A New Itinerary - The Maritimes

Our Key West trip was great ... though, more relaxation as opposed to exploration. As soon as we got back in March, I started planning next summer's trip. This is going to be all about exploration, even more than last year's venture to the glaciers in the Canadian Rockies. We're going to Atlantic Canada ... New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and trying to work in Newfoundland and Labrador.

It's a very difficult trip to plan because it's all new to us. There's not a lot of places I've even heard about, so a great deal of time has been spent on research. But it shaping up to be fascinating. I've learned so much about the Maritimes already, I can wait to set out. Here's the early preliminary itinerary.

Washington DC to Bar Harbor - 715 miles
- will allow two overnights on the way

Bar Harbor to St. Andrews, New Brunswick - 145 miles

To Truro, Nova Scotia - 262 miles

To Annapolis Royal - 155 miles

To Yarmouth - 84 miles

To Halifax - 123 miles

To Louisbourg - 268 miles

To Pictou - 183 miles

Ferry to Prince Edward Island

To Charlottetown - 38 miles

To Cavendish - 25 miles

Drive 564 miles to Quebec City
- one overnight stop along the way

Quebec City to Montreal -157 miles

To Lake George - 162 miles

To Syracuse - 175 miles

To Niagra Falls - 162 miles

Still figuring it out after that. Have planned most places we will stay and allocated the length of stay. Have found some terrific sounding RV resorts. Will post when everything is fine tuned.

Redecorating Tor - Part 2

We made a trip back out to Manassas to take a look at the fabrics, borders and light fixtures we've gathered so far. Even after a few minutes we can tell that Gigantor's interior face lift is going to make all the difference in the world.
One of the black fabrics I brought, with a gold pin dot, is perfect for the new banquette cushions. The border I liked the best, though, is far too wide. Another one is okay, but 37' of it seems like it would be a bit much.

Rick takes a look at the border a bit more closely and determines it is an adhesive trim and pulls off without too much problem. So we're going to remove the borders throughout the entire interior, replacing it only surrounding the kitchen area to set it off just a bit.







The next thing to tackle is how to replace the fabric insets in the valances. The same fabric used in the banquette and mimicked in the border have also been used in the valances. They must have gotten quite a deal on this stuff, they used it everywhere! Enough already!













After removing the valance from the window, we find the insets are only stapled on and can be removed and recovered easily. Try the same black pin dot and decide it's too much ... will get a plain textured black and use the pin dot again for sofa pillows.










We had ordered one ceiling fixture to see how it looked before ordering nine ... there's not many choices in 12 volt lighting, but this one from Gustafson works perfectly. This change in itself will make a huge difference.




The white plastic fixtures came standard ... we are replacing them with this satin nickel one.

We leave Tor to go to a granite fabricator who did our kitchen and baths in our Georgetown home. He is a craftsman and we love his work. We get all of a half mile from Tor's storage facililty and see a granite workshop. It doesn't look fancy, but it is convenient. So we stop and what a find! They are not only craftsmen but artists. They are in the midst of creating stone plaques for Monticello and they are gorgeous.

The granite for our little bitty RV bathroom must seem like a joke to them, but they think it's fun and help us in our search through the stacks of granite. They whack off a chunk of a slab we think will work. Next step is to search for a new sink and faucets. We'll bring those back to Manassas Granite and Marble and bring Tor to them. They can do the installation right on their lot.

Redecorating Gigantor

We love Tor. But since we bought him straight off the lot and took off soon after, we didn't get to custom select any of the fabric/color/pattern choices. Frankly, I can't stand the banquette upholstery and coordinating valance and wallpaper borders. They have got to go ... and so do the counter tops, bathroom sink, vanity counter,banquette table and all the lighting. And now's the time. There's enough time before our August excursion and it's warm enough so we can comfortably do the work. We renovated a 200 year old Federal in Georgetown, so a little sprucing up of a 40' motor home should be a piece of cake.

We went to Tor's storage facility this week to take a serious look, bring some fabric samples and set out a plan. Here's some interior photos to show just what we want to change.

Everything needs to be ramped up ... higher quality ... more sophisticated materials ... and more gentle lighting to set it all off. Since the sofas and chairs are all beige leather, the available color palette is seemingly infinite. But, I find as I throw around bits of fabric I have from other projects, a black background upholstery best ties the kitchen/living area together. A color scheme starts to take shape.

Usually I'd start with selecting the upholstery fabric or rug. But the only rug used in the living/kitchen area will not be a major focal point. And I'm finding attractive wallpaper borders that will cover the existing one are few and far between. So, that's where I'm starting and the rest will flow from there.

After making several trips to places that used to sell wallpaper, I found none of them do any more. The Sherwin Williams website is my best bet. I've ordered five border samples that I think might do. I just have to wait a few days until they get here and I'll attack the fabric portion.