expected. Either you guys are really bored OR it is an awesome video. We going to assume it is an awesome video.

This time we are talking about our 1956 Airstream Safari. We need to be really honest and confess that we went shopping for a brand new Airstream about 3 weeks ago… and fell in love with a couple of floor plans. They are very nice! We are seriously considering ditching the vintage trailer with all the work that it’s going to take, and buying a new Airstream. (This is a super painful confession for us.)

So WHY are we renovating a vintage trailer?

Our story is fairly interesting because it started a long, long time ago. A couple of our friends that have known us for a long time saw our video last week about our new project and questioned, “New? I remember seeing that trailer a million years ago! You tell me you are really going to do something with it now? Right?!”

Back in 2001 (many years ago) we were bitten by the vintage trailer bug, and since that moment the search was on. Every time we went on a road trip out in the country or on back roads, we practically had binoculars out looking for an old trailer sitting in a field somewhere that we could capture and call our own.

We would drive around with the kids hunting for trailers. Sometimes we’d spot one only to realize it was an old propane tank or horse trailer. That happened A LOT!

When we first spotted our trailer it was NOT for sale, but we could tell this was different than any trailer we had seen before. There was something incredibly unique about the way this trailer was designed, and we instantly fell in love. We thought it was so cool, but never thought we could afford something so beautiful. About 2 weeks later, we found an ad online for a 1954 trailer… even though the year in the ad was wrong, it was the same 1956 Airstream Safari we found earlier and fell in love with.

We immediately made plans to go look at the trailer, and Steve wondered if we should take money in case we wanted to buy it. Let’s be realistic… we LOVED this trailer, and it could have been the biggest pile of POO and we still would have bought it!

So… we bought it. And a few days later the guy we bought it from towed it to our house. Why did he tow it to our house? We didn’t even have a tow vehicle, of course! That’s how much of a newbie we were.

We didn’t have a tow vehicle, and we didn’t have a place to store it. BUT… we had the trailer we’d been dreaming about, and I’m sure our neighbors loved us!

Let’s go right into the sad truth…

There is the sad truth to this whole sorted tale. We have this book that documents all the plans, ideas, and purchases we have made for this project. On the cover of this book is a picture of our son, Max, when with bought it. He is sitting in his Little Tykes car, our “tow vehicle.” He is about 3 years old in the picture… he’s now almost 20 years old! So there’s the sad truth. Maybe those skeptics were on to something.

It’s not like we parked this and went in and sat on the sofa for 17 years. We did a lot of other things. We had this great trailer, but wanted to fix it up right. It’s a 1956 Airstream and we didn’t want to just slap it together. Resources were limited and progress was S L O W .

In 2006 we put the Airstream in storage, and took on another project (that we are full-timing in now!) The project is our house. If you are interested in the restoration adventures of our home you can read all the details here: www.greshamrummerfun.blogspot.com

We did spend several years working on our home. It is our forever home, and it was important to make that project our priority. Now that the home is livable and at a place where we don’t have to spend every waking moment working on something, we feel that timing is right for us to jump back into our Airstream dream.

So, that’s where we are right now. We do have a plan…. There is a method to our madness. We will share that plan with you in our next vlog.

Thanks and stay tuned. The fun is just beginning! Subscribe and follow us on our crazy adventure. It really does help us stay motivated and accountable. See you next time on Turn Right Here, Left!

Thank you for all the comments and encouragement. We are making good progress and need you to keep pushing us. Please subscribe and get notifications so you don't miss a single moment of our crazy adventures.

Find more of our adventures at: #moretiming #turihele

Here's how to connect with us and follow our misadventures:

Overview and Notes

Hi, we are Steve and Haley and this is our very first video and blog post. Oh my!

We are putting together this Vlog/Blog to document our adventures. Today is New Year’s Day (Happy New Year!) and we have been setting goals on what we want to accomplish this year (three years from now and even 20 years from now). One of our big goals is to be traveling in our vintage trailer and seeing this great country that we live in… So in order for us to get on the road, we need to get the trailer livable and roadworthy.

Busting our baby out of storage and bringing it home.

Our trailer is a 1956 Airstream Safari. The body itself is 18 feet long. The total length from ball to bumper is 22 feet. It has 13-panels of aluminum forming each of the end caps. We love the way it looks. We love the floor plan: front kitchen with twin beds in the back. And it needs everything.

Right now, it’s a big aluminum tent. When we bought it, the floor was rotten. We have replaced the floor and it is good and solid now, and we are ready for electrical. BUT… electrical is NOT Steve’s friend! So, it’s good to delegate to professionals who know how to do it safely and correctly. One of our goals in this renovation is to not have our Airstream electrocute us at any time during our travels. That can mess up a trip… and a life!

We are on the five year plan and the Airstream has always been referred to as “our retirement home.” That doesn’t necessarily mean we will be retiring in five years, but we definitely plan to be more mobile in five years… less in the office and more on the road.

We are emerging empty-nesters. I know that sounds weird, but we have two kids (one in college and one out of college and working) who still live at home. This seems to be fairly common in today’s society. So, even though we don’t have an empty nest, we are living our lives as IF we are empty-nesters. We have informed our kids that this is the position we are taking, and it was met with a pretty decent reaction. I think they are ready to more independent of us. And they are looking forward to watching us fumble through the next steps of the trailer renovation.

The big part of it, is that we enjoy spending time together as a couple. We really enjoy the journey. Of course the destination and the things you do once you get some place if fantastic, but the process of getting there is something we both enjoy. We look for unusual things to do, or find the most scenic byways, or chat with the locals to find the best places to go and must-do things while we are there. That’s the most exciting part… the road trip itself and the adventure that comes with it.

We refer to this process and journey as Turn Right Here, Left.

The Long, Long Trailer; © 1954, Warner Bros. Entertainment

We really are TRHL, and it’s not just the mix up in directions. It is to put an extra twist in your daily life. To see what’s around the corner that you may not have discovered or even looked for. It’s looking for the unusual and unexpected, and embracing it. That’s how we find the coolest stuff and we almost always end up with a good story.

Even though this blog is really for our benefit… to keep us motivated and document our journey… we welcome you along with us. We would enjoy hearing from anyone who finds their own adventure, and anything that we would put on our list to Turn Right Here, Left.

So Welcome! We are excited see what happens in the next few months. Next time, we will dive into the trailer… so keep checking in on our progress. Thanks and Happy New Year!

Thank you for all the comments and encouragement. We are making good progress and need you to keep pushing us. Please subscribe and get notifications so you don't miss a single moment of our crazy adventures.

Find more of our adventures at: #moretiming #turihele

Here's how to connect with us and follow our misadventures: