Moving on Up.

In this post I will get through raising the walls and finishing the framing. First I raised the head and foot bulkheads. The vertical members in the head are located to attach electrical boxes to, and the foot to mirror the floor joists underneath. I went ahead and drilled all the holes, pulling the wiring through before setting the bulkheads. In this picture you can see the rejected trim ring from the first varnishing attempt, it has a rough mock-up of the cabinetry for the galley hanging in it.

I skinned the bulkheads to square them up and attached the port side. I set it in a bed of silicone caulk and glued and screwed it to the floor and bulkheads, being careful not to place a screw beyond where the trim ring will cover. In the foot bulkhead I had to pick the perfect length screw and drive them from the interior, sweating the whole time and praying it did not pierce the exterior skin. I followed the same procedure for the starboard side. At this point I could really appreciate all the work of preparing the sides with their candy coating of varnish, water will never get to the wood.

The last easy, flat piece of framing was the ceiling. It has a rough opening of 14 x 14 1/2 for the attic fan. Originally I made it straight 14 x 14, but changed it after hearing how difficult it was for our friend Trina to install hers without leaving a cavity for the fan wiring. Thanks Trina!

The final step of framing was the curved portions. The rejected trim ring came in super handy. I cut out the parts of the curve I needed, used them as templates to cut out mirror images for the other side, and installed them with the framing.

This gives a guide at the edges for the interior paneling and provides a nailing surface to hold it in place.

The one thing I don't have is a good picture of the cabinet bulk head. It will serve as the back wall of both the galley and cabin cabinets. It is about 16 inches forward of the foot bulkhead, its bottom is the same height as the top of the foot's, and it runs all the way to the top of the trailer. The top member is a full 2x4 on edge with the top edge ripped to match the curvature of the side. I went with a more stout framing member because it will be what the galley hatch hinge is attached to. I promise to include a picture in the next post to clarify what I am talking about.

Finally the Foundation

Hey everybody, sorry to be gone so long, but I promise to catch you up. This post will encompass the deck preparation. First I needed to bring the joists of the frame up to an even height. I needed something that I wouldn't have to worry about rotting so I chose Azak, a PVC material. I had to plane it down to thickness and notch it out to fit. I attached it to the metal frame with self tapping screws, making sure to seal them to the frame with caulk.

Then I fitted a plywood layer to the frame, leaving a slight gap at the sides to accommodate a bed liner finish to seal the edges.

I was again dealing with size issues and had to make it out of 4 pieces gleaned from 2 sheets of plywood. I fit them together with a tongue and groove that I milled into the wood, making sure to have the seams over a metal part of the trailer. This will help prevent water from getting to the seams.

I then laid out the floor joist. I tacked them in place temporarily so I could flip the whole thing over and secure the plywood permanently from below.

Katie then helped seal the plywood by first painting a coat of bed liner, then filling all the voids with paintable caulk, and then applying a second coat of bed liner making sure to seal the edges.

I then attached the floor system to the trailer with 4 carriage bolts in each trailer joist. We then hoisted the whole trailer up into a rack that I made to give access to the under side. The idea was to flip it all the way over, but the welded on light boxes were in the way, so it ended up propped and looking like a medieval trebuchet.

This gave us great access to really seal up the bottom of the trailer. We caulked any seam or void, sprayed bed liner in all the irregular places and rolled it on thick in the field. This was an incredible amount of work, but now I feel confident that the trailer will not rot out from underneath us. I fully intend for this thing to last 50 years.

We then ran all the rough wiring. This is the first time I have ever done this and it had me tearing my hair out. I am praying that it all works because all the wires are sealed up in there but good. Next was two layer of rigid foam insulation sealing between the layers with caulk. At this stage we realized that the opening of the doors was much higher than the floor. To prevent the circulation from being cut off in your legs when sitting in the doorway we decided to raise the floor 2 1/2 inches. Before you scream, "what about the weight!" it only adds about 25 pounds. I only raised the cabin area, not the galley, which affords a great surface to attach the galley bulkhead to.

We filled this layer with some pink fiberglass insulation we had left over from insulating the crawl space at our house.

I finished the deck with tongue and groove plywood lapping over the edge and sanding flush to make a perfect edge to attach the sides to. Now the foundation is complete. Stay tuned to see the walls raised and the roof put on.

Progress

I promise you, we ARE making progress on our build! Jeremy has just been so busy that he hasn't had time to blog about the building process. He'll have to catch you up soon. Until then you can look at this picture and check out the build album on Flickr.

Louella's "Foamie" Group Build

After we made some progress on our build Saturday morning we headed down to New Church, VA to help some members of our Tear Jerkers chapter with their build. Louella and Rick are building a "foamie". Instead of building with plywood, which makes for a fairly heavy trailer, they opted for rigid foam insulation. They will be pulling the tear with an HHR which doesn't have a big towing capacity.

The group had been building all day so a lot of progress was made before we got there.



The foam for the roof was scored on one side to make bending it over the spars super easy. What a great idea!



When basic construction is finished Louella will cover all the foam surfaces with canvas. This should keep the weather out. I'm really excited to see the finished project.

There were also two ponies on the property, keeping and eye on the build. This is Little Buck.


And this is Queen Bee. Guess what the "B" stands for... :)

Our Teardrop Stash

Shortly after our big evening of spending, our stash began showing up at the door. Below are our two windows, the Fan-tastic Vent still in the box (but, trust me, it's awesome), and four boxes of flexible chrome - one length of it is laying on top of the pile. The red color is the 3M tape used to mount it.

We also made a day-long pilgrimage to Baltimore to do some more essential shopping. We got these LED lights from Ikea. What is awesome about them is they're already 12V. Not to mention, they're slightly pose-able and emit little to no heat.

We also went to the Loading Dock in southeast Baltimore. It's a great architectural salvage/ReUse store. We found a box of 45 blue vinyl flooring tiles - 1x1. The interior of the tear will be just under 45 sq ft. We have no wiggle room to waste material! We found discounted adhesive too.

Lastly, I bought two new enamel cups for our collection on Etsy. Together they were $3 - $4 with shipping. I couldn't pass them up. The flowers on the blue-rimmed cup are wearing off a little more on one side than the other and the green-rimmed cup has a pretty serious chip but that should smooth out as it gets used. Overall, a great purchase :)

So needless to say I am beyond thrilled with everything. I'm ready to get this show on the road!

Jeremy is due for a construction update so stay tuned!