letting go – #teamjamavick

I’m a few days late, but here I am with the February progress report! It’ll be short and sweet, because LORT we are busy. Feb is awful in Texas because WEATHER, and it’s also busy busy because it’s my birth month, and my amazing nephew’s birth month, and it’s short. So between family time and work and school schedules, and working on the Rosy, I dunno how we had time to breathe… But breathe and work and study and party and renovate, we did… and here’s where we’re at on the whole reno process…

Basically, the current status is that we’ve got frame exposed, interior skins out, insulation gone, and a mess EVERYWHERE. We only have March to get this gal ready to sleep in without danger (more on that later), but thanks to some touching generosity of our friends we have a place to crash if sleeping in Rosy is still a health hazard come April 1. Here she is in her icky glory.

It feels like we’ve worked on her a ton with no visual difference. Okay, slight visual difference. I’ll be so glad to put all of this rust brushing and muck cleaning behind us! Today we’re going to make a first attempt at using POR15 to cover the rust on the frame and protect it from damage. Neither of us have used this product before but I’ve done a lot of research over the last week or so and have gotten some good advice from some of our little renovation village. Fingers crossed it goes well!

This is our last month in the apartment. I’ve paid the final rent payment, which felt really, REALLY good. We have just a few weeks to get Rosy what I call “minimally livable”. We define minimally livable as subfloor in, new insulation in, new interior skins in, and said skins painted. If we can get that far along, we’ll toss our mattress in the subfloor and “rough it” (if you can call it that) while we continue on with construction. If we can’t get that far along, we have a back up plan consisting of our very kind and generous friends’ guest room on the same property where we keep the camper. The hardest part in all of this has been packing.

We procrastinated too much, and have now put ourselves in a really tight spot. I work around 52 hours a week between my full time job and freelance work, and I go to school two nights each week for a total of about five hours. Vick pulls long hours in a warehouse all week. We are TIRED in our free time. At this point we are donating or trashing everything we are sure we don’t want, and we’re boxing up everything we do want or are unsure of. It’s hard to say what we’ll need until we’re in the thick of living the lifestyle, so we’ll just pull stuff from storage as the need comes up, which will help us determine what else we can get rid of. Well, we’re off to go do all the things! Happy camping, everyone!

I’ve dreamed of renovating and living in a vintage Airstream for years. A dream I frequently discussed with family, friends, and coworkers. I believe in putting stuff out there in the universe, you feel me? Put your best goods out there, and good comes back to you. Before Arnavick and I bought Rosy, I was often asked “why an Airstream?” or “how are you going to live in such a small space?”. Lets discuss…

Why Airstream? First off, there are so many super cool camper styles there on the market. Small ones that tow easily, big ones that get even bigger via expanding sides, ones you can drive, tall ones, short ones; we could list them all a la Bubba in Forrest Gump, but that would make this post way too wordy. There’s just something about that iconic shape and rich Americana history that rattle me deep down in my soul, in the best way. Like a big baked potato on wheels. They are so obviously different than other campers. Am I a brand snob? Maybe. But I know what I like, and Airstream is it. And I’m not the only one, just check out one of the hundreds of books, facebook pages, instagram accounts, and blogs dedicated to Airstreams. They’re kind of a big deal…

So how are we going to live in such a small space? Well, finding out is going to be fun! Our current apartment is 570 sf. Small, yes, but no camper. Let me level with you guys. I am in my early thirties. I’ve acquired a lot of stuff over the years. And sometimes, I have trouble getting rid of it (hi I’m Jamie and I am a hoarder). Having stuff I don’t use has become a bit of a burden on my soul. It’s wasteful and impractical for us to have a bunch of furniture, craft supplies, electronics, wares etc that are not being utilized. And, it’s just extra stuff that we have to clean! Shenanigans. Cleaning is probably #teamjamavick’s least favorite chore. I’m really looking forward to giving a bunch of stuff away and starting fresh. The philosophy of a minimalist lifestyle is calling to me, and I’m trying to pick up the phone.

Another side of it, is that we really love the idea of being able to pick up and go if the mood strikes. Arnavick’s family lives in Colorado, and we are excited to be able to go visit them without trying to find a pet friendly hotel or airbnb. We are driving our camper to Michigan next summer for our wedding. We want to see the Grand Canyon. Yellowstone. Mount Rushmore. Living in an Airstream means that we can go anywhere we want, and still have our creature comforts, and our creatures (dogs) with us. And we won’t need to prep the house for leaving, pack ours and our dogs stuff, and wonder for days whether we left a burner on, or the back door unlocked.

A question to all of our camper-living friends out there… what do you love most about living on the road?