Eating Cake & Having It, Too (when it comes to bed + table)

Wow, over a year since I last posted. Not that there's much to discuss in the way of progress.

Some of the lack of progress was due to 2012 simply being a rough year for us. Two months into 2013, and I'm not sure yet how much better this year will be compared to last. Hopefully, we'll at least be able to do some work on the inside of our Boler. Which leads to another reason for lack of progress...

...I don't know what I want to do with the inside.

Pinterest has been both a help and a hindrance. There are so many great things people have done to their Bolers and vintage campers, it's a wonderful source of inspiration. It's also a wonderful way to get overwhelmed with all of the possibilities. (One of my favorite boards for inspiration is http://pinterest.com/ceilityme/bolers-campers-caravans-and-trailers/) Browsing Pinterest can especially be overwhelming when my taste is all over the place. Gypsy vardo + steampunk + geekery + vintage + "Oooo, I like that idea!" = a muddle of things. Which may be me, but isn't cohesive in such a tiny space.

One thing that I've been debating about is what to do about the bed/table situation. We never put the table up when we've used our camper on a trip, mostly because we don't want to bother with making & unmaking the bed all the time. Really, when you're exhausted, who really wants to mess with cleaning off the table, rearranging the cushions, and making up the bed before you crash? On the other hand, I haven't wanted to lose the functionality of having a table for those days when the weather is too bad to be outdoors due to rain, cold, what have you and having a solid surface for card & board games would be useful.

I've also not been fond of the front bench area. It generally ends up being the "catchall" spot because we don't have a good organizational system yet, and no one sits in the corner by the stove. There's no room for your feet there, unless you tuck them underneath you. Some renos install a shelf or cabinet or some sort of storage unit in that space, but that solution has left me rather blah. And then there have been a few renos that have made me think "That's brilliant!" before wishing I had thought of it on my own while simultaneously plotting how to do it in our vardo-to-be.

Leave the bed as a bed and turn the front bench into a two-top table.

It solves several little tiny problems all at once: we have a bed; we have a table; the corner seat will get used.

There are a few options for the table, as well. Permanently attached to the wall in a stationary position. Attach it like the existing table, so that it can fold down to make a bench bed. A folding table, or TV tray tables that can be moved out of the way if need be. Install a side table or something more decorative than the typical camper table top. More options to decide on, yes, but I don't have to choose between having a bed or having a table. I can have both.

I'm Pinterested

Not too long ago, I discovered Pinterest. It's been a lot of fun browsing & pinning photos of things I like and ideas I want to remember. Much easier than sorting through a ton of bookmarks! 

 

Geek Caravan Inspiration

Amalgam Vardo

One of my favorite things about Flipside this year was the hand-built vardo at the Amalgam Coast's campsite. So darling! What really impressed me were the details--permanent bottle opener, fold-down kitchen shelf, hanging flower baskets. I hope ours turns out as adorable as this one:

Project Book & Paint Chips

Tonight while making Flipside Shopping Trip #2 at Walmart, I randomly purchased a small project notebook with no solid idea of what I would use it for. Until I got home and pulled out the stack of paint samples I'd collected from there and from yesterday's Home Depot run. Even though it doesn't have pockets to put things in, it'll be a great physical way to make notes and keep track of progress and ideas. And the paint samples.

Oh, the paint samples. I can't help it. I've always been fascinated by the myriad options of pinks and blues and reds and browns, all lined up in rows, cards ready to mix and match to find that perfect color scheme. And the names! Not just pink, but Bunny's Nose, Soft Muslin, Odessa, Tutu, Reverie Pink, Peony, Sugar Egg, Rose Sorbet, Musical Mist. This is what happens when you let creative people pick names. Engineers would pick things like Light Pink, Lighter Pink, Lightest Pink.

Most of the paint colors that I'm considering are greens. Pale green, grass green, pear. There are a few pinks, some lavender, and one or two blues I'm also contemplating, but for now, the greens have it. Not too girly, not too overwhelming, something relaxing for our home-where-we-are.*



* For both of us, the concept of home is not nessecarily a specific location or the burner community's sense of "the location where we can be ourselves outside of society norms," but with each other. We could be camping in the woods or visiting another state; as long as we're together, we're home.

Vardo Inspiration

While we aren't doing a traditional vardo—rather obvious by the choice of the T.A.R.D.I.S. as our door, don't you think?—the art on traditional vardos is beautiful. 

From Vardos of the United Kingdom:
Picture Gallery
Bow Top Interiors
Bow Top Exteriors


From Flickr:
Gypsy Caravans
Romany Gypsy Bowtop Wagon Caravans

Other Sites:
Gypsy Vans by Roth: Gallery
The Gypsy Caravan Company

Cat-astrophe

Unfortunately, our plans to panel the camper before Memorial Day weekend have been derailed, thanks to Ender.

Ender Conner is Kyro's Bengal. Ender is one of the best cats ever, but he has one tiny little bad habit that finally caught up with him. He loves chewing on rubber. If you ever look at Kyro's bike, Ender is the reason the handles are covered in duct tape, not a rubbery grip. He will steal your toothbrush if it isn't solid plastic, and he noms on items "normal" cats would ignore.

Last week, he stopped eating & drinking for several days. We took him to the cat hospital to find out what was wrong, worried that it could be too late. Initial diagnosis was a urinary tract issue of some kind. After running a contrast test to determine if there was blockage, they couldn't find anything unusual. After exploratory surgery, they couldn't find anything unusual. Finally, he had a bowel movement, in which they found—you guessed it!—a tiny piece of what used to be rubber.

By Monday, Ender was almost back to normal, if a bit annoyed by his fashionable new Elizabethan collar, but our caravan fund was not. Truth be told, I'd rather have Ender alive and healthy than a geek caravan without a cat, but it is a little disheartening to start saving for the camper all over again. (Mom & Dad, if you're reading this, we still have the PayPal fund set up to help us out!)

New Year's Renovations

Instead of resolutions for the new year, we have a list of renovations for turning our Boler into a vardo. In no particular order:

• Paneling the outside
• New flooring
• T.A.R.D.I.S. door
• R2-D2 dome
• Roof AC unit
• Permanent ice chest on the outside
• Marine battery
• Small generator
• Remove the propane stove
• Repaint cabinet doors & sides
• Curtains
• New door handles & latches
• Replace the existing mirrors
• Replace the current wooden pegs with something a little more us
• Curtains
• Cushions
• Border/trim
• Geeky details as we come across them

Most of the alterations (the interior ones, definitely) are cosmetic. The wood paneling is the most obvious step in transforming the Boler from a painted egg on wheels into a gypsy-style caravan wagon. And while there's nothing wrong with the sky blue cabinetry or wall-papered doors & cubby covers, it's just not us. Especially with the geekiness we're adding. The permanent ice chest, marine battery, generator, and removal of the propane stove all match the type of camping we do. (We own several portable camp stoves already, so we don't really need one in the camper as well. Besides, an outdoor kitchen offers more space for cooking meals.)

While we wait for consistent weather (it snowed today although it was in the 60s for the past week or two) before working on the outside, I'm going to start planning interior color schemes and the like. All I know is that I have to include plaid and green somehow...

Merry Christmas, Caravan

One of the things I've wanted to do to the interior from the beginning was paint the night sky on the ceiling. There's a coffee shop just down the street from us that has a really pretty mural of clouds and constellations that I adore, part of my inspiration. Kryo's Christmas present to me is going to be even better than that: the Death Star Planetarium. I can either have a starry sky or the Star Wars galaxy dancing across the ceiling, no painting skills required! Plus, it'll make an awesome decoration when not in use.

We also received a gift card to Home Depot from Jet's family, to be put towards renovations. I have no idea how much it's worth, but it'll be useful none the less. Shopping trips to Home Depot are always fun.

Our First Outing

This past weekend, we took our camper on its first trip: Myschievia. Hippie camper, hippie/burner camping. It seemed fitting. And we met a lot of people who stopped to look because of the art & the general cuteness.

It was so nice not having to put up a tent in the dark (we didn't arrive until almost eleven o'clock), and to be able to get a full night's sleep every night. We could shut out music from the sound camps (both burns I've been to so far, we've been next-door neighbors to Resurrection, which is full of DJs) and block sunlight in the mornings. The bed was even fairly comfortable, considering it essentially was cushions on boards. Much faster to set up than an air mattress!

I'm glad we used it before we started modifications, because we now have an idea of what we need to do to make the space livable (i.e., not cramped & cluttered) when it's in use. Use the existing cabinets more efficiently. Hanging closet organizer for packing clothing. Have one dedicated spot for Kyro to put his phone. Smaller space heater. We're also thinking about removing the propane stove to have more counter space, and adding a permanent chest, ice or otherwise, to the outside for food storage.

One of my favorite things about it: protection from all sorts of weather. Days were warm, evenings were cold, and Monday morning we woke up to rain. The only leak we noticed was water dripping in through the vent above the stove. For a camper that's older than we are, I'm impressed. 

I love it so much already, as it currently is. I can't wait until we finish the caravan project!

And we have a winner!

Our new base for the caravan is a thirteen-foot Boler travel trailer. It's absolutely adorable. If you can get past the hippie paint job on the outside, courtesy of its previous owners.

It's a fiberglass camper, with a bench at the front end and a dining area that converts into a bed at the other. Tiny little kitchen area—just a sink & stove top—and a narrow closet.  Such great potential for decorating. I know I want to recover the existing cushions and replace the curtains with something a little more "us," meaning probably greens and not-so-garish plaid.

The beauty of this trailer? I don't have to clean out little gecko ghost bodies before we can use it! Also, it's very lightweight, meaning we can lift and move it by hand if needed. (That's how we managed to get it the rest of the way into Kryo's covered parking spot.)

The "before" photo set can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54525421@N02/sets/72157624964943027/

All's Quiet on the Vardo Front

There hasn't been any work on the vardo since the last week of May, and with good reason: being used twice in one week was too much activity for the lift system. It died a painful death two days before we were scheduled to leave for Flipside. 2 AM the day of found me in the third Walmart of the night buying a tent (I never thought it would take that much effort to buy a simple tent!).

After a long discussion, we've settled on two options for the Apache. We can either repair the lift system and pray it works for every event we take it to, or search for a different camper to use as a vardo base. Considering how much stress Kyro went through while working on the lifts the first time, going through that again everytime we have a malfunction is not a pleasant prospect. And as much as I love the Apache, my attachment to it is almost entirely due to the fact that my dream of having a vardo is finally starting to take shape. I would much rather love my vardo than hate it every time I looked at the finished product.

So, the search is on for a replacement camper. Something one-piece that doesn't require ancient lift systems to operate would be nice.

All We Want for Christmas (and birthdays & other gifting occasions)

Dear families/friends/millionaires,

We know we can be hard to shop for. Our hobbies are unusual and involve skill toys—poi and specialty hula hoops—that you can't find on the shelf at Target. Geeky, tech items can be difficult to select when you don't know what we need. Buying us books seems like an easy option, but what if we already own multiple copies or borrowed it and hated it? And clothing is rarely a good idea (just ask Rachel about living with Old Ladies Buy My Clothes Syndrome).

Instead, we would like to offer up a suggestion: Buy us parts. You don't even have to buy us specific parts, although we'd be glad to give you a list of what we need for replacing the lift system and mending other parts of the camper. You can just send us money on occasion to put towards the items we need. (There's a handy little donation button to the left.) Otherwise, we'll have to survive off of ramen and pasta dinners for the rest of the year.

Remember how, as we were growing up, you always told us that you wanted us to be happy in life? Turning this Apache Ramada into a gypsy caravan makes us happy. Sweaty, covered in grease, and having to make up repair processes as we go along, yes.* But also happy. Having a little help now and then will make us even happier. (And mean fewer ramen meals.) In return, we promise to call & write on occasion, and keep you updated on our progress with the geek caravan project.

Love,
Rachel & Kyro



*Yes, Mom, even me who hated getting dirty as a child. —R.

An... Apache Caravan?

We are now the proud owners of a circa 1973 Apache Ramada hard-body camper!

Yes. We know it is not a vardo. But we have plans.

A few weekends ago we drove out to Quinlan, TX to view a hunter travel trailer Kyro found on Craig's List. Very tiny, but cute, complete with water and propane hook ups. The owner built it off of an old Coleman camper whose canvas sides rotted out, by keeping the base & the roof and replacing the walls with board. In the end, we opted to not purchase it, but decided that the idea was good enough to borrow. Not having to learn how to install electrical wires or propane lines? Win.

Last Wednesday, Kyro discovered our current camper (Craig's List, again). In his words, it's "funky and needs some work." A little bit of an understatement, but I think it'll turn out awesome in the end. And worth it, since we wanted something off of the ground for when we go camping Memorial Day weekend in the middle of a poison ivy-infested pecan grove. And then for another camp out at the end of June at Lake Texoma.

Right now, we're just concerned about getting it cleaned up enough to spend five days camping in, and in good enough condition to be usable. (I found a newspaper dating back to 1988, so it definitely needs some care.) After that, let the caravan conversion begin!

Getting Hitched!

At least, his truck is:

Other Vardo Blogs

We won't be able to truly start on building our caravan until after Memorial Day weekend, so right now we're just planning and researching. Fortunately, there are a lot of people who have documented what they've done with similar caravan projects.


Bow Top Caravans
Gypsy Caravan—One of the first blogs I found about building a caravan using The New Gypsy Caravan book, plans, and template. Also, probably the most detailed when it comes to adaptations made (an air conditioner unit!) and the building process in general.

SuperTroll's Bow Top Vardo—A variation of Lemke's bow top. There are a few pointers in his message board thread, but most of the documentation is in the photo album in the very first link.

Small Adventures—Yet another vardo builder following the plans from Lemke's book. He's at roughly the same stage we are at the moment: planning. (The Vardo label is just posts about the project; the rest of his blog is about SCA involvement.)

Woodsong's Vardo—A bow top with a twist: it folds down when not in use, as a result of space (and neighborhood) limitations.

Canvas Caravans—


Other Style Caravans
Rachel the Goatwoman's First Vardo—A pop-up, Ledge-style vardo. Her first one, which eventually lead to...
Rachel the Goatwoman's Second Vardo—...a second pop-up vardo. This time, designed so that just one person can raise it.

A Bow Top Caravan

The caravan we plan on building is in the bow top style, which is what most people think of when you mention the phrase "gypsy caravan." There are actually six different types of vardo, most of which resemble a box on wheels. The Reading style is the prettiest, but makes me think more of a traveling circus wagon from the early days, than a gypsy caravan.

The best description of a bow top I've found is at Journey Folki, taken from the pages of a book I really want to read: The English Gypsy Caravan by C.H. Ward-Jackson & Denis E. Harvey. It's out of print, so no luck yet finding it at a reasonable price. Fortunately, that's what inter-library loan is for! We do have a copy of Timothy Limke's The New Gyspy Caravan, which will be very useful for the exterior build.

The sketches from the Ward-Jackson book of a standard bow top layout are going to come in handy, when it's time to furnish the interior. (Lemke's book doesn't really include anything other than the bed in terms of furnishings.) Inspiration will also come from Ditchwater Sal's yellow wagon from the movie Stardust, and the GypsyWaggons.co.uk's gallery of bow top interiors. I don't think our decor will be quite on the same level as some of those images, though. Geeky, naturally. Elaborate, probably not.

Origins

Once upon a time, a little girl was captivated by Gertrude Chandler Warner's book The Boxcar Children. Who wouldn't want to their very own house to live and play in, without any adults around? While having a boxcar in the back yard wasn't feasible, a gypsy caravan—another of her fascinations—was, so she thought. Unfortunately, her parents didn't quite agree.

Years later, she was still enamored of the idea. Not being a huge fan of sleeping on the ground, a caravan seemed like the perfect solution for going to outdoor, weekend-long events that would otherwise mean camping. No one, however, was willing to help make that idea a reality. It can't be done, they said; it will be too expensive. No one, until someone by the name of Kyro came along.

How much do you really want a vardo, he asked. This sounds awesome! A little bit of research & one late night conversation over tea, and the dream started to become a reality, with one condition: the door had to look like the door of the T.A.R.D.I.S. Being a bit of a geek herself (why else would she go by the nickname "Leia"?), she agreed.

This is the story of our project, the Geek Caravan. A bow top-styled vardo built by a pair of geeks, because why not?