More Pretties

Here are my first official photos of the curtains that I made for the Big Wave. They are made from a Tommy Bahama raffia fabric called Wave Runner. I backed them with a white, textured fabric that I found at Walmart on deeeeep discount.

Each curtain panel has pockets at the top and bottom for the curtain rod. I also sewed in a tie-back that closes with a snap. I'm so happy with how they came out.

I also used the same fabric in orange (thanks, Michelle!) to make some potholders for the galley - and 2 for a friend.

And look what we have here! Last weekend Jeremy and I went to a never-ending antique mall in Bridgeville, DE and found some more enamelware pieces for our kitchen. I don't think we could possibly fit one more thing in there so hopefully we'll be stopping soon. But they are just the little pops of color that we've been looking for. Good score!

Stay tuned for photos and stories from our Tear Jerkers Shenandoah gathering!

Placeholder - Galley Cabinets

French, aka Drench, Creek Gathering - April 15-17, 2011

This gathering happened almost 2 months ago now and was our teardrop's maiden voyage. Normally I post pictures right away but... I didn't take any. "Why?", you might ask. The reason for this is that it rained almost our entire trip, save the ride to and from the campground. Wait, the word "rained" seems a little tame. Torrential downpour is a little more appropriate. It rained so much that now the campground is affectionately known by those that attended as Drench Creek.

The first night there was a good fire. My cousins came to visit so we hung back from the group a little. It's a good thing because the group was feeling frisky after being indoors all winter and was ready to get rowdy. Park rangers came buy quite a few times.



After that we were all about hunkering down and braving the storm. Apparently there were tornado warnings all around the state of Pennsylvania that day. The weather got so bad that some Tear Jerkers decided to head home early. Campsites were flooded, easy-ups blew away, tent poles snapped. Not to forget, it was about 40 degrees.

Paul still had a good time :)

And here is the lovely crown of feathers and Peeps for the winner of the chicken wing cook-off. Congrats to Wayne for winning the Throwdown and Orville for coming in a close second.





People came in all different levels of preparedness. Wayne had his smoke house.

Jeremy and I had the Woodland Shelter and a tarp (they did the trick though!)

On Saturday night, Jenn blessed the wings for the cook-off and she, Lew, and Rose gave all of the wings the an official tasting.




Wayne was the big winner...

Sunday morning was all about drying off and packing up.

As you can see, we made the best out of our soaked situation. You can't say Tear Jerkers don't know how to have fun!

Placeholder - Last Phase of Initial Build

Door to dork.

Doors are a pain in the butt! We could not find windows, or trim in the shape we wanted, in a natural silver aluminum finish. We spray painted them silver.

The doors are made from the drops gleaned from cutting the door openings. I packed 1/8th inch luan around the edges of the opening and traced that shape to the door blank. This will give plenty of clearance for the doors to shut on the weather stripping.

The weather stripping was installed with caulk and staples, making sure to overlap the corners to shed water. The door is hung on piano hinge over top of the weather strip.

Always a dry fit.

This was the most nerve wracking part of the build so far. You do not want to miss cut the rough openings for the windows! They are all plunge cuts with a skill saw, which are notoriously difficult to get straight.

Then the window is simply glued and screwed to the door panel.

After a whole day of work the doors are on.

Good Friends, Good Works

Our friends Rose and Orville came to stay with us for the weekend and put in some hours working on the trailer. Orville is the Tearjerkers Chesapeake Chapter Director. We installed cedar siding to the interior, sealed it all up from the exterior, and insulated.

Orville was the cut man and I fit and secured the cedar to the interior framing. This was a huge help, without a cut man I would have had to crawl in and out for every board.

The cedar is a closet lining material. It is very light, has tongue and groove, which makes it really easy to follow the curve, and comes in packages of six 8' boards. It comes in at about $1 per square foot. There is an aromatic version of this cedar which is darker and has more aroma, but it comes only in random lengths up to four feet. We wanted to have as few seams as possible and accomplished having seams only in what will be the back of the closets.

The color was also much more in line with our aesthetic.

Any available seams were taped and corners calked, for strength and to prevent air flow.

Pink fiberglass insulation was installed in all the curved areas, and in the flats rigid foam was used. Every void was filled with either insulation or caulk.

Thank you Rose and Orville for all your help, especially for working with the sloppy and itchy materials. Thank you to our friends Trina and Bill for their support, and the Cranwells for showing up on cue with pizza in hand. We love you all and it makes our trailer even more dear having our friends help in building it.