About the Airstream

1974 Overlander

After 3 years of dreaming about buying an Airstream trailer, we found and purchased one on September 22, 2008. Initially we thought it would be parked in the back yard, used as a reiki studio… somehow the next thing we knew we sold the house, packed up our stuff in bins and ran away from home. 

Here is a link to the Before shots

beforemontage

Here is a montage of some of the post gutting it (some pictures here too)

aftermontage

We gutted that whole back section so deb could put her massage table, and do her reiki. It worked really well for the time she did that. People loved the calming nature of the space, that it was separate from the house. They all loved the whole experience of having a reiki session in an airstream cocoon.

We sold the house in april 09, and headed off with a bunch of bins for our stuff in that gutted area. After living full time in the airstream from April till August, we knew better how we could divide the space. We lucked on a cabinet maker in PEI, Dean Arsenault, who absolutely transformed her. He built everything to measure, most of it was built on site.

We re-configured the layout from the original 1974 one, and after he was done, we had the airstream of our dreams!

Renovations on our 1974 Overlander Airstream trailer

(click here for a slide show of the re-model)

newlook1

This view is from the front looking back.  The bed’s to the left at the rear. By day it folds up to single day bed or couch, by night can be pulled out to be as large as a queen size bed. We use a memory foam mattress topper as the mattress, combined with an egg crate style foam underneath. The memory foam is the thicker 4″ one. We purchased it at Costco for a very reasonable price, and it’s very comfortable.

newlook2

View to the front. He created a U-shaped dinette, with tonnes of storage in the drawers below. The table goes down to form a sleeping platform if needed for guests.

newlook3

We installed a beautiful bamboo laminate on the floor, which we both love the look of.

He created the cabinets out of melamine, and a thin pine veneer so as to keep everything from being too heavy. I was a bit worried, as even so there was a lot more weight added to the trailer. But when we got on the road, it all seemed to pull fine, and there was no impact to the increased weight.

Click here for a photo gallery of after renovations shots of the airstream

7 Comments

  1. OH MY GOD! I can’t believe that it’s the same trailer! Your renovations are truly amazing. Where did all that space come from – it looks like a cozy little apartment now. Yahoo! Maybe I will come to San Francisco in the spring!

  2. This is so cool…what a transformation! Makes me want an Airstream even more. I am working on convincing my SO. Fingers crossed. Meantime, am loving living vicariously through people like you : )

  3. Great job on the trailer… im entertaining the thought of purchasing one myself and living lean and mean… just sold my house and my kiddos are elsewhere : (, but I need a little de-toxification in my life, ZEN if you will and starting with a simple living space my do me some good…

  4. peijim

    Those floors i put in for you guys are still looking wonderfull, hope the bamboo and river rock in bathroom are still holding up, you must be so pleased. Hope all is well on the west coast. Hope to see you make it back here someday.

    Huggz

  5. apart from us putting a big gouge in the floor by the fride one fateful trip, the floors are still looking and working amazing… i think of you everytime i sweep/clean them!!

  6. You have really done a beautiful job here ladies! Very nice.

  7. David clifton

    It was nice to meet you both at harvey’s, I liked your web site, I’m still looking at it. Don’t forget to look up ‘poetic’,diamonds in the dirt, and the shoe garden at Alamo square.
    David

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