Whew! After a tiny bit of messing around yesterday and a verrrrry long day today, the Shasta is finally empty! Well, sort of finally empty. The stove and the icebox and the kitchenette don't fit through the door -- but everything is loose! 

Getting that kitchenette out was terrible. Awful. Horrible. There were so many nails and staples and screws and things holding it in from the outside. My arms are aching but I am so excited to be able to say that I've hit this milestone!

On to the pictures: 
THIS little trim piece was so hard to get off. And the wall piece was even more difficult. It was nailed in BEHIND the paneling. Ughhhhh.
Goodbye disgusting mold!
Had to take some pipes apart. Luckily DH had a pipe wrench!
The left side of this window trim was NAILED IN to the window. It was the only one... the rest of them just unscrewed and lifted out. That was infuriating too.
Had to unscrew these from the outside. There were some little plastic pieces holding them on.
There's one.
This guy had to be unscrewed too.
There's the water tank that it was attached to.
More damage to deal with.
But woohooo! It's all out!!!
Let the repairs begin...
 
Just a few things I've got squirrelled away for the fun part. :-)
 
Closets came out today, as well as more paneling, including walls and ceiling! The ceiling was especially challenging because the panels had been fitted into these white supports. Trying to wiggle the panels out was really hard, so I ended up cutting part of the support to get started. Cut a little, wiggle a little, cut a little more, wiggle a little more. Try to get a hold somewhere, see if something will come loose. That's how the process went.

There's the "in" for the electrical. No wonder nothing worked. I think we're probably lucky that it just didn't work at all. Who knows what might have happened if it did.
Closet floor. Water tank is in there, I'm assuming? 
This is the inside of a closet. That's wet wood. I've got a leak up on the roof that I'm going to have to figure out. This is also on the side where the tree fell, so I'm going to guess that the tree put some kind of hole in the roof. More to research!
Here's the side of the ice box. We are planning to install an electric mini-fridge in its place.

This is the inside of the kitchenette. I had originally hoped that maybe we could just leave it in place. Uhhhhh, nope. It will be coming out too. I'm going to need some help with disconnecting the sink.
 
Ok, Day 2 of serious demo. The project was to get as much of the paneling out as possible. Here, I used the prybar/nail puller. A lot. There were so many paneling nails in there. So, I basically just pounded the nail puller side into the paneling wherever there was a nail. Often, the nail puller caught hold and I was able to just pull the nail out and move on to the next one. Some of them were stubborn little buggers, though, and try as I might, I just couldn't get the nail puller around the nail. Luckily, these were mostly in the middle of the panels, though, so once I got as many of the nails out as I could, I used the multi-tool to saw around the top of the panel (next to the ceiling). I went slow and tried to start prying the paneling back bit by bit to make sure I wasn't cutting into anything crucial.

Cutting around the wheel well was a bit tricky. It's not like the multi-tool is lightweight and I didn't feel like I had a lot of control, but ultimately it worked out okay. I kept going back over it as often as I needed to, to get the cut as close to the wheel well as possible. There was no wiggling the paneling out from behind it, and the paneling was attached at the floor somehow, so my only option was to cut around the wheel well. 

Here are some shots with the first couple of pieces of paneling off. Once I got going, it was easier. (Don't get me wrong, it wasn't "easy" by any means, but the more pieces that came off, the easier it was to get at what I needed to for the next piece.) Pulling nails was by far the most tedious part so far. 

Curbside and back paneling off for today. This was about 3-4 hours work for me by myself. Not too bad. Interesting wiring in there!
 
First, I took LOTS more pictures of where everything is inside, so that after I get everything out, I will know how to put it back together. I just went round and round the interior, taking pictures from lots of different angles.
Here is another view of the tree damage on the street side. The ceiling is caved in, the wall has a hole (between the bunk rail and the top) that was patched with some sort of white stuff, and the wall is cracked below the window. My hubby already took out the light fixture, leaving the box exposed on the wall.
Note the white and gold speckled contact paper that used to cover the ceiling. Yuck.

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Alright, it's time to get going. I determined that the bunk needed to come out and the bench seats needed to be removed first. Here we go! 

First my husband helped me get the bunk out. He unscrewed the piano hinge on the bottom side at the back of the bunk. Once that was out, we were able to lower it down and fold it up to get it out the door. It is sooooo heavy. That was definitely a two person job. 

Once that was out, I took out the loose boards covering the benches. A couple of them just had plywood sitting on top, so anything that wasn't nailed down, I tossed out. Then I started demo-ing the bench seats. Basically, I just unscrewed any screw that I could find that wasn't stripped. I got things loosened up a bit. Some of them weren't coming out though, and some things had been screwed in from the outside of the frame in. That's where I used the multi-tool. I was able to guide the blade between the benches and the floor and the benches and the wall and cut through the screws that I couldn't get out any other way. It was a little slow going, but not a bad job. 

A little progress!!
I can't believe how much random crap is in these benches. Pretzels. Q-tips (unused, I think). Tags off of clothing. Cigarette butts. Just in case the smell of the camper didn't confirm that someone had used it as an ashtray, I found the proof. Three cigarette butts.
I don't think I'm supposed to be able to see the ground from in here...
Whew. At the end of day 1 of demo. Benches are all out. Tomorrow I'm starting on the paneling! 
 
I certainly am no expert, but I did a bit of research and this is what I came up with to start with: a prybar/nail puller, a multi-tool, a power drill, and a heavy hammer. Oh, and a place to store all of the crap we will be taking out of the camper.

My dear husband already has a Bosch cordless drill and a nice heavy hammer. I'm ordering the prybar/nail puller and the multi-tool.

If anyone cares, this is what I ordered: 

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Shark Corp 21-2225 10-Inch Prybar and Nail Puller
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000224TY/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

I just read the reviews to find a good one. (Update: It's working well so far! I'm not wishing for a different one or anything.)  

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PORTER-CABLE PCE605K 3-Amp Corded Oscillating Multi-Tool
Kit with 31 Accessories

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008V4NFC2/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 A little spendy, coming in at over $100, but I chose this one because of the easy-change blades, the long cord, and the depth guide. (Just a note: most of the 31 "accessories" are sandpaper.)

(Update: so far, so good. I have blades to cut wood and metal, which is important for getting through the screws coming in from the outside!)

And a friendly PSA: remember to unplug the tool before trying to change the blades. You have to squeeze with quite a bit of force and you might forget exactly how to switch the blades in and out at first and get dangerously close to the on/off switch while monkeying around with the switcheroo. Not that that's what happened to me, or anything... ;-)


 
So here are a few more pictures of what we are dealing with. 
Did I mention that a tree fell on the street side at some point? It doesn't seem to leak up there, so there is probably a patch on the roof that is doing its job at this point. I'll have to check that out. This side is pushed in a little and the wing got smashed up. I'm going to have to try to straighten that out somehow. 
Said tree probably has something to do with this bent up window frame. We were able to pry the jalousie glass out of it, but it was tough... I ended up covering the screen with a plastic garbage bag to keep out the elements until I can figure out how to repair or replace the window. There's some mold/mildew below the bunk rail. I'm sure this whole wall is full of yuck.
Trying to get some of the paneling off to see what's behind. Not such an easy process... looks like it's time to order some tools. (That green is the inside of the skin.) Off to do some research and check out Amazon.
 
My sister and I had been on the hunt for a vintage trailer since last summer, when the "fever" set in. Winters in Wisconsin aren't very conducive to trailer fixing, though, so we took a search-hiatus -- but the warm weather (finally!) set things in motion again. This little Shasta was listed on Craigslist, and located only 5 blocks away from me. Once I saw here, I knew she had to be mine. I could see past all of her ugly, broken trappings to what she could be: glamorous. divine. gorgeous. mine.

Here she is the day we brought her home. Try not to be frightened.
Can you believe I bought something in this condition... yikes!
Gross... There's the broken table and part of the "replacement ceiling." Um, yeah.
Oh, did I mention the electrical doesn't work? At all. Oh well, good thing my DH knows a bit about wiring.
Potty closet. Handy. I'm not sure anyone bigger than a child could fit in that tiny closet (and I don't just mean under that little nook -- the whole closet is teeny.)
Check out that ceiling. 
More grossness and a weird replacement table. We have two!