Confessions of a Wanna Be Do-it All Mom: '94 Palomino Project

Nick and I always have some kind of project going on. This past spring it was a dune buggy and a craftsman riding lawn mower. Now it is a pop up camper. We love being in the great outdoors and traveling. Having a camper was the most logical way of us being a able to this. Most everything is already packed all you have to throw in is clothes and food. Hook up the camper and off you go.

We started camper shopping the end of September. The thinking was people would be wanting to sell them for cheap so that they wouldn't want to store the camper over the winter. We looked at dealers and individuals off of Craigslist. Our budget was $3000. Every camper we looked at at the $3000 mark came up short. They just weren't as nice as we expected. I came across a posting for one about 8 miles from our house that had everything we wanted but a 1994 model but only $2000. We went to look at and it was great. My only issue was the dated pink ruffley curtains! Yuck! Who puts pink curtains in a camper?! Anyway Nick gave the guy $1700 and the camper was ours. We were so excited that we set it up as soon as we got home. The next day the curtains came down! As we sat in our new humble aboded the talking started and the to do list got longer. This how it always works with us. First it is just a little bit here and there then it turns in to a long to do this and we are running out of time.

After taking out the awful curtains I ripped out an extra seat/storage area next to the bench seat. There is something about a Fat Max hammer, a pry bar, and the sound of breaking wood that makes you want to keep going. So on to the cabinet that held the ice chest. It was a cheap foam cooler that had a drain in the bottom that emptied under the camper. Out all of that came with a worthless step up to one of the beds. Now on to the pump sink and built up counter top for the stove. The stove is one of the those that go from inside to a bracket on the outside of the camper. Thinking about this we would never really use the stove inside so the counter top went away.

With demo done on to the paint. It is always good to have friends in different trades. We called our friend Justin the painter and asked if he any paint and primer left for us to use. Of course he did. I chalked every seam let it dry and removed all the cabinet doors. The next day I primed all the cabinet doors and cabinets. Let it dry for 24 hours then painted it all with a high gloss white. Word of advice it takes forever for high gloss paint to dry in 50 to 60 degree weather. I ended up sticking a heater in the camper to try to get it dry a little faster.