Oh, The Places You'll Go!

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. - Oh, The Places You'll Go!

This book by Dr. Seuss was a popular with my kids growing up. I love the encouragement and the authentic way that life's ups and downs are portrayed. Realistic when you actually reread the book as an adult or listen to it read to you (Click here to listen to the book read). This Youtube version is read by "Professor Burke" of the Farmer's Insurance Company in honor of Dr. Seuss day and it is brilliant.  I think every day should be Dr. Seuss and Mister Rogers Day and the world may be a different place.  As Fred Roger's said, when bad things are happening in the world, focus on the people doing good things, paraphrased but you know what I mean. The balance of these two shaped my childhood and those of my kids.

So what does this really have to do with my Airstream restoration? I am going to take you back in time to last summer and one of the projects I actually did do with my Airstream while I was still dreaming about the direction the renovation needed to take. After I did a thorough scrub down of all the surfaces, I realized that the shower walls were in excellent condition. I decided to focus on this one area and do a few small manageable projects to claim some feeling of accomplishment. I had some towel bar brackets and bars missing so I took a day to hit Home Depot for the closest match I could find. Perfect luck was that I found almost and exact match with the cheapest and most basic style they offer, no need for an oil rubbed bronze finish in this 1965 trailer! Next project was to make a mesh bag to keep the shower attachment secure when we didn't need it hooked up and were in transit. The previous owner had it hanging in a closet loose. I don't like metal things like this just loose for transit. I made the mesh bag and will put a hook inside a closet once I figure out storage for things we need to have in the trailer. There are plenty of options for tucking this bag away. I will post of picture of the bag in another post, but it is blue... and mesh, you get the idea, right?

 "Before" dirty and missing brackets and bars.

 "After" cleaned up and bars restored to where they were originally

Now it was time to tackle the shower curtain replacement. I have the original shower curtain, and although it is in pretty good condition I want something I can throw in the washer as often as needed. I knew that a woven polyester shower curtain fabric would be better than plastic for both washing and for the extreme temperature conditions that my trailer will have summer to winter. The curtain is ingeniously fastened to the curved wall by snap screws positioned around the curve and snaps on the contoured shower curtain. I think the design is brilliant. Older models switched to a track but as you can guess gravity plays a part in this design and the result is that the curtains often does not stay where it needs to at the top of the curve, not my problem with the original design. I have a supply of the snaps used in my trailer and the snap set to make this curtain because, as always, the most basic supplies are used in these trailers. These are the same snap sets that I have used for cushions that are snapped to frames for my client work.

You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who’ll decide where to go - Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Next was the design choice of fabric for the curtain. I knew that I did not want most of the options you normally find for shower curtains. Because the trailer is pretty open concept, you can see from front to back most of the time. And maybe by now you can tell that travel is a theme I want to promote with my interior choices. It may be cliche but I will share in a future post how the fabric and style pieces are falling into place in a not-so-cliche way. 

This picture shows the curve nicely and maybe you can see where the snaps attach it to the wall/ceiling. You can't see the snaps as they are to the inside of the shower and leave a nice clean look from the front.

I ordered 2 National Geographic map printed shower curtains from China and altered, shaped and added the snaps to match the original. I still have the second one to make and may add a bit more ease into the shaped top but this one works!

There is a plastic hold down snap to swag it or I could undo more of the top snaps and just have it connected in a few points. I have some extra fabric that I am planning to use as banding trim on the window treatment, already designed in my head.

And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.) - Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Here is the view from the front to the back when the curtain is down. There will be a room divider curtain in the space between the headboard (lower right) and the bath for privacy when in use.

Kid, you’ll move mountains! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So get on your way! - Oh, The Places You Will Go!

And with this last quote it is time for me to get on my way to tackle a few more projects in this trailer so that traveling is not just a dream!