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.

Hustling buns now.

Now we are cooking with grease. The inside of all the parts are done and today I got the second of seven coats of varnish on the outside. The wave went on really well this time with just touchups around the edges. I still get a little heavy handed with the sander though, and got two thin spots on the white. I'll probably be the only one that ever notices.

I am doing a few things to speed up and improve the process on this side. I am finishing all three pieces at the same time, taping off the edges so there are virtually no drips, and vacuuming through the sander so there is much less dust and tack-ragging. All the varnish should be done by the weekend.

It has been so cold and wet here, but I got the garage hooked up with a little heater. A good hoodie and some tunes help too.

We are so excited to get to the assembly stage. I am going to start disassembling the trailer and shedding any thing not necessary. Dry fits, bed lining, electrical, spars, bulkheads, cabinetry, windows, skylights... woo hoo!!! It's about to get fun, and my new friend Todd has volunteered with some help. I am going to need it.

Moving On Up

We finally feel like we are making some real progress. The first side and it's trim ring are sealed up in a beautiful candy coating of spar. After several checks and double checks that we were orienting the plywood correctly, I used the trim ring to outline the second side.

Again we cut the outline of both the side and the trim ring at the same time.

And then raise the trim ring and cut out the inner profile.

I leave the line and use a belt sander to even out the curves. We finish this stage by filling any void in the edge of the plywood. I hope to drop the door before Thanksgiving and be prepped and ready to paint next week, which puts us on schedule to have the finish done before Christmas, then it is assembly in the new year!

Painting the Inside

The last coats of varnish have dried on the trim ring and door. Finally!

Mosquitoes kept landing in the varnish on the door, which was odd because this hadn't happened before. Not one mosquito the entire time we were varnishing our huge first side. Weird. Maybe next time we'll use a fan to blow them out of the way.

This weekend we flipped over our first finished side and began work on the inside of the panel. We set it up on painters pyramids so the finished side doesn't get scratched. Jeremy sanded it out nice and smooth.

When Jeremy originally painted the outside of the panel he taped the unfinished side so when the varnish ran over the edges it wouldn't bleed. The varnish that ran over pooled on the tape so I cut it off with an xacto knife and Jeremy sanded that out too.

Then he stained it white. Everything covered really nicely. You can tell that the trim ring and the side panel are two different colors. Believe it or not the trim ring started out this white color as well. After sanding and many coats of varnish the color dulled into this "sand" color, as I like to call it. The white definitely changed the color of the wood but isn't as striking anymore as when it is first applied.

Jeremy and I both love it. Next is sanding seal and a first coat of varnish! Stay tuned!

Catching Up

Last weekend we made a lot of progress. First we cut the inner diameter of the trim ring.

This is what the side will look like with the trim on.

Then we taped off the door and cut it out.

Kate is a great photographer.