Home improvements

So much for a lazy day off.

After a brief bit of bumming around this morning - Dave made potatoes and eggs and then we watched the movie Fair Game - we got ourselves motivated to do some much-needed home improvement.

For months since we got the pop-up trailer (we're forever grateful to Dave's dad Steve for buying it for him) we've been meaning to repair the window screens. For some bizarre reason, the previous owner cut out all but two of the screens on the windows with a box cutter. Meaning suffocating heat when it warms up and no way to keep the bugs out. See:

What a PITA.

I ordered 40 yards of no-see-um screen material online for making your own camping tent. There's no good way of attaching the screen to the window edges - it's not possible to sew or to pin it. My mom suggested we used hot glue and Dave had a hot glue gun so we gave it a shot.

Applying hot glue to a canvas wall it's not easy but there was just enough old screen and stitching that the glue could attach on to. It was a painstakingly slow process with lots of strings of hot glue flying all over. And we just did one window.

But we did it! We'll hold off on the other windows until we see how this one holds out. When the glue dried (quickly in the windy cold), I trimmed the edges.

Afterward, Dave, Boo and I relaxed in our "living room" (the table and chairs in the center of the trailer) admiring our masterpiece. We were happy but Boo seemed miserable, still weary of the tile floors and the house on wheels... One thing she's always loved is carpet. We decided to carpet the whole interior of the trailer.

Dave cut the pieces, trimmed the edges (even a hole in the center for the dining room table), and stapled it down.

Then we invited Boo back in to check it out. Surprise, surprise - she liked it. Not loved it, but it was the first time she really walked around it a bit. I suspect it'll also keep the trailer a little warmer over the tile, especially in the morning.

The trailer is becoming a real home. At least for the next five months or so.