The alarm goes off at the crack of dawn. As soon as the covers are flung off, it's game on, and there will be no stopping until tonight. "Are you ready for this?" I ask Tyler. He smiles and shakes his head, no. "Are you sure you don't just want to just lay in bed all day and snuggle and watch things?" I ask coyly. Tyler laughs, and off goes the comforter, and off we go to meet the day. It's one full of non-stop activity:
First off, Tyler puts fabric rivets into our new set of full sheets and rigs up twine so that he can pull them taught underneath the mattress. Since our bed is "3/4 size", this will prevent them from coming untucked. Then, he's off to get a spray-in liner installed on our truck bed and run errands. While he's doing that, I cut fabric for curtains, iron each one, and pin a half-inch seam allowance onto them...
Once those are done, they move to down the production line to Jodi...
Meanwhile, I make ties for the completed couch cushions, folding over the frayed edges and fastening them with fabric glue. It seems to get easier with each cushion, but I can't tell for sure if that is owed to the repetitive nature of the task, or the fact that the fumes from the glue are making me woozy!
While all of this crafting is going on, our truck liner has been installed. Now, Tyler is running another round of errands. Among them is a stop at an RV shop for an expensive bit of electronics. To our dismay, we've discovered the real reason our camper battery didn't make it through our first night: the power converter is dead. This $200 hunk of metal converts 120V AC power from a generator or grid electricity into 12V DC power to charge the battery. Luckily, it is pretty straightforward to replace.
Tyler's final excursion for the day is a quick run to his dad's woodshop—thanks for the help, Tony!—to cut some new panels for the cabinets above our bed. We're replacing the horrendously ugly mirrored stained glass panels with corkboard, so that we can pin letters and pictures and notes on them. As soon as Tyler returns, we get down to business, gluing the cork to the panels, then installing them in the cabinet doors.
At long last, three jam-packed days later, our to-do list is complete. As we collapse on the living room floor, Jodi finishes the final flourish: a tablecloth for the dinette, made from a scrap of fabric she found in my crafting stash. It's exactly the right size, and goes with everything perfectly.
It's 8:30PM, and Operation Camper Makeover has come to an end! To celebrate, Jodi, Tyler and I head out to the camper to put up the curtains and set the dinette cushions in place. The kitchen is decked out with its cute lemon-print, and the bedroom is complete with Tyler's sheet-fitting system, our fabric-covered shades, and the corkboard cabinet doors.
When everything is assembled, we take a step back to survey our work. And then we freak out—in a good way—at how awesome the place looks. We squeal and hug and high-five one another, our mouths gaping in disbelief. It looks like a diner in here, it's like a freaking diner! All we need are some eggs and bacon and a pitcher of maple syrup, and we'll be good to go!
Thanks to this whirlwind remodeling effort, we'll be at home in here, for sure. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jodi, for all of your help! YOU ROCK! We love you!!
Though the makeover is complete, our non-stop day isn't over yet. Since we're leaving for Michigan in the morning (to attend a reed-collecting workshop on our way out to Vermont), now it's time to pack...