We're trying a new idea, dividing the "improvements" into two categories, Exterior and Interior. This page has the interior items. Go here if you want the page with exterior items. I hope you find this is much better, and we will appreciate any feedback you offer about this or other changes.
We divided the interior home improvements into three categories, primary, small, and really small changes. Their respective menus are below.
We bought a quarry tile 1/2" X 12" X 12" from Lowes for $1, placed it in the oven, and it immediately improved the evenness of our oven's baking. Unfortunately, eight months later on a bumpy stretch of secondary road near Boise, Idaho, the tile broke into a couple of pieces. We found a nearby Lowes and replaced it with a slightly thinner piece of slate. We chose the slate because Lowes didn't have the quarry tile.
Note, there is a great amount of information on the internet about what tiles not to use and why. The primary advice seems about avoidance of lead, mostly from glazes. The terra cotta quarry tile and the slate both are unglazed. The other advice was to pay upwards from $45 to almost $100 for a baking tile. You know, you get what you pay for, and all that. We are happy with the results from the $1 tile except for it breaking in half after eight months, including driving from south Florida to Canada and crossing half of Canada.
Would a $50 tile not break, jarring about in our oven? We aren't going to try it. This time we trimmed the corners and one edge so it nestles into the heat plate better. Meanwhile, the baking seems just as good as with the thicker quarry tile. We'll see how it lasts.
Jim threatened for a long time to build a sauna deck for the floor space in front of the toilet, just outside the shower stall. Turned out recently we stayed a couple of weeks somewhere with a nice woodshop and some wood scraps. Jim spent an evening cutting this, and the next morning sanded and sealed it. The 2"X2" frame sits on five 3/8" rubber feet from mud flap cut-offs, and brass brads attach 1/2" slats to the 2 X 2s. White toilet seat elongated bumpers prevent it from chafing the white boards at the toilet and shower.
So far, so good. Someone was skeptical of this project but she seems to appreciate the more comfortable "sit" afforded by feet touching the ground. Jim realized, after building this, he could have used 1 X 2s for the frame, for a net savings of maybe one pound. Total it seems to weigh only a few pounds. Otherwise, it seems just what we wanted. I3. Cabinet door pulls on hinged access doors of hidden spaces under wardrobes and pantry:
This addressed what we considered a sub-optimal use of spaces in our camper. On the one hand, some of these spaces house the little bits of mechanical, electrical, or plumbing equipment to support our camper. However the equipment items don't take much of the space and don't appear very at risk for harm from our storage of items nearby. The factory installed latches and hinges identical to those on the rest of the casework in the camper. We found a source for matching cabinet pulls and added them to three cabinet doors, one each under the pantry, Deb's wardrobe, and Jim's wardrobe. This increased our storage significantly, by allowing storage of our waste can, our small collection of adult beverages, with room left over. Return to top
Airstream installs these flush latches in the newer Airstreams, and the elimination of the long lever handle is very smart. Many times we each have caught a pocket or belt loop or sleeve on the wash room door handle. Not any more! We learned about a direct (and reasonably priced) source for these latches from
Perlane Southco. Phoned the order in, told them it is for an Airstream interior door. They knew exactly what to help us order and the latch arrived in three days from ordering. It installed very easily and only required about an hour to complete the job. Looks great, works great.
We heard about the Oxygenic Shower Head, with almost cultish praise, at 2008's Easter Rally in St Augustine and again at the WBCCI International Rally in Bozeman, MT the same year. In a way, though, it seemed a little like promoting something as mundane as a toilet tank fill valve. What are you going to do, stand in your neighbor's bathroom and test his plumbing? So we didn't test it. And we were a little skeptical about the fantastic praise these water-saving shower heads generate.
But being the romantic, Jim happened upon one on sale and bought it for Deb's birthday. Then he couldn't wait for her birthday and he gave it to both of us during an extended caravan. Well, it is fantastic, does greatly improve the water velocity, feels great, and could save water. We laugh about the last claim because while it does reduce the flow rate even while increasing the spray sensation, it feels so good we want to stay in the shower longer. Well, we can afford that luxury when we have full hook-ups and when we are dry-camping we can benefit from the new shower head's reduced flow rate. We highly recommend this product. Ours is a Chrome #130-XLF25, and we paid $45 including free shipping from Amazon.com. Camping World stores often have these on the racks at reasonable prices, too.
While shopping for a source for the RV-style drawer guides we came upon guides for a 3/4 inch thick sliding breadboard. We ordered these for approx $10 including shipping (also from http://www.houckind.com/ model 120BB)at the same time to install two inches below the new drawer in an almost four inch space above the tallest existing drawer. We installed a magnetic knife holder on a piece of birch plywood and can now hold all but one of our eight kitchen knives. Yeah, only eight. We had at least twice as many in our house and thinned the collection down to the few we knew we had to have. These are an eight inch serrated bread knife, an eight inch carving knife, a six inch boning knife, a pair of four inch serrated tomato knives, and two paring knives. Only one knife doesn't fit on the new knife board and we use it daily, a very sharp serrated cheese cutter we store in its own sleeve. Return to top
A credit to Airstream Company has always been the optimal use of spaces in the camper. Sometimes though, we think 21st Century economizing may conflict with 20th Century quality. In former days it seems almost certain Airstream Co would have taken advantage of this perfectly good space. But in our 2005 Airstream, we are surprised the designer omitted a thirteen inches wide by sixteen inches long by four inches deep drawer beside the galley sink. In fact, the space was completely unused. Jim cut the dead-front panel in line with the meeting edge for the cabinet doors immediately below. He added drawer pulls for the new drawer front and for the now-shorter dead-front, and attached rv-style guides (cost approx $10 including shipping from http://www.houckind.com/ model 950rv) and a drawer. The rv-style drawer guides prevent accidental opening while rolling down the road. The result is a drawer wide enough for a silverware organizer plus small boxes of plastic utensils at the sides and back of the organizer. Return to top
Our's is called a corner bed. Half of the foot end and two-thirds of one side are unobstructed. The remainder are against walls or casework. This is a little like making a lower bunk without pulling the bunks away from the wall. Some people buy or make roll-up bedding to avoid tucking the sheets and covers all around. We also didn't want to leave our bedding out all day -- we rarely use it except at night. We also didn't want to put a bedspread over the mattress because we'd have trials tucking the blind sides in and didn't want the exposed edges to hang over and get in the way of cabinets. Deb thought up a mattress cover sewn of Sunbrella® Silver Linen to match the sofa cushions. The fabric was purchased from OutdoorTextiles.com which had a much better price than what we paid from a local fabric shop (nearly $30 per yard.)
She sewed a large envelope twelve inches high by fifty-five inches wide by seventy-eight inches long with extra at the head of the bed to flap over and tightly velcro closed. The bedding is a fiberfill comforter, two twin sheets sewn together at the foot, and a thin fleece blanket. These three pieces are attached at the foot with velcro. In warmer weather we sleep with the comforter on the bottom; in cool weather (50s and cooler outside) we sleep with the comforter on top. We flip the assembly over according to the temperature forecast. We have a spare set of sheets we can swap out anytime, and we can wash any of the three parts separately -- the two sheets, or the comforter, or the blanket. We can easily roll it and cover the roll with the pillow shams. It looks great and has worked really well. Return to top
This prevents Jim's hand contacting the cool aluminum interior wall while sleeping. He often sleeps on his side with one arm under his head, so his hand was resting against the headwall of the trailer. Since the CCD has no interior wall finish except clearcoat on the Alcoa® aluminum, this surface is nearly always cooler than skin temperature. Debbie bought a 3/8" X 24" X 60" blue sleeping pad from REI®. It is closed cell foam so doesn't absorb moisture, it has enough stiffness to keep its shape, it's easy to cut with scissors, and it's light. She cut it down its length to make a 3/4" thick pad one foot tall and five feet long, then she covered in Sunbrella® fabric from OutdoorTextiles.com left over from making the mattress cover. It stays in place well, matches perfectly, takes up no space, was inexpensive, and serves the purpose.
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We installed these throughout the trailer. We think replacing the old vinyl roller shades with these hatch shades is one of the most attractive changes we've made. These shades fit closely to the wall of the trailer and most of them will tuck in under the lifting handles to hold the shade even snugger to the wall for better privacy. The OceanAir shades look so much better than the original vinyl roller shades -- Airstream Co seems to agree, they now install these on some of their models. We purchased our shades from Airstream while we were at Jackson Center September 2007 having other work done. Airstream had a window schematic for our model trailer with dimensions and part numbers. Their prices were far better than what we had found on the internet and no shipping. Jim installed them instead of paying Airstream hourly service rates. We reused some of the same holes from the original shades but where these didn't fit, we covered the old holes with rivets. Return to top
We had one motivation for adding a fourth heat mode in our Airstream. Two of the three heat sources (rooftop a/c heat strips; ceramic cube heater) require 110 volts (shore power) and the furnace requires a lot of battery for its fans. A catalytic heater burns propane, is extremely efficient (converts almost all the energy to heat), doesn't take a lot of space, and uses NO battery or shore power. If we are camping without shore power this heater is great for daytime use -- it heats us wonderfully with radiant heat. It has a lighter (piezo) like a BBQ grill and three heat settings. We mounted it on a hinged plate on the end of the counter so it can be swiveled toward the dinette or the sofa. We like the warm radiant heat from our Olympian Wave6.
Funny thing -- we wondered if we should have considered a Wave 4, with its lower heat output. This Wave 6 was driving us outta here sometimes. Fall 2009 we dry camped alot in Washington and Idaho, often well above 2,000 feet and up to 6,000 feet. The Wave 6 is just perfect, thank you. We run it on high or medium almost all the waking hours when it is 30 to 45 F degrees outside and it keeps us very comfortable. So the Wave 6 is a great choice for our RV.
The downside of an unvented catalytic heater, and this is critically important to us, is we have to be very careful to adequately ventilate the camper whenever this heater is operating. The heater is unvented and removes Oxygen from, and produces carbon monoxide into, our living space (note that you can purchase vented catalytic heaters instead). We faithfully follow the manufacturer's recommendations for venting our camper whenever heating with this device. We open a window at one end of the camper one inch and open a roof vent at the other end of the camper at least one inch. This creates a small low to high fresh air current to refresh a portion of the interior air. We NEVER burn the catalytic heater when we are asleep. We NEVER sleep with this heater on. Loss of oxygen is extremely dangerous -- you just sleep and don't wake up, ever.
edit 2/16/2010 -- we ran the Wave 6 all day (first time ever for such a long burn) last weekend while camped in a field in Orlando, FL, for Hamcation 2010. The weather was just crummy, rainy and cold all day. Opened the low window and roof vent at opposite ends of the Airstream, and kept the heater on low the entire day. Wow, it was great to have! And, several days later as I edit this I'm on the sofa, just turned off the Olympics television coverage, and am enjoying the warm rays from the heater. Low setting is very comfortable, the trailer is 65 degrees but I am toasty.
We first saw these in new Airstream International CCD 22s and really liked the clean design. We have sufficient gap between the back of the dinette bench and the arm of the L-sofa to accommodate these magazine racks. We ordered them from the Airstream factory store. They are very pricey but look and function great. They were available in white or black. As of May 2009 these are still available but only in black or orange and are approx $45 each. Ours are out of the way, very accessible, and don't clutter our space. They do make a little more challenging reaching the 110v receptacle against the roadside interior wall because the arm can still go where the eye can no longer see. Okay, I may install a small outlet strip on the back of the dinette directly above the receptacle beside the magazine rack. It's not been a big problem at all.
Airstream Company equipped this beautiful and mostly very functional camper with a two dollar ($2.00) bimetallic thermostat. The bimetallic thermostat provided NO indication whatsoever of the temperature you have set for heat -- you set it and guess. We wanted to be able to select a night low-limit (we use 45 degrees when we are sleeping) and in the morning set the temperature to a warmer temperature. We replaced the cheap factory t-stat with a $20 Hunter model 42999b two-wire electronic thermostat. (You can find similar thermostats with programmable feature for automatic setbacks and warmups like many people have in their houses, but these will cost from $35 to $40 and we didn't feel we needed it. We live in a 200 sf house and can reach the tstat in 3 or 4 strides.)
Wiring was extremely simple -- we carefully removed the old thermostat, disconnected the two wires from its two terminals and attached the wires to the two terminals on back of the new thermostat. Instructions for the new thermostat were clear and complete. The new thermostat has an lcd display of present temperature and will display setpoint if you touch either button on the front. You can adjust the span (hysteresis) easily if you want. Best of all, you set a temperature for the furnace to maintain and this thermostat gets you there accurately. This thermostat or a similar one is probably available at super-size department stores everywhere. This improvement is over three years old, works wonderfully, and we've only replaced the 2 AA batteries once. Return to top
This modification is so subtle yet so powerful for our use of the cabinet over our refrigerator. We were disappointed Airstream Company failed to provide any means of keeping the door open for the cabinet. We needed three hands to place anything in this small cabinet, one to keep the door up and two hands to arrange space and place the object. One day we were browsing in West Marine and found just the thing for this cabinet, a Spring Hatch Holder. This is a 8 1/2 inch stainless steel spring designed to hold a yacht deck hatch open. When extended, the spring becomes rigid and holds the door up. Pressing on the side of the spring releases the tension and allows the coil spring to fold out of the way and the door closes. Simple! Return to top
We used a Bose® subwoofer and two tiny Bose® cube speakers in our house for several years. These sound much brighter and deeper than the pair of five-inch Sony speakers factory-installed under the front roof locker. We left the front speakers and wiring in place but disconnected the wires eight inches from the radio and tied the Bose sound system in there instead. The two tiny cube speakers sit just inside the front roof locker, aimed out at the open curve of the camper's interior aluminum nose cone. The subwoofer fits between the dinette and the sofa, aimed at the camper's wall. It sounds really good and we still have the choice of fading from front to rear speakers. One of the best parts? Plug the television sound into the Sony radio and play movie's sound through the Bose system. Wow! Return to top
Jim replaced the already out-of-date Sony® radio with a new model (CDX-GT520) with iPod® interface built-in. The new radio, like the 2004 model, has remote control, plays CDs, sits hidden in a cabinet over the sofa, and controls speakers front and rear. The new radio additionally will play newer music formats, has more input jacks, has high definition capability, and allows us to plug the iPod or the XM/Sirius receiver directly to the radio front face. All our music resides on the iPod® so we can easily select and play our music library through the radio. We added a second XM account (we already had it in our Silverado) and more frequently pipe XM into our Sony to listen to the XM's pretty nice playlists. Works great. Return to top
[NOTE: This is superseded by the Intellipower 9260 we installed Summer 2009. We no longer use the method described below, although it worked fine for us for two years.] We wanted to switch the converter/charger off when operating on solar power without also turning off other circuits. The converter/charger can power all the (many) 12 volt lights, three fans, and the water pump without discharging the battery, plus supplies the batteries with a constant 13.8 volts charge power. We didn't like having the constant 13.8 volts charge power to the batteries because the batteries sometimes cannot tolerate well what may amount to overcharging.
Overcharging will cause the batteries to overheat and boil off their water. Some Airstreams' converter/charger uses a line cord to connect to a 110 volt power receptacle. The CCD Internationals' converter/chargers are wired directly to the circuit breaker. This Airstream originally had two 110 volt receptacles and the converter/charger on the same 20 amp circuit breaker. We moved the two roadside 110 volt receptacles to the microwave circuit breaker so the converter/charger is the only circuit on one breaker. While we don't want to use a circuit breaker as a line switch, for now this is the expeditious way for us to keep the converter/charger off and allow the batteries the solar charge controller's tender loving care they deserve. Return to top
The camper has a carbon monoxide (CO) detector in the bedroom. The smoke detector was installed in the living room on the ceiling above the sofa. This added to the clutter of an otherwise beautiful curved ceiling already containing recessed lights and the television antenna hand crank. We relocated the smoke detector to the wall in the bedroom beside the CO detector and five inches below the ceiling to avoid the dead air pocket at the wall against the ceiling. We patched the two holes in the ceiling with 1/8" pop-rivets and you would not notice anything was removed. Return to top
Our Airstream has forty (40) 12 volt lights to illuminate the interior. Thirteen of these are ceiling lights, two are closet lights, two are vanity lights, four are reading lights, eight are task lighting, and the remaining eleven are indirect lights in the roof lockers. Thirty-five of these were ten watt quartz halogen lights.
An energy czar from Tennesee was said to have remarked there is only one energy saving device, the on-off switch. This works well for us, we don't use much lighting in the first place. The only time the overhead lights are on is for cleaning the camper. We'll sometimes turn the indirect lights on because they just look so darned cool. Otherwise we only use the lighting we need to read, or cook, or put things away. Still, ten watt lights are really bright so we thought we'd try reducing the wattage (therefore, the power consumption) in half to five watt bulbs.
We found a very good source in Atlanta, GA (http://www.atlantalightbulbs.com/) with a wide variety of bulbs to serve our needs. We selected 5 watt xenon bulbs. They create less heat, have longer lives, and are sufficiently bright for all our indirect lights and our reading lights. Since these are the lights we use most often we can operate at almost one-half the lighting energy. This extends, a little, our battery life when we are not on shore power. Return to top
We also are test-driving four LightBlasters LEDs. We have four three-diode strips and three bayonet bases (as for automotive 1143 bulb bases). We have one in position A of the washroom ceiling fixture, one in the porch light, and one each in our two wardrobes. We like these in the limited applications. The LEDs produce plenty of light and use almost no power at all, compared to the 5 and 10 watt bulbs they replaced. Color quality isn't terribly important to us in these four spots. We're waiting on market pricing and color improvements to add LEDs to our living space.
S8. Rewired the light in washroom:
Summertime we sometimes are in areas boasting temperatures, at least temporarily, above 75 degrees. If the temperature gets a little too warm in the camper, or on the patio, we can turn on our portable 12v fan and direct it where we want the breeze. The fan also helps with the bugs when needed. The camper has two 12 volt cigarette-type lighter sockets for power inside. We added a 12v power receptacle in the curbside cargo compartment so we can plug in the fan outside as well. Return to top
We carry enough clothes and linens for two weeks without laundering. We have enough changes of shirts, pants, socks and underwear to last without offense to anyone near or far. (at least, that's the theory) We tried this out on our trip to Vancouver BC last Fall and it worked very well and the same thus far this year. We wanted a convenient place to keep a week's dirty clothes until we move them to the larger laundry bag. We found a steel-framed woven reed basket at Michael's Crafts in Charlotte to fit precisely in a spare space under one of the dinette benches. There is enough room at the top to place clothes in without drawing the basket out. We line the basket with a mesh laundry bag we lift out when full and add the clothes to the larger laundry bag. Return to top
This project evolved for for three purposes, for easily accessible storage, as a footrest, and for additional seating. We aren't blessed with a tremendous amount of floor space but saw an opportunity to easily achieve these three ends. We designed a box eighteen inches long by thirteen inches high by twenty-four inches long. We added four rubber feet to the bottom and a five inch pad to the hinged lid. A friend upholstered the pad and box exterior with two Sunbrella® fabrics matching the sofa. The interior of the box serves as padded storage for the television and a laptop. Biggest negative? Darned heavy, thus reducing our net carrying capacity for other things (hint: don't make yours out of 3/4" plywood).
