Our DIY weekend package is almost finished, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. We're just waiting for the manufactured countertop to arrive, we'll then fasten onto the cupboards, finish the molding around everything and we're ready to go. Hurrah!

But we have one final decision to make, and this concerns the fridge. We have a small bar fridge which we are putting on the countertop. That saves us floor space, and makes the fridge more user friendly. But I'm looking for suggestions on installing the fridge on the nice, brand new countertop without permanently defacing it. We could screw in wood legs which would hold the fridge to the counter, but if we ever change fridges the legs would have to be moved, and then would leave holes and marks on the counter. Likewise, if we ever decide to move the fridge to the ground we still have a damaged countertop behind. But there is no way i would trust the fridge to stay secure on the countertop when traveling if it isn't fastened securely. A friend suggested using a system where we'd bungee cord or tie the fridge to the wall when traveling, this would keep it from moving and not damage the counter, but then we've moved our problem to the wall. Filling in holes in the wall isn't that appealing, either, if the time comes when we move or update the fridge.

Any advice? What have you all done to secure your fridge in your DIY trailers? Thanks for any advice.

Do you have room to attach some "L" brakets on the wall and the side or top of the fridge?

You will need to install some kind of mechanical fastners, They will leave marks on either the wall or the counter top.

Chances are, that if you ever replace the fridge, that you will also replace the counter top at that time.  Its just not that expensive. And the old counter top will show wear signs from the old fridge rubbing while you bounce down gravel roads.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. My husband agrees that we may end up just planning to replace the countertop when/if we replace the fridge, but i guess we'll just have to play that by ear.

As for doing someone else's trailer - not a chance! It is amazing how much work there is to a tiny place. I was quoted by local conversion places that it could be close to $10,000 to have it done the way we've gone, I think our expenses were around $2200, but that is without paying my husband or I for the work. We spent almost a full month working on it - not fulltime hours perhaps, but close. The hard part was the electricty, in my opinion. Trying to put in your switches and plug-ins without the ability to do it the same way you would in a house complicated things.

There is very little that I'd change. We chose to go without running water or sewer, and that will be fine. I think we were wise to buy our cabinats, they were a big part of our expenses but we got them done instead of taking another month or two to build our own, and the hardware and quality of them is excellent. I would recommend using standard box-store type cupboards, ours are house quality and we just picked through options to find the setup that would fit best in our situation. The far right side, where the slant wall meets and makes a sharp angle wouldn't fit a normal cupboard, obviously, so we simply used that space as an open closet. We hung a closet rod to the slant wall and the top of the cupboards, there was a 26 inch space there where we'll hang clothes and keep our fold up chair and table when we want them out of the way. By doing that we used our space wisely but didn't spend big bucks to get a custom made cabinet or closet.

Our trailer has a 4' shortwall, a 7 1/2 foot long wall, and in it we've got room for cupboards, closet space, storage for our portable toilet, microwave, bar fridge, room heater. We have a bench for seating, plus the fold-up chair and table. And our nice big sleeping area in the nose.

What would I do differently? Well, I ran out of the proper vinyl wallpaper glue (we used textured wallpaper for the ceiling and normal wallpaper for the walls, which we put over the smooth plywood) so I bought another type of vinyl glue, which is supposed to be for carpet and linoleum. That stuff did not work well and since then I've had to touch up some seams with the good stuff. So be careful what you use to hang your wallpaper with. Hummm....I really can't think of anything else I'd change, except we should have started work earlier in the winter because spring is coming and we aren't quite finished!