Rotten Floor

[ScouterMom]

Lori -

I SO enjoyed your website- What a project!  I can only hope that I can do as well with my old Starcraft as you are doing with your Coleman.

You sound very much like me!  I love to take something someone else thinks of as 'junk' and recycle, refurbish or re-invent it into something useful.  I hate waste and really enjoy remodeling and refinishing. My son, Jon, and I are also ADHD - he's in the building trades program in High School, and we both enjoy woodworking and remodeling.

I worked last spring around cold weather and a deadline of a Mother's day camping reservation in Wisconsin to get my PUP in useable (meaning, not ideal, but minimally weather-proof) condition to use over the summer.  Between working full time, teenagers in the house, (mine, one I've temporaily adopted, and all their friends) home projects, scouts and family - I didn't have either the time or money to completely replace my camper floor like you are - and while my floor was rotted in those back corners, it was actually fine everywhere else.  The linoleum is sticky/ tacky from having carpet stuck to it - it's like it's melting, or disintigrating somehow. So I will be replacing it with sheet vinyl.  (which I got free from a friend's home remodel!)

My BF, son and I replaced one roof sidewall (the back) that had rotted, and left the others, (although the corners really need to be replaced, also, they are at least holding together).  I'm hoping to work more on the roof this summer. I wish I had known about you when you were working on getting the styrofoam off your roof. We had to remove a section of our foam from the roof rot, too. We discovered a 'trick' to it because of our cold weather - we had a propane heater going while we worked on the camper in my unheated garage, and Jon figured out that if he  heated the wide-blade putty knife up against the heater grill, it allowed the blade to slide between the foam and the aluminum 'skin' of the roof - melted the glue so we could break off chunks of the damaged foam.  Once we got the hang of it, the foam came off pretty quickly. He learned to use two knives - one heating while the other scraped, so one was always 'warm'.
The frustrating part is that I would have loved to be able to work on my camper over the winter, but it's been so cold and snowy here, and I had to store my camper at a friend's over the winter so I could have the garage space for my van.  It's much colder, wetter, and snowier this year in March than it was last year when I bought the camper, - so it's going to be awhile before I can bring my Starcraft home.     I was lucky to have a friend who stored it in a nice dry garage for me free, especially as this winter has had so much snow.  I know it would not be good on my fragile roof, but storing it away from home means I can't have it handy to do small things on it the few nice days we have between snows!  I'm anxious to work on it!

I've marked your website and I'll be watching for your progress - you are doing a terriffic job! You inspire me!

Laura

[prncssgeek]

Laura,
Such a nice post, thank you for your kind words! How funny that your deadline was Mother's Day! Thats my deadline! I've told the kids I'll fix the camper but that they are going to be taking me camping for Mother's Day. My daughter laughed because she can't cook on a "light your own fire" grill!

It's funny that you mention you and your DS are ADHD. I've talked to a lot of people and it seems like a large amount of people who are ADHD enjoy this kind of thing. A shrink friend of mine has a theory on it. It's not a "mindless" task, it requires us to think as we use our hands. And the project is always changing as we go along. So that keeps are attention. And this is true whether its a house or a camper that you are working on. I have two small children that live with me, thank goodness they aren't teenagers! Been there done that, don't want the tshirt! My son is 2, my granddaughter is 5, she is ADHD and he is showing signs. However, I take them out with me to work on the pup and you would never know that any of the 3 of us had a chemical imbalance happening in our heads! My son has a play drill that he uses and "fixes" things right along with me. My granddaughter loves to  hand me my tools and knows the difference between screwdrivers. She is actually learning fractions, because of all the wrenches I have laying around. My daughter calls the camper one big puzzle that right now only I know how to put together.

Girl, where were you when I was scrapping all that crap up! I never thought to heat the tool. I did attempt to heat the stuff with a blow dryer, that didn't work. I think because the foam was so wet. Oh it was nasty, soggy, dripping moldy water. There were times that I would scrap for 5 minutes, puke for 3!

And yes, weather is frustrating. We were in a drought before we got the camper. Since I've had it, we've had rain every three days. You are so lucky to have a friend with a garage. Mine is setting in my backyard! I have a wonderful 2 car garage, but it is full of toys and stuff and I can't walk in it! That's why I have to rush on the roof.

I would gladly trade you our semi good weather for your snow. I had to take the kids to NC this year to play in snow! When my GD turned 5, the only thing she wished for was snow. The next day we got the only "real" snow of the year, about an inch on the ground that melted the next morning!

Lori