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!

Purchases!!

Oh boy, did I ever do some good spending last night! We bought 3 big purchases for the teardrop: an exhaust fan, chrome detailing tape, and windows. Can you smell the hole my credit card burned in my pocket? It was red-hot!

After some good searching - and recommendations from teardrop friends - we decided on a Fan-tastic Vent for the exhaust fan. We also heard "Don't buy from anyone except Scott at Adohen Supply Co". We took their advice and got a crazy deal on a 5000rbt model vent. We opted for white interior trim, a low profile base, and a clear, flat, dome cover.

This model has a thermostat so if we're camping and go off and leave the dog in the trailer we can be sure that the temperature won't move much from where we set it. This is a good thing when you have a heat-restricted pup!

And what a find on flexible chrome detailing! We were looking to trim out the wave on either side of the trailer with aluminum. Instead we found Flex Chrome in almost any size and shape you could ask for! Please please please check them out! We chose part #HR027C. I comes in 108in strips so we bought 4 of them.
Lastly, we bought these awesome windows from R.W. Johnson Teardrop Trailers. We were originally looking for safari windows off of a VW bus but realized that they would be too large to fit into our door. I did a search for crank-out windows and found these instead. Ideally, we would have loved for them to have an aluminum finish but apparently you can't find them anywhere anymore - I asked around. I think we'll take these babies apart and spray them silver. Jeremy is a window man - hopefully he can get them back together!

Aren't they just wonderful! "Crankout with screen. WIN". You really can't get any better than that :)
Woohoo!!!

Tear Jerkers Snow Fest 2011

This past weekend the Tear Jerkers Liberty Bell chapter had a gathering in a cabin just outside of R.B. Winter State Park in Mifflinburg, PA. Jeremy and I went and had a great time.

The weekend was full of sleeping, eating, drinking, story telling, and more drinking. Oh yeah, and I can't forget snoring!















On Saturday night there was a great bonfire. It was nice to get out in the cold for a few hours.











Sunday morning was the SnowFest event at the state park. Here's the official press release from the park:

Break out of the winter doldrums and experience some winter “adventures” such as.
a snow shoeing hike, cross country skiing (fee for equipment required), ice skating (fee for equipment required) horse drawn wagon rides (fee for ride required) ice rescue demonstration, ice fishing skills, snow mobiling safety and rides for kids, , winter camping equipment and techniques, a food concession ,a silent auction to benefit future snow fests and park events, snow volleyball, broomball, an ice sculpture demonstration, winter search and rescue using dogs and special activities for children include winter story time, nature activities and crafts.

The weekend was great but I was happy to get home and take a nice hot shower! :)

OOOPS, Time to Back Up and Punt

We drug both sides outside when I finished finishing the second side, and crap if they didn't look totally different. Side one was a sickly yellow compared to the second, which was much closer to the color we were trying for.

We thrashed our hair and put on sack cloth, and finally decided to make side one again. So close to assembly, and now a major setback.

Now we are in superdrive to pump out another side. Thank God we had two more sheets of the oversized plywood. The deck and floor will have to be pieced together, but there are design benefits to be had by going in this direction. I will not have to creatively frame the floor to bridge the gap from the five foot wide plywood to the five and a half foot wide trailer.

To save time we will be building the floor at the same time we are finishing side one-number two. We started by stripping the trailer to its bare bones. I am going to be building a rack that will attach to the axle so we can flip the trailer over and back to prep both sides. We will also be using the bum side as a template to mock things up. Lots and lots to do.