Colors

Cassie's been working on color combinations and here's where we're at. Pay no mind to the greens to the sides. The cabinets will get several clear coats (this is one) and that's what the board in the middle represents. We're probably only a few workdays away from priming most of the interior. I have some sanding to finish on the trim before we clean the place up and prep. 

Took an afternoon off from projecting to do some climbing. Here's Louise on her ascent. 

And Mae's running the munter. 

Catching up.......Summer's over?

A few deliveries (and cash withdrawals) hit us right before our summer beach trip.  Our mini-split air conditioner and our cabinets.  Much of the information that I wanted prior to wiring and plumbing this unit was not readily available online. So I had to get the thing in my hands even though it won't be fully connected for a few months. 

The photo on the top is what we'd hoped to end up with according to our plan for a 20" range. Once the cabinets were in place there was little debate about removing a cabinet to gain a 30" range. So the photo on the bottom is what the placement will be once the under cabinet flooring is complete. We lost a good deal of storage, but gained a ton of flexibility for appliance options. And or skillets can go side by side. 

After that, we went to the beach in our other trailer! We stayed at Fort Pickens National park outside Pensacola, FL  for 6 days with our good friends. It was a great decompression time right before school started.

After returning, I was eager to get our new A/C mocked up. 

And mock up turned into.....

Completion! Turning the thing on should be as simple as a few wiring connections and a few compression fittings for coolant. It was nice to finally get to seal up this wall and say that I am DONE with wallboards.

There's been a lot of uncertainty about finish flooring the last several months. We finally decided to use  1/2" baltic birch cabinet grade plywood over the existing 1/2" subfloor.  It comes in 5'x5' sheets, and so we toyed with several length and width options, settling on 15" wide, 60" long planks. They are glued down and nailed around the perimeter with a 1/32" - 1/8" gap between planks.  I got this section complete last night to prepare for cabinet installation soon. The benefit of covering up our new flooring with cabinets is that we get to try out several finishes before it's hidden away forever. We did a few samples of whitewash at different ratios as well as whatever stains I had left over from other projects. No to whitewash. No to any leftover stains.  Looks like it's time for Cassie to get some   PAINT TESTERS!!

Finish Work

Finish work has begun! We decided to go very simple and square with our window trim. Which is handy because I am not a finish carpenter and don't own the tools to even pretend that I am!

These are the kitchen windows and are the only ones with a sill. Cassie likes to have a place to set an avocado to ripen, and I like a place to set my beer. Cabinets are about two weeks out. Even a cabinetmaker deserves a vacation! The spray foam insulation and cabinets are the two jobs I have hired out and it's pretty hard not to be a nag! 

I slapped up a little rigid foam insulation in order to limit the sound transfer through the partition walls. 

Cassie and I went back and forth about tubs. We both like claw foot tubs, but they are a poor match for the trailer.  Most of the options other than cast iron really kind of felt flimsy to us. A used cast iron tub usually has chips and scratches and a new one is not cheap.  Lucky for us, this one was sitting on the porch of a woman's house down the street while the house is being renovated. I dropped a note off in the mailbox, and 18 hours later brought this one home for $100! All of the blemishes visible in this photo are just dirt and old caulk, it's in very good shape. I'm going to wrap it up well in old carpet before carrying it into the bathroom so I don't screw up the finish myself. 

This is a doll table factory. 

"You should never be too busy working to teach your children how to work."

I do my best to repeat this phrase in  my head whenever my kids are "helping" out in the trailer. As they grow older, I want them to remember this time as something we spent together and not a place where Daddy disappeared to. 

Boxing in...

Getting close to done with this task. One section of wall and one partition wall left.

Let the Coffee Flow!

This is 15 sheets of 15/32" plywood ripped onto 6" widths and then sanded and stacked. I hope this is the last time around for this task because it just seems to melt my brain! If my math is worth a hoot, then this should be enough to cover the last bit of wall and ceiling space in the back of the trailer. 

These are the new goal deadlines.....

I think these sheets of paper are the only thing that have kept this project moving. I try to set  realistic goals but have met very few of them! The first two items on the July list should be complete by tomorrow night if the coffee flows long enough. 

Level with the Earth

Yesterday I had the partition wall between the kitchen and bathroom mocked up, and today a built the wall. One of the challenges with this project is that nothing is square, and nothing is level. That's why this picture is so funny to me. I screwed a brace into the frame just to hold things steady while I screwed the studs to the sill. I wasn't trying to make it level, it just ended up that way. And I didn't set the level on to the brace to check for level, but just happened to set it there after using it as a straight edge. So if you stood back a few feet and looked at the brace, it would look crooked as hell because the trailer sits about 3 1/2 inches lower on one side than the other. But it was perfectly level with the world......

This is the back side of the completed partition wall where the tub will sit. 

This is the front of the wall, where the range and cabinets will fit. 

I also finished covering the front wall in what will become our bedroom. This has turned out to be a pretty productive use of vacation time, but tomorrow I'll take the day off and pick some blueberries and peaches before swimming in the San Marcos river!

I added a few low voltage LED's to the old marking lights. 

At night, the single emitter mounted inside the old housings adds a nice touch to the trailer. Now I need to find a very specific license plate: 1961 Texas Trailer. Finder's fee paid!