Neck-deep in a full renovation on their Bernard Lake, Ont., property, Stéphane Aubin and his partner, David Clemmer, realized they needed a home base. “We were renovating day in and day out, hopping from room to room,” says Stéphane. “It was really getting to us.” He suggested they rent a trailer. David went whole hog and bought a sleek 1971 Airstream to be their crash pad. At first, Stéphane was skeptical—Airstreams don’t grow on trees—but he soon saw the benefits. To a cottager, a trailer is a ready-made bunkie on wheels, complete with kitchen and bath (without the hassle of rigging up your own plumbing and electricity). Now, with the renos behind them, Stéphane and David’s Airstream is their permanent guest cabin and the most popular spot for their many visitors each summer. “It was one of our best purchases,” says Stéphane. “It’s my favourite place to sit and watch the sun set over the lake.”
One of the first moves the couple made was to replace the Airstream’s kitchen counter with baby blue, metal-trimmed melamine ones repurposed from an old house that was being renovated nearby. They were going for an I Love Lucy look. “If Lucy and Ricky went on vacation, they would take this trailer,” says Stéphane. Despite its vintage vibes, the Airstream is well equipped for modern life: it’s hooked up to the property’s waterline, septic system, and power supply, plus its original heating and air conditioning still work perfectly, allowing guests to stay comfortably past Thanksgiving.
Though the trailer takes up fairly little space—just 189 sq. ft.—it sleeps four guests. When it’s time to sleep, the table folds down and the kitchen bench slides out to become a double bed. (Pillows and bedding are tucked away beneath the seat.) Stéphane replaced the original table with a versatile gateleg that fits flush against the wall, but can fold out to fit two leaves and accommodate five people. “We wanted something to break up the 1960s kitsch,” he says, “so we bought ’40s furniture, sanded it down, and lacquered it using a paint sprayer.”
Though the Airstream lived past lives before the couple bought it—winning Best Trailer in a Las Vegas competition and gracing the cover of Airstream Life magazine—the trailer started to feel like their own as they added custom touches, like reupholstering the couch in a bold-patterned fabric and painting the walls their favourite hue (Compass Blue by Ralph Lauren). But the little trailer didn’t seem like a permanent part of their cottage until they built a small deck off the front door, surrounded by patio lights. “It doubled the space and made the Airstream feel grounded. Now,” says Stéphane, “it’s not going anywhere.”
All pumped up
Stéphane’s advice for cottagers converting a trailer into a bunkie: buy a macerating pump for the septic tank. “We used to pay a company to come and pump it out every few days to avoid going to a disposal station,” says Stéphane. He bought the Sani-Con by Thetform, a permanently installed pump that mulches black-water waste into fine particles and sends them through a narrow chute up the hill into their septic system.
This story originally appeared in our Spring ’17 issue.
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