Demolition Day 1 and 2

10/27/2012

Best word to describe demolition day one is YIKES!  Despite a busy weekend, we had about two hours to do some demolition on the trailer while the kiddos were napping.  We decided to get the carpet and front section out.  Ohhhh my goodness.  Not sure what lived in the dinette seats, but it made a mess with all the nuts and stuffing.  We think we were relatively successful.  The front dinette is out and we were able to get the majority of the carpeting, another two layers of flooring, and the side cabinet out as well.  

As with other projects, there are always surprises.  This weekend we found a wasp nest and bird feathers in the heater vent.  Many holes in the wheel boxes and the floors.  Also a gas line right beside some questionable wiring.  On a good note, we found the original tile (not salvageable, but will help with ideas) and the original rounded curves on the front cabinetry.  Hopefully that is a sign of good to come.

Luckily, we have a free dump day coming up so we can get rid of all of this yucky stuff.  We plan to continue next weekend.

11/3/2012

We continued to remove the interior.  It was more of the same, some super scary and some exciting finds.  We removed the kitchen and the back bed.  In the kitchen we found the original birch frame (painted, but in good shape) that we plan to re-finish.  It was a really exciting find.  We also found some of the original birch panelling in the front cabinet.  Although it cannot be reused, it confirmed our desire to restore Ike with the birch paneling interior.

In the world of scary, the entire back right is rotted, nothing to salvage there.  We also found more yellow jackets.  Luckily it was cold and they were not aggressive.  We need to find the source before spring.  I have a feeling the source will be revealed as we remove the skins.  We also discovered the reason that the rear roof sags... there is nothing holding it up!  The support beam was just floating in the ceiling attached to nothing.  All problems that will be resolved when we put it back together.  

We are at a stopping point until we can remove the skins this spring.  We sealed up the gaping holes and inventoried the salvageable items.  We plan to work on some of the detail stuff this winter so we are ready to re-install.  We are also reading everything we can on the best way to tackle the restoration.  There is much to learn on the world wide web!