Friday Finesse and Fun!

At the risk of sounding incredibly repetitive, today was an amazingly beautiful day!  70 degrees and sunny.  My perfect weather kind of day!  The Carpe Diem is really coming along and today, as the title says, was a day of finesse and fun.

Started out enjoying my cold water by using my newly installed cup holders!  I love the cedar accent I was able to create yesterday.  

I had originally planned to make a false bottom on the shelf area to hide all my electrical lines.  Turns out I didn't need to do that; I bundled all the wires up and tucked them under the insulation on the far right side.  However, you never want to 'paint yourself into a corner' so to say.  So, I decided to make the back wall panel 'removable.'  It won't be easy, but it is possible to take out the back wall panel, simply by pulling on the top board.  Essentially, I just glued the cedar strips to the insulation.  Then I tacked a cover strip of wood at the top to 'join' the roof and the back wall.  If I ever need to get to it, I can!  This, by the way, was how it looked when I started adding the cedar strips.

All the cedar strips are in place.  Also, take a look at the Fantastic Fan.  I installed the fascia around the fan.  It pulled the roof together so nicely I think.

Bracing in place.  I found using sections of plywood to distribute the force and pieces of PVC pipe cut to length and then smooshed against a small piece of insulation makes very secure bracing.  Notice those cool new drink holders in fold up position!

Top piece in place and glue braced for overnight drying.  Notice the molding strip along the top of the roof over the doors.  More on that in the next photo.

Soaked the two molding strips that will go along the ceiling over the doors.  After soaking them, I braced them in their bended positions and will let them sit overnight.

Bulkhead doors removed.  I decided I would insulate the bulkhead with 1/2" insulation.  Half the thickness of the cabin due to the small area.  I think the insulation will help shield the cabin from the heat that is absorbed when the sun hits that front section.

Insulation loosely installed, waiting for glue and bracing.

One of many leg boo boos I have created by cutting insulation panels on my lap!

Cedar strips in place in the bulkhead.  I realized that the insulation can be used as an excellent brace by wedging it into place and using friction to press back against the surface being glued.

Okay, big task for tomorrow:  trim up the first door's insulation and headliner cover and cover the second door.  I'm hopeful my amazing daughter will help me with that.  If I have time, I may try cutting the mattress to the pattern of the floor.  Yikes.  I'm getting incredibly close to being done on the inside of the Carpe Diem.  That means I will be able to start on polishing the body soon!

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!

Cabinets or No Cabinets? That is the Question.

So, I'm finally inside the cabin doing something besides pulling wires and installing fixtures.  I'm thinking about how I want the interior to work for me.  As you can see from the picture below, the teardrop has a very sturdy shelf over the wheel wells.  Believe it or not, my nearly 5' 11 year old fits perfectly there!  This brings me to the topic of today's post: to build cabinets or not?

The shelf/cabinet area of my teardrop.

I spent the night in the teardrop for the first time this past weekend.  I found myself using the front of the shelf as a 'foot rest' while reading at one point.  Another time I used the shelf to hold my regular glass of water I go to bed with each night.  This got me thinking.  Do I really want to build cabinets above the shelf or not?  

A really good friend of mine argues for not building cabinets.  He says that one can keep suitcases, bags, etc in the tow vehicle and there is really no 'need' for lots of storage in the cabin.  Pretty much you are only going to keep additional clothing, toiletries, etc. inside the cabin.  Because you can't stand up to change, you probably are going to be using some version of a 'side screen room' or shelter to do that in.  

A fellow teardrop enthusiast, Stacie, made a great suggestion on the TNTTT forum.  She suggested that I construct wooden bins to slide into the space above the wells.  This would allow one to store things out of sight, but still retain the ability to use the space as a shelf, bunk, etc.  I think that is brilliant.  I will think that over a bit.  In order to customize them even more, one could make them 'slant' from front to back.  this would further maximize the amount of storage in each bin.  

Another member of the TNTTT forum, Becky, shared that she decided on making a shelf too.  She wished she had made her shelf bigger.  She shared that she built a small cabinet below the shelf to hide her electrical work.  This got me thinking.  I need a place to 'hide' the 12 and 120 volt outlets.  I could make a small 'cabinet' below the shelf where I could hide these.  This would retain the shelf, but would solve the problem of getting the power into the cabin.  

I'm sure others will share fantastic ideas; that is what most amazes me about the teardrop community; they are always helping one another!