Tag Archives: trailer renos

trailer drainage!

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THIS is an exciting blog post (at least for me it is)!  Last weekend my always-so-helpful parents came out to the farm to help build me a grey water drainage system for the trailer.  For the last two months, I’ve been emptying my grey water tank (sink and shower water) manually (with a bucket) every day or two (depending on how many dishes I washed).  It was not fun.  It was, in fact, quite stinky, splashy and downright inconvenient (especially in the rain).

And so, it is with MUCH fanfare (at least in the form of a blog post) that I give a huge shout-out of thanks to m
y parents because trailer life has become so much lovlier now that I have a drainage system.

What we did:

After some conferring with Chris and Julie, we decided that it made sense to direct my rain water towards the empty side pasture (which is where I’d been manually dumping the grey water).  This seemed simple enough because it meant we only had to dig about 20 feet of drainage ditch space to lay the drainage pipes – and the land naturally declined in that direction. 

However, I’m learning that nothing is ever as simple as it first appears (on a farm).  My mom started digging out the ditch while my dad and I drove to the local hardware shop for some pipes and supplies.  When we got back, she delivered the bad news: she’d hit concrete.  Yes, lying just below the surface of the gravelly space we were digging across lay a big, sloppy, confusing slab of concrete.

Hmmm…it could have been much more problematic for us than it was, but luckily the concrete didn’t go on forever and we were able to redirect the ditch and pipes around the buried concrete barrier.  There was concern that, given the ‘bump’ in the plans, the drainage wouldn’t get completed that day (which, given that I’d already internally celebrated never having to manually empty the grey water tank again was super disheartening), but it turns out my mom is a super gravel digger and, with some late-in-the-game help from Julie and Chris (with Jordan and Kai looking on), we got the ditch dug, the pipes laid, and my drainage complete.  YAY!

Thanks mom and dad.  I love my new drainage system! 

(Ohhh…life in a trailer on a farm – celebrating things like grey water drainage systems…)

making the motor home *almost* ready

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So, my labour day weekend was spent doing a lot of work on the motor home as well as some really fun farming stuff (but you’ll hear about that later this week).  And thank the Good Lord above that I have such a supportive family because there’s no way I would have gotten everything done without them.  I was feeling pretty stressed late last week about getting everything ready so that I can move into the motor home this wednesday when Chris and Julie get home.  The biggest stress factor was related to the toilet, but when I admitted that it just wouldn’t be done in time, I relaxed a lot.  I’ll still move into the motor home – just making trips to the house for bathroom breaks once in awhile :)


So, in point form, this is how my family and I spent the last few days:

  • dad removed the tile in the bathroom so we could access the hidden black water tank;
  • turns out the tank has two big, jagged holes in the top of it and a leaky valve;
  • I considered alternatives: portable toilets (no thank you) or composting toilets (super cool, but the space is too small), so looks like we’ll be replacing the black water tank and then putting in the toilet;
  • dad picked up a table stand for the beach seating area (he’s making a table top for it this week);
  • dad tidied up ‘unfinished’ areas, including putting wood panels below the fridge (previously stuffed with previous owner’s socks), added finished wood around the heater as well as a screen that covers it up while letting the heat out;
  • I picked up insurance and license plates for the truck;
  • I did an IKEA and Home Depot run;
  • I packed up most of my clothes and remaining belongings and found homes for them in the motor home;
  • I installed blind on the kitchen window;
  • Steph helped me clean Chris and Julie’s place from top to bottom (superwoman cleaner!);
  • mom finished all the remaining curtains;
  • mom made a tailor-sized bed sheet for my extra long sleeping area;
  • dad re-routed the electricity cables & water hose up along the rafter line of the pole barn to keep them off the ground and out of people’s way;
  • dad put up wall panels in the bathroom where the wall and wires were exposed (had previously been hidden by the sink that was in there);
  • I cleared the rest of my stuff out of Chris and Julie’s garage and found homes for it in the motor home;
  • ummm…I’m tired and I can’t remember any more right now….other than the seriously cool farm-related activities that took place, but I can’t tell you about it yet because it’s a surprise for Chris and Julie!

I’m sure there was more, but for now it’s 10:43pm after a long, long weekend of errands, manual labour, toilet strategizing, etc.  We got pretty soaked today because we were doing half of this stuff in the rain, which is why there are no photos of today’s activities (other than the trailer delivery ones that are two blog posts earlier).

Okay, I feel like I’m rambling.  Time for bed.  Motor home move-in in T-minus 2 days!  So glad most of the motor home stuff is done!

surrey new & used

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So, my dad and I paid a visit to Surrey New & Used a few days ago to look for stuff we could use in the motorhome renovations and OH GOOD GOLLY why have I never been to that place before?!  It’s SO rad!  There are TONS of used items there – lots of bathtubs, sinks, toilets, cabinets, doors, windows, etc, but also super fun finds like cool tiles, old beer trays, stained glass windows, glass doorknobs… I could have spent hours there! 

We didn’t end up getting anything on that visit (we were looking for a slim, small glass door we could use as a sliding panel for the bathroom in the motorhome that is currently door-less, but no luck), but my dad had picked up a few things there earlier in the week that we have been able to use.

I took a lot of quick photos on my iPhone while we there, but it would be a fun place to go spend some more serious photo time in.  If you haven’t been and you live in the area, I totally recommend it. Serious junk yard heaven.