Renovating Wallabee |

March 15, 2013
by Airstream Family 4 Comments

How flashing your boobs can get you places.

We finally registered Wallabee, our 1968 Airstream.

Though it nearly didn’t happen.

We were ten minutes late for our inspection with VicRoads.

Ten minutes!

I apologised (while juggling two hungry, wriggling babies) and explained that it took longer than expected to hitch up, have Wallabee weighed at the Public Weighbridge and find somewhere outside the registration office big enough to pull up.

However the most surly woman you can imagine dismissed us with a grunt, insisting we had missed our appointment.

I thrust our now screaming twins in her face and told her “we and our 28 foot caravan (parked illegally outside) are not going anywhere.”

She called the Supervisor. By that stage I’d pulled out my boobs and I was breastfeeding the boys. In tandem, to the fascination of the crowded office.

Her Supervisor took one look at the spectacle and within no time Wallabee was inspected and granted her new Australian number plates.

Mission accomplished.

(For those of you interested in the technical aspects of importing a vintage trailer into Australia, her right hand door wasn’t an issue. The only thing we were required to do was have her VIN Number engraved onto the trailer A-frame as the original VIN is on the front door).

February 23, 2013
by Airstream Family 2 Comments

A right-sized life

Our blog has inspired a blog piece.

I initially blushed when I saw our family photos alongside those of our trailer renovation up on the HofArc website.

For those of you who can’t be bothered scrolling through lots of old posts, Wally Hofmann has done a great job outlining our motivations in buying and renovating a vintage Airstream.

You can click on the photo below to read his piece. You’ll also be able to scroll through some photos of Wallabee (our Airstream).

We still need to repair the cracks and dings from her arduous journey to Australia. We have 5 months until our year-long road trip, but hope to have her registered and on the road for some shorter trips in March.

December 13, 2012
by Airstream Family 5 Comments

The Barechested Architect

No one believes that I chose Matthew Hofmann, based entirely on his talent, for our Airstream project.

When I initially showed a friend Hofmann’s Airstream portfolio, “giddyup”were the first words to escape her mouth as she caught a glimpse of the Architect. Immediately followed by: “Does he come with the trailer?”

I assured her it was his designs that had caught my eye – I hadn’t even noticed his rippling pectoral muscles – but it was largely his story that sucked me in.

Nice solar panels

Just two years ago, the sustainably-minded Architect from Santa Barbara purchased his first vintage Airstream on Craigslist.

Despite designing million dollar villas by day, Hofmann was looking for a way to downsize his life, so he remodelled and lived in the 25 foot trailer for one year with his girlfriend.

His incredible renovation inevitably caught the attention of Airstream enthusiasts around the world (such as us) and inspired his company Hofmann Architecture, run by Hofmann and his media savvy father Wally, to specialise in small space design and Airstream customizations.

The 1978 Airstream Tradewind that started it all.

We took a leap of faith when we enlisted HofArc to buy and renovate a 1968 Airstream I found on ebay.

The decision was based, crazily, on a handful of online photographs I stumbled across of Hofmann’s Airstream and the serendipity of spotting the very same year and model of trailer at a mechanic’s workshop down the street. (They are still quite rare here in Australia).

Suddenly we found ourselves sending money we couldn’t afford to lose, over to a complete stranger in a faraway land.

But thankfully my gut instinct didn’t let us down. And now our newly renovated Airstream has arrived in time for Christmas (she’s currently waiting to clear customs). Best Christmas present ever.

Here is my video interview with the vintage Airstream designer-extraordinaire. You can also check out what Wallabee looked-like before Hofmann worked his magic.