Koehn family journey

Sunday, August 29, 2004

Airstream


Airstream
Originally uploaded by chriskoehn.
Our 1979 Airstream International, taken on her maiden voyage, and before we discovered that she leaked like a sieve (and before we figured out that mold was what was making our allergies go nuts while in her..)

Ruth&Rainer


Ruth&Rainer
Originally uploaded by chriskoehn.
Ruth & Rainer, taken when Rainer was just 2.

tractor


tractor
Originally uploaded by chriskoehn.
Ansel, Chris, and Rainer, taken summer of 2004, on their 1941 ford 9N tractor.

before the Journey

Welcome to our journey web site!

A few lines about who we are and what we're up to: Ruth and Chris Koehn are Wisconsin natives in their early 40's. We have two sons, Ansel (age 7) and Rainer (almost 3). Ruth and I have been in the timber framing field for 16 years. Chris has worked as a practicing framer; he's been a sales rep for a large mid-western timber framing company; he's been a builder; and a raising boss. Ruth is a professional designer. SInce Ansel was born she has worked with Chris designing timber frame homes.

We built our second timber frame home on a beautiful 12 acres in Sheboygan county, WI in 2000. We had every intention of living here at least until retirement. However, a neighboring dairy farmer's decision to grow to a very large herd size has led us to consider the long term effects of living next to so many cows (1,200 as of this writing). We have chosen to cut our losses and bail out. Cow manure, along with a growing dissatisfaction with the nature of our current career path, has led us to look for alternatives.

Since joining the Timber Framer's Guild in 1988, we have been attracted to the community this special group or folks offers. Most of the time you'd never know they are competitors. Through Chris' involvement in the Guild he has gotten to know quite a few members around North America. A scheme was hatched last summer: let's sell the house, sever our close relationship to the company we repped exclusively for 15 years, and hit the road for a while. We hope to gain a deep understanding of the state of our industry, see the country, show it to our kids, meet and work with lots of great folks, and generally have a good time. Naturally, just about all of our family immediately began researching what it would take to get us committed...

In October of last year (2003) we purchased a used Airstream trailer. It's a 1979, 31 foot "International Soveriegn Land Yacht" model (for those afficianados who are interested). Using a trailer for our journey seemed a wise choice: I already own a Ford diesel pick up- a very viable tow vehicle; we can drop the trailer and use the truck to go to town; I've always loved the look of Airstreams, and the perceived quality that comes with the name "Airstream" was assuring. We chose a 1979 for it's rear bedroom, center bath, with lots of living space and storage. Since we'll be full timing, function is more important to us than form. While the older ones are way cooler on the inside, we perceived them as being less handy for full timing.

Shortly after pulling the trailer home from Indiana we discovered that it leaked. There was damage concealed below flooring and underneath beds. Since we were headed in to winter, the time I had to work on the trailer before severe weather set in was short. So every day that it wasn't precipitating or below freezing I was out there caulking the trailer. Ruth and I wanted desperately to jump in to remodeling the inside, but I was reluctant to get too far along with the interior before I could rest assured I'd fixed the leaks. Try as I might I couldn't stop all the leaks until spring, and the discovery of a few spots I'd overlooked all winter. Finally in May remodeling began with haste. Here's what we've done to her:
*replace picture window in front
*tore out all flooring and replaced with cork (and linolium in the bath)
*Removed the shower pan, re-fiberglassed, painted with epoxy paint, re-installed, and lined the shower with vinyl shower liner (the original installation of the pan had it entirely inside the walls, so that water running down the walls could potentially leak behind the pan).
*Removed the kitchen counter, and replaced it with a new laminated one (I built) new sink and faucet.
*removed bathroom counter, replaced with a new baltic birch counter, new stainless sink, new faucet.
*removed half the bathroom cabinet and replaced with a new wood one
*removed the rear twin beds and replaced with a custom king bed that takes up the entire rear of the trailer, hinged in the middle with suspension system, and storage underneath.
*reupholstered the gaucho, had a new futon mattress built for it, extended it's horizontal length 5" for comfort while sitting.
*new blinds throughout.
*new cedar laundry storage bin in the bottom of the aft closet.
*4 shelves on standards and brackets in the other two closets.
* roughly one million odds and ends. I've come to learn this doesn't really ever end with a "vintage" trailer.

We are currently finishing up packing our household into a 28' enclosed trailer we purchased this summer. When complete we'll tow it to Ruth's mom's farm in western Wisconsin for storage in her barn. Our first scheduled stop is with Wil and Chris Dancy in Ontario. WIl represents Deitrich's, a German software company that specializes in timber frame design. It's high end stuff. He has offered Deitrich's training in exchange for work on their new timber framed house. Chris Dancy specializes in natural building- a topic Ruth and I are also keenly interested in.
We are anxious to begin our journey, and have scheduled a September 12 departure.