Lovelution

Lovelution. My spell check program is telling me that I have mis-spelled a word. Evidently my spell-check program has not been married very long. Lovelution is what happens when a man and a woman have been in love for a long time. In the case of my wife and I, close to 20 years. We began dating in 1993, we married in 1995, and we’re still together today. Living in a nice house that seems to get smaller all the time, due mostly to the fact that we’re proud parents of 4 beautiful kids who are in the middle of growing up fast.

This very small synopsis of the life and the love that my wife and I share is woefully incomplete. To say that we have been in love all that time, while correct, does not tell the entire story. It does not tell of the richness that a love attains over time. It does not tell of the deep knowing of your partner. It does not tell of all of the ups and downs that serve to strengthen the fibers that make up the tapestry of our love.

I have been extremely lucky to find a woman like my wife, Laurie. A good, Christian woman, devoted to family, smart, funny, and extremely attractive. Loving this woman is easy, and I count myself extremely lucky because I know that I am often difficult to love. I spend too much time at work, pay too much attention to hobbies, let my temper get the best of me at times. Through it all, Laurie is there for me. Tenderly bringing me back to the center of my life. Encouraging me to express myself, challenging me to be a better person.

Perhaps the most comforting thing about our love is knowing that it is something that I can always count on. God knows that life is completely unpredictable, but the love that my wife gives me is constant. I live my life fully aware of that fact that The Lord has blessed me through my wife.

I love you Laurie. I can’t wait to get this trailer done so we can hit the road together and explore. Side by side, hand in hand, heart in heart. Thank you for being you.

I was lucky to get some time away from work yesterday. We were closed on Monday, and that usually means that our next day that we are open is a zoo. I went in to work, hung our for a while, and once I saw that everything was under control I headed over to my storage building to get out my vanity and bed frames. I was driving my old Land Rover, and I wish I had taken pictures of it all loaded up with Airstream furniture. The vanity fit in the back as though it had been designed to fit. The bed frames went on the roof rack and I lashed them down. It was nasty getting them up there. If you go back in this blog you will see that the curb side bed had the mother of all mouse nests between the sleeping platform and the top of the drawers. I cleaned it out before I took everything apart, but never really cleaned it good. Well, in order to get the beds on the roof rack, I had to turn them upside down and hold them up over my head. This, of course, made every loose bit of mouse nest and mouse turd that was left over cascade down upon me. It was really nasty, let me tell you. Anyway, I got the bed frames in the garage, waiting for me to look them over and decide if I'm going to tackle rebuilding them, or if I'll do the easy (smart) thing and send them down to Frank in Baltimore. Take a look at what all of his work looks like dry fitted and I think you'll understand why I'd like to have more of this quality work done for my trailer.

I was asked to take a better picture of what my cork floor looks like. It is strips of cork running lenthwise in the trailer. It was a very nice texture; not too rough, but with lots of grain that you can feel underneath your feet. It is finished to give it a nice matte finish, and should hide dirt very well and be easy to clean.

Progress.

Updates have been few and far between lately on this blog, and if you have been waiting to see what's new with my trailer, I apologise. Work has been progressing, however. Most of it has been done without me personally touching a tool, though. Last update I showed my new paint job done by Don Stanton, and Frank Yensen of Frank's Trailer Works has been doing some amazing woodworking for me. Let me take a minute to talk about Frank's Trailer Works. Frank Yensen holds a Master Degree in Fine Arts, and is a true old world craftsman in absolutely everything he does. I met Frank through our mutual friend Rob Baker, and my life has been blessed because of it. Frank is one of the most genuine people you could ever hope to meet. If you ask him a question, he will give you his opinion and will not care if it is not what you want to hear. This is something I appreciate immensly, especially when it comes to doing business with someone. There were times in the planning of my cabinets and flooring when I had made up my mind about what species of wood I wanted, or the shade of paint I wanted to use on the walls. For the most part, frank thought my ideas were good ones, but on a few occasions he let me know that my choices just would not work. He was gentlmanly about it, and did not make me feel like an idiot about it, but he was certain to make sure I knew his opinion of my choices. Being that I am a pharmacist, not an artist, I always deferred to his opinion. Without exception I am glad I followed his advise. It is a wonderful feeling to work with someone as technically capable at the physical aspects of building, and all the more when that person has an eye for beauty and asthetics. I am very happy to have Frank's Trailer Works working with me on the rebuild of my Airstream, and the pictures speak for themselves.

After getting the floor prepped, I started placed the tub and black tank and then started clicking the flooring together.

Then I tried to get the wardrobes through the bulkhead in the galley. No go. These trailers were built from the back forward, and when I took the old wardrobes out they were in pieces. Out came the screwdrivers and off came the wall next to the sink. Looks nice and roomy.

Wardrobes placed where they will sit. I will have flooring underneath the entire wardrobe. When Frank built these, he asked me the the thickness of the flooring planks I would be using, and then he shortened them by that amount. 11mm in this case. They fit perfectly.

Below shows the beautiful wood we used, and the contrast between the cherry wood and cork floor. I absolutely love it!

Spring Colors

I picked up my Airstream from Don Stanton in North Norwich yesterday. After a horrible attempt at painting the interior myself, I gave up and decided to have a pro do the job. It's nice to have my girl back home.

The pictures don't do the job any justice. Don also painted Rob Baker's trailer, so I had him copy the color that he used. The base is Desert Camo beige. Great color for a Marine's trailer.

Don did a remarkable job. Great price, fast work, excellent results. If you need any painting done, Don is the man. Now that the paint is done, I can lay the floor, install the cabinets, do the plumbing, then camp. It'll be a while, but things are finally rolling again after a long winter break.

Sugar Snow

After a long, cold winter my Airstream is ready to see some attention. She's been parked behind the shop, a long way away from the driveway. I parked her there last fall with the plan of painting the interior and working on her all Winter. Well, we've had a really cold and snowy one here in central New York. Oh, and that painting I was doing in my last blog post? It was a disaster. The paint did not stick as it should have. It was a combination of the wrong paint, poor preparation, cold temperatures, and pesky leaks that allow water to run down the interior walls when it rains or the snow on top melts. My plan for the past month has been to get the trailer out from behind the shop and get it over to Don Stanton's place in North Norwich so he can paint the Zolotone for me. He's a pro painter, and does amazing work. The picture above shows what I was looking at as far as getting back to the trailer. This is after 2 weeks of nice warm weather melting much of the snow. Intimidating, to say the least.
Problem number 2 was getting my truck positioned in front of the trailer so I could hook on and try to back it out. I have to drive through a swamp to get there, too. I can hear you asking "Why the hell do you park there?". Easy answer: when I park there I can walk right out the back door of my shop and right into the trailer. Very convenient to wotk on, not so much when you have to move it in the winter.

That pile of snow I showed in picture number 1? It's at the edge of the driveway, and to get back up onto the driveway after hooking on I'd have to climb this little hill, on a side slope, with trees just off to the right. Trees that looked like they were willing to do a little panel re-arranging on any Airstream that gets too close.

Ahh. This picture says it all. I was able to get her back out and ready to be towed over to Don's with no trouble whatsoever. I never even spun a tire out in the yard. I have a 1996 Dodge that did the job for me, and I'll forever be a Dodge man from now on. Work can get going on my silver beauty and I'll be with my friends in D.C. in a month and a half for the WDCU Cherry Blossom Rally. Thank God it's out.

Spraying Paint

Old Man Winter is blowing in here in Central NY. I love winter. I get a nice break from working on projects around the property, the kids go sledding then come in and have hot chocolate around the fireplace, I can fall asleep on the couch on a Sunday afternoon and not feel guilty, and I get to enjoy ice fishing with my friends and family. One thing that really sucks about this winter, however, is that I am in the middle of an Airstream restoration and it is just too damn cold to get much done in the trailer. The last thing I need to do out there is to paint the interior. Then I can concentrate my efforts on refurbishing and rebuilding the cabinetry, which I can do in my nice warm shop. I have made one mistake so far in the painting process. Since I had to prime some of the aluminum that I stripped bare, it was left primer grey and I tried to just paint right over it using the final finish. I should have shot it with an almond color base coat first. I'm using too much of the Mulitispec paint to cover the grey. The areas of the trailer that were an off white color are painting very easily, and it looks good without having to use 4 coats. Live and learn.

This is the compressor that I am using. It's a high volume / low pressure set up. It works great for most paints, and is working fine for what I'm doing.Here's one wall just about finished. Once the walls and ceiling are covered, I'll go back and work on getting the nooks and crannies around the windows painted.

This is what the finish looks like. That's one coat over the off-white paint that was on the interior. I think it looks great. Much like Zolatone, but not exactly. There are blue and dark red flecks in the almond colored base. I'm going to put a clear coat on the paint when it's done to hopefully add some durability and make it easier to clean.