Friends Really Are The Best

Last night my friend Brittney asked if we wanted to go to a Seether concert at the state fair this summer with her and her boyfriend. Nathan likes Seether so I knew he would be all for it. I had asked Brittney if we are going to stay in a hotel or what the plans were. Her response? "Probably just tenting" Tenting in the North Dakota humid is anything but fun if you ask me. I figured that would be the time to tell her my crazy plans of renovating this camper. Did she think I was crazy? A little bit at first, but once I showed her all the ideas I had I think she was getting almost as excited as I was! We are a lot alike. We both enjoy sewing, food, and just having fun so I knew she would help out. Today, Brittney and I stopped by a local antique store and the ideas just started flowing. The lady who owns it is very nice. I'm making cheese graters, colanders, and funnels into light fixtures. I had found them all besides the funnel and she told me that the next time she was out looking she would try and find more funnels! Brittney had dance at 5 so it was a short trip. Today I forgot my purse (blessing in disguise) so we are heading back Friday to buy all the good things we found! 

Is This The One?

To give you an update on the camper Casey had found for us the guy had already given it away before the time we had a chance to even go look at it. It just wasn't meant to be. Last night while Nathan was working late I was on our local classified site looking for campers like I always do in my spare time. I had come across this one that was only $500. The inside and the outside had looked fairly decent but there was no information in the description box. I had taken it upon myself without telling Nathan and contacted the guy. Being so cheap i wasn't really sure what to expect, but I was fairly surprised by the information he had given me about the camper. It had been sitting for about 10 years, BUT everything including water and electric worked, there is no mice, and no soft spots in the floor. The catch? It had some water damage in the ceiling, but it didn't appear to be as bad as I thought it would be. I was researching and it didn't seem all that expensive to fix but kind of time consuming. I have been bugging Nathan about it and I think he's going to give in. I mean it's fairly cheap and that means we have that extra wiggle room in the money department for more updates. I'm really excited about this one! Hopefully this is the one. 

Having To Get Orgnized

Neither I, nor Nathan are very organized people. Well, I guess I'm pretty organized except when it comes to my clothes. And Nathan is for the most part organized in the sense that everything has to be planned out, literally everything. He's always getting on my case about how much everything is going to cost and how long it's going to take. I had seen something on Pinterest where these people renovated their house and they budgeted for all the work and kept receipts/paperwork for the renovations that were done. They ended up saving money by keeping track of how much they spent because they weren't buying unnecessary things that they didn't need. Once they were done renovating and started to camp they put important contacts, reviews of where they had stayed, and other maitenence types of things. I have bought everything I need to get this binder started. But the hard part is putting it all together. But we don't have a camper yet, so I guess I'm in no big hurry. 

Bigger Is Not Always Better.

For awhile, Nathan and I didn't know how big we wanted the camper. I wanted something along the lines of about 18 feet and to include a bathroom. He thought a 14 foot we be just the perfect size because after all, this was our first time renovating anything. It took me awhile to come to realization that smaller would be better even though it meant sacrificing that precious bathroom we would probably never use. Purchasing a smaller camper would in turn, be a better investment. Smaller means lighter load, cheaper, and being outside instead of inside.

Lighter Load: Trailers can get pretty heavy and the lighter the load on Nathans precious truck the better. (He treats it like a baby) The lighter camper will also save on gas, and easier to get from point A to point B without feeling like you're driving a semi.

Cost: We went to Menards the other night to check out flooring and some other necessary things, and holy cow are things getting expensive. My advice would be to wait to buy things until a week before or even the day before and to only buy a little bit at a time. There's no point in buying flooring right away when it won't get installed for another 2-3 months or buying paint 2 weeks before you paint.

More Time Outdoors: The whole point of going camping is to be outside right? Have you ever been to a camp ground and there's that really nice giant RV, but you almost never see the people go outside? Chances are that they have cable, air conditioning, and are probably watching a movie or taking a nap. Don't get a huge camper and try and make it just like your home with all that electronic stuff. Camping is suppose to get you to get away from all the necessities of a home and be more earthy.

While we have yet to find the camper for us, we know it's out there. July is coming quick but we are confident that we can get it done.

Are We Crazy?

Ever summer my boyfriend Nathan and his family go to Spearfish and camp for about a week. Two summers ago was my very first time being there. About 20 days prior to going Nathan had broken his femur in a motocross accident. So we didn't do a whole lot besides sit in the camper and take naps because his medication made him very tired. But, the times we did go out and explored I had instantly fallen in love with both Spearfish and traveling. I realized that there's so much more out there than our tiny booming town of Dickinson, ND. Nathan had a little motorized moped to get around the town on and by accident we found this amazing burrito shop, and I think we are there twice that day. I never wanted to leave, and couldn't wait to come back. Last summer when we were there, there were this cute vintage campers that were renovated on the inside. I thought to myself that I have to get my own little camper and renovate it. I kept telling Nathan and I think he thought I was crazy. The whole week we were there I was looking up campers and how to renovate them. Pinterest basically became my life that week aside from tubing, going to arts in the park, and of course, eating to many burritos. When we came home and talking about it with Nathan he made a good point and said that we should wait until next year because summer is nearly over and by the time we were done renovating it, it would be the middle of the winter. So I guess I had to wait. For the past year I had been pinning things to my "GLAMPER" board on Pinterest. About two or so months ago I really got in Nathan's ear about doing this camper because it was my dream and in just 4 short months we would be once again in Spearfish. He agreed we could do it. The hard part? Finding a cheap and in semi good shape camper. It's April 2nd and we still have yet to find a good camper. Nathan's friend Casey knows a guy who would sell us a cute little 14 foot camper but we haven't heard back from Casey yet. But I think Nathan is just procrastinating. Let's hope this is the one because I am more than ready to get this camper renovated and ready before the end of July.