Completed projects:

roof, kitchen, master bedroom, main bathroom (sans shower tile), fireplace, hardwood flooring, windows, office, front entry, stairway

Ongoing projects:

shower surround, dapping/painting woodwork, ensuite vanity/lights/mirror, painting outdoor trim, finishing front entry tile work, interior door painting and hardware, decorating

Sunday, June 22, 2008

My campground getaway.. leisure or work?

So I escaped to the campground this weekend.

This season is playing out very different from other years. Cody is with his dad on most weekends so that leaves me with some total solitude. It's different, but still nice. As always. I love being here.

My trailer is smaller this year too as I downgraded my 24' to a 17'. But it's newer and nicer inside so the tradeoff has been a good one. I'm happy to report, I'm starting to bond with my new 2nd home.

And how does this translate into work you ask? Trust me, I find something to work on.

Most others have personalized their spaces by now. I haven't spent enough time up here to do that as yet. But after visiting my neighbours and seeing their beautiful setups, plants and such, I walked into my spot and stood on my bare little cement blocked patio and decided it was time.

I did my homework. I walked the entire site peeking in on other's setups. Some had gorgeous wooden patios (not in my budget by any means) and others, beautiful gardens. (wow..) So my first stop was the campground boneyard.

I LOVE boneyards! For those not familiar with the term, it's a collection of unused crap. And if you're a flea market queen such as I, you love to go through it and create new and wonderful stuff out of special finds.

I found some cool stuff. I found two longish small benches that I set on the left and right side of my cement patio. I found a picnic table top only (no benches attached) that I placed to the right side of the patio for the table top bbq and campstove. And to the left, I found the perfect stripped picnic table (took alot of searching!) with no stain left on it that a campground friend helped me lug over.

And I started scrubbing. Lots of green on this lovely wooden stuff. Once the green was off, it revealed a really nice weathered putty colour stain, that matched my trailer! SCORE!

So I visited the campsite owner and inquired if they had the same colour leftover paint. She laughed at me and explained this was 20 yr old paint I was talking about! But she was curious as to what I was up to so I showed her my new setup. She then led me into the boneyard paintshop. We found the can! And it wasn't dry!

So I started whitewashing the wooden stuff, piece by piece. This wasn't work. This was cool. Where you forget to eat kinda cool.

I looked at the time. I HAD to dash out and look for a couple of flowering plants. I found a place in Agassiz that had stuff on for a fraction of what it's worth due to the time of year and got two flowering baskets, one for each bench top. Came back, tried it out, perfect! Continued with painting.

Jenna was NOT very impressed with my long day at the site, for she was missing out on her beach walk. Ok ok... I reluctantly put down the brushes and rags, whipped up some dinner (a baby steak, corn on the cob and Vic's delicious baked potates) and then we did our beach walk.

Then it became dark so I visited some campsite neighbours instead, borrowed a movie to watch, and forced myself to wait until today to continue.

My 'new look' isn't quite complete yet but it's turning out awesome! And very personalized and best of all, FREE! With a little creativity... So much so I'm curious if they'd release some of that boneyard stuff so I could do a set of something or other for my renovated home too. Like I don't have enough to do at home already...

My thoughts have most definately been on the house and what I ought to be doing there. But I'll be there soon enough so I'm trying not to immerse myself in it. Chill out, diversion is the survival technique for me it seems.

I'll post pics of my little hideaway when it's complete. As for now, time to get back to wor... leisure!