Rolling Runway: Renovations Part 1
From start to finish, it took us 10 months total to renovate Silvia into the beauty she is today. We were working weekends only from October-April and then anywhere from 3-6 days a week starting in May. I am just going to blog the basics of what we did but if you have more questions you can always email us at shop@rollingrunway.com! Our biggest resources were airforums.com, airstreamguy.com & just learning as we went. We used Pinterest for the design process.
Part 1: Gut/Clean Interior
We started the process by gutting/cleaning the interior. Since the airstream was mostly gutted, this part wasn't too hard but very satisfying. There was a ton of trash inside including a bag of dog food & random playing cards everywhere. We did have to get Kendall's dad to cut out the pipes that we didn't need & sink/toilet. He also helped with pretty much EVERYTHING and I think he loves Silvia as much as we do. After we finished cleaning up the inside we used a mixture of bleach & water to wash the interior walls. Silvia had been sitting in the woods for 15 years, with 3 of the windows broken, there was dirt & mold all on the inside.
Part 2: Strip Exterior
This was probably the worst, most boring part. In the earlier years of Airstream, once they aluminum was polished to a shine, a clear coat was put on to preserve the sine. Sounds nice, right? Wrong. If you don't maintain it, it "burns" in the sun & turns white and/or dingy. Which basically defeats the purpose of aluminum making it not shiny. We followed airstream guy's recommendation of "stripping" the clear coat with furniture/wood stripper from home depot. Basically you brush on the stripper, wait 15 minutes & then rinse/scrub/scrape it off. We did this in the dead of winter. Not fun. You also have to do it 2 or 3 times on each area for it to be effective. Side note: we did this part second because honestly we had no idea how to start on the inside since our floor was rotted through in the back, wiring had to be redone & we had leaks. After we finished, we originally thought maybe we should have saved this part for last because it's only cosmetic. But looking back, we were kind of glad we did this step first since honestly it's hard & not fun but once we finished the inside (the most rewarding part) we were basically done because we did the outside first.
We also filmed the first few weeks of our renovations & put it on YouTube!
xo, Morgan Paige
Rolling Runway: The Beginning
Rolling Runway // Mobile Boutique
I started my blog in June 2015, two months before my mobile + online boutique Rolling Runway officially opened. After we had our grand opening on August 2nd, Kendall (my business partner) & I worked practically every weekend until January. My blog, unfortunately, got pushed aside while I was trying to balance my new business & other job. My new years resolution was to start blogging again & I'm only a month (oops) behind! So to validate my excuse being Rolling Runway, I thought I would blog the entire process, something I regret not doing as we renovated.
Long story short, Kendall & I purchased a 1963 Airstream Overlander in October 2014 with plans to turn it into a mobile boutique. We worked together in retail for two years prior to purchasing Silvia (our airstream's name) & it had always been a daydream of ours to open + own our own store. It only took us about a month to find our Airstream, but we did face a lot of difficulties in that month including an eBay scam, almost purchasing a tiny hunting camper & a Breaking Bad type situation. We got an extremely good deal & are now officially airstream OBSESSED. (If you follow me on snapchat/any social media, sorry.)
If you want to read more about our story, click here.
BEFORE
Stay tuned for Part 1 of the renovations!
xo, Morgan Paige
NYC // Day 4
I <3 NYC
On Sunday, our flight was at 1pm so we didn't get to do much but we did make a last minute stop at our fave Chelsea Market for breakfast, where I got a huge crepe that was amazing! Then we walked the High Line for a little while and said goodbye to NYC. I already want to go back & I miss it so much. Until next time New York!
xo, Morgan Paige
NYC // Day 3
Brooklyn Bridge // Smorgasburg // Wythe Hotel // Broadway
Saturday, we headed to Brooklyn via the Brooklyn bridge in the rainy/foggy weather to check out Smorgasburg a" Brooklyn flea food market" Morgan had heard about. But first, we had to get bagels. Morgan & I ventured to Murray's Bagels after the other girls got croissants and it was exactly the New York bagel I had been hoping for! Everything bagel with sundried tomato and garlic cream cheese & Morgan had lox!
Our friend Kate came from Boston for the weekend and stayed with us!
Smorgasburg was huge! There were SO many food vendors and they all looked amazing. I obviously got cheese curds (with pesto garlic sauce), Abby had a giant ball of mozzeralla with pesto and a salad. Morgan got an ice cream cookie sandwhich. Asha got tiny egg rolls & Kate had noodles. I really wish we could have somehow tried everything that was there. Guess we just have to go back!
Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn
After Smorgasbord, we wanted went to Wythe Hotel to get a rooftop view of Manhattan. It didn't turn out too great because of the fog but we stumbled upon a Marc Jacobs sunglass event right outside the hotel. It was a traveling sunglasses store and I obviously had to check it out! It was very cool, you could take a selfie and use the hashtag #MarcTheSun and your Instagram would print within 5 minutes right there. So, of course we did that and I even talked myself into buying the glasses. (Everything was 20% off, I had too right?!)
We had a great day in Brooklyn and headed back to our west village apartment to get ready for Broadway! I was so excited to go to Broadway and see Hedwig & the Angry Inch. (Sadly, no pictures allowed.) It was so good, different from anything I've ever seen and Darren Criss was AMAZING in it. He is the main character who speaks, the other characters have 10 lines max, and he sings and dances throughout the entire play and has this amazing energy and really interacts with the crowd. All in high heels too! It's not one of the most popular family friendly shows out there but I highly recommend it. I wish we would have stayed to get his autograph but the line was already huge when we got outside! After Broadway we went to a dessert bar and obviously finished the night with pizza from Bleeker Street!
xo, Morgan Paige
NYC // Day 2
Today Show // Central Park // Jimmy Fallon
Our second day in NYC, Friday, Morgan and I got up EARLY (5:45 am) to stand in line at Rockefellar center to get stand by Jimmy Fallon tickets. We already had monologue tickets for the same day but it was only a dress rehearsal that lasts 30 minutes and we wanted to see the whole show. Unfortunately, when we got to Rockefellar center at 7am there were already 30 people in line and they don't even hand out numbers until 9am. Who knows when those other people got there but we did not want to wait in line for just a chance and not even guaranteed entry to Jimmy's show. Sad day. So we decided not to waste our precious time in New York and ditched the line and found the Today Show! The concert that day was Nate Ruess of the band fun. so we decided to stay and watch him. He did some new songs but some of his older stuff too which we knew. It was cool and we ended up seeing the whole cast of the today show too! (heyyyy carson daly)
After the Today Show we met up with our lazy friends (jk love y'all) who slept in for brunch and central park! We ate brunch at The Smith and it was so good! I had french toast, Abby had yogurt with new potatoes and Morgan & Asha got bagel and lox which I tried (for the first time) and it was very good!
After walking the entire length of central park, not even joking, my camera died. And my phone. Story of my life. But we made our way back to Rockefellar Center after a very short trip to see Times Square. Honestly, all you need in times square is 5 minutes because that place is a tourist trap and I wasn't the biggest fan. But it is cool to see all the tv screens and ads and huge stores but way too crowded to really enjoy.
Times Square selfie with very attractive hair...
We had to line up for Jimmy Fallon at 2pm and we weren't seated until 3:30. No pictures were allowed of course but it was such a neat experience. He ran through his monologue and his jokes and did all of the Thank You Note Friday's. He was dressed down and didn't use his "voice" but you still got the picture. We were really sad to leave and not get to see the entire show but it was definitely cool and I'm so glad we got to see that part. Now I just have to go back and see the entire show! After Jimmy, we bought tickets for Top of the Rock and headed up there! It really is the best view of the city and I was really sad my camera died but luckily everyone else took pictures with their phones! I could have stayed up there forever honestly.
Top of the Rock
Central Park
Selfie Stick strikes again
After Top of the Rock we headed home to shower for dinner, where again, I didn't take my camera. Oops. But we went to Agave in the west village and it was AMAZING. Seriously if you go to NYC, go there! Then we met up with Morgan's friends, who took us to their gorgeous NYC apartment up FIVE flights of stairs. In wedges. And we explored the lower east side with them and it was different but really fun. We went to bed around 3am meaning I was up for almost an entire 24 hours! But, my FitbBit was happy because I took 28,000 steps that day which is a personal record.
Stay tuned for day 3 when we head to Brooklyn!
xo, Morgan Paige
NYC // Day 1
Last weekend I went to NYC for the first time with some friends and had the best time! I'm already trying to figure out how to go back because 3 days was definitely not enough to see everything that I wanted!
Thursday, mine and Abby's flight was earlier than our other 2 friends so we navigated ourselves from La Guardia to Manhattan (only one bus ride-that we bought the wrong ticket too, and subway ride later) and began our day! We picked up the keys to our Airbnb but couldn't check in yet so we dropped off our bags and wandered around and found Chelsea Market within 5 minutes. Chelsea market is an enclosed shopping and dining center and we absolutely loved it.
First stop, Amy's Bread! It was on my personal list of places I wanted to visit and it did not disappoint. The blog I found said to try the vanilla cake but they didn't have it that day so I settled for red velvet and Abby got vanilla/chocolate polka dot cake! It was a great snack while we waited on our friends to arrive and such a cute little place.
Chelsea Market is full of shopping with a unique market place in the back with different jewelry and vintage items, a flower stand in the middle of the market and different gift shops throughout. They also have stores like Anthropologie where you can try on glasses and take mirror selfies.
