The Tin Toaster

Way back in February and March when we were planning to move from Honduras to California, Josh started looking for a vintage trailer house for us. We've always had a thing for vintage trailers, and we're perhaps the most minimalistic people we know, so of course it seemed logical to downsize our family of five into approximateley 340 square feet. Our little house in Honduras was about 600 square feet, with no storage. The trailer is the picture of efficiency, and I love it!! And who knew it was even eco-chic! Now that we own one and have done all the research, we have found they are actually pretty desirable as homes because they are "recycled" and "green." 

Sparticus Domesticus...or the Tin Teepee...or more accurately, The Tin Toaster.....is a 1956 Spartan, made by the Spartan Aircraft Company in Oklahoma City. After WWII, Spartan quit making aircraft and went into mobile homes. This one is 45' long, the longest that can be pulled down the road without being oversized. It came from Walla Walla, WA, where it had been parked new during a dam construction project and sat ever since in a trailer park. Josh and a friend made the trek up to get it, and apparently it actually tows really well. It's just a little tough getting in and out of gas stations and such. 

Josh worked on the trailer, water system (a spring run about 1/2 mile), and electrical system (an off-grid system with a generator and battery bank that runs on waste veggie oil) through the summer and in August, we finally moved it out to its little home site. (This is where I have to say that Josh is pretty dang amazing for being able to do all that!!!) It still has some shortcomings. The electric fridge and stove are a bit much for the electrical system, so we are looking into a gas fridge and stove. We can recite the wattages of all our electrical appliances and gadgets, as well as the combinations in which they can be run based on the capacity of the system. Convenient? No. A worthy pursuit and fun challenge? We think so. 

The Toaster, in all her glory. I'm really looking forward to winter, when my house will be pleasantly warm and sunny with its south-facing front window. Its passive solar heating capacity is great on cold days. Of course, the flip side of that thermal coin is that on a 100 degree day, it's approximately 110 degrees inside. We are almost ready to start building a big porch, which will dramatically reduce the sun exposure, but in the meantime, it's been a hot August and September! Fortunately, our suck-it-up-and-deal-with-the-heat skills are pretty highly developed after a few Honduras summers, so I'm sure we'll make it until cooler weather. Josh also built a wood/waste oil furnace that will sit outside and be connected to the trailer's existing ducting. 

Perhaps the world's nastiest carpet in the living room.

Water damage below most of the windows, typical of old trailers. Josh refinished all the woodwork and replaced a few of the worst birch ply panels. 

The front of the trailer, which is the living room/grown up bedroom.  The original linoleum floors were salvageable in the front half. 

I had visions of lovingly washing down my trailer's woodwork with Murphy Oil soap until it smelled great and shined. In reality, years of occupancy by smoking bachelors made it a much bigger job. I spent days and days with razor blades, steel wool, and Goo Gone getting down to wood!

Even the beastly greasy green stove in the picture above cleaned up okay. I would have loved to chuck it, but thrift prevailed, and with a can of spray paint, it became presentable. I love tiny, efficient kitchens. The opposite wall in the kitchen houses the fridge and tons of pantry/storage space.

From the couch, looking toward the kitchen. 

The bathroom before. Not much different really - on the surface. But all the plumbing is new...no small task!

The cork flooring is also new. The original flooring in the back half of the trailer was bad, so it all got replaced with cork.

 

A "before" of the closets in the back bedroom. The girls sleep in the bedroom on little mattresses I made to fit the space.

 Outside pictures, you ask? Well, I'm going to wait on those for a couple things. Number one, a porch to hide all the stuff we have stored under the trailer. And number two, rain and the grass it will bring. With all the site prep work on red soil pulverized to the consistency of powdered sugar, we kind of look like refugees on the surface of Mars. Of course, the logical solution to the dust problem was to spread several tons of horse manure around the premises to cover the dust and encourage grass to grow. However, it hasn't rained since April (normal for here), so not much grass is coming yet. Thus, I'll wait for a beautiful stand of green grass surrounding the house to take pictures outside!