...The End...sort of.

I suppose I've been avoiding writing this post for awhile now, perhaps for fear of disappointing all of you lovely readers or aspiring Airstream-ers. But in any case, I feel obligated to provide the update that we are no longer living in our Airstream! For us, this is a happy occasion because after three years in Blue Moon, we were finally able to purchase a home. We knew that Airstream-living wouldn't be forever, but it feels funny to close that chapter on our lives. It has been strange moving into someplace so conventional after over a decade of renting, traveling, changing jobs, Airstream-ing etc. Trying to fill a much larger space without owning enough stuff to do so, literally. I don't like the term "settling down," but we are definitely nesting, which is fun. Our new house is really a dream come true!

What has been the fate of our beloved Blue Moon you ask? Well, this summer she was home to another couple who rented her while they worked seasonal jobs here on the island. Neither of us are ready to part with our Airstream, so she'll probably come back to us this fall and you may find us sitting out there some morning with the little fireplace on, lounging on our homemade couch and drinking our tea. Just for old times sake. There's a part of me that wishes we could just go on forever living in our Airstream. But a bigger part of me loves having our new space, room for family and friends to visit, and our own big yard to garden and play with the dogs in (we got another dog!)

Clearly Blue Moon's journey isn't over, so while this blog may see less updates, she'll still be around :-) and we'll probably still be tinkering with her! We have gotten so many emails and messages over the years from readers with questions about Airstream renovations, and I am still so inspired by others aiming to live out their tiny living dreams - do it!! It's worth it!!!
Signing off,
H & J, and Agnes

Blue Moon Gets a Closet

Daffodils are blooming, the temps are warming and...we're back to full-time Airstreaming! Although we both had mixed feelings about moving back into Blue Moon that ranged from "yay tiny living!" to "we're 30 and still don't know wtf we're we doing with our lives,"  - but after a few weeks of getting settled in, we're all smiles again. Last fall we tried to by a "real" house - a fixer-upper - and it didn't work out, so in our minds we thought we'd find another house to buy before this spring, but island real estate ain't cheap, so the months passed and we found ourselves heading back up to our mountain-top Airstream abode again. We decided to embrace this tiny aluminum home we own for now, and we jumped in to projects!

We're addicted to creating more storage solutions since we built the medicine cabinet (click to read about it) a few months ago. We've been debating what to do with the empty space where our composting toilet was originally installed (we sold our Nature's Head composting toilet to some other Airstream-ers after deciding we would just use the shower/bathroom/laundry facilities located on the property we're parked on.) I'll humor you with these throw-back photos from our renovation days:

We kept a space heater there for a time as well as our towels. But, the space has mostly ended up being a catch-all for crap. 

So I drew up some plans for a closet to put in as a replacement!

J had recently been working on boats in the Port Townsend shipyard for work and watched a modified tick-sticking technique that the shipwrights use to template the curves of boat hulls when they have to cut new planks. We find ourselves taking inspiration from boats a lot when we work on our Land Yacht. So, to make the template for the closet walls, we got a handy-dandy hot glue gun (dries instantly!) and stuck those little bits of wood onto a squared-up frame.

Onto the plywood it goes for connecting the dots and jig-sawing.

                         

 

sand and poly, repeat.

Putting it all together! We ended up making the closet quite a bit wider than my original drawing, and we love it!


Pretty snazzy stuff :-)

    
I really like how J detailed the clothing rod fixture with hemlock.

    

We finished the whole thing off with a linen curtain and a new dome light over the medicine cabinet to keep things bright. I think now that we're 30, hanging our clothes on hangers is really an adult-like thing to do, so at least we're taking steps in the right direction toward growing up, hehe. 

The other side of the closet does double-duty with hooks and towel rack. My initial design was a skinnier closet that didn't cover any of the window, but when we put the panels up, it just made sense to make it wider. We LOVE the extra space, and neither of us mind the partial window block. It's still an operable window since the crank is on the right side.

We also dug our hometown New Belgium Brewing Accumulation White IPA tacker out of storage and finally riveted into it's permanent home behind our sink :-) 

Happy Spring from our tiny home to yours!

Airstream Medicine Cabinet

We're not living in Blue Moon this winter - a friend had an extra bedroom for rent so we opted for a little bit more space and indoor showers for some time! But, it was a beautiful January weekend, and we couldn't help but head up to the Airstream to work on projects, as we will be moving back to full-time Airstream-ing in a few months. When I initially designed our Airstream remodel, I was adamant about NO upper cabinets - nothing to block the light in such a small space. The original floor-to-ceiling 1960s dark paneling we ripped out of Blue Moon sort of sent me running in the other direction. I knew that meant we would be sacrificing a lot of potential storage that could be up on the walls. So, after a few years of having this mirror leaning up against the wall with toothbrushes and wine glasses stashed behind it, I finally caved and drew up a little design for a medicine cabinet to be mounted to the curved wall, and put it on J's honey-do list.

Above is the setup we've had for awhile now, with a mirror just leaning against the wall.

My design - to include hanging wine glass storage of course!

Essential to all Airstream construction is templating for those pesky curved walls; bring in the cardboard.

J built the cabinet out of pine. He's chiseling out a pocket to inset the door hinges.

The most important part: making sure the wine glasses will fit! We got some inexpensive hanging wine glass wood-moldings and cut them to fit under the cabinet.

Up it goes - riveted to the wall with brackets

Pretty nice! We're gaining countertop space as well as another cabinet!

The mirror features aspen trees painted and carved onto the frame -- it was handmade by a friend in Colorado

Projects like these on a sunny January day make us excited to move back to Blue Moon :-)