6/25 Clearing the Camper Rails

Removing Subfloor, Insulation, and Prepping for Paint

We are now at the point of removing the OSB subfloor and seeing what is left to deal with under the subfloor.  After examining it closely we noticed that it was all one sheet of subfloor.  The subfloor was also screwed down.  To proceed with removing it, we took out the screws in sections then used the awesome sawzall to cut out the sections.  This took a couple of days considering we work in the evenings when my husband gets home. 

Next, after removing the subfloor were 3 large tanks that were also bolted in, another layer of insulation that was attached to the aluminum flashing, wiring, duct work, the potty, and plastic piping.

The tedious chore of removing old glue and OSB.

Water tank waiting for removal

The hard yellow insulation that took a few days to remove

We did lots of work with the hammer and putty knives for the next few days.  We had a lot of blown in insulation around the frame that needed to be removed so we could brush away any rust to prep for painting. 

After much perseverance we finally got down to clean rails!!! 

 

We are currently prepping by sections and painting.  We are really hoping to have it painted and ready for frame building by the weekend.  Hopefully, there will also be some exciting news after Thursday and will update soon!

Getting Rid of Stuff and the Removal of the Camper Shell

We typically take a week to travel to see family and this trip we would only be in NC for 3 days so we were pushed on time to visit family and friends.  We were given beautiful weather to work in a building that was slam, packed full of our stuff that we had to leave when we first moved to New Hampshire.  After going through it we had almost four trailer loads of stuff and we only could bring one trailer back so it was time to purge quickly.  After a phone call, made by my husbands problem solving cousin, we were able to donate almost a trailer load of furniture to a newly married couple.
What to do with the remaining 3 trailer loads??
We hauled the next 3 loads to my mother in laws house and dropped each load off in her yard.  Then we did the daunting task of going through everything and deciding what was to be donated, going to New Hampshire, and garbage.  It actually went faster that I expected and it took one full day from building clean out to sorting to the final load.
So this happened....

What I wanted to donate was put beside the road with FREE signs.  I didn't have the time to try to sell and I just needed to get rid of as much as possible.  This was the beginning of the ever building pile.  The good news, I only had to take a small amount, less than half a trailer load, to the thrift store. 
In the end, we came up with 1/2 trailer load to the garbage, 1/2 to the thrift store, 3/4 to New Hampshire (the other 1/4 was camping gear), 2 1/4 loads given away by the road and to friends of the family.

Once we returned to New Hampshire I was very motivated to get rid of more. My husband and I have went through our closets and was able to get 4 contractor bags FULL of clothes.

After Purging

Before Purging

Before Purging

After Purging

Time for the yard sale...

Kid stuff

Treats and Snacks

Our son had his own area of snacks and popcorn and I think he was more profitable at the yard sale than me.  To help encourage him to sell his things, getting a child to part with their things is no easy task, whatever he picked to put in the yard sale he could keep the money.  That was the motivation he needed! He kept putting things out to try to make more money and he ended up making $54.  To a kid, that's a lot of money.

The yard sale wasn't extremely successful but I already determined that I wasn't bringing it back in the house.  The trailer was loaded again and I took a trailer load to a local thrift store that recently opened in a nearby town.  I think the owner was overwhelmed with the stuff but she was very thankful.

Through all of this, Scripture kept coming to me, especially while purging my clothes.  For some reason, I felt like I needed to hold on to lots of clothes.

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" -Matthew 6:25

"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown in to the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

- Matthew 6:28-30

After getting rid of 2 very full contractor bags of my clothes it feels so freeing! I haven't missed any of them and it is much easier picking out what to wear with a less cluttered closet.  I still need to purge my closet one more time because I found a large tub of summer clothes but considering I live where it's winter longer than it is summer this should be much easier. 

We are now in the final stages of getting down to the rails of the camper.  Here is where we are now:

 This is a big step so now after we do some major clean up we will start removing the subfloor and seeing what the rails look like to begin the build.  Exciting stuff right there!