Softy and the Camper

We are full time in the the camper now, which means the cat has also joined us. She is adjusting well in fact. I know you were all curious.

We finished cleaning out our apartment today and it was kind of sad. Not only were we leaving our favorite place so far, but now it was also the cleanest it had ever been. That might be the worst. My fridge looked amazing. I cannot believe we leave so soon. As I lay in bed tonight in my new home I'm comfortable and for a moment calm. Tomorrow is a completely different story. All the last minute loose ends must be tied. But right now I have peace. I hope this feeling is what I have been searching for, what I dreamed of when the idea of a gypsy lifestyle came to mind.

Home Sweet Camper

After a day of finishing touches the camper is really starting to look homey.  The bar top was installed and looks fantastic and so do the cabinets.  Man those little guys took forever to paint. The next step is to give the old girl a good cleaning and move the bed in.  Considering no one bothered to measure the box spring to see if it would fit in, some modifications to the bed may need to be made.  

Shopping Like a Survivalist

When you have a cart containing the items required to stock our camper it kind of looks like to the Walmart cashier that you are crazy survivalists.  Just an FYI in case you wonder why people are beginning to panic around you. 

Well the cold weather has slowed the necessary work on Bell.  We are just not very excited about painting the backs of cabinet doors in this crap, however they must be finished.  Without the painting there cannot be attaching, and without attaching we cannot put our stuff in them! Without the moving of stuff to the camper there is no moving out of our place.  However, my horribly inaccurate Iphone weather app says it's going to get better.  So, I have found other, warmer inside, tasks to accomplish.  Such as the preparing of Softy.  

Softy is my 16 year old, no teeth, cat. She is also an avid hater of car rides in general. This will be her first road trip.

 
She seems to be doing alright with the harness, or she is too checked out to notice... yet.  Next step I will introduce the cage into her everyday surroundings.  These are all measures to keep us sane, and the cat from having a horrible stress related death.  So I am doing my best to take these steps slowly, always knowing that at any point she could kill me in my sleep.

It's Magic!

If you squint your eyes it looks like our little home is floating, however it really only is tireless.  We jacked her up to get new tires.  We had to quickly do the switch out due to extremely high winds.

Welcome!

Welcome one and all the the start of a new way to live!  We have taken our living space, and lifestyle, and shrunk it down.  We added mobility, with a touch of insanity, and "POOF" we have a gypsy adventure complete with a wagon.  

Over the last year Heathcliff and I have be slowly remodeling and upgrading our newest home, Belle, the Belle tow behind.  We wanted something we could call home.  We plan to leave the 1st of May and will be spending the summer in Maine, but I wanted to start by getting people excited. So, welcome again to the Maddhouse Gypsy BLOG.  This will be the forum for photos, updates, and our general shenanigans!  You will be in the front row for all the adventures and set backs. 

I have been slowly posting updated photos of Belle over the last few months on Facebook, but I thought I should put them all in one place for now, and then continue to update as we get closer to the launch date.  

THE REMODEL OF BELLE:

(to present day) 

Like with any great remodel there is always the destruction phase.  We had to remove the breakfast nook, which sat six, and the fold out couch/bed that slept one and a half.  You do the math, it wasn't going to work for the long term.  Also half of the ceiling was missing due to a new roof that was put on, so of course that meant a whole new ceiling.  You try to find matching ceiling tiles for your mid-1970's camper!  I'll tell you what, it's not simple.  

It then seemed like a great time to upgrade the insulation, with there being no ceiling and all.  We decided on this little number.  No more fiberglass, this baby is insect resistance, rated, and with any luck will keep us cooler or warmer! Don't worry friends we have a back up plan, or two.

The number one thing that I think of when I think of bad 1970's campers is the faux wood finish on everything! Thank God we got a heavy duty primer and a lovely gray paint, because this is a huge improvement.  I dare you to scroll back up to the picture above and tell me you liked it better before.  Also we added that slick looking metal ceiling.

We recently were very lucky to have two days with Bill Allison, of Allison Construction.  He put in the bar for us, as well as...

Those snazzy wheel well covers!

He also framed out our normal sized bed.

Here is a panorama of the interior after the construction was complete!

Finally we wanted a touch of something different and added these padded wall tiles. Anna Lee helped me today to finish them... Almost.

Over the next few days there is still interior work to do, but our focuses will be on the exterior.  Lots of gaps to fill with goo to insure a water tight ship, just in case it rains in Maine. Stranger things have happened. 

I hope you all will subscribe to my blog or at least look at it when I let you know new stuff is up.  Keep in touch, you never know when we might be at the same place at the same time!  It would be a crime to not say "hi", or hang out for an afternoon, or let us stay the night parked in your massive easily parked in parking lot/street, or giving us a chance to shower off some of the road "stank". I hope to fill the adventure with lots of friendly faces, new and old.