We're still working on getting the endcap to fit into the curve. Here's where we left it last weekend:

And here we are this weekend! I know... there's not a hugely noticeable difference in these photos LOL!
BUT! We got those bottom curves pressed back into the corners better. What you can't tell is that the endcap is no longer overlapping the windows. HOPEFULLY <fingerscrossed!> we can finish up next weekend?

So, like I said, there's not much to update you all with! Until next time! <3 Becca

We're still forging ahead with Maude's front endcap! 
Here's where we left off last weekend:

Trying to get these endcaps to fit back into place really isn't much fun ;)  But we've found that bracing it into something-resembling-the-end-position makes it a little easier to coax it into an even better position after a resting period.

This week we were able to get some rivets into place! We decided that the endcap was pretty darn close on that right side, even though we couldn't get the rivet holes to match up exactly, so we drilled new ones.

In this picture you can see where the clamps aren't, which is where the rivets are! Still a lot more poking, prodding, bracing and resting that needs to happen, but a bit of progress was made!

Until next time! <3 Becca

Hi guys! 

​We worked on getting the end cap installed this weekend.  Here's where we left off last week:

We had the Reflectix and some of the purple foam insulation installed.

This weekend, we finished getting the purple foam into place. It's not super pretty, but it'll (hopefully? LOL) do! Thankfully, it'll get covered up ;)

We shaved away some of the purple foam at the rib in order to tuck the electrical wires into the wall cavity.

We used spray foam insulation to fill in the gaps. I'm tellin' ya - the curves are really pretty, but they are a PAIN to work with!

Then we sanded the foam since it was all gloopy and sticking out of the gaps ;)

Read for the end cap! It's been sitting in the rear of the trailer, out of the weather, but COMPLETELY in our way. I'm super excited to get it installed and to clear up working space!

We had hoped that changing to the purple foam instead of the Rockwool insulation would make a huge difference in installing the endcap. Spoiler: It didn't. LOL

We DID get some temporary fasteners around the window and at the A/C unit on the first day, which was QUITE the improvement over the rear endcap. But, it's still not really matching up in that curve. We need to push and prod the endcap to hopefully push the edge in about another inch. We're letting it rest, like we did with the rear cap, in the hopes that it will relax closer to the correct shape, and then we can push it to the fully correct position next weekend? We'll see! Worst case scenario, we'll drill new rivet holes ;)

​Until next time! <3 Becca

OMG, it felt great not to have to work on another window! LOL

On Saturday, we started trying to decide our next steps. It was a long, rough week, so we decided to pluck some low-hanging fruit. As we go along, I add tasks to a list. These are typically little details that, for whatever reason, we didn't finish with the original project. For example: the hardware that opens/closes the windows and finding suitable replacements is on that list ;)  Another thing on that list was getting the front two stabilizing jacks installed. 

Mike had installed the rear two stabilizers last summer. But we didn't have great tools to do it, so he was pretty frustrated by the project, and dropped it. We've since gotten the proper tools, and HOLY COW! The right tools made the job SO much easier! And Maude is super stable now! THIS trailer ain't a-rockin'!

Not shown: We also snipped some pieces of the belly pan off that we'd been meaning to since we did that project LOL

On Sunday, we again hemmed and hawed about what project we wanted to tackle next. We landed on getting the front end cap installed. If you'll recall, the rear end cap was NOT FUN. It took weeks and weeks of pushing and shoving and reshaping the end cap, and in the end we accidentally cracked it (repairing the fiberglass is on the list! LOL)

​But really, the front end cap needs to be installed so it'll be out of our way for moving forward with just about any other project in the trailer. Here's what we started with!

We got Reflectix insulation installed in the front curve. I'm kind of in love with spray adhesive! It went really smoothly :)

For the rear end cap, we insulated with Reflectix and Rock Wool. Even though we cut the Rock Wool batting in half (it comes 3 inches thick), it still felt too thick for the 1.5" space between the outer skin and the end cap. We decided to change materials and bought the 1" purple insulating foam you see above.

The difficulty with the foam board is that it's flat. Airstreams are NOT ;) In order to help the board flex into the curves, we scored the back side. It worked fabulously! Gaps between the pieces of foam board will be filled with spray foam insulation. 

We only got as far as the picture above shows, but we're excited for next weekend to finish up the insulation and to start getting that end cap installed!

​Until next time! <3 Becca

Warning: This is going to be a short post ;)

We got the last window done!!!!!!!!!! 8 windows with an average time of 3 hours per window to clean and reseal each pane. What a pain! ;)  But it's done! And this last window was, by far, the easiest one. What a nice treat for all of our hard work!

The rest of our weekend was spent driving to pick up this cutie!

Meet the newest member of the Seitz Household - Fig the Hedgie Pig! She's 13 weeks old and a total sweetie :) 

​Until next time! <3 Becca

Howdy! We got a chance to get some more work done on Maude this weekend! 2 more windows are DONE! The only one remaining is her rear window :)

The first window we did this weekend was GROSS. Some previous owner(s) had tried to remedy some leaking, but went about it all the wrong way. Like a previous window, they used some products for home windows, not aluminum windows. But on this one, they ALSO used silicone caulk. You're not supposed to use silicone on aluminum - my understanding is that a chemical reaction happens between silicone and aluminum that is undesirable. We got to undo it all! LOL

Here is a closeup of the frame. In that little groove where you can see moss growing, it's PACKED with that home-window product. Unfortunately for us, we HAD to get it clean so that our new window seals would sit in that groove properly! It meant spending a HUGE chunk of time trying to scratch it out with a razor blade, because it's not just a groove - it has a little lip to help catch and hold the seals. Some dental tools would have been super handy! All of the white stuff you see around the frame is silicone that at least came off super easily with a wire wheel. But there was a TON of it!

Buh-bye, last of the nasty dirt/mouse excrement on this frame!

Hello, pretty new window pane! Mike's really getting good at cutting glass! LOL

Pretty new window and seals! Sorry for the picture with so many reflections PLUS our house THROUGH the windows! LOL

The second window we did this week went really smoothly! The original glass popped out nicely, they hadn't used any of the cement-like product! It went so smoothly I forgot to take many pictures! The good news is that this isn't your first rodeo seeing windows resealed on this trailer ;)

And here's Maude's front window all cleaned and sealed up!

Honestly, we've come such a long way on Maude! Her exterior, aside from not being fully polished, is looking clean and straight! 

We picked up Maude 2 years ago on August 25th. We've had SO many ups and downs, times I've doubted my life decisions (LOL) but the progress is undeniable! Getting these windows resealed is helping to renew my love and excitement for Maude. We're almost completely finished with her external projects and we're getting ready to move on to her interior!!

Until next time :)  <3 Becca

Howdy! More window this week! Surprise! LOL
​Last weekend we did the top window. This weekend we did the bottom.

Some previous fool decided to use the types of materials one would use to glaze windows in a house. It was a COMPLETE PAIN to deal with in a trailer situation! As you can see above, we had to chip off the material that was like a plastery-concrete material to uncover the edge of the window pane.

Then we used the heat gun to release the window pane from the tacky material that helps hold it in place. We managed to keep the original window pane in tact! WOOHOO! If you recall, we broke the last one we tried to remove from the frame ;)  A little acetone and a razor blade got it all cleaned up and looking beautiful!

While I was cleaning the window pane, Mike was chiseling out more of the plastery-concrete stuff. Once he got it all chiseled-out, he used a wire wheel to clean up the frame. Check out how NASTY it was! You can totally see the difference in the picture on the above right!

And just like all the other windows, the pane got placed with new tacky stuff and then the rubber sealing-strips that you see in the above photo! Doing these windows is tedious and really frustrating in the heat (the tacky stuff gets SUUUPER tacky and prefers to stick to fingers over the aluminum frame!), but MAN, they look really pretty all cleaned up! PLUS With the new seals they actually seal now! We're hoping that these windows were the main source of our remaining leaks!

3 more windows remain! 

Until next time :)  <3 Becca

Between weather that is just too hot (115 degrees, are you INSANE?!?) and vacation, combine that with a bit of lack-of-motivation - It's been a while!

But this past weekend we got another window pane reseated and glazed!

I totally forgot to take a before picture - oops! But just imagine it with a piece of plexiglass taped into place ;)  Above is the one we did this weekend, the bottom is on the slate for this coming weekend!

For those of you who are curious, we took a road trip to Wisconsin for vacation. We drove there in 2 days and took 3 days to drive home. LONG driving days were hard, but in between was one of the best vacations we've been on in a LONG time!

We visited our friends on Madeline Island in Lake Superior! A short ferry ride brought us to THAT gorgeous view :)

We also go two new stamps in our National Parks Passport Book! Yay!

A good break from routine is wonderful! Rest. Have fun. Rest some more. And now we're ready to get back to work and working on Maude! 

​Until next time, you guys! <3 Becca

Howdy! You'll recall that last time we were reseating the window pane (or I guess, in this case, actually installing a real pane) in the middle window. We found the frame to be separated at the corner. We tried to repair it with this aluminum welding stuff and accidentally overheated the aluminum and deformed it. We stopped while we were ahead. Or less behind? ;)

With fresh minds and bodies and a pop-up tent over our work area so we didn't have to compete with the rain, we fixed it! It's not as pretty as that first fix, but with some metal putty to fill in the gaps, it's "Better'n it was!"

I can't remember if I've talked about Maude's motto on here! Whenever we come up against something we're unsure of how to do, or something doesn't quite turn out as we'd hoped, we tell ourselves it's "Better Than It Was." Which cracks us up! ENDLESSLY. Because seriously, it's just NOT saying much! LOL

All new seals!

And window #3 of 8 is all done! We propped the window open while the caulk for the seals dried. Eventually, we'll get to fixing/replacing/whatever all of the internal hardware, but for now, at least these windows can latch shut and, as far as we can tell (LOL!) don't leak! Woot!

I'm kind of stupid excited to get the rest of the window panes reseated/replaced/resealed because they really do look SO pretty when they're all fixed up :)

Until next time! <3 Becca

Howdy! :)

This week we moved forward with more work on the windows! 

Here, you can see the new glass that we got last week, since we couldn't find it at a hardware store in a wide enough piece. Having it custom cut was pretty nice! It was a bit less stressful than cutting it (and possibly breaking it!) ourselves :)

Isn't that gorgeous!?

These seals go in the frame on the shell of the trailer and help seal the sash to the frame. It was PRETTY tough to try to figure out which replacement seals we needed, as the old ones were either missing or really difficult to tell their original shape. But through the magic of Google, Mike found which shapes we needed and a place that sells them! :)

This photo shows a couple of things! 1. See the smooth gray seals around the edge of the frame? Those are the new seals in place! 2. See how clever they were with the design of the windows? The whole sash just lifts up and slides off! Super cool :)

This is the frame for the middle window. We got the old plexiglass pulled off and discovered that the corner seam had split apart. Ugh! 

We tried using a metal epoxy putty (the same stuff we used to repair the bolt holes in the Land Yacht plaque!) It didn't work. ;) We decided to do some more research to figure out how to fix it. 

So in the meantime, we used the wire wheel to grind off all of the REALLYHARDGUNK (TM) that some previous owner had used to try to keep the window from leaking. Remember, I already scrubbed and scrubbed on this stuff with acetone and mineral spirits when we reseated all of the windows! THANK GOD for wire wheels!

And all clean! It's wild the transformation!

End of Saturday - Two of three ain't bad! 

Mike did some Googling Saturday evening and found these aluminum welding rods. Watched some videos and it looked pretty simple! (sorry for the cruddy picture with my finger in the frame! I'm an acupuncturist, not a photographer! LOL)

Our first try didn't work quite right, but our second try turned out pretty good! 

EXCEPT - when we were trying to clean it up just a little bit, it cracked again, so we cleaned it AGAIN.  Unfortunately, this time, we overheated the aluminum frame and ended up disforming it a bit! :(  We tried a bit to fix it some more, but I called it. I think because we were trying to get it done before the rain came in, we were making things worse. It's a bit of a disappointing note to end the weekend on, but I think it's better to stop while we're ahead? Or at least not as far behind as we could get ourselves LOL.  Such is the way of working with Maude! Ups and Downs.

Until next time (when there will hopefully be more ups and fewer downs ;) )  <3 Becca