Tuesday 6-6 Getting Ready for Next Project

Riding around getting ready for project

Our Minnie is twenty one  years old and in great condition. We have had it for twelve years. Larry makes sure that if something needs fixed we either repair it ourselves or get it repaired. If he can't fix it we take it in the shop which isn't that often. The Minnie has a great couch, you seldom see a couch in a small motor home and we love that we have a couch. One of the couch cushions had a run in it when we bought it. I stitched it up but over the years it has started to come apart. We talked about getting the cushions reupholstered but we had not been in any hurry. Since Flo slept on the couch we have been putting towels on it for many years, that helped protect the couch and covered the run. The last trip we went on Larry noticed that the cushions on the couch were shot and he had to put extra towels on it to give some cushion. When we got back we decided it was time to get the couch reupholstered. Yesterday, Larry went on the internet and found a couple of local upholstery companies.

When we're not using the Minnie Larry likes to take it out once a month for a short ride and run the generator so this morning after taking it for a drive he removed the couch seat. It barely fit in the back of the car. We decided to try Troutts Upholstery in Temple. The owner, Earl, said that he was busy until July 8th and he said that it was a bear to work on that type of seat. He said it would cost $150 for labor, $35 for each cushion (3) for the foam and the cost of the fabric. The fabric was up to us, we could purchase it from him or get it somewhere else. We looked at a couple of samples but we didn't like the price of almost $40 a yard. He suggested Walmart and Hobby Lobby. He said once we had the fabric give him a call and setup an appointment for the job. We could drop it off on the morning of the appointment and pick it up in the afternoon. We were surprised that he could do it in one day.

We put the seat back in the car and off to Walmart we went. We walked around the fabric area in Walmart and didn't find anything. The other day when we were in Walmart we saw that they were advertising Hostess white fudge Ding Dongs but they were out of them. today they had restocked so we picked a box. On the way to Hobby Lobby we tried them and they were good.

Trying something new

This was the first time we have been in a Hobby Lobby in years, actually it has been more than a decade. We were surprised that they had a good selection of upholstery fabric. We saw one that we liked but we wanted to shop around a little. 

Larry has been playing with a new device called ZTE Mobley that makes your car work as a wifi hot spot. He has it setup to work using his smart phone and the stereo system in the car. We can listen to Pandora and call people and answer the phone using the device. We have been having problems with Pandora cutting out so Larry did some research on the problem. He found out other people were having the same problem so he has tried their suggestions. Now he has the device working pretty well.

We use to have Hancock Fabric in town but they closed their doors awhile back. Now we have no fabric companies locally. When we got back to the car we used the Mobley to search for the nearest Jo-Ann Fabrics. We found one in Waco so off to Waco we went.

On the way to Waco we stopped by Arbys for lunch. We hadn't been there in many years. Larry and I shared a Smoked House Brisket Sandwich and an order of Load Curly Fries. The lunch was delicious but a little steep for us.

At the Jo-Ann Fabrics in Waco we found a few fabrics that we liked so we took a sample of each one. We put the samples next to the seat cushion and decided to pass on them. We decided we would go back to Hobby Lobby. We swung by the Hobby Lobby in Waco. It was bigger than the one in Temple but we didn't see anything we liked better than the fabric we liked in Temple and they didn't have enough of that particular fabric in Waco so back to Temple we went. We bought seven yards of the fabric we liked.

By the time we got home we were tired. Larry called Earl and told him we had the fabric. Earl set up an appoint to do the job earlier than he said in the morning. Our appointment is June 28th. Since we are only redoing the bottom the back will not match, I'm excited to see how it comes out. If we don't like it we can always have him recover the back 

In the evening we watched our YouTube videos. We finished watching the American Epic three part historic documentary about traveling the country in search of unknown 1920's artist who transformed music. The last episode was called Out of the Many, it was about how different cultures and Mississippi John Hurt transformed music. The whole series was excellent. Then we watched an episode of Independent Lens called Farmer/Veteran which was about a veteran who became a farmer to help him cope with life after coming back from the war. It was very interesting. We had a busy day.