Visit our Popular Forums

whitney · 12-31-2011, 08:18 PM

Hi all!

Picked this Sovereign International up on Christmas Eve. PO bought it new in '77, died inside of it in 2010. He loved to smoke and the interior is super nasty. It sat unoccupied for a year before I picked it up. Well, unoccupied except for all the critters that set up shop.

Now it's mine and I'm going for a complete renovation.

It's a center bath and the furniture's been removed (it was originally a twin bed). I'm keeping the kitchen and bathroom largely intact, since all the appliances work.

I spent the past couple days knocking out whatever walls and trim I didn't like. Most of the walls have to be removed anyway so I can clean/strip/paint them.

Here're some photos. I removed the closet assembly across from the bath and will be turning it into a tiny closet (entry from the bedroom) with some countertop/cabinets situated over the wheel well.

I also cut off half of a wall in the bathroom so that the shower didn't feel so claustrophobic. PO replaced the original toilet with an elongated residential model... not crazy about it, but I think I'm going to see if I can make it work.

Found a nice little mouse nest under the sink.

I removed the overhead storage in the bedroom and hallway. Also removed the storage compartment above the fridge in the hopes of extending line of sight further down the trailer.

I'll be updating this thread as I go along... lots to do!

Jfuller678 · 12-31-2011, 11:39 PM

I read your blog and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very creative. I look forward to hearing your updates on the Sovereign Rehab and I'm sure you find lots of help here on the Forum.

whitney · 01-07-2012, 07:41 PM

Thank you!

New post up. dead reckon - Step 1: DESTROY.

I'm finally done ripping out all the pieces-parts I found superfluous. Big pile of stuff! Gone!

I decided to tackle everything in two parts... going to do the bedroom/bathroom area, and then deal with the front of the trailer.

Doing a lot of paint prep at the moment... clean, rinse, TSP, rinse, sand, rinse, prime, prime, spray. It's, uh, pretty time-consuming!

I flirted with the idea of using Krylon for the walls, because it sticks so well to plastic, but I can't handle the smell. I'm going to try my luck with Mythic primer and paint, plus an additional plastic primer for the endcaps and bathroom fixtures.

whitney · 01-19-2012, 07:38 PM

FINALLY got the bedroom/bathroom painted. Here was my process, for those interested in painting over that wretched vinyl wallpaper. I decided to skip the sanding step because it seemed like it would take forever, with little effect.

- Scrubbed everything hard with a Windex-soaked cloth.
- Rinsed.
- Scrubbed with TSP. (Didn't seem to do much.)
- Rinsed.
- Two coats of Mythic Interior/Exterior Multi-Purpose Primer. Let the first coat cure for about a week, then let the second coat sit for a few days. The upper parts of the walls didn't have any stickiness, even though it had been there prior to priming.
- One coat of Mythic Black Label Interior Semi-Gloss, applied with a 3/8 nap roller and smaller, fluffier roller on the endcap. Love this paint. No odor and it went on really thick and smooth.

The off-white shade is called Cloud Nine and it's by Benjamin Moore. I super love it. I thought a pure white would make things look too stark, like a hospital trailer.

Next, I'm gonna try to resuscitate the sink and medicine cabinet with some POR-15, and then begin making a new shower pan.