Happy New Year!

I'm sitting in this boring brown little house. Did i mention that every room but the bathroom is brown. Including the outside and the carpet? And the ceilings are only 8 feet high?  I don't put up any curtains because I need as much light as I can get.

So I've start the new year alone (What's new) and thinking about financing. I will be starting tomorrow to get the financing together for the trailer that I don't even know where I'll get it from yet.

New Years Day I start the annual ritual of going through all my paperwork and getting everything wrapped up for the last year, while prepping for the New Year as I watch the highly edited Rose Parade.  My other goal for the rest of my last weekend of freedom is to clean out one closet of stuff. The less I have the less I have to move.  My land lady is 90+ and I don't know what might happen if she is called on to the next great adventure, Her son is taking care of the rental homes at the moment but I have no idea what the 'family' will do with the rent house that I'm in if anything, Goddess forbid, happens. I want to be ready for anything.

My New Year's Resolution is start and finish the Vardo. 

Happy New Year anyone that reads this.

Happy Solstice

I can't believe I missed the total eclipse of the Moon last night. ]

Jessh, I thought it was tonight. Oh well.

I'm not able to talk out loud about my build plans at the moment because my mother is visiting from Ohio. I mentioned to her that I wanted to build my own Vardo/travel trailer for camping and SCA'ing and was told very firmly that I didn't need it. Shrug... So I'm going to keep researching and planning and build it anyway just not mention it to my mom.

Our solstice altar is up and the libation has been offered, no candles yet. (It's my mother again. but lets not go there.)

Blessed Day everyone!

Happy Solstice: AKA Going Wiccan

Greetings Everyone!

Winter Solstice will be on December 21st this year. So my older sister and I are putting up a Winter Solstice Altar in the living room. As soon as I can figure out how to post a picture, which I'll need to learn how to do once the construction phase begins, I'll get you a look at what the Altar looks like.

Which leads me to the point of, "What does this have to do with the Vardo?"

I am thinking of making the Vardo green with a yellow roof and adding Celtic and Wiccan symbols instead of the standard Roma/Gypsy images.

Hey, I never said I was normal.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Save your money!

So I got the small house book by Jay Shafer. It is a beautiful small book, with the wonderful pictures from the website and the general outlines of small home building, small living lifestyle and conservation. But for actual construction information, there was little to go on. I found that the Go House Go pamphlet from Portland Alternative Housing to be far superior. Personal opinion here folks, buy the Go House Go book instead, get the Jay Shafer book from the library and save your money. Oh, I sold the small house book so I'm taking it off my total spread sheet. FYI.

Dreary December

I've spent the last two days in bed recovering from the flu. So nothing has been done on the vardo, research or actual construction. The book Tiny Houses by Jay Shafer is on the way, and I've been able to get a copy of the Tiny House PoPoMo plans. But now that I think about it there are going to be three actual phases. I'm deep in phase one Research. The second will be Planning and Finance and of course the third is Construction. I'm hoping to be able to get through Phase One and Two by say March, (There is still one last cc to be paid off). With an expected start date for Phase Three in April. Well plans never work right for me but it's nice to dream.

A Trailer Maker???

So a friend from work is listening to me talk about my Vardo that I want to build and how I would need to modify a new trailer and has given me the name of a trailer maker in a town about half an hour south of here.  Hurray!

The search for information continues, as I purchased the Small House book by Jay Shafer.  I asked for it through inter-library loan, but out of ten libraries that were queried about loaning it to me, it was out. Ok the closest library that even had it was 500 miles out of the state. Time to get the book for myself. (Donate it to the library later...) I have also asked for English Gypsy Caravans' by Ward-Jackson  because the current price is 100 to 200 dollars on Amazon. Cross your fingers for this one!

Added plus! The book comes with the free plans for a Small House PoPoMo which have the all important diagrams for attaching a building to the trailer.

I am not alone!

I am glad to know that I am not alone in the wish for a smaller distinctive and functional camper.

There is a whole yahoo group, Vardo Shavora, which is dedicated to providing chat, faq's and a discussion board for those building thier own vardos and bowtops.

On my end of the world I'm still waiting on more research and finding the funding.

Also finding a place to build. I live in a rent house. So I may have get permission from the landlord to build here. 

More when it happens folks.

Waiting for more Research and Thinking about the money.

So I went to the 'trailer' store the next town over, yesterday. 
The trailer store is semi truck trailers. LOL.
So I'll be looking at the new Tractor Supply Company trailers instead.

The next few days I'll be waiting on more research to come in.
The Jay Shafer book has been requested by ILL and I'm still considering buying the Dom Vardo Plans from  Portland Alternative Dwellings.  It would save me having to figure out how to use Google Sketch Up.

Another consideration is cost. I do not want to pay for any of this on my cc's so I'll be figuring out how to swing paying for this little project from my paycheck. To that end I may go on a research trip on Monday to check out the local (Only 125 mile away) Restore to see what they have or normally carry.

Trailers Number One

So the first thing I need is a trailer.

Size: Cause if you don't know what you want before you go shopping....

So still being in research mode, I start looking at trailers of course the first consideration is size. I want enough room for sitting down and a good bed, having a little extra room for a few creature comforts includes a place for setting up the Coleman stove if I find the weather has really changed. So the size for a  basic small utility flatbeds are 5x8 and 5x10. I measured out these two spaces on the floor in the living room, and after confusing the cats for a while, I have figured out with my wish list for size I will want a single axle 5x10.

Now that I have the size, the next decision.New or Used.

I have been looking on Craigslist for what is available for used trailers but there are few true flat beds. Most in my area are being listed have a one foot high railing around the front and sides and more often than not, they are coming with a (for me anyway) useless ramp that I would have to take off.  And the books I have read so far are suggesting that if you do buy a used trailer that you remove everything and re-grease everything as well as checking all the parts over. So with all that work going into a used trailer a given, and I'm just nervous enough to want to not risk everything and am leaning towards purchasing a new trailer.


Now to find one.

There are new ones at the Tractor Supply Company and I'll be checking the other major lumber yard in town tomorrow as well as a trailer seller one town over.  I found a in state trailer manufacturer that I thought might be the best place to purchase a trailer from. Their website indicated that they would be able to work with customers for special orders, so I emailed them asking what the base price for one that I thought would be a perfect fit. They didn't answer the question and send me to my 'local' retailer. An hour away... (Can you say lost sale there folks).  I've found a small trailer store in the next town 10 miles away so I'll go out there on Monday and check them out for prices and options and see if they can do customizations or could recommend someone if I need a welder.

So still in research mode I wandered into my local DMV and asked about modifying a trailer into a travel trailer and what the requirements would be. I think I scared the poor ladies forced to work the day before Thanksgiving.  After I had to explain, twice that I wasn't modifying a travel trailer, I was buying a trailer and building a trailer onto it, they finally decided that I would have to a) register the trailer and then after the modifications/build it would have to be b) Inspected by some guy. ???? (From here on out I shall call him the Vardo Inspector or VI)  I have the gentleman's phone number and again I'll call after the holiday and find out if this wonderful person has more information about what I need for getting my Vardo that isn't even built yet, legal.

Trailer Modifications: Now the reason I want modifications is that Go House Go book from Portland Alternative Dwellings, recommends one way to attach a small house to a trailer which will require modifications to the frame, I'm waiting on Jay Shafer's book to take a look that those recommendations and what the 'Vardo Inspector' may comment on. There are even plans for the Dom Vardo' from Portland Alternative Dwellings, that I may have to buy if it will get the VI to go along with my plans. I don't want to have troubles if I can avoid them now. FYI: The Go House Go book is an ebook FYI: It doesn't say that anywhere on their website and you have to pay through Pay Pal. But Ms. Dee is willing to answer any questions you might have. I haven't had any YET, but.... 

At this point I'm off to cook Thanksgiving Dinner for my next door neighbor and myself. Neither of us could get 'home' i.e. to other family this Thanksgiving so we've decided to celebrate together.

Happy Thanksgiving All.

Building a Vardo : The beginnings...

I've decided to build my own vardo.  This little blog will chronicle the journey.

First up: Why a vardo?

Because I decided that tent camping it no longer for me, I want to go camping when I have time, which is in the fall and spring. In Texas with it's unpredictable weather means I want a roof over my head.

So I started to look around, and at this point I started to feel like Goldilocks.

This is to big:


I started by looking at various travel trailers.
What I found was basically a hotel room, tv's dvd players, cable hook up... the works. I kept expecting to find a jacuzzi tub in one. Where is the fun of that?  I don't want to camp out / live in the trailer, I just want to have a place to run into when the weather gets nasty and a place that's dry to sleep.

This is to small. 

So I started looking at smaller trailers and found Teardrops!
Cute: A nice bolt hold if the weather changes. But the downside is that you have to craw into bed.
Without a place to sit with a book, or invite someone in or even stand up and stretch.
Sooo not for me.

This is just right!

That's when I discovered Bowtops and Vardos:

Honest Truth: I spotted them watching the My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on Youtube. 

Now here is a travel trailer I can relate to!
A bed, room to move around, and it doesn't look like a big white box!
Color! Style, PERFECT!

Now I'm not quite sold, so I start reading:

• How to Build a Bowtop by Walter Lloyd 
• (Which I had to Interlibrary Loan from England so if you want to read it, off to the library you go!)
• The New Gypsy Caravan by Timothy Lemke
• Go House Go from Portland Alternative Dwellings  
• And I've got Small House Book by Jay Shafer on order

And decide that Bowtops are nice but Vardo's are Victorious! 


Links:
As soon as I figure out links I'll get these too.

So I started doing more research.  Trailers....

But that's a whole other post.