I'm not the only one who had gotten overwhelmed, right?

Hi Keri,

I sway back and forth between progress and freaking out...altho I am not doing ALL of the work myself, so that can be a blessing and a curse...I am happy when my OWN stuff is done (not always right tho), but at times think it is becoming a money pit (read: labor of love......)....I am just beside myself wanting mine to be DONE!....but it will likely be next spring instead of this summer/fall, which is a bummer. I look to inspiration from those on this site whose trailers are finished, some have multiple trophies/campers and just try and live vicariously! ug..its hard...I want mine done NOW (I sound like that brat in Charlie and the Chocolate factory!)..ha!

I hope others can give you more inspiration than I...I can just say I lOVE my Ginger Shasta and I have had the meltdowns too!

Overwhelmed could be my middle name.  I bought a trailer last summer and am lucky enough to have someone who is working on it "with" me.  (He has the expertise, me the labor.)  I also have a member of this forum as a mentor and I'm STILL overwhelmed.  Mine is a total rebuild and won't be done till next summer due to time and $ constraints.  Meanwhile I bought a tow vehicle and get anxious thinking about actually pulling a trailer and camping and all the things that can go wrong. It's very noisy in my head.  I just have to reassure myself that many others have gone before and been successful.  I did have a success the other day.  I had my new SUV and needed to parallel park, which I'd never done in that vehicle.  And it wasn't that big of a spot.  The vehicle behind me was a very pricy sports car with a man standing next to it.  He glared at me the whole time but I managed to squeeze my Highlander into the spot and hit nothing.  Including the spectator.  We CAN do it.  

Oh Keri, don't worry, you are FAR from being alone...LOL. I am a single gal, who up and bought a 63 Shasta. I've never towed A THING in my life. I am lucky that a friend is fantastic at building and agreed to help me with the rebuild. Otherwise, that thing would still be in the sad shape it was!
But I had the buyer's-remorse-sleepless-nights, the meltdown when the day after we got it home I went over to wash it, and the back end was torn out, and SO many more! LOL

But now, she's about 90% done, and to tell you the truth, I miss those days! I've towed her all by myself 3 time and so far we've lived..lol.

YOU WILL BE OKAY! Just log on here and ask questions and absorb all the fantastic info the kind experts have to offer. You WILL get there!
One day at a time!

check out my blog (go to the oldest entry to see how it began) and see what I went through.
www.myvintagecamper.blogspot.com

And I love your blog Brenda! I've been reading it today so if you get some random comments that's probably me!

I agree with Hamlet. Sometimes you have to take a break and work on the fun stuff for a while. My lowest moment with my Siesta redo was when we had already rebuilt the back end and it leaked really badly and we had to tear it all apart again. Not fun. But we got through it. We've been working on it for about a year and a half, and I'm beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I would say that the first 3 months of the restoration were 90% freak out and 10% I can do this. Each little success and word of encouragement from folks here slowly allowed this the ratio to reverse. YOu can definitely do it! It's a one day at a time thing, celebrate and share your progress.

I had a goal, an 8 week road trip with my then turning 13 yr old son.  He was going to paddle in the Jr Kayaking Olympics in Colorado. My focus was on getting it road worthy not pretty.  We did it albeit a couple of weeks behind schedule, and she was not the head turner thing she is now....not even close--in fact no one said what a cute trailer for 8 weeks and 8,000 miles.  8 weeks of precious memories that will last a lifetime. We were happy, we were camping, and I pretty much did it myself.  It is still a huge source of pride and confidence and even inspiration that I can tackle anything I put my mind to.

Congrats on the rear framing....I thought that was actually the hardest part of framing, dealing with the curve.

Wow, yeah, that would be pretty awful. I'm lucky in that I kind-of knew exactly what I was getting into. My trailer was really bad, with the floor okay, but all 4 corners rotted away and the ceiling vent/ceiling rotted, but it was free. And you can't beat free right?!?! Lol. Even though I "knew", I definitely underestimated how little actual skill I had. My big freak-out last week was kind of a turning point for me though and I'm definitely feeling MUCH more confident. I finished the rear framing today, now on to the front curb side (door forward) then the roof will come off to fix around the vent. I'm definitely going to sweet-talk my stepdad into helping with that!!!

Btw (just for other women out there)--I'm a 40 year old woman who had never picked up a circular saw before. I'll admit to being fairly crafty and my stepdad says I'm pretty mechanically inclined so I guess that helps too, but putting one of these trailers back together is definitely NOT just something guys can do. It takes much less muscle and much more brain power.