CAMPER BUILD : Part No. 1 — The Backstory
Part No. 1 — The Backstory
Back in 2017, when we really started looking for land, we ultimately decided to purchase a 20 acre parcel with nothing on it. No water, no power, no buildings. Instead of inheriting the ideas and efforts of others—instead of remodeling an old home—we wanted to start from the ground up, to experiment with home and workshop designs and hone our building skills along the way. But, after signing papers at the title company that spring, there was an obvious need for a short-term shelter of some kind. We ended up buying a canned ham camper from a nice couple in Hillsboro, Oregon, where, coincidently, it was built in 1965 by the Aladdin Trailer Company. It was cheap and charming and definitely fit the camping vibe of our first few summers on the land, as shown in the pictures above. Rough around the edges, it functioned well as the temporary work shelter we needed, well suited for muddy boots and dirty work clothes. A small sink for dishes, a stove to boil water, a @goalzero Yeti 1400 sourced from @cordpdx for power. But it was also freezing during the colder months. Its catalytic propane heater not only produced little heat, it also made the camper a seeming death trap—leave that thing on and we would definetly be dead by morning. Our solution was to get a small stove, purchased from the Tiny Wood Stove company in Idaho @tinywoodstove. A few simple structural modifications and then a warm camper, right? But, as with most remodel projects, removing one wall panel revealed what we had always assumed—years of leaking, moisture damage, mold and a rotten structural frame. Tearing out that one panel led to another, and another, until we had gutted the whole thing. The camper was never intended to be a rebuild project, but, within hours, it was nothing but a frame that took the better part of last year to put back together. Though not planned, it proved to be a cool building project in the end. Follow along over the coming days as we post more photos and commentary about the process.
Here’s a selection of old photos dating from spring 2017 to fall 2019. They document our camper before we gutted and completely rebuilt it over the past year.
