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Time to roll up our sleeves and start giving this ship a new lease on life.
We started by removing the trash but quickly moved to pulling up the tile flooring. there were a couple of layers of flooring added over the years, from a mahogany veneer in the 1960s to an avocado green carpet in the 70s then later a faux stone vinyl tile in the 90s, and some throw rugs after that.
The mahogany on on bottom was actually quite pretty, but there was no easy way to salvage it because of a thick layer of sticky glue on it that after 60 years still was quite sticky. ultimately the plan is to sand it down and throw a layer of waterproof synthetic wood material. We want to be green, and we want it to be toddler proof, so industrial strength synthetic will be our probable choice.
As we were working on the tile we also decided to tackle the front couch. Years of water intrusion had made the couch super comfortable and inviting. Not to people, but apparently to small furry rodents and various insects. It seems that leaks around the front window allowed water to come in and rot the floor away to the point that it became a pest superhighway where animals would come in from around the tongue and then come up through the rotted out hole in the floor. Fortunately we were planning on taking everything out and starting from scratch, so we were able to demo everything.
It was surprising how solid the couch frame was, all things considered. After 60 years most of the wood in the frame was totally solid despite the intruders and the constant exposure to water. I guess they used better wood back then. We ended up saving a lot of the wood and were able to reuse it later in the project as well as for other projects. parts of this framing made a grate cabinet for our babies cloths.
Despite the fact that in every cabinet and under every hiding space there was an abundance of infestation evidence, we never caught one mouse in any of our traps, nor did we find any living mice as we disassembled the trailer. Perhaps they got the memo that Morning Breeze was about to turn a new leaf and they got out of dodge before we moved her to the new location. Either way, I think it was a good omen as we moved forward with the restoration.