Extreme Makeover - Camp Store Edition

Our latest endeavor has been to remodel the camp store. The camp store is on the National Historic Registry like many of the other buildings and is one of the oldest metal-roofed buildings in the area. It will continue to be used as a store and camp check-in but was badly in need of some work.

Here is how the store looked during the summer of 2008:

It had a certain charm, and some lovely flowers planted out front, but it also had some serious flaws. Part of the building was covered in aging yellow vinyl siding while the rest of it was old brown-painted barn board. The roof was discolored, had holes in it, and leaked like a sieve every time it rained. The interior was dark and dingy with age. The exterior deck and interior floor were also suffering from age and water damage.

We started by repairing the roof with silicone. Missing nails were replaced and popped nails were pounded in (by yours truly). I admit it was pretty fun to crawl around up there. Then we used the airless paint sprayer to put on two coats of silver aluminium paint. Incidentally, the overspray from the paint turned all the foliage around the store a lovely silvery color so it looks like we had a visit from the Christmas fairy, and I now own a nice pair of moon boots (aka hiking shoes with a coat of silver paint on them.) Unfortunately there are still some leaks so we will have to keep working on it, but at least the roof looks better than it did.

Next we stripped off the vinyl siding and removed three sets of unsightly sliding glass doors. We sided over the outside of the building with new barn board, which led to a discussion about what color to paint the new building. I voted for white. We have painted every other building in the park barn red and it seemed like it might be nice to have a bit of variety. I even painted a picture of what I thought it would look like in order to try and convince everyone:



I was outvoted. The men concurred that if we painted the store white with the silvery white roof it would look as if the moon had landed in the park. So we painted it red:

I think they were right. It does look nice and will look even better once we get the windows in and all the trim painted white.

Next we tackled the inside of the store. We took down all the old laminate paneling and replaced it with really nice V-groove car siding - the boards are so light and crisp that they remind me of sugar wafer cookies.

Once the interior paneling is finished we will put in the new windows and doors and give the concrete floor a fresh coat of paint. Updates coming soon!