Marie---I'll forward another response I made earlier to someone regarding
the back bed:

Our bed in the back. As I said, ours is set up for the twins. My dh really
wanted to get a full size bed in the back as well. But I didn't want to give
up the walking space and storage access provided by the twins. So, we
designed the beds to be converted into a huge king in the back when we
wanted/needed it. I had slide-out supports tucked into one twin that slide
out and meet the other twin when we want the king bed. Then I have luan
board sheeting that lays over that (it stores under the mattress) to evenly
support the mattress cushions. The mattress cushions to fill up the space I
debated on a long time and I'm not sure we came up with the best solution. What we
did is made two long "bolster" cushions that fill in the space. It works well
when they're down and I store them on the twins as bolsters (like a sofa).
They are a little long and some times they are a pain in the butt to maneuver
around. But if you are dedicated to the king bed it works out really well.
We just got back from a trip last week and we opted to leave the cushions
home and we just slid the twins together. Not quite as much room in bed but it
was effective (if you know what I mean!).

You may be wondering also about any cabinet between our beds. We used to
have this cabinet that was pretty ineffective as far as providing storage. It
stuck up over the mattresses which disallowed the above procedure I just talked
about. So, it was removed. It was a smart move because it gave us so much
more walking space in the back. The storage space we gained when we raised
the beds up more than compensated for the space we gave up. In fact, we
have a little night-stand that spans the two beds to replace the little night
storage you need to put your glasses on and books, etc. It simply is a
piece of matching formica countertop that was notched into place on top of the
bed frames. Reinforced, people can even sit on it to put their socks on.

I had even thought about putting a pull-up counter top back there but this
is better I think because of the back slant of the trailer. We could,
however, also put a table back there--one like you often see in other campers with a
post/tube support that slips into a toe-stubber, floor-mounted sleeve. But
we decided not to.

Some other ideas for you, Marie:

I'm a retro/deco girl so I tried to redo the whole project with that look in
mind as well as keep the integrity of the airstream itself. I chose a hard-
rock maple wood which was a splurge I know. It is "very heavy". However,
it is stained golden to match also my collection of Heywood Wakefield
furniture and its lightness also makes it appear much bigger. In fact, we made all
the pulls ourselves to match that of some of the HW furniture. If I had a 2nd
choice of wood now, it would likely be the cabin-look pine. It's much
lighter (& cheaper!) But in some places, a hard-wood frame might have to be used
because pine is so soft.

Also, to tie into the 50's look, I used the boomerang formica pattern for the
new countertops. This is a discontinued pattern but you can still dig some up
from some of the suppliers. I am, however, very disappointed with its
serviceability--it scratches very easily. I think I'd use a standard color if
I were to do this over. There's also some really cool "aluminum" looking
laminates and metal products out there now. They aren't cheap but you don't
need much product!

Another thing we did to add to the 50's look and was very easy was we
"wallpapered" the kitchen/bathroom backsplash walls with 1/8" maple plywood.
This went right over the original "plastic" and allows for one seamless
finished product. Again, it gave a unified look. Some folks might scream
with horror, I know, because we "altered" the outside skin, but it was worth
it to me and I just am not that thrilled with the beige plastic look. The
sheets of plywood are really quite reasonable. Another option would have
been to use the boomerang formica of course.

I also have heavily decked out my utensils and accessories with aluminum
products from the 50s, chrome toaster, great melmac dishes, etc. This is part
of me and I happen to have it anyway---besides, don't have to worry about
the "crystal" breakage.

I must admit we never came up with a great solution to the window treatments.
We ended up ditching the pull-down shades as they were falling apart. We kept
the exisiting solid-beige drapes and added aluminum mini blinds. I wanted to
have the flexibility of privacy as well as air flow and this has met that
need. I would like to replace the drapes someday with a cooler fabric, but
that's another project!

As you can likely tell, I really liked this little project and am full of many
ideas (but, as my husband reminds me, they are all at a $$cost$$!).

I'm full of things we did--it was great therapy for me as my dh was going
through horrific cancer treatments at the time---I think it was one of the few
things that helped me keep my sanity. Let me know if I can help in any
other way....I'll try to work on those pictures but if you need more specific
explanations, please let me know.

nancy in missouri