Day 135

The last time I was at Home Depot, I hunted for something suitable to use as my desk top. Plywood sheets large enough to cover the width were prohibitively expensive, so I finally settled on a large shelf board. It was coated in white melamine, so it's pretty much the same material that you see on shelves for sale in big box stores. I already wasn't sold on the white, and when I got it home, I realized that at 15" it wasn't going to be deep enough for a desk top, so I returned it. A few days ago, I was at Lowes in Tempe, and decided that two planks of smaller plywood (1/2 inch by 2 feet by 4 feet) would do the job just fine.

Before installing the top, I wanted to fix the uneven gap in the thin sheets of plywood that make up the forward lower angled wall (beneath the desk). This has been bugging me since I mounted those pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One board, screwed in place over the gap should work, so I went hunting in the rafters over the carport. I came up with a board that was meant to be used for flooring - it has a tab along one edge and a slot along the other, so the boards can interlock. I ran it through the planer to remove the old finish and smooth it out, then did a couple of passes on my band saw to remove the two edges. A little sanding and some oil, and it was ready to go:

 

The finished board mounted - success! I hadn't figured on the top screw being hard to install - due to the 2x4 in my way - but I was able to get it in at an angle, and it worked out fine:

 

Setting one of the desk top boards in place, just to gauge the depth and how I'm going to attach it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used a large carpenter's square to mark on the back board the position of the 2x4 tops that I'll be drilling into to attach the desk top (since they'll be covered up by the desk top boards). Yeah, I know...the image is confusing. It's late at night as I make this entry, and I'm too tired to go into detail. You'll just have to trust that there is a method to the madness.

 

The two boards cut to length with the circular saw and set in place...but not screwed down yet. I'm doing that tomorrow. I think it's going to work!

 

Everything is slightly uneven right now (big surprise). But once all of it is screwed down, I think it'll be fine.

I had to call it at this point. I still had cleaning up to do, and I had to get a shower - the bathroom is currently being remodeled, so we don't have a working indoor shower. The one on the back of the house has been getting use finally, but you have to shower while it's still daylight.

Anyway, finishing the desk tomorrow, if all goes well!

Day 134

Minor upgrade: a few days back, I added a paper towel rack to the door under the counter. It was left over from the previous owner, and was mounted on the wall over the counter, if I recall correctly.

 

Yesterday, I picked up a beam to start building out the desk/workbench, and today was the day to start. I knew that I wouldn't get too far, because I'm still deciding on the wood for the top. Some of the L-brackets I've had for years will finally get used:

 

Getting everything squared and level was challenging, but I think I got it all as close as possible. I cut the beam to length on the miter saw and set it in place for a test fit:

Attaching the beam to the L-brackets, as seen from below:

 

Not much more I could do with the desk today, so I moved on to other small things.

With all of the power cords that will need to be routed to various spots within the trailer, I wanted some way to neaten things up and keep the cords mostly tucked out of sight. I found a 10-pack of cable grommets on Amazon for a decent price:

 

The hole where the speaker wires pass through the shelf (over the desk) just happens to be 2 inches, the same diameter as the grommets. Nice.

 

Perfect fit. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with the surface of this shelf. Maybe decoupage like the counter? Low priority, so this will do for now.

 

I still have lots of fence board scrap pieces from when I was doing the ceiling, so I thought I might cover the underside of the shelf with some of the better ones (like I did with the underside of the cabinets over the bed). I set one in place to see if I like it. I'll continue at some point - again, low priority.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoping to get down to Home Depot tomorrow to see if I can get some wood for the desktop.

Day 133

Morning sunshine streaming through my window...

 

The space between the counters has been taunting me since work halted back in November. I dragged out the planer, miter saw and sanders from the storage shed, and got to work on finishing up the last two boards to complete the wall. I was never happy with the way I did the floor - the plywood was too thin, and it just felt half-assed to me, so I ripped it out.

 

That unsupported space (which had only insulation in it before) was bothering me, so I found a scrap 2x4 and ran it through the planer - not to make it pretty, but to remove some of the outdoor weathering on it. This should make for a better support for the boards I'm placing over it.

 

Havelock wool back in place:

 

I had thought about cutting down one large plank of plywood to use for the floor, but the crookedness of this old tub makes it difficult to measure for an exact fit. I settled on using a couple of shelf boards from Ikea (those old ones that I've had for years). I don't have enough free wall space to ever use all of them, so I thought it would be okay to sacrifice a couple of them for flooring. Cut to size and oiled:

 

While I was waiting for the oil to soak in, I thought I'd get a shot of the jack stands that I installed yesterday. There is already a pair under the back end - I placed those when I first moved the trailer up here. But since the trailer has settled, I've been feeling a wobble when walking in the front half. This seemed to do the trick. Also, I just realized that my trailer has a nipple:

 

The two boards in place, plus a smaller strip in back to close the gap between the wall boards and the floor:

 

I still had one piece left of the board that I used for the back edge, so I rip cut it in half to make two more pieces to close up the side gaps:

 

There are obviously still small gaps along the edges where the side walls meet the floor - the plywood I used for the walls is thin and bendy. I did what I could to close them up with nails from the back side, but on that left wall, the wheel well prevents access... so I'll just accept the imperfections.

Since this is the area that will eventually hold a litterbox (below) and a Jackery (above), the only thing left to do here is add a shelf in the middle to separate the two spaces. Soon.

I finished up around noon, showered and headed to Payson for an afternoon of errands. There are things going on tomorrow, and Sunday I'm working in Payson again before heading down to Tempe, so this is probably it until Wednesday.

Day 132

Three coats of Mod Podge, allowing about an hour between coats. I'm liking the finish:

For quite a few years, I've traveled with a bunch of wood shelves from Ikea, which are no longer in production. I like the bracket style for these - they screw into the shelves on the underside, but then angle upward to attach to the wall, which is a space saver compared to typical shelf brackets. Since they didn't get re-hung at the last apartment, I chose to store the shelves with my folks, since they have an abundance of room, by comparison. It took a while for my dad to dig them out, but I finally have them. So I mounted one on the east back wall, over the foot of the bed, and beneath the other shelf I mounted months ago. Some of my fiction books came up with me on the last trip - now they have a home:

I mounted one of the two tap lights (which came with the trailer) on the ceiling of my closet a while back. The other one has been floating around here for a while, and after having many a night of entering a dark trailer, and fumbling around to find the light by my bed, I decided to mount it over the door. Behold...

I'm not sure how much work I'll get done tomorrow, as I'm heading back down to Tempe for a gig at a friend's house. Back again on Tuesday.

EDIT: just when you think you're done for the day... I recently inherited a guitar hanger, courtesy of Don (Thanks!) Since the stove-heating days are most likely behind us, I moved an acoustic down to the trailer to encourage myself to play more. I'm not terribly worried about the temperature fluctuations in the trailer when it comes to the guitar. The Epiphone was cheap - free, actually, as I bought it with trade credit - and I wanted a beater to keep in here, so here we are.

Day 131

My plan for the counter was to buy some kind of paper from an art/craft store, and decoupage with Mod Podge to seal it (I'm trying to keep the trailer as free of toxins as possible). Initially, I was picturing several different kinds of paper, but once I was at Jerry's Art-o-rama in Tempe, I settled on a simple pattern. The paper below seemed like a nice compliment to the colors in the trailer.

 

Before doing anything with it, I cut a small piece and glued it to a bit of scrap wood, so I could test to make sure the Mod Podge wouldn't mess up the paper (I did this part yesterday, to allow the glue the recommended overnight drying period before applying the sealer). After the satin finish Mod Podge has been applied:

 

Testing the way the paper looks in place before I do anything else:

 

Finally, gluing the paper in place. I cut it roughly to size, with the intention of fine-trimming with an Exacto blade later.

 

Trimmed down both edges, and tucked/glued the front edge under. Funny... you can see by looking at the edge of the counter compared to the cabinet door just how crooked everything is in this trailer.

Since I want to let the glue dry overnight, I moved on to a couple of other minor cosmetic things. I've been holding on to a sheet of metal that I had picked up in a thrift store a couple of years ago, and I finally used it as a new home for some of my non-travel-related magnets:

 

...and the owl hanger - which until recently had been used as a dish towel hanger in Tempe - is now the spot for my truck keys, right by the door:

 

Tomorrow, I hope to get a few coats of Mod Podge on the counter to see how it looks.

Day 130

Well...

It's been a longer time than I expected. It's been a cold winter and a lot of life changes since last I posted. If you happen to be checking this blog after all this time, first off: thank you. Secondly, I won't bore you with the details, but we'll just say my life has changed substantially since then.

And so I emerge from the cold, into the warmth to - hopefully - complete this project that began more than a year ago, when I was in a very different place (physically, mentally and emotionally).

With the winter (the cold, snow and rain) delaying all of my projects, there was a deluge of other work to catch up on before I could even think about the trailer. But tasks are being completed, or at least advanced... so, at last, the work shall continue.

Since the days when the trailer sat under the sweltering Phoenix sky, in the early stages of (de)construction, the counter top below has never been totally free of clutter - mostly random tools, screws, nails, various bits of hinges and hardware from disassembled cabinets, etc. And for months, the face of the cabinet has been in need of touch-up painting, so that I could finally reattach that door.

I cleared the counter top first, choosing to place a recently inherited tea holder with drawers. The screws of the side panel are still loose (to make painting easier), and the surface of the counter top itself is not finished- I have plans...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The drawers came preloaded with tea:

 

 

The other trailer-related project from this morning was to mount a wood hanger that I thrifted a couple of months ago. It needed to be sanded and oiled, so I got that done after drilling holes for the screws. I've moved all of the hats that were on the hanger by the door to the back wall now, freeing up that hanger for coats and such in the winter. Better late than never...

 

I'm hoping that one of two things can happen this week: either finishing up the last few wall panels that need to be installed, OR beginning the construction of the desk/workspace under the front window.

Update soon...

Day 129

Thanks to a connection from Sooz, I was hooked up with some free firewood from someone in Phoenix. There was an enormous pile, and I wish I could have grabbed more, but I didn't want to overload my truck. I'll be unloading and merging it with our supply this weekend:

 

Since my Payson client chose to skip this week, after a short visit, I headed up to Pine. After a quick re-heat of leftovers, I got to work, cutting down and mounting the second half of the lower front wall. It's rough, and needs a little trim along the top edge, but at least now that area is insulated and (mostly) closed up. I just need to build out my desk:

 

In an effort to retire the circular saw and table saw to the shed for the season, I wanted to finish up the only other area that involved cutting plywood - the space between the counters. Before placing the panel on the floor, I put in supports to raise it to be flush with the front edge, and also to give space for insulation underneath:

 

Insulation and board in. I placed two trim boards on the sides to cover gaps. Everything is so crooked, but I'm just letting it go at this point:

 

That was it for the construction today. Everything else was unpacking clothes, household stuff, etc. Tomorrow is pretty booked, so perhaps Friday I'll get some more work in.

Day 128

A holiday week...and each day, one thing or another dominated the day. I did some more "moving in"... blankets, kitchen items, decorative things, etc. But the only real construction was today. And even that was minimal, because I devoted most of the afternoon to moving any tools and/or equipment that was no longer needed (or needed anytime soon) into the shed.

As far as the work goes, this was it. Just a few boards added over the insulation in the closet. Even though I took the planer down to Phoenix last week, stripped it down, cleaned and lubed everything, it's still running a bit loud and making an alarming sound that makes me think its about to come apart. I just want to get the rest of the wall boards done so can I retire this thing for the season. Maybe it's a cold weather issue? I don't know...

Anyway...the closet:

Day 127

The day started off very cold, and I had a hard time shaking the cold from my body from last night. It was just a little cooler, but windy...and the wind chill felt like it was really penetrating the trailer. I was up at 3:30 to use the rest room and just decided to stay in the house to warm up.

Even though it was cold, it was clear and sunny, and eventually did warm up a bit. It seemed like a good day to finally take care of the little door on the east outside wall where my power cables are coming in.

The previous owner (presumably) did this hack job, probably to allow a power cable to pass through.

 

 

Until yesterday, I had just one cable - the orange one - passing through that little opening. But now I've got the dedicated heavier line for the heater - the yellow one. I'm going to keep using the orange one for a while, at least until I'm done using all of the power tools. And while I'll keep the yellow one to power the heater - and eventually the heat pump, once it is installed - this is also the same opening that I want to pass solar power through, once I get some panels for the roof. I needed a solution to keep rain and snow away from the opening, so the last time I was at Ace in Payson, I picked up another dryer exhaust cover - the same kind that I used on the opposite wall to shield the air intake for the stove.

You can see when I lift the door, that it is open to that cabinet space under the counter:

 

The first task was to increase the size of that opening. I tried using the oscillating multi tool, but it was having a hard time with the metal, so I switched to the cut off tool and a pair of tin snips. Not my best work, but it will be hidden, and I'm running out of time, so it'll do.

 

I drilled two holes for screws in the upper corners of the cover...not sure why they aren't already pre-drilled. The installation of that was pretty fast. I'll just need to seal the edges before the next rain:

 

I needed a board to close off that huge opening behind this door, and provide a wall to place insulation against on the inside. I just happened to have one in my scrap pile that was the perfect size:

 

I loaded my corded drill with a hole-cutting bit to create an opening in the wall big enough to pass a couple of cords through:

 

With the door closed and cords passed through:

 

Yeah, there's a little gap underneath. We'll get to that in a bit...

From the inside- I'm temporarily running the cords off to the left. There are pass-through holes on either side of my closet. A water pipe once went through there. Remember when I had to pull that whole deal out? That was a bitch. Anyway, the cords come out of the left side of my closet, and are tucked under the bed for now...out of the way.

 

Insulation stuffed in that hole, to keep the cold - and small critters - out:

 

Below and to the right of this area is the front part of the east wheel well. I'm temporarily placing insulation here. Eventually I'll construct a thin wall to hold it in place:

 

Yep, I know. There is still painting to be done here. Plus touch-up painting here and quite a few other areas. It'll have to wait.

Okay...back to that little gap on the door. I created a...bridge(?) to cover it. Otherwise, bugs and maybe small mice will have an invitation to come right in:

 

Installed. This is very much something my dad would come up with, I'm proud to say. Although his would be far nicer looking.

 

After a short break, I did a little painting on the counter cabinets. This is the last area that needed paint, so I wanted to get the first couple of coats on. The sooner I finish the painting, the sooner I can reinstall the last two cabinet doors:

 

That's it for today!