More great finds at the ReStore!

So the ReStore is a Habitat for Humanity store where people donate things like building materials and furniture to them so they can sell the stuff for the charity.

The place always has different items and sometimes it's a hit and sometimes a miss. I found the pink tile for the bathroom there last week and have been thinking about the other tiles they have and the sale at .25 per tile and kept saying to my self.."hmm .66 for the exact tile I want or .25 for something pretty close" So. while I was out doing my usual real estate work I decided to stop over there today. I went digging through the skids of tile and was looking for colors I could use in the Spartan. I was a bit sad to see the rest off the pink tiles gone except for one lonely piece.

I found a green tile that I think is pretty close to the green in my sample picture and picked up two unopened cases. I found a tan color that is not quite the yellow tan but I think it will do and was able to find two cases of tile loose. I figured the red they had was just not quite right with a speckle of blue in the mix. So off to the cashier I went. On the way to the cashier I found two mid century end tables tucked away under a large dining room table. Will they fit in my car? Let's see if these legs come off. Yup! Good deal, only five bucks each! Total cost with the four cases of tile $62.00

I was loading the car and kept telling myself, those red tiles aren't that bad who is going to notice the little specs of blue in them? After all it's only a accent tile. So back into the store I go to pick through the stack to find fifty unbroken tiles. Total 12 bucks and some change.

The picture to the left is the tile laid out in the pattern on my garage floor. I'm not sold on the tan, I may have to get a yellowish tan instead.

With the potential cost of renovation being the sky's the limit every little bit I can save will bring this project closer to completion.

Some design ideas for the Spartan

I wanted to redo the floor with a old style tile, not a laminate, wood or any modern tile. The best thing I could find was the Armstrong VCT tile you see on the floors of most stores and commercial buildings. The options with these tiles are limitless.

I searched the web for designs knowing the standard checkerboard pattern in most redo's is does not have much of a wow factor. I finally found the design I am going to use throughout the main area and kitchen. The great thing about these tiles is they are only .66 per foot and come in a zillion colors. I will special order them when I get the camper closer to done in the same colors in this picture.

Furniture will be a on going search. The back bedroom originally had one bed. I think my best option will be to furnish it for maximum capacity. I think I will use two beds in the bedroom that can be pushed together if needed to one large bed. For the living room I think I will use two fold down couches opposite each other. I found a great looking mid century fold down at Value City Furniture but it only comes in off white, probably not a good idea when we usually are filthy from riding ATV's all day. So I think I will be stuck with the dark brown couch which is half the price.

< $489.00 or $199.00>

This Spartan did not come with a seating booth originally. I think I will make one that folds down to a bed for a total sleeping capacity of 8.
I was very lucky to find a cool tile for the bathroom in the Spartan. The bath is in sad shape. The walls in the bath are pink and original. The sink and vanity are also original and the sink has a rusted out bottom I hope to fix or replace. The original pink toilet will need to come out since I don't have a septic on the land and the Spartan doesn't have a holding tank. I bought a portable toilet that can be used and emptied at the end of each trip. The floor in the bath is very soft and I will be replacing it at a later date.
Pink tile found at the ReStore in Elgin IL. for .25 each.

Bringing pieces home

Well I decided since there is allot of work to do and doing all of it in Wisconsin is not feasible I should take work home with me to do in my "spare" time. I started with taking off the kitchen cabinet doors, the drawers in the kitchen and the cabinets in the hall next to the fridge. There are at least two layers of paint on these cabinets with a layer of shellac and a blond wood finish under that.

The smell of these doors is awful, yes I know I keep mentioning the smell but you must understand if this was a smellovision computer you would turn it off and never come back here!

I also took home the dangling light fixture that was hanging from the wall by the wiring. The mouse poop on it had to come off but unfortunately it also took off the brass type finish. What do you think? Should I keep it this way?

So I decided to strip some of the cabinets. I used the spray type cans of stripper from Menards and tried a can from Walmart. Both worked ok but the over spray was brutal. So I decided after the two cans ran out, on just four doors, to go with a large can of paste type stripper from Menards. The paste was the 5 layer at a time stuff that was the strongest available. It seemed to do a good job, at least better then the spray cans did, taking off the paint and shellac. This stripping left some of the blond wood stuff still on the doors. I'm not a fan of blond wood at all so it had to go. I used a 50-50 mix of lacquer thinner and denatured alcohol solvent and a fine steel wool pad to scrub it off. You must go with the grain and NEVER against it or it will leave marks! (Experience speaking here)

I decided the wood would be too light if I did not find a stain so I decided to check out HD and see what they had. Well they don't sell samples so from the little pieces of wood on display I tried to pick out a stain. I took home a small can of $4.99 stain and it looked like crap. I went back and bought a darker shad and it too looked like crap. So I headed over to Menards and found they actually had mini samples for .25! Wow! I grabbed handfuls of colors that I thought might work and decided for a quarter I couldn't go wrong.



My sample board...the one I chose was the traditional pecan which is on the far right.


I also decided to go with a high gloss finish of Hellsman Spar urethane.





After stripping a coat of stain and a coat of poly...














After two coats of poly, cleaned up original knobs and new hinges...

Running up there for a day.

Well I decided since I can't make it up there for days at a time right now I would just get up there for the day. The leaking roof and the buckets catching the rain is giving me nightmares. I cant help but think when I get there I will open the door and a tilde wave of water will rush out the door at me.

Well there was no tildal wave and barely anything in the catch buckets inside the camper. Time to open her up and play detective with these leaks.

First the roof. It's pretty easy since the entire roof is aluminum and it is riveted together. The main leak was coming from the long sealed roof vent. I was hoping to restore this vent since it is nice to have a place for all the hot air to escape. Upon further review...the roof vent lid is shot. The vents on these old campers are not the standard 14x14 vents on today's campers. These are no longer made. Some genius decided to hammer the crap out of it and pop rivet it to the roof. They then proceeded to tar and feather it unit it was a mound of silver and black gunk.


With a little elbow grease a hammer and a chisel I was able to remove all the gunk, and the pop rivets holding the lid down. I don't think it would seal if I do not reseal the entire cover and make it non-operational.

I decided to seal the vent, the crack and the seams in the roof while I was up there. Since it's not the first time the roof was sealed I decided it wouldn't hurt anything.

Now onto finding that pesky window leak..The rain channel above the window is cut and there is a piece of wire between the channel and the camper. Not sure what this would be for but it appears to be steel wire. For those who know aluminum steel and aluminum react to each other and cause aluminum to corrode. I removed the wire and hmmm....two holes right where the wire was touching. Time to seal those up!

Checking back..the leaks appear sealed. I will seal around the windows with a sealant when I remove the birch paneling and insulation around the windows when I start putting her back together.

I decided I should try to take down the interior panel around the vent to make sure I did not see any light coming in and to remove any moisture that has been collecting there over the years. A couple screws later and wham! Down comes the panel!

After the panel comes down the insulation was mostly intact but I dont think it is very clean or dry. I decided to pull it down in the area of the roof vent. I can see the insulation was a nesting area over the years for mice and I am assuming the rest of the place will need new insulation also. One of the things that attracted me to this Spartan was the original light fixtures. They are all Mid-Century modern and are beautiful!

Time to start the refurb!

It is difficult to describe the odor inside of this camper. I am hoping the removal of the carpet and cleaning it out will remove most of the smell.

I pulled the carpet and found the floor is a little worse then I suspected. There are a few spots that you could literally fall through. The floor pan underneath is all there so this should help with the condition of the frame.

Since it was raining when she arrived it gave me a chance to discover any visible leaks. The roof vent was leaking fairly good. as well as one of the windows toward the front door. There is another hole in the wood behind the vent where it appears a branch fell on her and caused a crack in the roof. This one is leaking a little.

I forgot my extension cord to hook her up to the electric so I decided to go to town and buy a new one. Dino decided to stay back and work on the Spartan interior a bit.

I arrived back with a big yellow extension cord and Dino had tore out all the press board paneling that someone had paneled the living room with. I guess painting it was not enough so they decided to add another layer of beauty!

Dino was now busy cleaning the original Frigidaire and doing a hell of a job! It gives me hope that the rest of her will clean up just as well.

Well the worse leak appears to be one by the window near the front door. The old birch is rotted away and someone used a large cutting wheel as a makeshift floor patch. I can see between the inner window and outer windows water collecting and leaking down the wall. Where o where is it coming from? Well that will be for a later date, I'm exhausted, dirty and I smell like this 54 year old girl.

Taking delivery!

I was lucky enough to find a guy who was reasonably priced to deliver my Spartan to it's new home in Adams-Friendship Wisconsin. He arrived late picking it up and me and my friend Dino had a nice long wait with Kirk waiting for him to arrive. I guess the two hour wait was worth it with the amount of money I saved!

When the driver arrived he decided to test the 60 year old lights to see if they worked. He cut the old connector and added new wire. All the lights worked!! We were amazed!

Now for the 190 mile trip on original tires to it's new home. With rain in the forecast I decided we would not follow him we would meet him there. I didn't need the stress of driving behind her all the way. So I set the GPS for the "shortest" route (big mistake) and we went on our merry way.

The very long winding road trip was not too bad since I had a chance to talk with Dino and he seemed to enjoy the ride or at least not complain about the 4 hours it took to get to the land.

The camper arrived a hour or so after we arrived and it was raining pretty good. We had to cut a few branches to get her in place but overall it went quick. She is now in her new and "permanent" place.

Finding my Spartan

I always wanted a birchwood camper trailer and mostly put it out of my mind. Then one day I stumbled upon a Spartan website and fell in love. The Spartan is the finest travel trailer ever built and was the top of the line back in it's day.

I put out ads on craigslist for a Spartan wanted and had no luck. I searched high and low on craigslist and ebay and found a few but most were located on the west coast, and since I am in Chicagoland and the camper would reside in Central Wisconsin the cost of transportation would be cost prohibitive. I found a yahoo group for Spartan Travel Trailers and joined. I figured I had nothing to loose if I posted a message seeking a Spartan in a close proximity to Wisconsin. Almost immediately I received a message from Kirk. He acquired a 1956 Spartan Royal Mansion with a length of 40 ft including the tongue. He posted some pictures of the exterior on the Yahoo site and it looked like it was in good condition. I asked for the interior photos and he said he could not send them until he cleaned it out.

After a few weeks I decided to go take a look at Kirk's Spartan which was located about 2 hours west of Chicago. When I found the "farm" the Spartan was a hulking thing of beauty sitting out behind Kirks ramshackle mix of connected mobile homes. The dull finish and exterior was nearly flawless with the exception of the large dent in the front round corner where Kirks makeshift hauling truck put a large dent in it from a too sharp turn on it's way to his farm. I asked Kirk if I could look inside. He said " Sure but there is allot of junk in there" I had my camera ready to snap as many pictures as I could so I could go home and study them. I opened the door and the interior looked like some of the foreclosed homes I see in my real estate business, full of junk furniture, bottles, a couch, extra fridge, old curtains, and lots and lots of mice poop. I made my way over and around the junk surveying ever inch. Snapping pictures of everything I could see. I spoke to Kirk for a few hours about Spartans and he told me he bought it to scrap for the aluminum, but discovered it was worth more then scrap. I left thinking about the Spartan all the way home.

This Spartan was originally all birch on the interior with a 8x8 floor tile throughout. The previous owner painted the entire trailer a mix of colors that I could only guess was from the "oops" shelf at Home Depot. This particular trailer had the blond wood upgrade. Not that this would be a "upgrade" today. The original price of my Spartan in 1956 was $5775.00 base price. In today's dollars this would be approximately $60,000.00