Saturday, May 3, 2014

Painting the Trailer!

I have a vardo and I love it. I wanted one every since I saw the "Pennsic Homes" at my first Pennsic back in 2007. I kept making plans, trying to figure out cost and materials, but nothing much came of all that (mainly because I couldn't think up a place to build it easily!). One day, however, I saw this one up for sale on ebay. I haggled with guy a bit and managed to talk him down to a price I could afford. I drove all the way up to Wisconsin and came back with this beauty.

Okay, so maybe it doesn't look beautiful in this picture.  This is the back of the house (and it is a house).  I had to replace the back bottom panel due to my own negligence (Dad helped! Fixing it, I mean).  I also had to put putty in the upper part of the middle beam due to an evil woodpecker.  Why a woodpecker would go after the thickest part of the trailer is a bit beyond me other than he must be stupid.

See?  Putty.  Because of the putty (and because I really didn't want to tape everything off), I decided to paint over the beams and the panels.  Also, it was cheaper.  I didn't want to buy a bunch of stain and have to put that on the beams.  It would have taken forever.  As is, it took me a good six hours to paint this thing myself.
I started by taping off the windows and the evil eyes.   I really like the evil eyes on the sides of the trailer and didn't want to see them get covered up.  Besides, they are high enough to be somewhat protected from the rain and sun -thanks to the roof.  I was more worried about the panels- the guy that built the trailer used interior paint.  It was starting to show a bit badly and I was worried about some serious warping.  Some of the wood already has started to warp a bit.
The front of the trailer - I decided to tape off the door and door frame but paint everything else. 

Post painting!   I really painted everything I could.  I think the trailer has a good decade before I'll need to paint again.  Thank goodness!
The front door to the vardo.  It's drastically different than before but I really like this look.  The color works well with the purple of the evil eyes. 
The vardo is slightly messy right now but I wanted to show the Moroccan lamp I hung up in the center of it.  This will be great to light the vardo at Pennsic. 
The vardo at the gated yard.   It just looked so much better with the new paint!

Tomorrow, I should post about some of the new camp furniture I'm making.  I finished a table but I'm still working on a folding chair.  The problem with Pennsic on my brain means that I will be making some crazy stuff over the next few weeks.  

3 comments:

  1. I can't help but ask if it's bigger on the inside. ;)

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    1. It is! :-) Just make sure not to leave any of the books lying around the swimming pool in the library.

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    2. I laughed so hard I cried! :D

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