So there are a great many "rennie"vations we are hoping to make in Condotron. A nice throwback to the mid-90s when it was created, the Newmar Corporation Dutch Star Class A RV features a gorgeous interior coloring of grandmother-mauve. This color has been offending the senses for far too long and must be rectified!

Our first idea was to dye the carpet. Since most of the furniture was still in Condotron, bolted to the floor. Needless to say, we had to work around it. We were already parked in Chicago anyway, what better time were we going to get with so many animals about to move in? It had to be done before we departed.

Here's what Condotron's glorious mauveness was before......

This needs a change right?

 So we put a call out for any friends that might be able to help and Alexis answered the call with gusto! With her extra hands, we were able to tackle and get this all done in about 2 hours.

We ended up deciding to use spray bottles filled with a hot water, RIT Dye, and some salt. Wrapping plastic bags around our feet and donning vinyl gloves, we sprayed the existing carpeting down and agitated the fibers with a bristle brush.

My recipe was:
1 Empty Standard Spray Bottle (Windex, etc.)
6-8 TSP RIT Dye (we used Cocoa Brown)
2 TSP Salt (to help the dye absorb)
Fill bottle with hot water

Now this wasn't incredibly easy to do. Bear in mind, we were in a residential neighborhood with no power! I busted out the generator and after about 25-3000 pulls (I lost count after my right arm tired out) got it running. Plugging the RV into the generator powered the lights and the vacuum charger. We could even put the slide out to get to the whole carpeting. Once the floors were vacuumed clean-ish, we began spraying the dye mixture.

Alleigh hard at work :)

The results were surprising! The dye, once properly saturated, started turning the carpet several shades darker and browner. The bristle brush helped spread the mixture evenly across the carpeting.  We worked our way from the front and back towards the middle. Eventually, we backed up to the steps and out the door.

Look at the difference!

We celebrated with shrimp fried rice, roasted chicken and leftover mint ice cream cake from Alleigh's birthday dinner. A well-deserved reward for our work!

It's now outside drying and settling overnight. We will see the final results in the morning....