This weekend we spent all of Saturday and then an hour on Sunday working. The brevity was on account of how blisteringly hot it was. In the morning, Peter made and installed a patch where the TV antenna had been, and then removed the old back skylight, replacing it with a Fantastic Vent. During this time I tried mapping our wires, which in retrospect was probably useless work, but did give me an opportunity to inspect the existing wires and get an idea of how much we would have to run.
Then, Will arrived!
We had reached out to a couple vendors about helping us with electric. First was Peter's brother's girlfriend's uncle who is an electrician--he didn't feel comfortable advising due to the unique nature of Airstream systems. I also messaged two RV retailers in Rhode Island (with service departments), thinking they might be able to direct my inquiry, but got no response. Then I sent an email to Dave Jewell at Cay Electronics on the island, who in fairness to him got back to me pretty quickly, but asked me to complete an audit of our electrical loads on our existing systems, which left me feeling overwhelmed. I also emailed Lithionics Battery in Clearwater, Florida, but ended up not returning their calls because we were looking for someone local.
Enter, Will. Will and his wife Nicole were the first Airstream account I started following when Peter brought me in on his renovation plans. They caught my attention because they had only just finished their renovation as we were starting, and they had the same year and model as us, and they were based out of our area. Not a ton of Airstreamers in New England, so this was exciting!
Wanting to outsource the electrical work, and feeling discouraged about finding someone with such niche expertise, I messaged their account on Instagram and asked how they handled this problem. Nicole wrote back that her stepfather was an electrician, and that he was self-isolating because of coronavirus, but that her husband did their system and would be interested in helping us with ours, YASSSS!
So Will inspected our situation, agreed to do the electric for us, and then gave up a boatload of free encouragement and advice about our renovation. It was so nice to hear from another Airstreamer that we were on the right track and making progress. Really excited to have him work with us! And also very excited to relinquish my stress and confusion about executing electrical installation. ;)
Other things that were accomplished: Airstream was powerwashed and leak-tested, simultaneously. No more black mold and mildew! Inside seams are 2/3 caulked. Access doors are removed and came back to our apartment with us for weather stripping replacement. KT lock came out of the door and is also down in CT with us for repair. Detached striker plates are re-riveted back on the windows and the drop-down step was sanded and sprayed with Rustoleum. Peter worked out how the piping for the tank vents will work, but we bought the wrong size pipe so we will try that again next time.
Scaffolding is down! Roof is "done"!
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