A long time ago...

I have wanted to do this post for a long time.  If nothing else, I want to archive our story for the future and for the girls.  Almost 5 years ago, Tim and I made a major lifestyle change.  I felt God was telling us we needed to get rid of our rent in order to get some things in order and save money.  The solution to this was purchasing a 1982 31 foot travel trailer and put it on Tim's grandparents' property in Loomis.  Thirty one feet long by nine feet wide.  Three hundred square feet of living space.  I know people with master bedrooms bigger than that.  Finding a trailer was pretty easy but this trailer was in HORRIBLE shape on the inside.  The bones were good though, and no leaks...so we could see potential.  A  good thing was the guy we bought it from left two large boxes of chapter books in the back- SCORE!  I was teaching 4th grade at the time and they were perfect for my classroom.  This didn't make up for the fact that he had back registration fees we ended up having to pay to the DMV...jerk.  Besides being a jerk, he was a pig.  We spent several days gutting the thing.  First came cleaning everything out...including the family of mice living under the bathroom sink!  Next was cutting out a wall in the back to make one space for a bedroom.  It started out with 3 bunk beds and a full size platform bed.  We tore out an upper bunk over the platform as well as a half wall to create our room.  The remaining bunks served as storage and a living area for our two cats (since this lifestyle change included our cats and 90 pound lab!) Then came buying a new bathtub, building a corner bench/couch, and installing carpet and linolium (we found remnant linolium that looked like hardwood floor!).  Finally, I was able to re-cover the dining room bench pads and decorate. 

We lived in the trailer for 9 months.  There were moments of frustration, and many more moments of laughter and fun.  We have stories from these months we will remember forever.  We each celebrated a birthday and we also celebrated our first anniversary.  So here are pictures from our trailer adventure...these have been seen by very few eyes until now!

BEFORE

 Looking down from the front to the back...kitchen on the left with horrible 80s wallpaper we painted over.

 The "couch"

The "dining area" and a bunch of junk mid-clean!

AFTER

 The couch/bench we had Tony build.  There was a cool ledge all around it for lamps, pictures, candles, etc.

 The "dining area" The benches had storage under them for our large appliances!  The storage above held food/dishes/etc

 A view from the middle of the trailer.  The couch was L-shape and the "skirt" was an old bedskirt I used a staple gun to attach!  We hung a shelf and curtains.  The cupboards above the couch were perfect for movies and games.

 Looking at the "great room" :)  Kitchen on the right with stove, oven, and sink and counter...new flooring...

 My little curtain above the sink.  We had the most beautiful view every morning along with birds chirping.

 Teeny tiny bathroom.  We used an Ikea lamp that plugged in!  We had a teeny toilet, teeny sink, and teeny tub!

Our room.  We separated the bedroom from the rest of the trailer with a curtain for a little privacy.  Our bed was next to a window overlooking the field. 

Highlights of our time in the trailer:
-Living on 5 acres in beautiful Loomis.
-Paying off several bills
-Learning to live with less, and in turn, appreciate the 1100 sq ft we live in now (and especially our dishwasher!)
-Getting to be in such close proximity at all times to my best friend aka my husband :)
-We did a lot of housesitting which gave us lots of time in a "real" house.

Lowlights:
-There were some very cold nights, and the little space heater didn't always help. 
-There were some very HOT days, and even with A/C (yes we had it!) it couldn't keep up.
-Laundry- Tim's grandparents were nice enough to let us use theirs in the house.
-No dishwasher
-An oven with awkward temps...we burned many cookies :(

God gave us many lessons on humility.  Here are some funny stories:
~One day in May it was VERY hot when I came home from work.  My grandfather had called and I was telling him how hot it was and the A/C wasn't helping.  He told me to get my sprinkler and throw it on the roof and turn it on.  I did what he said and when Tim got home the big long trailer looked like it was a whale with a spout!  But it worked!

~My best description of taking a bath in the trailer?  It's like taking a bath in a bucket! 

~We went to Pam and Bob's wedding and were staying with Nicholas and Amanda after for a couple days.  We needed to get some stuff and went by the trailer after the wedding.  Amanda asked where Tim went and I told her he was in our house and pointed to the trailer...she said "That's not a house...that's a shoebox!"

~One of the joys of staying in a trailer is having to empty the "waste".  We had a special box on wheels designed for this joyous task (a task that was reserved for Tim only!) and he would have to fill it, roll it to the other side of the property to empty it in the sewer (his grandparents had one put in for their motorhome)  Well the box-thing is blue so you couldn't see when it was full and one day when he was filling it, it overflowed and the "waste" was spilling out all over the place!  Needless to say after that day we looked up a company and paid for it to be done!

We are thankful for the time we spent here...however, we are even more thankful for our house we now call home and have for the last 4+ years!