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!

Baskets and Electricity

The baskets for the cabin arrived today.  I feel a little odd saying how excited I was to put them into their place.  They fit perfectly and the color is great.

I had really hoped that I could get the electrical system back in order.  I have had trouble with the super simple AC system.  Turns out it was me that was the problem, not the power cord.  I didn't realize that the red light was lit when the system was 'on.'  I was thinking that the red light on the GCFI meant that the circuit was broken.  So, all the time I thought I had some sort of problem with the GCFI, it was really just me being a doofus. 

Well, I was able to wire the Marinco port to the power cord and then into the AC outlet.  I spent several hours monkeying around with daisy chaining outlets so that I could have one inside the cabin.  In the end I decided not to do that; it just isn't worth stringing the wires into the cabin.  I'll still put the two 12 volt outlets in the cabin.  I'll have a plug in inverter in the cabin should I need it.

I installed the battery charger in the electrical compartment too.  You can just barely see the small hole I drilled into the compartment so that I can bring the plug to the battery charger.  Wasn't the way I planned on rigging it up, but it works.

Everything is coming together pretty well here.  I have a bit more 'bundling' of wires to do; I'll do that after I add the two 12 volt outlets in the cabin.

Thankfully, this is the side most people will see when they look into the galley.  I am really happy with how the 'control center' section of the teardrop has come together.

I didn't take any photos of it, but I spent quite a bit of time today working to cut the insulation pieces for the walls.  I'll cover those with headliner material and then glue them into place in the next few days.

One thing I noticed is that I can't work in the teardrop during the main part of the day.  It's just too hot to be out there on the patio in the sun.  So, it's early morning or late afternoon for me to work on the teardrop.

Basket Test

So, on the way home this evening, I stopped at Target and picked up a couple of different baskets to try.  Why baskets and not build wooden bins?  Good question.  Not sure yet.  My thought is that they are lighter, some of the choices can be broken down to be stored flatly, and they are already made.  One negative is that they are not the exact size I want them to be.  The first was essentially a cube; in fact they are made for those cube storage units that have become so popular recently.

This one is a bit taller than the second one that I tried this evening.  Conversely, it is not as long or deep.  This leaves a little more of the shelf unused.  Not sure how I feel about that at this point.

You can see from the image above that it fits nicely in the height and is a little short in the depth.

The second bin was a bit deeper, but shorter.  It also did not breakdown to store flatly.

You can see from the image above that it is a bit longer or deeper.  Looking at the images again, I don't see a significant difference in their depth.  Either way, four of the baskets would fit nicely in the space.  There would be just a teeny bit of wiggle room with either choice. 

With the idea I had earlier about the slide out shelf and the power center below the main shelf, I think I'm ready to keep the shelf as is with the baskets.  I'll stop by Target tomorrow and pick up the additional baskets and see how that feels when I add the additional insulation.  The good thing about using the baskets is that I can easily convert it to open storage again without doing any damage.  Can't wait to finish the insulation and install the headliner this weekend!

Baskets and Electrical Outlets in the Cabin

So, after some thinking and brainstorming I've possibly come up with a solution for my dilemma on the cabinets.  I need to 'hide' my wiring chase on the bottom of the shelf.  So, I'll build a very short 'false bottom' to the shelf.  On top of this, I will place baskets similar one of these:

These would have many benefits over permanent cabinets.  1). I can take them out to organize clothing, etc.  2).  They can be cleaned easily.  3).  If I ever feel the need to use the shelf as a bunk, open storage, etc. I can do so without any permanent damage to the teardrop.  4).  They should be easy to access as well.  They could be tilted easily to see what's inside thanks to the shape of the ceiling.

I'll need to decide what 'ideal' sizes would be.  As you can tell from the image, there is a slight slope  at the back of the shelf area where the ceiling comes down.

The rear measurement is about 13" from the base of the shelf to the roof.  So, I'll look for baskets that are about 13" tall.  The length is about 21" so there will be a little bit of 'open space' in the back.  I'm planning to put a small shelf in front of the electrical outlets.  I'm thinking that they would be a good place to set an iPhone, etc. to charge.  I just had another idea that might be even better.  I could make a slide out shelf that would accommodate a laptop, iPad, heater, etc.  This would solve many problems for me.  The good news is that I have an extra set of drawer slides that will work perfectly!  I really like the fold down drink holders that are often used in boats.  I would like to place one of them on each side of the door for Erica and I to put our beverages.

I can't wait for the school year to end so that I can get busy finishing up all of the projects for the interior of the teardrop.  Once I'm done, I'll be able to start polishing that old aluminum!