Slow Saturday

Even though I woke early, today was a slow day.  I didn't get my big task, the doors done.  But, I did find lots of great uses for the 'extra' cedar.  In fact, I don't think I will end up 'wasting' any of the cedar.

Task one was to take down the bracing from the night before and see how the molding trim worked.  In short, it didn't.  I guess I should have known that the wood really needed to be soaked longer and possibly put on a 'form' in order to achieve the tight radius to the left of the door.  The trim did not bend enough.  I tried nailing it with my brad nailer, but it was not strong enough to hold the pressure of the bend.

Off to Lowes for a trim run.  I found a piece of molding; believe it or not it is plastic that is 'colored' a 'natural' color.  It matches perfectly to the natural cedar and it bends a whole lot more.  I decided to use Liquid Nails and my brad nailer.  It worked pretty well; again, the trouble spot was the tight radius to the left of the door.  I actually left that section braced and will see what happens after a night of bracing and the Liquid Nails.

The picture before the one above was a bit out of order.  I added a panel of insulation to the shelf.  It's not glued in; again, if I ever needed to get to the wire runs, I can by simply lifting the insulation panel up.  

I used liquid nails to glue the cedar to the foam.  Much happier with the tack of Liquid Nails than the PL 300 adhesive.  

 

Almost finished.

Done.  Look how nice that trim piece pulls the ceiling and the back wall together.  I am very pleased with the 'plastic' trim piece.

I did try out the baskets before adding the insulation and the cedar, but this was my confirmation.  They fit perfectly and the lip of the shelf (which has a piece of foam glued to it by the way) holds them from moving forward.  There is about an inch of 'wiggle room' in the back.  You would think I made it that way!

You can see that the back of the totes fit exactly to the top of the cedar strips in the back.

Picked up a can of this Leak Seal.  I wanted to use it in the wheel wells.  I decided to go over the wood 'angles' I used to make the wheel well in the galley.  They've been treated and painted with the undercoating, but I found teeny tiny spots that missed the undercoating.  This just gave me an extra coat of comfort.

 

Here's a better shot of the flange I installed around the vent.  It looks great!

The porch light switch installed, glued and braced for the night.  Again, I really like the way the cedar accent looks.  It ties the design together nicely I think.

Finished up the little nit picky pieces in the bulkhead.  The only thing left to do in that area is to cover the side pieces of foam in headliner and glue the cedar strips to the 'floor' of the cabinet.  I'm thinking this is where we'll keep our shoes at night.

 

What do you when your teardrop is 5' wide and all the strips of cedar come in 8' lengths?  Well, you use those strips to cover the shelves and you line the built in storage bins to give them a super nice smell!

 

With some stuff in it!

 The back storage bin.  

I had been thinking about how I could install some simple curtains for some privacy in the teardrop.  Well, I found a solution.  Before the windows were installed, there were two angle irons that gave rigidity to the door.  When I removed them, I had to fill the holes with bolts and nuts.  I had made them very short to just 'dig' in to the foam core that will be glued to them.  Well, if you look closely, there are three nuts above and below the molding of the window.  If I were to simply add a larger bolt (one that would go all the way through the foam/headliner, I could use that bolt to anchor a curtain rod.  Aha!  Solution!  Now, to decide on a nice looking rod and to purchase the right length of bolt!  Then I get to choose a cool fabric that will pull everything together!

One last view of the shelf area.  You can almost smell that lovely cedar!  I'm so glad that I did not put 'cabinets' in this area.  By keeping it a shelf with the bins, I have a lot of flexibility.  Plus, by making this out of cedar, I've ensured a great smell, low chance of 'rot' and it will keep bugs out.  I was initially concerned about not 'treating' the cedar.  I was wondering if the cedar smell would ever be 'too' much.  Not a problem.  It smells great, but it's not too much at all.  I couldn't be happier with how it is turning out.

Father's Day tomorrow.  Would love to get both doors finished.  If I can get them done and installed, and then those last couple of things in the bulkhead, the Carpe Diem will essentially be ready for travel!  Can't wait!

Vent Placement and Interior Cabinets

I've been thinking about the placement of the Fantastic Fan.  For several reasons I can imagine it being directly overhead in the cabin.  The first is that the fan's blades are clear.  This would be really neat to look up at the night sky.  Also, my wife and I are big fan people.  We sleep with a fan on at night, both for the sound, which helps us sleep, and the movement of air.  In the worst case scenario, a really hot night, having the fan blow directly on our faces might be great.

However, the shape of the interior of my teardrop only has a very slim area that is 'flat.'  That spot is about midway in the cabin.  Believe it or not, this impacts a bunch of other things.  I have reading lights that I plan to install at the front/top of the cabin, just a bit away from the bulkhead doors.  I had planned on putting in a dome light.  It has a red/white bulb to allow for night vision.  Now that I'm getting closer to the point of installing everything, I'm thinking of putting that dome light closer to the cabinets in the cabin.  This would be helpful when trying to get into the cabinets when its dark out.  I think the reading lights will be useful for general light and of course for reading.

 

So, I've had some discussions with folks about interior cabinets.  One friend of mine says to keep the 'shelf' that currently sits in the interior of my cabin.  It actually, as I've said before, could double as a bunk for a person under five feet.  It is also a convenient place to stow just about anything that fits in the large area (5' by 2').  However, I'm leaning towards doing something like this:

 This would basically be exactly the same amount of 'space,' it would just look more 'finished.' At least that's how I feel about it right now.  One thing for sure, I want to insulate all of the walls.  I don't want to take the easier route of not insulating the exterior walls inside the cabinets; otherwise those cabinets will 'sweat' when we are in the cabin.  I plan to make the cabinets fit the entire width of cabin.   I know some designs have a space for a built in DVD player, etc. but that is not a huge need for me.  Most of the time I spend will be out of doors.  If the need arises to being socked in due to rain, we could always watch something on our iPhone!  Not the big screen, but in a pinch it could work.

Fellow Teardrop Blogger

I discovered the blog:  Tiny Yellow Teardrop via a Pintrest pin this week.  The pin was of the top ten teardrop galleys.  While reading about Christina and her beautiful yellow teardrop, I found a great video that was made celebrating the idea of the teardrop trailer.  This video hits on the simplicity of teardrop and the core ideas that lead people to explore their world in a teardrop.  I thought it was really well done.  I liked seeing Christina and her husband inside their teardrop; it made me yearn to get out in mine. 

It's Friday and that means that the weekend is just around the corner.  I have a lot going on this weekend and won't be able to work on the teardrop as much as I would like to, but I do plan on getting a few of the items on my to do list completed this weekend.  My hinge and aluminum trim arrived this week, as did the Fantastic Fan.  I'm going to concentrate on getting the cabin completely squared away first.  Watching this video will have to soothe my desire to get out in my teardrop for now!