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The day Kate proposed to Ellen, October 2013 - we’d just told Adelaide, then 3, that we were going to get married. Image by Abbey Moore.
If we didn’t know where we wanted to call home, perhaps we needed to go everywhere to find it.
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Alaska, August 2015. The road to Hope.
If you're working full-time and renovating your trailer on the weekends, I would absolutely advise to allow yourself at least one year from demo-to-done. If you want to have a life and not feel chained to your renovation, stretch it out to a year and a half or even two years, which would allow you weekends off occasionally (without guilt!), time to take vacations, go to weddings, and see your grandma.
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So here we are, folks. This photograph was taken by my dearest Ashley, the first time we met her. She offered to drive up the coast and meet us at Crystal Cove in southern California to take photographs of us, as we were in those travelin' days of ours. I later had the photos printed and bound in a linen book, for they so perfectly captured us in the happiest days of our lives with our daughter and our beloved first Airstream, Louise.
We're a little less tan now (and a little less fit now that we're not hiking everyday), but we're still chasing after our dreams and our love for vintage Airstreams has just grown all the more. What could've been just a short chapter in our lives is expanding and growing in ways we never thought possible, but we're so thankful it has. There was a moment as we were wrapping up Louise's renovation, where our days were long and we'd collapse into bed so exhausted and weary we could barely move, that Ellen looked over at me with this big grin and said, I could do this for a living and be so damn happy every day. I love this work.
I laughed a little and said, we should probably do another one before we can be certain we've got the experience to renovate these for other people.
We couldn't have guessed in that moment that in less than a year from that night, we'd have that chance. Through an absolutely crazy turn of events, our days on the road came to a close and we had to sell Louise. Less than two months after the sale was finalized, we drove to check out an Airstream an hour north of our city. A fruitless excursion, for no matter how much I haggled or dangled cash in front of the salesperson at a shoddy ass used car and trailer dealership, he wouldn't budge on the $8,000 price tag of a 1971 Airstream Overlander. Feeling defeated, we drove away and then in a moment of hope, I popped on Craigslist to see if anything new had popped up overnight, and sure enough, it had. A 1977 Airstream Overlander, listed at a much more fair and appropriately priced five grand, down in Louisville, Kentucky.
I wasted no time emailing the owner of the listing and told them we'd be there as fast as the highway allowed us. When arriving, we realized the owners were folks who knew exactly who we were - in fact, they had been following our Airstream journey, and had even emailed us at one point to ask advice! It felt like kismet, and after a thorough inspection of the trailer, we grabbed a photo of all of us and gave them hugs and a stack of cash! We love that they are a part of this too, when we are working I think of them and hope we're doing them proud.
As we are moving forward with The Modern Caravan, I can't help but take stock of all the events that led to the work we are doing and what we are embarking on, and it gives me chills to think about it all. For me, I needed to see that we could do another Airstream renovation to know we had what it takes. I knew that in renovating for other people, having experience was crucial. Two different Airstreams, two different sets of problems, two very different designs, two completely different builds, yet we've stayed true to our aesthetic and craftsmanship. The ability to learn from one, and then learn even more the second time around, has given us the confidence and skills to pursue this passion of ours.
We knew when we purchased Louise two and a half years ago that our lives were changing, that that purchase meant something big. I remember standing in the doorway of our house the morning after we brought her home, cup of coffee in my hand, feeling as if I was seeing a mirage. It was so surreal, this dream of ours becoming a reality, and I still feel the same way today. Louise really was the start of something big, and it's beyond what we could have ever imagined possible.
If you're interested in working with us on your Airstream renovation, from design services to a full renovation, click here for information on how to make your dream a reality. We'd love to help you, because we know how much this means to you - it's big.
