Awhile back, we had mapped out the walls on the floor with green tape so we knew exactly where they would go according to the plan. Now it's time to start getting some very crucial measurements and start building walls! We are building them out of the best looking Birch we can find. There will be no stain on any of the Birch. Clear and natural just like God made it. (Well, except for about 10 coats of hand rubbed Lacquer!)
This is one of the wall panels, cut and dry fit, now sporting that beautiful clear Lacquer. The Lacquer gives the Birch a warm amber color that will continue to mellow with age.
We cut a lot of 1"x1" strips and attached them to the walls, ceiling and floors to make "cleats" that the walls will be attached to. They look like this:
The "cleats" give us attachment points in all the right places. Keep in mind, behind all of the cleats are mounting points that were planned out and built-in during construction of the roof and walls.
Here are the walls being cut, fit and mounted onto the cleats:
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| There are no rectilinear lines in this coach! All walls sit at angles |
Once the walls are cut and fit, we begin to work on door placement for the bathroom door and closet door. We really like the look of the archtop exterior door and decided to carry that theme on into the cabin:
Here's a look at the closet, being framed in along with the cabinet that will hold the 3-way refrigerator. (Here's a tip from a Preachers Kid... Don't Google 3-way.)
Another look at the closet as we dry fit the 3-way fridge:
Things are really starting to come together as we build walls and try to make sense of the space as we go. It is very important, considering the small size of the coach that we utilize every bit of space that we can. Something that we are constantly thinking about is, where are we going to put gear, food, utensils? Therefore, we have to utilize every bit of area that we have. So here comes one of my favorite built-in's of the project so far... The hidden slide out pantry!
I really have to give tons of credit to Brother Matt for coming up with this great idea! This is a shot of the basic framing for the slide out pantry:
We assembled the entire piece with professional wood glue, (if you're doing something like this don't skimp on materials) and used a Kreig Jig and pocket screws to fasten it all together.
Once the entire piece was assembled, it was time to start working on the mechanics of the thing. Once it is installed into the wall it will look like it is magically floating in and out on Pixy Wings and Fairy Dust. But as sweet as that would be, we had no Pixies or Fairies, so we had to devise a genius plan to make it slide out on three strategically hidden, full-ball bearing slides with soft close capability. What that actually means is, you won't see the slides or hardware and it will look like it just floats magically in and out of the wall!
If any of the slides are even a tiny bit off, it won't work. Therefore we built a table-top jig to align all the pieces perfectly, thus eliminating many of the problems that might cause it to not work as designed. This is a picture of it being carefully assembled in the jig on the work bench:
Someone on one of my forums once told me, "I built it according to my original plan, then I took it apart and re-built it correctly." At the time I thought it was funny but unfortunately this pull-out pantry was one of those very things that worked great in theory and on the test bench, but not in the practical application. Once it was installed into the coach, it literally took hours and hours of trial and error, test and fit, tweek and adjust until we finally got it to work! But once we got it, it was all Fairy Wings and Pixy Dust just like we planned! It slides in and out of the wall like butter and when you close it, it magically pulls itself back into the wall the last three inches with a soft close. This feature certainly tested our skills as well as our patience but in the end we know it will be very well worth the work to gain all that storage space!
Here it is slid out of the wall:
And here it is slid back:
Whew!
After all that, I was able to spray some Lacquer on all the dry-fit parts. Then we were able to install the walls for the bathroom. While we were at it, we ran the wiring for the lighting as well. We found some retro-looking fixtures and converted them to 12V LED. I think they're fabulous! Now to end this segment with a couple shots of the interior lighting!
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| Warm Amber Birch meets Glitzy Copper Tangerine |
A few people gave me some raised eyebrows when I said I was doing Old School Flake on the walls. "Trust my vision" I said! I knew one day the Warm Amber Birch and the Glitzy Copper Tangerine would fall in love and get married. Well... there they are in all their marvelous marital bliss!
And with that, it's time to bring this segment to a close! We hope you have enjoyed our progress up to this point! Sadly, things are moving slow on the build but in light of our current situation we make progress when we can!
So tonight, as you lay your head on your pillow and begin to drift off to sleep, think of all the things in your life that are a wonderful blessing! And while you're at it, if you don't mind, say a little prayer for me, for my treatments and a cure. We sure could use the support!
Until next time, keep praying, keep building and keep dreaming!
Happy Creations!
Michael and Carrie
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