Teaser.....

We will be picking up Tilley from the guru tomorrow....yes you heard right....tomorrow!

The first part (and a big one) will be done.  We will be one step closer to our steampunk dream trailer for two.

You can trust that there will be many photos posted when we have her back in our hot little hands.

Not being able to wait on buying luxury items for her (read us), we bought a feather bed.  It squishes into a zippered case that will fit nicely under one of the benches.  At night, after we set up the bed and bench cushions, the feather bed will go on top of those and under the sheets to give us a cozy, soft, luxurious sleep....aaaahhhh I can just imagine it now......Oh, sorry about that....

The big reveal will happen in the next day or two... until then a little ditty (on film ) from Tilley

http://www.nme.com/video/Vesta Tilley doing Burlington Bertie

Inspiration!

This past weekend we attended the Steampunk World's Fair.  While there we were able to meet Jake von Slatt and tour his steampunked bus.  It was a great place to get ideas for Tilley. 

Here are a few things we liked the most

We liked his shelves.  There are many books we would like to take for reading on rainy days.

We liked the embellishments.  Making the space cozy and rich with pillows, trims and Victorian style pieces like the clock and globe.

Lastly, while we most definitely have no space for a bathroom, we liked the homey feel of the space and the wonderful lighting fixtures.

For a more detailed account of Jake's project, go here Jake's School Bus Conversion

We hope to have Tilley back from the guru in about 2 weeks.  Once we have her back we can finally take our design ideas out of our heads and start putting them into reality.

The Waiting Game

You know that anxious feeling you get when you have ordered something special online, or it's the night before Christmas, or your parents just promised to drive out on Saturday to get you your very own puppy, well that is how I have been feeling.  It has been a few weeks now since we dropped off Tilley at the guru's house to have her interior done and we are still waiting.  We know the demolition is done, we know the wiring and the leaks have been dealt with, we know the material has arrived and we know that he is working steadily on making her perfect.  What we don't know is when she'll be ready.  It's making me crazy!  Not postal crazy mind you, but cranky, anxious, want to call him every day and ask "Is she done yet?" "Is she done yet?" crazy.  It's not a pretty picture.

So to try and tame my impatient beast I decided to start thinking ahead to when we have Tilley back home. I like to do something I call imaginary retail therapy.  How does that work?  Well...as Inigo Montoya would say  "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up".  It is very much like window shopping, but with a plan in mind and more information gathering.

There are things we know we will need for Tilley after her makeover.  Practical things like storage boxes, dishes, cutlery and so on and so on...   The easiest way to do imaginary retail therapy is online.  You can easily Google items of interest and see what pretties magically appear.  Like these lovely storage solutions:

 Or how about...

Restoration Hardware storage solution      A little pricey, but so beautiful.


The other thing I have been searching for are plates (dishes in general) that are non-breakable and practical, but fit with the steampunk look.  This is a little harder. I would like to get melamine or similar but not in crazy summer colours like bright orange or lime green - not that I don't love these colours but not for Tilley.

This I do love!

http://bongenre.com/patterns_detail_marvista.html

  The Bongenre website is amazing!  Bongenre Elegant Melamine  Who knew you could purchase such lovely melamine dishware. 

So to conclude - the therapy continues (with a little occasional dark chocolate thrown in) to help me relax until our Tilley is home again.

Secrets Revealed

You know how...sometimes....you have an ideal scenario in your mind, like, say, that you have purchased a well loved trailer from a sweet couple in need of assistance at a bad time in life.  And you think... what a lovely job they did on the trailer, so much love put into every stitch and paint brush stroke.  Then the guru peels away the layers (literally) and you start finding strange anomalies that lead to questions like...why the foil on the insulation, why the extra ventilation, why the mould and why the extreme amount of electrical wiring and plugs for such a small space???

Theory to these questions - a grow op!  Yes, the theory that has arisen is that our sweet Tilley was once a grow op.  For those innocent souls who have never heard this term it simply means an operation set up for the growing of marijuana.  You can find more information here http://www.nrps.com/community/marijuana.asp  and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grow_houses  I also found that we are not alone in our little Boler having a shady past  http://www.flickr.com/photos/15127568@N00/199087041/

Now we have no idea if the owners before us possibly used Tilley in such a manner or perhaps the people before them.  The owners before us certainly may have bought Tilley with the insulation and wiring already in place and thought "Hey!  Extra goodies included in the price, how nice."......just like we did.

Luckily our guru is a gentleman of many talents and has already removed the foiled insulation and the mould and will be removing the excess electrical wiring before recovering the interior. 

Which brings me to some good news not involving illegal substances - the material he ordered to redo Tilley's interior has arrived!  We should have her back within a week or two!  She will be dressed and ready for the first of the steampunk accessories we have waiting for her....and you can be sure there will be no plants of any nature within, just myself and my mechanic. 

Extreme Stovetop Makeover

When we first went to see Tilley, although we were all dewy eyed and in love with her, we noticed she was looking a little rough around the edges, showing her age, like an weary courtesan early the morning after a rough working weekend.

One of the reasons for this was her stovetop.  Tilley still has her original stovetop and the previous owners had painted it white...but not very well...the paint was peeling and we could easily pick it off with a finger nail.  But no worries, we have found that, with all the old things we own, the previous owners never gave them the attention and respect they deserved and would do a slap dash job of any repair or "beautification".  We have many times had to scrape back the debris to find the diamond in the rough and do the hard work of making it shine.  You could say we are old hats at restoration.  So the scraping began....

Does the poor thing not look sad and begging to be saved from it's peeling, caked on makeup.

Pat and I took turns first using a wire wheel on the drill and then a scraper, then some steel wool and finally some light sandpaper to smooth it.  We, as well as the picnic table, were covered in white flecks of paint. 

 

Finally clean and ready for phase two. 

We had decided not to use just your regular heat resistant barbeque paint (it is only available in boring black, white or silver) but to use engine paint.  It comes in a rainbow of colours!  We bought antique gold and charcoal.  After four light coats of the gold, I layered in some charcoal to age it....and here is the result

The photo is a little bright so it is hard to appreciate the aged look, but it will look wonderful when finally part of our steampunk decor.

Nightmare!

We are still waiting anxiously for our friend Brad to finish Tilley's interior.  All we know is that he has ideas in place and surprises in store for us.  To me it really feels like being pregnant again.  Not the big, heavy, bloated, sore, breathless, crabby feeling one has, but that anxious, waiting to meet your new baby and see what they look like feeling.  Do they have all their fingers and toes, do they have hair, are they adorable.

Inevitably ever woman, and very often the father as well, will have a nightmare or two about the birth.  The baby is a giant, or comes out being 40 years old, or has three arms.  You get the picture....and it isn't pretty.

Well I had one of those about Tilley.  I dreamt that we finally go to pick up Tilley.  Brad is very excited to show us what he has done so I quickly enter and what do I see.....all the walls, the ceiling, everywhere is covered in vinyl with a pattern of hamburgers, hotdogs and french fries.  ACK !!   I said something in the dream like "what the...we wanted a gentlemen's club" and Brad says "I thought you meant like a sports bar".

(insert deep breath here)

I know Brad won't do this.  He's a smart and talented person. But if I see even one hamburger anywhere near the trailer when we get there I may just turn and run.

My Precious

Vesta Tilley (we have been calling her Tilley - quicker/nickname) has now been out at the guru's place in the country for one week.  He has not only torn out all the peeling vinyl, but also all the strange bubble wrap as well.  Thank goodness for his thoroughness - he found leaks.  Lucky for us it has been raining here recently and he found exactly where they are....and he is going to fix them for us.  He is a man of many talents.  We love him!

While Tilley has been in his care, we went to a place of great evil.  A place of great temptation.  A place of many many pretties..... Lee Valley Tools.  http://www.leevalley.com/   We are very lucky that we live in the same town as the main and original store and yet unlucky because we are not millionaires and able to buy everything that they sell...oh well...one can dream.

Tilley originally came with wooden knobs on every cupboard and drawer door. Blah!  It's not that we don't adore wood, but for knobs there are so many fantastic options.  We picked up some new ones that reflect our style a little better.

Luckily for us we were buying with a generous gift card we received at Christmas, and had been saving knowing that we were going to buy a trailer this year and that we would be doing a steampunk interior.  After picking our lovely handles and knobs we also found two 'necessities' that will be added when the interior is finished.

 
Although we made a very good dent in our gift card, we still have a little for future pretties.  There was an old style barometer and a wonderful small clock that need a good home....