Rebecca Shelly

I should start off this post by thanking everyone for their contribution to my Kickstarter to raise money to be able to finish rebuilding the trailer and to be able to bring it to Maine. Without you right now I would be creating a Craigslist For Sale post and having to say goodbye to the project that has meant an incredible amount to me. I give you a heart felt, Thank You!

It is now less than a month till the major move. I have started to pack and set aside a bunch of items for a yard sale. I am really packing more than I need to though I am sure. I over pack for an overnight, never mind moving across the country. We got an amazing deal on our moving truck though and feel like we can be a little bit more open to what we bring.

Today, I did some major things. The first thing was to get our site reserved at Yellowstone. We are lucky that we got a spot. With our 17′ trailer (really 24′) and my trailer we are 35′ long. That means we need a larger trailer parking spot. We got a spot at one of the more rustic camp sites (no water or electricity) yet this should be fine. We are used to camping in a tent anyway and the trailer will be way more comfortable than this. The bed itself has a foundation in foam. I took apart a really nice futon mattress that we had and stuffed new covers with this. Lets just say that we will be sleeping really well on this trip! I bought ear plugs and we have face masks in case it is too bright as well.

This is going to be an amazing place to stay! It changes how I look at this trip. Looking past the stress of a major move and onto what is about to await us makes the stress seem trivial. It is such a relief!

So, lets go into further what the rest of my day lead to. Last year I bought a propane tank at a flea market and realized later that it was an old design. The connections were different and did not hook up. Apparently a lot of places will take old propane tanks and trade them in for a new one for $20. I did this at Ace Hardware today and was thrilled! This means that my propane tanks will now balance out properly. Since we are going to be off grid camping at Yellowstone, it will be nice to be able to use the gaslight that Stuart bought me for light at night.

The second major thing was figuring out how to fix the water tank. I had ripped it out and then replaced the old inlet with one that is not the same. I had the help of Mike and Bob to figure out how to make it work. They were amazing! In the next few days I am going to see if it is going to work. We will also need water in order to camp in it off grid and this will be necessary since we will not have water hook ups here.

I am polishing up the trailer after getting it out of the driveway and soon it will be back to its new normal looking self! Tomorrow I will continue to work on it (save for having to move it since the electric company is going to be trimming trees on my street the last few days) and picking strawberries at Sauvie’s Island for the last time (something that I have done every summer since living out here).

Stay tuned for exciting updates on how I am making the trailer ready for the road!

I have been working on this trailer for over a year. There have been things that I have thought about doing, yet it takes the right time for them to happen. One of these was trying to design the portable camper toilet hidden into the design. The trailer would have originally had a bowl/seat that pulled out of one of the lower drawer areas. Since we are about to embark on a road trip across the US, I felt like it was time.

I find it funny that I spent my time trying to hide something and then write a post about it and share it on Facebook. This is kind of who I am though. I get really embarrassed about certain things and then share it with everyone. Maybe this is how I cope with it.

Anyway, I designed a cover for my toilet that makes it look like a footstool. I got in the close-out sale section of Camping World! I also designed it so that it can be hidden when bringing it inside to deposit in a public toilet. I figured that this would happen a lot on the trip and I wanted to make it not so noticeable.

Here is what it looks like as a footstool!

This was made from fabric that I had found years ago at a local vintage shop. The green is some extra linen from a dress that I had made. Right now it just looks like a footstool. Taking the top off (that has some extra foam left over from the bed area) you see this.

It then breaks down to this:

How the toilet works is that you put water in the opening right here and then the back area you use as a flush. “Items” are then held in the below area. The white part comes off and then you take the bottom area to a public toilet and dispose. I felt awkward thinking about walking into bathrooms with this. Now I designed it so that you can’t tell what it is.

This fits really well into a Mood Fabric bag that I had. It is a little strange still but it is probably better to not see part of a toilet walk into a bathroom.

I also had a pillow that I had found new in a free box near my house. I cut off the piping and recovered it. The striped pillow in the rear shows what I have done.

The Kickstarter is just about to finish. At 7:31 PST tomorrow morning, my Kickstarter will finish. I have made enough so far to get new tires and to be able to get it across the country! Thanks to everyone who has helped!

I bought a deadbolt for the trailer a year ago. I even had bought the circle cutters for a drill. I just never felt confident enough to do it myself. Now that the trailer is more exposed and since we will be traveling across the country with it, now was the time. Stuart thankfully helped me with this part. He is better at exact measuring and has a little more muscle power when using a drill. All of this needed to be perfect because you can’t mess up a giant hole in the door!

This is what it looked like before:

We chose to place it right above the other lock since the metal piece adds a more solid base and it is easier to lock/unlock from the inside with the screen door.

We cut the new circles and placed it in. Perfect! In order to find out where the lock would hit on the door jam, we placed white paint on the lock. I closed the door and then tried to lock it from the inside. This leaves a mark on the door and gives you an exact location of where the new hole should be placed.

We marked the area and then removed the paint. Stuart cut out a rough hole using one of my metal cutting tools.

Now the door is super secure!

From the inside I am still able to use it when we are camping.

There are a few days left on the Kickstarter if you would like to donate for this trailer to move to Portland, Maine.

The trailer is ready for the St. John’s Bizarre! I am thrilled to get it out and share it with others!

So, this is the first time that the trailer has left the driveway in the year and half that I have owned it. It wasn’t an easy task. Actually, it was terrible. Yet, the trailer made it out with minor damage that I already almost have completed.

The trailer is out because it will be my art gallery at the St. John’s Bizarre tomorrow. It is exciting to have this be the reason to get it out of the driveway and share it with others.

A few days ago, I also had a huge milestone where I finally got the trailer changed over into my name! Since it was going to be on the street, I felt that it was finally time. I also updated the stickers. We won’t be in Oregon for much longer, but it was better to do this than a bunch of temporary stickers.

So exciting!!!

The next thing to do was to get the trailer out of the driveway. I wanted to do it a few days before just to make sure we gave ourselves enough time. I am glad we did because it took four and a half hours to get it out!

Lets just say that the whole process was jimmy rigged! I had wanted the trailer up in the driveway so that I could face the door from the house. This meant it went up backwards. Another really awkward move. For some reason I thought that it would be easier to get it down. Well, it wasn’t. We put the boat hitch wheel back on. That took forever until we found the right tools to use.

We thought that if we put my car up to it and slowly backed it down that it would simply follow it. Nope!

We ended up using Stuart’s car to pull it down. This was very precarious because we had our neighbor’s fence to worry about and a new sign on the parking strip. This wasn’t there before and it added a new element. Well, there wasn’t much that could be done at this point and the trailer swiped the sign. Actually, there was a fight between the trailer and the sign and the sign won!

The sign took out a flap of one of the Jalousie windows, destroyed a running light and ripped up one of the bottom corners of the trailer.

Well, since I needed to get one piece of glass cut, I got two. One of the windows had plexi glass instead of glass. It was a great deal for both!

Luckily, my running lights came with five in the package. I removed the case and light of the old one and left the soft piece that was attached with sealant. Quick and easy fix. The only thing different was that I added a thicker screw to one side because the hole had been widened by the impact.

Then, I went about fixing the trailer corner. I hammered it back into place and screwed it in where I could. Luckily I still had some sealant. I filled in the gaps with this. It doesn’t look very pretty right now, but with a little bit of spray paint, you won’t even notice!

All in all, we were pretty lucky that it made it out at all. Don’t ever try and put a trailer into a place where you don’t just use a hitch to bring it there. Not a smart idea.

I also pumped the tires to make sure they would make it to the fair. They are old tires and have sat for a long time in the water and mud. It is a short trip and they should make it, but they won’t do for a long journey. I could have just taken it to a place to fill it there, but I wanted to make sure that they would fill properly in case I had to run out and get a replacement. It was a workout filling them with a bike pump, but it worked!

I also made some stairs from scrap wood to welcome people into the trailer. I found a great tutorial online and made some similar.

So, the trailer is out and ready to go! I loaded everything in there for the event and will be getting everything ready to go early in the morning!

We decided to set the trailer up tonight and not worry about it in the morning. Stuart’s car won’t be able to take it across the country, but it should work for the ten minute drive. It is ready to go! I just need to go get some sleep now and be ready to enjoy the day tomorrow! It would be great to see you there!

One more part of the journey of getting the trailer from Portland to Portland!

I have been in a flurry of getting everything up and running for the Kickstarter! This is a fundraiser to be able to take my vintage travel trailer with me on my move from Portland to Portland! There has been some amazing support so far!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rebeccashelly/vintage-trailer-artist-studio

I have some amazing trailer themed rewards and custom options! Follow the link about to check out my video!

Thanks!
-Rebecca