Our First Vintage Shasta Travel Trailer

I am very excited to announce our newest addition to the family!  

 

This is the picture from the craigslist ad.  We will be picking it up tonight.  I am very excited to start putting all my plans to work.

The trailer is very solid, and very clean.  Don’t let the small appearance fool you.  Packed inside this 16ft trailer, is a full bathroom, with a real toilet (no porta pottie! lol), a shower, fridge, stove, sink, a dinette, bunk, and a couch!  Not to mention, a ton of cupboard space.  The two of us shared the inside space, with no problem.  No bumping, squeezing past each other.  I was very very happily surprised.

Inside is quite bright, but it has never been updated.  Upholstery and flooring are dated.  I would hate to tear out the flooring, because of how good condition it is.  I’m thinking rugs? lol

The upholstery needs to go.  I hate it. So ugly. lol! I’m thinking a nice solid earthy tone.  The foam probably needs to be replaced, as it is original.

No leaks.  No smells.  The windows are very clean, no mildew, no mold.  It is ready to use, immediately!

A bit of background.  The family we bought this trailer, bought it this past spring, with intent on using it over the summer.  Translation, the husband wanted the trailer.   With a new baby, they did not have the chance to use it, and the wife told the husband, if it cant fit beside the house, it needs to go!  

I found it on craigslist, hours after posting.  I had this addiction to craigslist where I keep hitting the F5 key to see if my dream trailer would show up.  And it did.  We didn’t waste anytime in viewing this trailer, as coming across a trailer this size, with a full bathroom, was as rare as being struck by lightening.  The guy paid $4,000 for it in the spring, and we got it for $3,400.  Not bad, considering how little we gotta do to bring it back up.  Used trailers to start off with, are over priced, and all over the map.  There seems to be no average price for a certain aged trailer.    I had been budgeting $6,000 for a trailer, which leaves a lot left over for dishes, bedding, and yes, a flat-panel TV.  

More pictures to come this weekend!

 

First post, First Thoughts

Well, I thought it might be a good idea to document the process of becoming a newbie RVer.  The thought of getting an RV hit me hard this summer.  After the good smack, it left a permanent scar that won’t disappear. 

A bit about my life, first.  I am recently married to my partner of nine years.  We run a very demanding business.  A business that can not function, without us.  So we are stuck to mini-weekend vacations through-out the year, and the one week, maybe two if we are lucky week long vacation at Christmas.  This leaves us mostly stuck on a local level for travel, except during our Christmas Vacation, where we can venture farther away from home.

Our home, is in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.  A suburb located in Metro Vancouver.  With Less than 4 hours driving, we can easily escape the city.  Perfect for us to take our RV, or what I like to call it, “our second home” where-ever we feel like for a weekend of peace, quiet, and relaxation.

We can never make a decision, until it comes to the last moment.  We talk and talk about exactly what we want, but when it comes down to it, we might find something so completely different, that we must have it.

We talked about a C-Class motor-home.  This makes me nervous, for a few reasons.  High cost of fuel, it has an engine, and with engines, come mechanical “errors,” and once you pull up to a campsite, you are basically stuck there without a secondary vehicle to take you to the “yummy gourmet” restaurant you saw in the next town you just drove through on your way to the site.  The idea of getting dressed up, and taking your motor-home to a fancy part of the town/city, doesn’t really appeal to me very much.

So I mentioned a travel trailer (TT).  My new husband start to squirm in his chair.   I started going on about how cost effective a TT would be as they are much cheaper than a C-Class, we can tow it with a secondary vehicle, and the secondary vehicle would be much better on fuel than a C-Class.  He told me, it had to be small, 18ft, cause he didn’t like the idea of pulling something.  Ok, deal. 

Next thing, New or Used?  I liked the idea of a used one, as again, it’s cheap compared to buying a new one.  But the big reason is, I can renovate it, put our own style into it, and still come out, much cheaper, than buying a brand new one.  Yes, I know, watch for leaks, the stove or oven probably wont work in an older one, etc, but that can all be replaced and fixed.   Once I mentioned this to the husband, he went for it, with the low cost, being the deal breaker.

So we are in the search for the perfect “vintage” Travel Trailer.  Preferably something late 70’s or early 80’s.  Must have a dinette, and a bathroom.  And must have an oven, as a microwave can be difficult to run on solar-panels, when boon docking. 

And thus the blog.  Whatever I come across something, I will post it here.  I will also post our progress in our search for the perfect “second home.”