Recent Blog Articles

Polishing our Vintage Airstream in Austin, TX

Ashley Longnecker / June 25, 2018

When we were spending the week at McKinney Falls State Park, we made a big decision. Ever since we bought this Airstream we had thrown around the idea of getting it polished to a mirror finish, but every time we would just say, ‘maybe someday’ because it’s a huge commitment. It costs a ton of money to have done, or you spend around 200 -400 hours doing it yourself.

It’s never been a very high priority for us. Our rig is in really good shape for being 46 years old! But then again, we are Tiny Shiny Home…so why not make it truly shine?

Everything lined up perfectly (well…almost everything) – we felt like it was meant to be. It just happened to be the week our CPA was able to tell us if we’d have a tax return, and we happened to be 30 minutes from a guy who polishes Airstreams, and we happened to be getting back the amount it would cost to have the Airstream polished plus a little extra that would help cover housing during the 2 weeks we were homeless.

Yes, you read that right. TWO WEEKS of being homeless. It’s less than ideal, but we thought it would be worth it. However, finding affordable housing near Austin was a logistical nightmare. That town is so expensive!

A fellow Airstreamer was able to hook us up with our first two nights in a hotel downtown Austin at a discounted rate! Huge thank you to @all.ways.home for helping us out there.

We spent the next 2 weeks jumping around different AirBnB’s and going broke cause Austin is just crazy expensive. However, I will say that the moving around was a lot smoother since all of our clothes are packed in our eBags Packing Cubes! Seriously, how cool is it to just grab one or two packing cubes and have your entire wardrobe with you at all times! Pretty sweet! (If you missed our closet/clothes/eBags post, check it out here!)

Check out Jonathan on the Devmode.fm Podcast!

Jonathan Longnecker / June 24, 2018

Have a spare hour and love to listen to podcasts?

I was honored to be on the latest episode of devMode.fm - a podcast dedicated to modern web development.

Tiny Shiny Home Adventures - Season 1 Episode 3

Jonathan Longnecker / June 17, 2018

In the third episode of Tiny Shiny Home Adventures we visit Flagstaff Arizona, show our renovated Airstream dinette setup, talk about water filtration, and try to stop drinking soda.

What's In Our Kids' Room

Ashley Longnecker / June 17, 2018

Okay friends! You’ve been asking so here it is. I’m showing you what’s in the kids’ room today. When we arrived in Knoxville I could not wait to pull everything out and reevaluate what we keep. The kids were a huge help in deciding what stays and what goes.

Let me be totally clear. We made sure the EVERYONE was involved in what we keept and what was donated. Nothing was tossed unless everyone agreed! That being said, you’ll soon see we don’t have many toys. Our kids love to read and draw so that occupies most of their free time. They also each have an iPad for school and games so they are not lacking anything.

When we renovated our Airstream, we really wanted to create as much useful storage as possible.

McKinney Falls State Park

Ashley Longnecker / May 21, 2018

After a beautiful week at Mother Neff State Park we packed up and headed to McKinney Falls. If you’re visiting state parks in Texas, you NEED to buy a Texas State Park Pass! It’s saved us so much because without it you get charged a daily entrance fee per person! That adds up quickly! It’s more than paid for itself in just a few nights.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t as excited about this state park after being spoiled at Mother Neff. It’s hard to go from new, pristine bathroom to the standard state park bathroom. However, it wasn’t horrible and we’ve grown a lot about what we can tolerate when it comes to the cleanliness of public restrooms.

McKinney State Park was beautiful.