It is with sadness that I make this posting today. After a lot of soul-searching, I am going to sell my
Cloud 9 trailer. I have loved renovating it, and loved using it; but a long hard look at the budget has convinced me that I need to let it go.
I'm putting it on eBay tomorrow; but before I do, I want to post my before, during and after pictures, and, especially, to thank you all for the excellent community and the indispensible information I found on this site. When I had questions, you all posted answers, often within minutes and always within hours. But mostly I didn't even have to post questions, because a quick search led me to the information I needed.
I've attached to this posting three "before" photos and two "during" photos; I'll follow this posting with three "after" photos. Perhaps the most amazing photo of all--to me--is the picture of my baby. Could she have ever been that small? And could she ever have been willing to just sit there in a car seat while I actually got something accomplished?
The story behind the photos: Last summer, I bought my trailer--won it on eBay, and my partner drove the 10 hours down to Asheville, NC, to pick it up. It was structurally solid, but it smelled like a trailer that hasn't been used in a while, the interior was battered and tattered, and everything needed a tune-up--the brake
lights worked erratically, interior and exterior wiring needed attention, there was no
VIN number, the door was practically falling off its hinges, the floor was curling up, and the upholstery was so old that it was crumbling in places. The trailer had been well-loved but needed some serious attention to bring out its inner beauty.
I washed everything down with everything I could think of (mostly Mr. Clean and TSP), pulled up the old floor and put down a new one (including molding), recovered everything in sight and covered the exposed particle board with retro white vinyl, worked with the DMV to get a new
VIN, pondered the
electrical system for hours and then wired and wired and wired in the heat of summer, installed new hinges, learned from you all how to use the water pump (put my finger over the tap to create a vacuum!), painted all the interior woodwork and metalwork, and dreamed of
painting the interior and exterior and installing an air conditioner. I took it cross-country to see my family in New Mexico and Colorado, and took it to the Delaware beaches, and fantasized about everywhere else it would go with me.
But in the end, I just can't see holding on to it when my daughter's college fund is non-existent and we're down to $100 every week for food and gas....
I hope you all enjoy the photos, and please cross your fingers for my eBay sale! As my partner's grandfather says, I hope to see you all down the road a piece.
--Angela