Annie Lee the Argosy Update No. 031

 The Outside:

Because this is where everyone can see the most work, immediately.

[And this is a LONG post, y'all.

So, buckle up buttercup...]

 

Y'all know we've had our #annieleetheargosy for over 18 months now... and Craig has done a wonderful job getting ALL of the foundation work done [ a story for another time ] and also working / facilitating the beauty and integrity of the outside as well...

I'm support personnel and mainly in charge of the fun stuff. 

 

 But we can't get to the fun stuff without starting at the beginning...

As a reminder, this is what Annie Lee looked like 

when we first brought her home from South Carolina...

The dark blue with white on top really caught our attention...

You might see the paint / exterior better here...  

  

and can see that it was in pretty rough shape...

 painting was low on our 'to-do' list...

 

but those windows, oh my... 

This was one of the first things Craig tackled... 

using citrus strip [I think] , he was able to get that awful [to us] 

blue off easier than we'd first thought possible...

 He competed all of the windows fairly quickly, consider we worked fullx

and traveled a good bit for fun and work during that time...

He also played around with it a bit to see how easy it might be to 

remove the layers of paint on the camper as well... wow!

He tackled the belly pan next...

Two reasons: it needed to be cleaned out 

 and, more importantly, we needed to be able to

 see the frame / plumbing / foundation

 [again, another story for another time] 

to know exactly what needed to be done there...

YUK.

Craig also replaced / made sure all of our running lights 

were in good working order.

The back bar of lights [I'm not sure what it's called] was cracked and while others have repaired that we just took it off and replaced the back lights with 'new' ones before she was painted.... 

Craig also took the time to reconfigure our electric supply spot 

with this nifty adapter....

 In previous campers we've owned we've always had to push the electric cord into a holding area inside the camper...

 This outlet allows for us to plug in easily and then store the cord in our outside box at the end of our camping trip... which is great if it's a bit dirty from the weekend or wet from rain, etc. 

Speaking of outside storage...

When Craig had the first part of the foundation work completed he added a bit of storage to the front and back of Annie Lee... Above is a before photo of the front...

and this is what it looks like now...

The tanks are gone, because I just don't use gas in our campers, 

and a nice box has been added for storage [mostly the batteries for our solar panels]... 

He also made a space for the spare tire underneath... 

You can see that this area also holds extra wood for leveling [if needed.]

Annie Lee had the storage box on the back when we got her...

We added length to the back [to balance what was added to the front] and we now have an area to put extra bins if / when we camp for the long haul...

And it makes a decent shelf for serving watermelon 

in between showers on a cRaZy rainy day... lol.

Okay! 

On to the paint - 

the most obvious thing people see as we travel about...

And you can see from those swatches behind the door that we had ALL THE COLORS swirling through our heads... We also had the ALL the ideas of how to facilitate this going through our heads as well... lol. 

Many people do a great job painting their campers themselves... 

because a paint job can be [very] pricey y'all.

So we bounced around the idea of doing it ourselves... and what type of paint we'd use...

what color, the prep, the priming, the painting, etc. , etc. ETC.

But we didn't have the place to facilitate this... or the time to commit to it...

[or the inclination to do it. ha]

So Craig 'found a guy' [something he is VERY GOOD at doing] who does this for a living [paints /repairs motor homes / campers] and he was willing to give it a go.

Painting an Argosy can be a bit more difficult because each little rivet holding it all together has to be carefully stripped / sanded, sometimes separately...

It's A LOT OF WORK

and they did such a great job!

Since we [and maybe, I just mean "I",] had such a difficult time deciding on a color combo,

 we actually drove through car lots until we found something we loved...

 

In the end, we went with honda pilot colors: lunar silver and steel sapphire...

We wanted the top to give a nod to the airstream heritage and WE LOVE how that sapphire blue changes colors in the sunlight!

She stayed at the 'beauty shop' a few weeks longer than expected 

[those rivets, y'all] and yes, it was a splurge to have someone else do the work...

but, omgoodness, we were happy to see her painted.

 

We love it.

And believe her paint job will probably outlast us...lol...

So with the outside prettied up it was time for me to step up the outside decor game...

 

We camped at several events during October... and for the most part, 

I like for my 'set-up' / decor scheme to be pretty clean and simple 

[although you'll see that I sometimes get side-tracked a bit] ...

So I added just a little bit of 'fall' outside our door...

just a little vine with leaves, berries, and pumpkins...

[purchased on-sale at Hobby Lobby.] 

While we were camping down at The Gulf, I also covered the inside of the door with some leftover wall paper [from the bed area] and I enjoy this pop of color so, so much!!

 

I used the closed camp kitchen as a table to display some decor near our pop-up screen room, including our pumpkins with wonky stars...

Then, HELLO, I went a bit over-the-top [for me!] 

with the Halloween decorations we took along to a couple of trips...

I do love Halloween!

 

But it kinda, sorta, quickly became too much for me...

[Not sure what Halloween with Annie Lee will look like in 2021, 

but it will definitely be less...]

Two things: 

The pumpkin totem was never meant to be carried over 

[we left it at a campground] after it's 2nd trip..] 

and ALL THE STUFF was a very nice protection of lights when we felt like our tongue was practically setting on the curve of a road at Tim's Ford...

so there's that. lol

 

I want Annie Lee to be nice and inviting... 

and THIS just wasn't getting it for me...

 I kept thinking of the cute set-up we had for #lottiescotty

and knew I wanted to have something sweet for #AnnieLeetheArgosy too.

But!

It must not be 'too much' and it's gotta be easy to carry with us!

So.

Hello - 

Craig is SO WONDERFUL to make my dreams come true.

Seriously. 

He built this step after looking at my inspiration picture* [below] 

and I can't put into words how much I love how it looks - 

and how sturdy it is to use! 

 

I re-purposed a rug to say "hello" [more on that in an upcoming post] and added a mid-century table [Hobby Lobby, on sale], birdhouses from home decor in the attic, and finished it off with a pot of dahlias that will go in the yard after a couple of camping trips...

We had already re-painted the chairs we used with Lottie...

 

OH. AND CRAIG AND FRIENDS PUT THE AWNING ON

during our most recent camping trip.

[A working vacay, I say.

and it makes me ~ surprisingly ~ SO HAPPY.]

I'm so glad we had the forethought [back in 2019] to purchase enough rugs [thank you Ollies] to cover the length and width of the awning area... and I'm just so pleased that there is enough room for our table and four chairs underneath...

 

LOVE that our awning allows us to put the bar / post out front, off the camper.

That little rolly cart to the left has replaced our camp kitchen...

I rarely cook outside these days... but still wanted an extra table - it folds up easily and is light weight enough to move around with no problem [from Amazon.]

* Here's my inspiration photo...

We'd seen a step similar to this at an event we'd been to back in 2018...

You can see that this wide step [and table] 

will easily adapt to decor for all seasons....

What can we say?

We've camped the entire time we've been together 

and we're sure enjoying our #AnnieLeetheArgosy ! 

Thanks for joining us on the journey -

[Click on that, or the tag to the right, to learn more about her .]