Sarah's Sojourn: Trailer Trash

This semester has been all go, go, go! I now have 3 jobs. I tutor a group of kids through the local tennis organization and I teach English online to kids in China. On top of that, Hubs and I have quite a few new projects happening. We have: the never-ending master bathroom remodel, the new 15 acre property we want to build on (and I mean WE build, more on that later), and lastly the 25 foot 2008 Pioneer camper.

This camper. Hubs found it on Facebook marketplace and texted me about it. I replied, “Cute!” He replied, “I’m going to buy it,” about 45 minutes later. He didn't mean eventually, he might he was on his way. It was for sale for $2,500 and looked to be a good shape. The owner said it had previous water damage but they fixed it. When I first walked inside it smelled a little musty, but everything has a fresh new coat of paint and was pretty clean. Hubs showed me in the bedroom where the water had leaked in causing the ceiling to bow a bit. That’s easy enough to replace.

A few days later Hubs decides to tear out the warped piece of ceiling. Previous damage my butt! The insulation was soaked from the prior day’s rain. He ripped down more, soaked, Ripped down the wall to find rotted wood frame and dripping insulation. Following the dripping water we found water pooled under the flooring. Great. We rip it all out and find the source of the leak. It’s where it had been “fixed” along the front roof edge.

Finding out it was not old damage

Water pooled under the floor

Over the course of the past few weeks Hubs has, with very little help from me or anyone else, reframed the floor, wall, and ceiling, replaced the front roof piece, insulated most of the flooring, and stripped the old, deteriorated sealant off the roof. I’m sure there has been a lot more work gone into this project, but i’m not really a detail person. My dad has been kind enough to allow us to park and renovate this trailer outside his barn.

Two roofers hard at work

Why even buy a camper? Well, we wanted something to travel in and take the dogs. The van trip from 2017 was a little cramped with all four of us. Our puppers are getting older and we want to explore places with them while we can. The main reason was to park on our new property so we had somewhere comfortable to stay for the weekend while we prepped the land for building and farming. It’s not a far drive, but we’d get a lot more accomplished by staying there. And a camper would be much easier than a tent with the dogs.