This morning, we were up shortly after 6, caffeinated by 7, and by 8:30 I'd finished baking a batch of homemade blueberry muffins so the kids wouldn't starve while we worked.
Two dozen muffins. Don't starve, kids.
The first one hadn't cooled when I ripped the paper off to snag a photo.
Then the Babaloo and I got to work. We pulled the trailer up to about 20 feet from the front door, set the leveling jacks, and took stock of what was needed and what we had.
First thing this morning.
The first thing we did was go along every single exposed board with a hammer and a nail set to clean out and remove or bury nails and staples so the paneling would sit flush. There were about a hundred of these suckers.
3% of this step.
Next, we noticed that the wiring was not run through but over the framing boards, so we had to chisel channels for it so they wouldn't get squished.
Yes, it is held in place with scotch tape. It's what I had.
You can also see in the above photo the cross-piece 2x4 boards we installed in the ceiling to strengthen it.
We also had to install a few L-brackets to get rid of some wobbliness where the side walls met the front wall.
The bracket of L.
Some time during this process, I noticed the Babaloo was getting frustrated having to disconnect the saw to plug in his hammer drill. We decided to run the drop cord from the house to the trailer and then plug the tools into the trailer outlets. Duh, right? I can only offer that our coffee hadn't kicked in when we started this morning. He also reminded me that I had a Black & Decker drill (which he's teased me for owning for almost ten years) so we used that to drill pilot holes instead of swapping drill bits in the hammer drill.
Outlets! ... and, ready to install insulation.
Now, the insulation the guy had included was something like a bazillion inches thick and it was nekkid. I'm used to the thin pink stuff with paper on one side. No such luck. After I finally succeeded in explaining my idea to the Babaloo, he was on board: staple flat trash bags to the framing to hold the insulation in the ceiling until we can get the paneling in place. It worked like a charm.
A charm, I say!
After dealing with fiberglass insulation, it was time for a cold shower. The Babaloo got his first (he'd been wearing a sleeveless shirt & was covered). While he was gone I bundled up the rest of the roll of insulation. Local folks: anyone need some extra thick nekkid insulation?
After showers, we were ready to keep rolling. We managed to install the ceiling board and the front wall board pretty quickly.
See that skylight hole? The Babaloo is a plunge-cut rock star.
The two panels on the right wall were a bit trickier, what with the notching and windows and the wiring we had to avoid.
The gaps will be hidden by trim later.
At this point, the Babaloo's back was starting to hurt and I knew if we continued with the left wall, we'd start making mistakes. Never do detail work when you're tired, folks. While he finished nailing the paneling, I picked up tools and trash and we shut it down for the day.
Huge improvement over this morning, no?
We agreed that cold beers would be nice. I told the Babaloo that if we got beers today, we could have them tonight and they'd be ready for when we finish our work on the trailer tomorrow night, too! He offered to go to the store while I got the first shower, since he'd gotten the first shower earlier today. I told him that if he bought Guinness, I could have a beer, too (stout is the only thing that doesn't trigger my allergies). He said I didn't have to twist his arm.
That's it. That's all I have for now. More later. Guinness now.
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