My husband has joked over the years that I believe if I have 780 SF we should be able to have 780 people in our house! One square foot per person would be FINE!. Obviously, I do not really believe that, but I do love to entertain and have overnight guests. One of my favorite things is to leisurely sip coffee in the morning with our guests on the deck or on a coffee cruise on our boat. No phones, no screens, no distractions, just good ole conversations.
One would think having only 1 bedroom would mean we can’t have guests spend the night, but, we solved that problem when we did the remodel. Click here to hear about our “sleeping quarters” in the annex.
The camper was a great solution to allow us to host a larger group. Our guests did not have steep stairs to climb, they had their own sleeping area and it had a toilet. Since we live on the water most people want to visit us when the boat can be in the water. We knew we would not be able to borrow our friends’ camper every time we had guests so we looked into the cost to rent a camper when we host large groups. We decided for the amount of money and the hassle of renting a camper we would look into purchasing one.
Should be simple enough, right? Wrong! We were surprised to see the price tag on campers that, in our opinion, needed a lot of work. We looked at a number of ones that smelled bad, had leaks or a layout that would not work out for what we had in mind.
The one we finally chose was a good price, appeared to have only one “small spongy spot” on the floor, the layout worked and the guy would deliver it to our house. Great!
Our original plan for the camper was to rip out the kitchen area in order to accommodate a queen bed. 2 new twin mattresses, updated toilet, new flooring & a fresh coat of paint throughout & it would be good to go. Then we said those famous last words: “2 weekends of hard work and we can have guests sleeping in it by the end of the month”! We did not think to specify the end of which month and what year we would have guests sleeping in it.
The one “spongy” spot on the camper floor turned into most of the floor being completely rotted out- as in only sawdust remaining/how was the ground not showing- rotted. Also, the back of the camper walls had rot as well. What started as a” two-week” (the quotes refer to what we thought would be the timeline) project turned into 2 years. Ultimately, we basically gutted the whole thing, leaving only one above cupboard and the cabinet with the heater.
Since its debut The Sunset Trailer has been a welcome addition to our sleeping quarters at The Little House. We have had as many as 15 people sleeping overnight at our little house, with The Sunset Trailer holding 4 sleeping guests (two on a queen air mattress). It was a long, somewhat ugly, refurbish but it is worth it to us so that we host larger groups and can give our guests a variety of sleeping options. With a portable a/c unit and heater we can accommodate guests for almost 8 months of the year.
