A New Beginning

I’ve been sharing Daffodil’s before photos with you.  It seems a few of you think what you’ve been seeing is the current, up-to-date activity that’s going on with her.  We’re working on her but you haven’t seen the ‘here-and-now’ yet.  The photos you’ve seen are from the past – from shortly after we brought her home two years ago.  For a time she had to sit and wait for life to settle a bit so she could move forward.  Things are moving right along now.  She has plans – and reservations – for a road trip in the Fall.  So, here are the first photos of the second stage - the new beginnings - in Daffodil’s journey.  Over the next days I will catch you up to the point where she is now – then you will be able to follow her progress as it happens.  What you will see here today took place just a few weeks ago.

We had planned to only make cosmetic changes.  We had reason to believe her structure was sound.  We weren’t certain about some things.  I wasn’t real pleased with the paneling – actually, I liked the paneling but not the huge nails that had been placed all over the walls.  Some said I should just paint it and the nails wouldn’t show.  But I knew I would see them!  I told my sweetheart I knew I would close my eyes at night and 'see' those horrendous nails in my sleep!  We debated whether or not we should try to cover the seams and the ugly nails with some kind of trim.  We talked about wallpaper and several other ideas but nothing seemed to be the right thing to do.  There were parts of the old paneling that had been damaged.  We knew it would have to be replaced but we couldn’t find paneling to match.  My sweetheart suggested that we take out the things that we knew had to come out to be redone.  The kitchen cabinet had to come out to be completely rebuilt.
Once a few things were out we knew we could see the real condition of the paneling.  That would give us a good idea what would need to be done - how much else we would have to remove.   If all went well, the new flooring would be next after the kitchen cabinet and the frame that would hold the bed had been removed.  The new flooring was given to me!  Free!  It was perfect!  My brother-in-law is a contractor.  He also does flooring and counters.  Recently he did a big flooring job that required him to hire extra help.  He hired my sweetheart and when my sweetheart saw the vinyl flooring that was being laid on that job, he brought a scrap home to show me.  The moment I saw it I knew it was just what I wanted for Daffodil!  We decided to ask my sweetheart’s brother where we could buy the same flooring.A few days later, when the flooring job was finished, my sweetheart walked in the door with a roll of flooring that was left over from the job.  It was just a piece that was going to be thrown in the dumpster!  My brother-in-law gave it to me for Daffodil!  This is high-quality vinyl that looks like hardwood.  The texture is wonderful and I could hardly believe it would grace Daffodil’s floor.  At no cost to us!So, my sweetheart went to work.  He began with the wheel well covers and the structure that had held the bed.It didn’t take long before things were looking different.  You can see Daffodil’s trunk – where the spare tire is.  The flooring has to be replaced from the back wall, inside the trunk, to the front wall of the trailer, under the kitchen cabinets.  The original framework for the trunk and wheel wells will be used when it’s time to put them in again.  (It looks like I was playing with the flooring sample again!)The old, ugly ceiling light had to go, for sure.  It will not return!  Absolutely not!  You can see part of the old propane light behind the ceiling light.  The blue tape on the propane light says ‘Do not use.’  It will return but when it does it won’t be propane and it won’t look quite the same.Before my sweetheart began to remove the kitchen and the wheel wells and bed structure, he carefully drew a detailed floor plan so he would know exactly how everything was to begin with.  And it would give him the measurements he needed to cut the flooring when that time came.We had a plan.  We hoped our Plan A would be the direction we could go.  At this point we didn’t know if that would happen so we were prepared to make changes.  Change can be good – and it can be hard.  While we didn’t know what to expect, we knew that the end result would be just right.  Getting there would take a lot of old-fashioned hard work!  We had no doubt about it – and we were ready.   We just didn’t know what we were ready for!