Shopping, shopping and more shopping

Yesterday being Tuesday, I went to the store on my way back from my Tuesday voluntary work. I got some plywood and a few other bits. The plywood was horribly expensive at $25 a sheet but should make lighter drawers than my first drawer.

I also bought some paint. For the bathroom, Line Passion which is about the most vivid green in existence. For the front, Tranquil Aqua. Sherwin Williams had an app for my phone that matches colors. While it matched the hue perfectly, the color was several shades too dark. As I have the paint now, I can't do anything but use it. I don't regard the exact match as being that important to be honest.

Today I went to start work and found I was out of 2.5 inch drywall screws. I tried other screws but the heads just stripped. 3 inch drywall screws were too long and my normal 1.5 inch drywall screws were not long enough. That meant that either drawers had to wait or I had to go to Lowe's.

Since I had two options, one of which was painting, I had no option other than go to Lowe's. My paint marked clothes have been drenched in sweat and I don't want to get paint on anything else. Clothes aren't free!

While I was at Lowe's, I looked at various things. I looked at electrics for the 110v system which will be primarily just the microwave and fridge. I considered using battery powered led lighting and think that'll probably work well. There were some interesting LED lights in Lowe's but they looked devilishly expensive. I decided to look for those online instead.

I got some better hinges for my toilet. They should fit better. Of course I got my screws and while I was there, looked for spacers. I know my drawer runners won't be perfectly parallel without them. It turned out plastic spacers were costly while ordinary steel washers came cheaply in bulk packs. No prizes for guessing which I bought.

So, when I got back, I set back to work building drawers. Needless to say, I cut my plywood a little on the large side and have to trim it down. The rails were pretty well mounted with the new screws and washers.

Needless to say, it was 106F in the bus so in short order, sweat was running into my eyes. That was not my only problem. A more pressing issue was that as I'd piled everything into the dinette when I worked on the bathroom, I'm having to clamber over things to work. Hardly a good working environment.

Tomorrow and for possibly the next few days I'll be working on drawers. After that I'll probably build the bedroom table and the partition rail. Then the closet chain followed by a painting marathon. Somewhere I'll also squeeze in building my saloon doors between the dinette and bathroom.

Internal construction is rapidly drawing to a close. I can't wait to complete the project! Ooh and in exciting news, my lift off hinges arrived - all the way from Wolverhampton in the UK.

I have two cupboard doors that need to be opened more fully than the surrounding woodwork will permit. One of my design flaws. (What designing did you actually do - editor). To be honest, I have a tendency to plan vaguely then build. It's worked pretty well so far!

Getting into her drawers!

Drawers came to mind today as did painting. I reasoned that to paint, I'd better clean the dinette. Then I reasoned that it would be better if the drawer was completed and in place ready to paint.

It was pretty hot but with the internal door propped open as well as the front and side doors, it was bearable. I put a fan up to blow hit air out of the bus but it didn't improve matters much.

Putting the drawer together wasn't actually that hard. Oh, I can complain and bitch about it and it took until I ran out of wood to put it together but it was all pretty simple. The key was cut accuracy. Everything had to be pretty accurate.

I started days ago by ensuring that all the supports that would be involved with drawers were perfectly symmetrical. Today it was just a case of installing the runner bars and making sure they were horizontal, both at the same height and that they were parallel. So, 3 dimensions of orientation at each end.

Once that had been achieved it was a case of adding the drawer runners, one of which rather usefully captures the slider so that it can only be removed at the end of its run. That helped with measuring the width needed for the wood. Cutting the wood was easy enough.

I only miscut one piece - a mistake I've made before. I simply misread the tape measure which is not that hard when reading the numbers upside down. I cut the wood too short. Sadly I was unable to finish the drawer because the next piece of wood as supplied by Home Depot had been consumed by termites. Now you know why I try to make sure all my wood is pre-treated. The termite problem must have occurred at Home Depot or before. Wood in this condition should never be sold!

After stopping work for supper, I raced down to Lowes to replace the two drill bits that had broken, to get a catch foir the cockpit door and to get some more OSB and 1x4. The 1x4 is excellent for making drawers. As with the 2x4, its wet and I laid it across a stepladder to dry overnight. Speaking of the 2x4, its definitely drying. One piece of the four is still pretty heavy and might need a lot more drying. The rest is probably now usable.

Of course now its dark so nothing can be achieved until the sun reappears. Its getting quite exciting looking at progress...