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.

A Little Bit of Shopping Never Hurts

Hello All! It's been a little while and we've been making progress. Jeremy will have to tell you all about it later. Since I don't want to steal his thunder I'll talk about... shopping!

Over Labor Day weekend we visited family in Orwigsburg, PA (near Pottsville, home of Yuengling beer). They also live close to the big Cabela's store in Hamburg so we made a pit stop there to see if they had anything we could use in our teardrop build.

We found this great camp oven made by Camp Chef. It has two burners on top and a large oven underneath powered by propane. Camp Chef also makes a red camp oven that, along with one burner and the oven, also has a grill plate.

We didn't buy the oven but we might end up building a spot for it in the galley. We shall see.

We also found our Tommy Bahama curtain fabric at Jo-Ann Fabric! We bought 4 yards of it for curtains and maybe pot holders or something for the galley. It's a pretty bold fabric so I don't want to go overboard. (Pardon the picture, the color looks really bleached out.)

And speaking of bold patterns...

I have been eyeing these beauties on Etsy for months now. Same brand. Same pattern. Different Etsy shops(!). When you're presented with something like this it's pretty much a no-brainer. And then when the shirt goes on sale for $10? Fuggedaboutit :)

I'm still waiting for them in the mail but I can see them making an appearance at a teardrop gathering, or twelve.

Stay tuned for a construction update from Jeremy in the days to come!