Trailer Porn!

Fully exposed! Like you've never seen before! The following post contains graphic, even shocking images. You've been warned!

Deconstruction has been completed and the project has moved on to the construction phase. Due to a tendency to be thorough and an overwhelming amount of rot, the deconstruction phase led us to a point we had not anticipated going:



Yes, that's correct gentle readers, we took the whole thing apart and decided to start from scratch. When you have finished with your guffaws and "wtf's", please read on for the explanation as to why we were forced to start over completely. And no, it's not because I'm crazy.

If you will recall, this whole project began as a result of obvious water damage in the front driver's side corner of the trailer. As we removed paneling we noticed that not only was the wood rotted, but the frame was falling apart. Since I wanted my new home to be structurally sound, the decision was made to completely demolish the existing frame and start over. This demolition led us to the fact that all the floorboards were rotted out, and since it would be impossible to adhere brand new walls to rotted out floors, we bit the bullet, and ended up with the shiny piece of metal you saw above. An example of the state of the frame - the picture below is the most structurally sound portion of the entire trailer before demolition:



Unfortunately the roof also collapsed once we had removed the paneling from the entire passengers side, a lovely picture of which is below:



If anyone has ever wanted to know what a trailer's worth of trash looks like, here it is:



The advantage of having finished deconstruction is, of course, the fact that I get to construct! We bought the materials for and began working on the floor yesterday, and had we not run out of wood (we were short 6 lousy feet) we would have been done with the whole thing this morning. Thanks to the skills of my partner in crime, we even managed to recreate the angle in the frame to allow for the curve of the trailer. I've provided more pictures below. Hopefully the next time I post the floor will be finished and *gasp* there might even be a wall or two!

Fridge-less

Much progress was made today on the trailer! Removed was more of the paneling, all of the doors (both to the cabinets, the closets, and the front door itself), and most excitedly we took out the refrigerator and the propane heater.

Work really seems to be coming along nicely, and if the weather continues to cooperate, I am hopeful that we will have the deconstruction complete before the end of the week, which will mean that we can begin actual construction before the end of the month! You can't see it, but I'm doing a little happy dance in my chair.

The work is generally fun, but I'm finding that the main reason I'm enjoying it so much has more to do with the fact that its my project than with the specifics of the project itself. I think that this is appeasing my biological clock to a certain extent; allowing me to create a nest, etc., and providing an outlet for all my "settling" energy.

Which frankly isn't all that settled, but the idea of having my own home has been appealing to me for some time. The fact that this particular home is mobile seems to be the best solution to the problem of integration which I have faced in the past. Regardless, I'm having a great time!

Below are the photos of the specifics:


Here is the fridge with the door off, prior to disassembly.


Here is the fridge vent on the side of the trailer (this is now a hole for the sunshine!)


Here is the counter area without the fridge - you can see the sun peeking through now.


This is what the area where the fridge was looks like now.

And lastly, the heater before:



And after!

Is it summer yet?

I have returned to my trailer after a week of vacationing in the luxurious apartments of my mommy. Thanks mommy :) Sleeping in the truck is still oddly comfortable however, which is good to know. I'm glad I didn't get soft during my stint in civilization!

Upon my return I was saddened to see that my plants had suffered the worst of the cold weather while we were gone. I fear my orchid may never recover from the ridiculously cold evenings Santa Fe got last week. The poor thing froze, possibly to death, and is currently on life support in the relative warmth of my father's house. I, being a girl, will weep if it succumbs to the freezer burn it appears to have suffered.

Note to self: do not leave tropical plants in a trailer in New Mexico in April.

Deconstruction-atin' the countryside!

Lets hope someone gets that reference...

Regardless of my internet dorkiness, much has been accomplished in the world of trailer trashing! Benches have been removed, walls have been exposed, floors have been scraped, and the cat has slept through all of it.



Minor arguments have been had over the level of pure neolithic demolition necessary to remove the paneling and insulation, however for the most part the process has been smooth, resulting in the exposure of nice, shiney, aluminum siding, chock full of holes.

It has also become blatantly obvious that the previous owner's attempts at "refurbishing" involved hiring a group of chimpanzees and equipping them with all the improper tools. There is a literal spoog of caulk located in the most water damaged section, ostensibly to keep more water from coming in. Unfortunately, the placement was so inappropriate and the technique so poor, that they failed miserably.



However, aside from the few leaky spots (such as the corner mentioned above and the pieces directly supporting the roof) the majority of the wood is still in good shape. It will require reinforcement, as the wood staples originally used are doing a poor job of holding everything together, however it doesn't appear as though we will have to re-frame the whole thing. In addition to normal wear and tear, the occult evidence of the accident this trailer was involved in is more obvious in the frame now that the paneling has been removed. A part of me is amazed it has stayed together as long as it has.

All in all, things are coming along nicely. Stay tuned for more pictures of the trailer and funny anecdotes illustrating my lack of patience and inability to laugh at myself!

Egg-cellent progress.

After sleeping in the trailer the other night and dozing off watching my breath crystallize in front of me, I wasn't overly surprised to find snow on the ground Saturday morning. As a result my weekend plans to demolish the trailer and review the extent of the water damage in the frame had to be postponed. Tired and possibly coming down with pneumonia, myself and my partner in crime opted to avoid driving into town in the snow, and selected to instead stay at base camp in the comfort of my dad's trailer; quite a bit larger and equipped with a wood stove.

Since there is no internet there (dial up doesn't count as internet...) I was forced to return to the days of pre-technology and actually think of something to do. Luckily for me, the Easter holiday was being prepared for and the kitchen table was covered with the residue of egg dying props.

Not just any egg props mind you, but hard-core, super dedicated egg props the likes of which they use in the Ukraine to torture children into remaining unhappy while handing them chocolate covered bunnies. Poor Ukrainian children! But, I thought to myself, what a wonderful way to spend the day!

I settled into the chair, armed myself with a tysky (basically a pencil with a tiny funnel on one end), grabbed the chunk of beeswax out of the startled grip of my 10 year old brother and went to work melting wax in intricate designs onto an egg which will be sacrficed this week in order to make breakfast.

The results? After two arduous hours melting and dripping and dying and calculating the angles mathematically on a sheet of scrap paper bearing the residue of several different dyes, I produced the following:



Miracle of miracles! The damn thing actually worked. Swelled by a sense of my limitless Ukrainian talents, I proceeded to suggest to my erstwhile companian that he select a design from the box and that I, in my infinite wisdom and patience, would reproduce it to his liking.

He proceeded to select the most complex pattern on the box, no doubt to thwart me. But I would not be intimidated! My second creation is the first picture above. Here it is from another angle:



The end result? I am now crosseyed and most of my right hand is green. But those two eggs are the purdiest in the basket and will remain so until the cat bats them onto the floor.

I'm living in my truck!

The move from my luxurious two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment is completed, and construction on my trailer has begun! As a result, I'm living in the back of my truck and loving almost every minute of it!

Especially the part where I wake up in the morning and hit my head, have to crawl out of my bed on my belly like some grunt in a war zone, and wake up to the cat trying desperately to get out of truck via the most convenient route: aka by tunneling through the upholstery on the front seat.

But at least I have hot coffee everyone morning and a partner in crime to see me through my tantrums and the headaches caused by repeated blows to the head. I should wear my motorcycle helmet more often...

Photos of the trailer progress will be posted next time I have internet access, and I will include one of my new bedroom for good measure; as soon as I decorate the walls in order to make it look less like a coffin.