It must have been love at first sight... I'd like to describe it that way, but the reality is I hadn't seen her yet. Not really. I’d only found a listing at the bottom of a list of used RVs at a dealership 200 miles away, close to the TX border. A 1995 Chevy Seven Seas Cobra, 36,000ish miles. I’d been looking for months, and something in my heart told me this was the one. This was my transformation project.
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After trading some emails with a salesman and putting down a $1000 non-refundable deposit, I roped a friend into driving me down to pick up the old girl
I'd already named her Janeway after the leading lady Star Trek captain.
Janeway was definitely showing her age
The décor looked like something out of the ’80s
Layers of dust coated the carpet. There were spots with water damage and mold. Thankfully, the appliances worked, and though I was later to find out the A/C in the cab was out, the housing unit A/C was fine and the engine ran well.
The overcab needed the most work
With leaks on both sides, much of the wood and flooring needed to be ripped away and replaced.
And so work began with a little help
I was fostering two kittens at the time
They would sit in the window watching me walk back and forth from the house to the RV all day and sometimes all night as I worked.
I started by taking everything off and out
Down came the curtains, up came the carpet, and off came the cabinet doors!
Although I bought new hardware and fabrics, I saved as much as I could, painting the cabinetry
... and even the counters!
The walls also got a coat of oil-based paint over the peeling, stubborn wallpaper.
It was a lot of work... taping, ripping, painting...
...even staying up all night one night to finish the floors! But it was a labor of love
And it was worth it
The kittens even got their own play area in the overcab
And their own RV cat tree
Even better, these two babies now have a home!
They are no longer foster kittens. They are my furever kittens!
Forever at home with me in my sorta new RV
