Glamping with Boys: Home Depot

Showing posts with label Home Depot. Show all posts

Countertops

We were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Only a few more projects left on the list, and we would be done--and we were only 2 days in at this point! Check Check Check!

When we brought the popup home, and my mind started researching and blogging, and finding really cute campers, one thing I was seeing over and over again was everyone had been using the Rust-oleum Countertop Transformation Kits. It seemed like a super easy process, and made a HUGE impact on the look of the PUPs. Our counter tops were in excellent condition...they were just grey. Simple. But a transformation would make them POP!

I went to Home Depot, with the hopes of finding exactly what I was looking for; no such luck. So I had to jump online and SEARCH for a box. These boxes aren't cheap. And as Adam said "We don't need new counter tops. These are fine. NOT spending $150 on a kit." Ugh. Hate it when he says crap like that! LOL! So I was determined to find a clearance box SOMEWHERE. Insert: Ebay. Go figure! I found a box, in the color we wanted, for $75. SCORE! And it's Ebay, so if the seller doesn't send it, I get my money back. DOUBLE SCORE!

While I waited on said box to ship, I watched this video, over and over and over!

And to my surprise, the box showed up 2 days early!!! Everything else in the camper was complete, and we didn't even have to wait to do the next step!

But before we could work on the counter tops, we needed to cut a few new pieces for the popup.

Our kitchen table was warped. It was like that when we bought it. A little bit of water had apparently caused the edge to swell. So Adam said he could cut a new piece, no problem.

In addition to the table, the counter top around the kitchen sink had experienced the same issue: water had caused swelling along the edge. It was slight, but knowing that we have boys, and they wash their hands and water splashes, we needed to replace that piece of counter top with real wood.

Handy Hubby to the rescue! He can build anything. Give him a saw, a tape measure, and a piece of wood, and we have a new table and counter top. Bam!

Once cut, we were ready to start the restoration. We've used the cabinet restoration, and this seemed just as simple. Follow the steps EXACTLY!

I had gone to Home Depot earlier in the day and bought all of the supplies that are on the list in the box. It was late after baseball practice, but we needed to get the first coat of adhesive down so it could cure for 12 hours. Jackson helped, while Everson slept! (that would be Everson in the camo shirt under the covers. Sweet boy....

Note: we took him inside BEFORE we started anything with paint and sanding.

Don't worry!

Our first step was to cover all of our awesome new floors and tape tape tape the cabinets.

Next, we grabbed the iPad and watched the video YET AGAIN! Just to make sure we didn't miss anything.

(yikes. late night. not pretty. But we were on a mission!)

We followed the directions exactly and after applying the adhesive paint, we did the fun part: adding the chips! And then, we went to sleep while the paint dried.

The next morning, we had a few places that we needed to reapply. And after another of baseball, the counter tops were ready to be sanded and final layer of "paint" applied. So simple, and yet such a HUGE impact in our camper! And once it was all dry, and ready to go, I spent 3 hours vacuuming up all those extra chips and dust. ugh!! What a mess! LOL!

Stay tuned!

New Fancy Floors

The best part of the camper. The pinnacle of our decorating. The piece that pulled it all together: the floors.

Again, nothing wrong with the original. Just a little yellowed. But, they were the typical 1990s vinyl flooring.

White. Dingy. Boring. Vanilla.

We knew we wanted wood-looking floors. I wanted something rustic. Adam wanted something hand-scraped. His original thought was to use the extra pieces from our house (we have two boxes from when we did the new floors in the house!), but those floors have two things wrong.

Heavy
Not waterproof

Researched and again, found my friend at The Popup Princess had done their floors, and we really liked em! So we knew that yes, our idea COULD be done! Just had to find the right floors.

I took a trip to Floor&Decor, where I found a tiny selection of vinyl hardwood...and not the locking system kind. The kind that you had to glue down. And for the price, I couldn't justify buying anything extra, adding another step to the process, etc. Again, it's a camper. We have a budget. (FYI: I hate that word. Budget. LOL!)

Adam and I headed to Home Depot to continue looking for what we wanted. Guess what? I found it!! Guess what? It wasn't cheap! HA! Fact: it was the most expense part of our entire renovation. But, we loved em. Had to have em. Simple interlock system. No saw needed, just cut with a box cutter. Really?! SOLD!

We went with the Allure Ultra in Vintage Oak Cinnamon. $58/box. And we ended up needing 2.2 boxes. In the planning/list making process, Adam's plan was to remove all cabinets, label, lay the flooring throughout the entire camper, and re-install the cabinets. Our concern: what if the cabinets do no fit back in properly? Again, nothing wrong with the camper--nothing pulling up, everything was solid inside. And because these are a simple click n lock system, we can always remove them later on with no damage. So we took the easy way out and he just measured, cut, and fit the pieces in like a puzzle. HA! And listen when I say "easy". THIS is where you need a Handy Husband. This was a tedious job. Lots of measuring. Cutting a tiny cut. Measuring again. Saying a few swear words. Cutting again. Did you know that NOTHING in a 2000 Coleman Timberlake popup is straight? Or square? Or level? True statement.

The floors look amazing. In the end, we added quarter-round to give the floors a polished look, and like the kitchen at our house, we painted them to blend in with the cabinets.

Once Adam had every teeny tiny piece of quarter round cut, nailed in, he caulked around the entire camper with that Summertime caulk I mentioned in an earlier post!

Floors, complete!!!

Cabinets

Step #1 to renovating a popup camper: have a handy husband. Eventually, I have a goal of learning how to use a saw and drill and power tools, but until that happens, I'm thankful for a Handy Husband who supports my crazy ideas (case in point: renovating a camper).

Adam and I have always been do-it-yourself-ers. If there is something we can build, renovate, paint, tile, etc and save money, we do it. Unfortunately, we don't have as much time as we used to (our oldest plays select baseball year-round and to say we are a dedicated baseball family is an understatement!)

So although our list for renovating seemed LONG, we knew it was do-able. And frankly, we knew we could accomplish it quickly, if we had enough uninterrupted hours.

Just so happened that I turned 33 this year. Yup. I hate it. But it happened. And Adam made the day easy for me by surprising me by taking the day off work!! He had planned on taking me to lunch and shopping and a movie....but given the choice, I was anxious to get check marks on our popup renovation list!! An entire Tuesday to just work on our new PUP (slang for popup). Got the kids off to school, put on our painting clothes, called the Home Owner's Association (that's another story, and a blog post for another day), texted the neighbors to apologize for the monstrosity that would be in the driveway for a few days, and got busy prepping for the day!

Up first: priming the cabinets.

We removed hardware from all of the cabinets, the electrical outlets, the heater grill, the fire extinguisher, etc. Labeled red-solo cups (lol, it's all we had on hand) so that everything could go back to where it came from.

After doing some research, and knowing that our camper has particle board "cabinets", they are not waterproof. Most of the websites I found said to use oil-based primer to avoid swelling of the boards. I used Kiltz from Home Depot $8.99 a quart--and a quart was all we needed!

Opened up all the vinyl windows and went to work. If we had to do it all over again, I would have made SURE that we completely coated the entire surface evenly. Not that we were in a hurry, we just knew that we had only a certain number of hours and we didn't want to waste it watching paint dry.

But do not think for one second that we sat around watching paint dry. Oh no. We are multi-taskers! In the meantime, we chalk painted the door, measured and made cuts for flooring, and measured for a new table. Remember the list? Check Check Check....

Once done priming, we moved on to painting. When I was working on the Dinette Cushions at my mom's, noticed how our cushions matched her paint color upstairs. Hmmmm.

I wanted antique white cabinets.
I wanted paint that matched the cushions

Match made in heaven! The color is called Summertime by Monarch. They have a caulk that matches as well--which comes in to play later when we finish the floors. You'll see.