Where We Work

Though I've mentioned that we are building out trailer in the back yard and you've caught some glimpses of it and the garage in some posts, I thought it might be fun to do a short post on where we work.

Darrell and I live on the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island.  It is a pretty densely populated neighborhood with a mix of multi-family apartments and condos and single-family homes.  The neat part is that it is an old city and most of the houses were built before the 1920's... ours was built in 1900 according to the Providence assessor's database.  Though we are both itching to move back to Berkshire County where we both grew up, we have loved living here and love the area.

We were very lucky when finding our apartment that it came with parking in the two car garage behind the house.  This gives us the perfect space to store our building supplies and tools among our landlords stuff.  Though the majority of or power tools live in Darrell's trunk so they are safer and we don't have to lug them up and down to our 2nd floor apartment.

A newer photo of the garage with the trailer in it.

What the garage typically looks like.

Most of the stuff if the garage is our landlords.  Before the project we shifted some stuff around and took over five of the cubes on the shelving unit and a small bit of space on one of the lowest hanging shelves.

Supplies on the shelves and some plywood to skin the inside of the hatch.

Leftover wood and partially completed doors.

Darrell's trunk has looked like this since January!

Next to the garage is the tiny yard where we park the trailer.  We were a little worried at having it out in the open at first (we do live in a city after all) but you can't see the yard from the street and our downstairs neighbor literally parks his car in a spot blocking the yard.  We keep a hitch lock on the it, but even if we didn't, as long as he's parked there, there's no way for someone to move the trailer out of the yard.

Our tiny yard as seen from our kitchen window.

As far as protecting the trailer from the weather, we purchased an inexpensive folding canopy from Harbor Freight to provide some shelter.  We also have an enormous tarp we use to wrap everything up.  Earlier in the winter we had this tarp over the canopy to create a tent, but once the walls were up, we started wrapping the trailer instead and sometimes lowering the canopy.  Because the large tarp was rater old and a tad leaky, we also have a second smaller tarp underneath for some added protection.

Canopy

Tarp #1

Tarp #2

Done!

And that's it!  The toughest part is keeping things organized between the garage, yard, cars and apartment so that we can find things.  There is no overnight street parking in Providence, so we also have to make sure everything completely put away every night so we can fit both cars in the garage.  It definitely has its challenges, but overall our space has worked out great.  Moral of the story, you don't need a large space or dedicated garage to build your trailer.  You can build it just about anywhere!

Cabin Cabinetry (HA!) and Protecting the Wood

With the galley completed and the wiring run, it was time to start finishing out the cabin with cabinetry and trim.  We started by nailing the back panel on the galley wall to cover up the insulation and wiring for the auxiliary ports.  After doing this, Darrell added one of the small brackets he used on the counter to secure the back wall to the ceiling.  This added some strength to the wall and wouldn't really be seen since it would eventually be inside a cabinet.

The inside cabinet was made in the same way we did the shelving and cabinets in the galley.  We started by adding a shelf made from 1x8 pine to form the bottom of the cabinet.  We saved the diagram I did when measuring up the back and side walls so we knew where the horizontal framing members were to screw into.  This made it easy to locate and attach the shelf with pocket screws.

Since this cabinet will have two shelves, we next added vertical supports on either side of the shelf from the standard 1x2 pine.  These were screwed directly into the sidewalls.  The second shelf was added and attached with pocket screws.

Additional vertical supports were added on either side going up to the ceiling as well as well as in the middle of the shelf.  These middle supports will also be were we attach the frame and doors.

With the cabinet 'frame' done, Darrell used the miter box again to cut out a face frame with the 3/8"x2" pine strips.  I then measured and cut out the doors from the 1/2" birch veneer plywood.  Everything was lined up and installed with self closing hinges and schnazy handles.

Now that all of the all of the cabinetry was completed, it was time to tung oil the entire interior.  We decided to use this instead of polyurethane for a couple of reasons.  The tung oil is a natural product that will help protect the wood and resist water.  Though it won't create the harder, wipeable finish that poly would, it will achieve a similar result while keeping a more natural finish.  After applying two coats, the color of the wood darkened a bit and the grain really popped!  It looks great!

We did the same tung oil treatment to the galley too, applying the oil on all of the walls, floor and cabinets.  The Okoume really darkened, but looks beautiful against the lighter cabinets and dark counter.  The contrast is stunning!  Finish work is almost done!

Finishing out the Galley

The galley was finally beginning to take shape with the addition of the shelf and stove drawer we added here.  But we still had a bunch more details to add before we were done.

One major amenity we wanted to add was a sink with a hand pump faucet.  This would be a simple setup for washing dishes and cooking because doing dishes at a campsite is currently one of my least favorite things to do.  We ended up selecting a smallish (8" x 13") oval sink and a slick hand pump faucet online.  We figured by having a hand pump type of faucet we would not only conserve water but it would also be far simpler to install versus having a 'real' faucet with an electric pump.  Plus it would save on electric consumption too!

Before cutting into the counter top, we laid out the position of the sink and faucet (up until now, the counter top sill hasn't been permanently installed in the trailer).  We decided on an angled approach to the layout to save on counter space when the stove is pulled out.  We also had to position them in such a way that a container could fit under the counter to hold water.  After tracing everything out, I used the jig saw to make the sink opening and the drill to cut out the faucet hole.  A test fit showed how awesome it looked!

The next step before permanently installing the counter in the trailer was to stain and polyurethane it.  This created a beautiful and more durable surface for us to cook on, it is a galley after all!  The whole process took a couple of days to complete, but it was worth the wait.  The wood we used for the counter really soaked up the stain so all I had to do was one coat, but I didn't end up wiping any of it off.  That made it go much faster.  After the stain dried, we followed the instruction on the polyurethane and used three coats, sanding with fine 150 grit sandpaper in between each coat.  We tried to be careful not to get anything stuck to the poly but would you believe we still found cat hair embedded in the poly after the fact! How did it get outside?  I guess it adds character :)

so shiny!

We finally installed the counter in the trailer using some small brackets that Darrell found laying around at work.  These allowed us to anchor the counter in multiple locations while keeping all of the fasteners hidden within the cabinets.  With the counter in, the faucet got installed with some caulk and a couple of screws.  The sink is still temporarily in until we finalize the drain.  Unfortunately there were still a few gaps around the counter and at the wall between the galley and the cabin.  To cover them up we bought some small cove moulding and after staining and polying the strips, we nailed them in.  Big improvement!

it works! now we just need water...

To finish out the cabinets, Darrell used some 3/8"x2" pine strips to create face frames for all of the cabinets.  He used a miter box we got at Home Depot to cut all of the corners and give it a more finished loot.  They were then attached with glue and some finish nails.

After the face frames were done, I got to work cutting doors out of 1/2" birch veneer plywood.  The only challenge to the doors was aligning them in the frame.  We used self-closing hinges and once they were screwed on, the door had a tendency to sag even with all or our aligning efforts.  Darrell ended up using some magnets to keep the doors closed and that helped with the alignment.

Things came out great!  We'll end up using tung oil on the bare wood later on to seal and protect things, but for now the galley is complete!

Finishing the floor

To finish the floor of the trailer I first had to add some insulation to the back two sections of the trailer. Instead of wedging the insulation at the bottom against the FRP, I rested it against the exposed edges of the metal trailer frame so that it could be glued to the underside of the plywood floor.


We decided that 1/2" thick birch veneer plywood for the floor because it was sturdy and the nicest looking wood they had at Lowes. The first step was to mark out the locations of the recesses onto the plywood floor and to cut them out. I made sure to save these pieces so that they can be used for the recess doors. I proceeded to glue down the plywood onto the wood frame to give it a little extra strength overall.


A snug fit but a good one! I installed a screw every foot along each side of the framing members, making sure to counter-sink each screw so that it was flush. Once this was done, the whole base of the trailer became much more rigid and gave us a sturdy foundation for the rest of the trailer.

When I cut out the doors, I made them slightly larger than the inside of the inside of the recesses. This resulted in a lip around the whole perimeter to support the doors when they are closed.


Before installing the doors, I gave everything a good sanding and made sure to smooth out all of the edges. We purchased some awesome recessed pulls from a local marine supply store and some simple hinges from Lowes. The recessed pulls needed to be embedded into the 1/2" plywood in order to lay flat. I was able to do this by utilizing a milling bit on my dremel. I think everything turned out rather nice!


Next step, side walls and framing. It's finally starting to come together!

Recessed storage

Since the trailer would be our home for the couple of months we are on the road, we wanted to try to include a much storage as possible. I thought a good way to carve out some space would be to recess a couple of cubbies into the trailer frame. Trying to design and determine how to install the recesses as deep as possible while maintaining enough room for insulation was the trickiest part of the build so far. The idea is that they are completely hidden, keeping the underside of the trailer flush.

I started by installing some 1/2" thick closed cell insulation in the base of the first two sections of the trailer. I did this by cutting the insulation to fit and then 'jamming' it in as carefully as possible. Any unintentional cuts or gouges to the insulation were covered with aluminum tape.


Unfortunately I didn't take many photos of the construction of the recess as I was attempting different things and learning as I went. I used 1x3 pine boards to create a box that would fit exactly within the floor frame members of the first two sections of the trailer. These boxes would sit on top of the insulation but needed to be ripped down around 1/2" to be flush with the top of the floor framing. After the box was made I attached small steel angles to the outside of the walls of the box to help support the 1/4" base that would lay on top of the insulation. This way they would provide some support but not be seen. To fit the 1/4" base, I simply traced the outline and used a jig saw to cut them out. After everything was fitted together, the boxes were screwed to the frame and voila! Storage! All in all they ended up being about 3" deep.


After removing the lights and wiring from the trailer, I proceeded to tape up any torn pieces of poly in the two open sections of the trailer. We cleaned it as best we could and sealed up any more cracks in the trailer that we might have missed before. This will be the last time we see the inside of the trailer before the floor is installed!