March 7th, 2013
this is not a particularly exciting or difficult diy, obviously. switching of knobs may be the easiest thing we’ve done at this house. the putting together of the dressers was a whole ‘nother matter though. and yes we did have extra parts left over after assembly. straight to the trash, if we don’t know what they were meant for now we certainly won’t know later. the real challenge was finding dressers that were not too deep or too wide for the spaces we had available on each side of the bed, and drawers were a must (which we filled immediately). of the many, many dressers i looked at from vintage to new i only found two that fit. these from ikea and another one from jonathan adler, that was of course amazing and also like $2000 apiece. it was a tough call but ikea won. the knobs are from the magic wonderland that is anthropologie. i had planned to paint the knobs that came with the dresser but these were fancy, and on sale, and no paint job would look as cool as these.
anyhoo, lest you be worried, much bigger diy’s are underway. husband is hard at work….
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: anthropologie, camp1899, home diy blog, ikea
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September 25th, 2012
he and i have had a busy couple of years. there is a lot to reflect on. most of my reflections tend to be for the sole purpose of learning what i want less of and what i want more of and how to go about both. in general i like to look forward instead of backward, but use this time from rosh hashanah to yom kippur to do a little evaluating. are we, he and i, heading in the right directions for what we want out of life, professionally and personally? have our decisions been good in the past year? did we learn from our mistakes? are we being, day in and day out, the people we want to be?
a big part of our lives the past few years has been our airstream, eddie. from purchasing and overhauling to full time traveling on our big adventure touring the country to living in it while we (he) renovated camp1899 to a livable status. it’s been a journey. traveling taught us so much about the u.s. as it stands today. we learned about states and places that we really had no clue about prior to our airstream travels. and oh the list of things we’ve learned about rv travel, it’s a long list. he would admit, and i’d wholeheartedly agree, that he had trouble settling into the unknown, and the demands of rv life (many that fell on him alone). it took away a little bit of the joy of the open road, in hindsight he sees this so clearly. but you do the best you can in the moment and that is that. we still visited amazing places and we can learn from what we wish had been different so that it will be from now on.
one thing we’ve always made a priority in our marriage is to live a debt free, simple but full life. being debt free is so important to us because it gives us the freedom to do more, such as drive all over the country willy nilly. the purchase of our tiny house in edgewater was a very thoughtful one, we purchased an inexpensive house, we have paid for the renovations out of pocket and* we have no other incurred debt looming over us. however, to do all of this meant spending savings, and as much as we like being debt free we like having cash in the bank too. to make sure that our house/savings/spending stays in a place we’re happy with we decided to look ahead and make a plan that would keep us where we feel free and secure.
we miss the open road, we miss picking a place and off we go to see what it’s all about. we miss it but we don’t want to live it full time. we’ve done that, we loved it, we learned how we would do things differently (oh to have that ability) and through all of this reflection we’ve made a plan. we do want to travel part of every year. ideally it will add up to months out of the year, some at longer stretches, some for short ones. but, at the end of the day, we felt limited by pulling the airstream and feel sad that it sits so pretty, fully renovated and ready to go but not going anywhere. we like having home with us, as an rv gives you, but like the idea of something smaller and simpler and more easily manipulated to whatever whim strikes our fancy from one place to the next.
for us a big huge gas guzzling suburban and a 22ft trailer makes for a behemoth 45ft roadtrip companion (and eddie is pretty tiny in the big scheme of things). so we had to figure out what this meant for us, for future travel, and for our financial goals. we decided that we want to try something new, different, and smaller scale. we aren’t 100% sure what that is, but we’re leaning towards a vw poptop van, they’re small, more like tent camping without the tent, and for us, a much easier boondocking companion than 45ft of car + camper. much more gas friendly and most of all, more flexible.
we squeezed a lot of good times out of our airstream and it was a sad but hopeful day when we waved goodbye, wishing the new owners all of the luck in the world. we’re proud of our travels in eddie, of the state we restored the airstream to and the passing of the torch. we’re not done traveling, not even close.. wanderlust is in my blood, and it’s there to stay, and for him too. we sold out big yeti suburban to a big family who was very happy to take those keys and* after both sales we in turn have paid off bills and aligned ourselves back to a place where we feel much more free and happy.
it’s a new chapter, we’ve dreamed up some big new plans, still trying to figure it all out. my husband, he may have been out of sorts here and there, and that might have caused this or that, but he did love it and without him i would never, ever have had the airstream adventure, and we both are 100% happy we did it. we both can’t wait to get out there again (soon!). without him none of what we are doing would be possible. he pulled that trailer every mile, he did every hook and unhook, he’s built us a beautiful tiny home and i’m grateful and lucky. we have so much adventure ahead of us, i hope you’ll come along…
Filed Under: everyday // bits & pieces
Tagged: airstream travel, camp1899, eddie
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September 17th, 2012
did i mention we have new neighbors? things have been a changing on our little block. a renter moved out on our street and we’ll soon have a new, more permanent neighbor, we are so happy about this. and beside us a couple moved in who have already become such good next door neighbors.. although they did want to put a privacy fence up first thing so hmmmm?? haha.. it was actually a project in the making. dave (working hard in the above pic’s) and the husband made quick work of it, minus one small rain delay. we now have a privacy fence running almost the length of the property on one side, stretching over to the house. on the opposite side of the house we need to add to an existing privacy fence that runs half way up the yard and also stretch it to the house as well. it’s on the yard to-do list for ??? it’s amazing how much bigger we both felt it made our side yards seem. he and i are already dreaming & scheming on what we’re going to do over there.
we had a very full weekend, can’t wait to share later! what about you? do anything fun or productive?
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: camp1899, denver blog, denver colorado, fence diy, home diy blog
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September 10th, 2012
we did it! we got away on the best road trip last week, it was just for the day but we saw a ton. we went from denver to leadville, through twin lakes, and ended in aspen. and then turned around and did the same route home because it was the prettiest drive we’ve driven in all of colorado so far. i’ll be sharing aspen later and showing off the unbelievable landscape. but…. these two towns, that we knew nothing about, we instantly fell in love with. leadville is an old mining town that is so quaint and historic, but up to date all at the same time. we just missed boom days, the town’s big annual festival with a parade, motorcycle rodeo, and mining skill competitions (of course!), we’re putting it on the calendar for next year. (more info if you want to go)
and just a little further down the road is the teensy town of twin lakes, if you look left for 30 seconds you’ll miss the whole town. even though there was hardly a town it was packed with cabins for rent, even a teepee, and chairs were rounded up in a huge circle in front of the general store (2ft from the main road). there was no one around, even the general store was empty when we went in. sooo quiet..and was the absolute perfect spot for our picnic. this is definitely a trip we’ll take each year, it’s the perfect mix of beautiful scenery, quiet backroads and mountain towns.
and in other news.. we finished a big project for tinkernation, started another diy project that i’ll be able to show you later this week, watched some football (some of which was very disappointing), enjoyed lots of early fall weather, had a great night hanging out with fellow travel lovers laura & kevin of riveted (big thank you to laura for homemade gazpacho & smoked tofu salad.. wonderful!) and met new (and local) friends lisa & mat of shiny camper. it was a perfect, full weekend with a little bit of downtime too.. what did you do?
Filed Under: life in the fast lane,travel
Tagged: aspen co, boom days, camp1899, denver co, denver co blog, leadville co, life in the fast lane, riveted blog, shiny camper blog, tinkernation, twin lakes co
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September 6th, 2012
in case we’ve given off the false impression of the glamorous life around here (i can hear you laughing already) i thought i’d show you just how glam some of our projects are. (; we tease about mr man’s hoarding of tools. yes he uses them for work, and renovating, and… but do you need 50 screwdrivers, 12 razor knives, 18 rolls of tape, 7 tape measures, 6 levels, approximately 387 drill bits, you get the idea. and that’s not even counting the big stuff like the air compressor, table saw, nail gun, and so on. so we laugh about hoarding and i wonder how many times in our lifetime we can organize the same tools.
but he did get rid of a few screwdrivers (fifty was no exaggeration), and we did consolidate a lot, and can you believe every last thing fit into that teeny tiny trailer with even a smidge of room left? usually (before this project) you opened the back gate of the trailer with long arms because you just didn’t know if an avalanche was going to come hurdling out like an overcooked sausage flying out of it’s casing. and he does do a lot of amazing things with those hoarded tools of plenty so no real complaining (as long as he doesn’t outgrow the trailer).
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: camp1899, diy blog, hoarding, home diy blog, tools
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September 1st, 2012
do you have any fun plans for labor day weekend? we cannot believe it’s september first, everything goes by so fast. this time last year we had so much work ahead of us that it makes this list seem like a kids to-do list. looking back i don’t know if we could do it again. i think it’s like that with so many things, starting a business, higher education, moving, renovating, building, all in hindsight seem unthinkable. we had brick walls and blue skies as a roof last september and it amazes me to look around and see what the husband has built for us. do you have anything you’ve done that when you look back you wonder how did you ever do it? our business is in it’s fifteenth year and that too seems unbelievable. this blog is approaching it’s two year mark, and what an experience it has been, a whole new world and i’ve learned so much. moving across country and starting all over has been more than i can put into this short story. and now it’s fall (well practically) and i’m already thinking about christmas and thanksgiving and halloween and leaves changing colors and cooler days, and college football (go hogs!). we have friends coming in town, i’ve been baking, we’re cooking out, and i hope you have a good long weekend!!
Filed Under: holidays
Tagged: camp1899, home diy blog, labor day
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August 31st, 2012
are you list makers? we aren’t so much, which may be why ours is so long, even if it is only in our heads.
to give you a rundown of where we are on the camp1899 to do d-i-y list we thought it would be fun to show you just how much we have left (in case you were worried by our lack of updates that we were near the end) ha! ready?
living room & kitchen:
paint the front & side door & install final hardware
finish trim (baseboards)
caulk & paint trim
build a fireplace
finish installing beadboard on island
paint beadboard
build drawers into island
paint island drawers & install hardware
purchase & install cooktop
build, install, and paint cabinet doors & drawers
have trim wood milled for center of ceiling
seal beams & ceiling
purchase & install 2 hanging lights
pour final layer of floor and then epoxy
install kitchen sink, including pouring a concrete counter surrounding
install beadboard as backsplash of sink area
half bath:
open wall up to inspect for suspected leak (fun)
repair wall after opening
caulk & paint trim
install surround sound speakers
seal ceiling
install door jam
paint door
hang wallpaper
tile floor
bedroom:
paint double doors & install door hardware, including door jam
finish floor same as living room/kitchen
install surround sound speakers
build a hidden door for crawl space
buy & install closet door
paint closet door, install hardware
paint trim
finish painting closet walls
build, install & paint shelves within closet
master bathroom:
paint door & install hardware & build door jam
paint trim
finish trim wood work for ceiling
paint/seal ceiling
install shutters on two windows
futilely attempt vacumming of teeny tiny hairs from frequent bang trims
(just making sure you made it this far)
p.s. half way through this he asked what is the fun of making this list? exactly why we don’t make lists! and is the reason it’s not double the length because the outdoor list is just about as long or longer than the above list, none of which is even on the immediate or near future of being done, so another day (and he would have had a hissy fit if i had insisted we go one more to-do further).
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: camp1899, home diy, home diy blog, list making
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July 18th, 2012
have you been wondering what we’ve been up to for diy around here? well…. we’ve actually have working on a really good project, but, it’s a secret. remember we’re collaborating with tinkernation? if you haven’t checked out the website yet, pop over to see, and they have a few big sweepstakes coming up soooooon, so keep checking back for your chance to win. anyhoo, we’ve been busier than we’ve looked, we’ll be sharing our project in the next few weeks or so on tinkernation first and we can’t wait for you to see!
over the weekend he finished off our trim around the living room windows, most had been finished earlier, see here if you missed it, but this big picture window needed more time and got waylaid. and we now have real curtains hanging, instead of dropcloths over expandable rods.. fancy. we’ve got all of our trim up now but none of it is finished, lots of screw holes to putty and sand, priming and painting, all on our still quite long to-do list… we’ll be diy’ing for a long time around here.
on a little side note.. our curtains are lined silk dupioni and dry clean only. oye. i called around to several dry cleaners to get pricing and oh my, it was going to be pricey. to the tune of around $150. now if you’ve got thousand dollar curtains it would be the only way to go. ours aren’t super cheap but they aren’t worth a $150 dry cleaning bill either. i was daring and threw them (one at a time) in the washer. i used the wool setting, cold water, a short cycle, and they came out just fine. wrinkled as all get out but fine. i ironed them, with my ultra deluxe travel iron, haha, i don’t think i’ve ironed in about a decade and neither has he so full size iron and ironing board are not things we own. anyway, they ironed just fine, the silk looks just as it did prior to washing. i used a high heat steam setting and ironed directly on the silk. if you’re washing machine doesn’t have good settings like wool, silk, etc. then you might not want to try it but if it does, it worked great for us!
June 25th, 2012
→ we are so excited to share a website with all of you today called tinkernation. it’s a site for all types of diy enthusiasts…homes, bikes, cars, and everything in between that fuels your do-it-yourself spirit. i was so flattered they asked me to be a featured author on their site so i could show off some of the hard work my husband does for us day in and day out! it’s a fantastic forum full of inspiration and we’re so happy to be a part of it. a big southern thank you to the entire team at tinkernation for including and working with us! be sure to pop over and see what all the fuss is about, today is our first featured article, with some special surprises to be shown throughout the year of secret behind the scenes projects at camp1899!!
Filed Under: p.s.
Tagged: camp1899, diy blog, home renovation blog, tinkernation
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June 15th, 2012
we’ve got three new exciting things at our house…..part of our surround sound is installed and making movies much better. the last two pics are speakers that are hidden behind the tv, and…we have more going in the bedroom and both bathrooms. (we kinda like everything loud.. you?)
the vintage fridge is gone and our shiny new french door one is blessfully drip free. (and will probably never be this clean again) and hallelujah for this ceiling fan. here’s the thing, since, for the first time ever, i wasn’t going to be in the south in the summer, it was the perfect chance to finally have a fancy light fixture in the bedroom. but we missed that air flowing down on us at night so much we did not adapt well. this ceiling fan, best-thing-ever.
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: camp1899, denver colorado blog, home diy blog, rocky mtn national park, small house blog, southern blog
*please & thank you* link back to us if you re-post something you see here.
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