Coral Belle the Camper!

Remember Coral Belle?  I was so excited.   I was going to fix her up and have a market in our yard, and sell honey from her, and let my nieces play....  You know how it is...little by little you lose that edge.   All but one hive died, so a lot less honey this year.  My nieces, who I thought might also have fun playing in it, are growing up.  They don't want to spend the night with their Aunt when they could be with their friends.  And I've started taking stuff to a local auction house just to get rid of it.

The final straw was... we had a pole barn built.  Since then, six weeks ago, My Shug has been working in it to get it "storage ready" so we can get stuff out of the weather, and out of the house/garage.  Lawn mowers, tractor, stuff from the potting shed I had in town, etc.  And after six weeks of what was supposed to be" a couple of days", I became discouraged.  So much so that I put my beloved camper up for sale!  I decided by the time My Shug finishes with this house, if ever (I know..) I would be too old to give a care about gardening, beekeeping, or a camper.  I put it for sale with a lump in my throat. 

The first person that came to look at it was very excited.  She sets up at markets and she told me all of the stuff she would do to get it ready to go.  But she said, "Cindy, I can see you don't want to let it go.  Think about it."  Everything she said she was going to do I thought, I could do that. 

The second person that came to look at it decided it wasn't what they wanted.  They wanted a vintage camper to camp in with their family.  This is a little too vintage for them I think.

The third guy wanted to use it to sell pork rinds and kettle corn and he was going to put holes in it to pass corn through and such...and it broke my heart to think of Coral Belle being used that way.  So, I thought about it, and I talked to a couple of friends.  And peeps.....I decided I wasn't going to wait on my Shug to help fix her up.

We are going to fix it up like a girl!

Now that can be taken two ways.  

1) We are going to fix Coral Belle up to look like a girl.  Well, duh....with a name like Coral Belle, she ain't gonna have Nascar pictures and nekked women hanging inside!

and 

2) We are going to fix it up as girls would, not guys.  Well, duh...my friends and I are girls!  Now before you go getting your panties in a bunch, and ranting about me being sexist....just back off.  First of all, it's my blog, and second of all, I will tell you right now girls fix things differently than guys.  We do.   I know this because I have been helping build a house.

 For example...I started on her yesterday.

 See the ceiling.  It was partially torn down when I got her.   She had a leak and the wood and ceiling were rotten on that end.  My Shug did take the rotten piece of wood down and put a new piece up.  He also fixed the vent in the ceiling so it would open. And he fixed one of the windows that was out.   And he coated the roof with a two part sealant that I bought at a Vintage Camper dealer that isn't very far from where we live!

 He did all of that last year.

Then she sat, in a state of dis-repair.  And here goes the part about fixing it up like a girl.....

 The first person that looked at her said, "I'd just take down the rest of that ceiling and use the wood as beams, to hang stuff from..."  Girl way!

 So I started on that ceiling.  Wooooe....thick stuff.

(Don't know who has been living in here - above pic- but they bettah be movin' on!)

My Shug gave me this tool, which I promptly started to use.  It went across the piece I was trying to remove, hit the tin ceiling, sparked!, and almost got my forehead.  ALMOST, I said.  I put it down.  Girl way....pliers and a box knife. 

 Ta Daaaah!

 I might paint the rusty ceiling, or just go across the ceiling with material, and staple it on the beams.  I don't know yet.

After I finished the ceiling, my friend, Teresa, came over with her husband.  He is going to help us today with the floor.  I know.....even fixing it up like a girl, we are getting a little help from guys,
but here's the thing....
the guys were talking electricity, taking windows out to caulk, new ceiling......we are talking, no electricity, I have no hook-up where it's going to be sitting.  That's what batteries and campfires are for anyway, right?  Not taking windows out to caulk.  Leave the ceiling.  We'll decorate...you won't notice a thing.

Lovin' CoralBelle...Stay tuned.

Cindy Bee & Coral Belle!

PS - That Jim Beam light switch plate is GOING for sure!