Close to the end of internal construction

Well, probably. I have a feeling I might want shelves in my storage closet, overhead bins and more storage at the front but its looking good!

Today I mounted all of the cupboard doors in the dinette/kitchenette. A couple of doors gave me a little trouble. The one that I thought would be the hardest turned out to be the quickest and easiest.

During my drawer installing progress I had to straighten the first drawer I ever installed. It's now perfectly straight. The next things for the dinette/kitchenette will be to put latches on all the cupboard doors and on all the drawers plus handles on doors and drawers. Then it'll be fastening down the countertops, finishing the painting and putting vinyl floor tiles on the countertops.

Using the lift on lift off hinges I got via eBay from Britain solved a lot of problems. They were easy to install too - just drill a hole and screw them in. I used a section of angle bracket to help with this.

In order to paint and clean the dinette/kitchenette properly, I need to clear it of supplies. The floor is currently quite cluttered with paint pots and wood. I could shift the stuff to the bathroom but I wouldn't have space to work in the bathroom.

The solution - to build the planned table for the bedroom. I have a feeling I will be cutting wood to fit, assembling it, painting it then installing it. The leftover plywood from my drawers has given me enough for my table and there's enough left over for a mini shelf over the bathroom washbasin. Great for toothbrushes etc!

I have a feeling internal construction might be done very soon. My original projected date was January 1st, 2015. I'm about 7 months behind schedule!

Problems, problems and more problems. Days like this stimulate my creative juices!

The first thing I did was to finish putting one drawer together or rather putting the back and sides on. Looking at it, I'll have to move the runners forward about half an inch as it protrudes somewhat. No great rush to do that though.

I didn't start on the drawers that need plywood sides and backs because I had a 20 minute task to do - namely build my cupboard door. Well, it should have been a 20 minute task. It ended up taking all day...

My initial design for the hinge post would have resulted in an oddly shaped door. By the time I had discovered I had no spare 2x4 to redo my post and gone through several redesigns a couple of hours had passed. My final design should work and echoes my design for another cupboard door post.

After that, I took a break to squirt Great Stuff into an air gap between panels. I took the easy route and simply drilled a hole big enough to accommodate the can nozzle and leaned a broom on it so it would keep squirting while I did something else. I finished off one can and put the whole of another in. To be honest, while Great Stuff isn't as bad as DapTex, its really not all that great and I shall not be purchasing any more. It expands when it has a mind to, only.

I installed hinges on the hinge post and commenced building my cupboard door. I really like that I'm running out of supplies and that I have no desperate need to get more. Not feeling very much like fighting the door, I simply glued it together. I can add screws tomorrow if need be. Right now its laid flat on the floor with beams placed across it and a gallon container of antifreeze keeping it pressed down.

As I was on my way out of the bus tonight, I made note of the things I need to buy. I'm out if inch and a quarter drywall screws and need a 16 inch drawer runner. Then I noticed a design cock up!

Can you spot it? It's really obvious! Well, when I built this, I was going to put a hinge on the visible side of the rightmost beam. I can't get in there to put a hinge! All is not lost though.

I measured my hinges and found the thread has a core of 4.5mm and an outer diameter of 5.7mm. Thus, any drill between 4.5 and 5mm should be fine. The solution will be to obtain a drill bit about 8 to 12 inches long and drill through two beams. Alternatively to lift off the cabinet top (which isn't yet secured) and drill the holes from the inside. I don't think this is insurmountable though it's interesting. I'll try drilling from the inside, first, rather than buying a new drill bit.

Thrashed by the heat

The day started with my having little inclination for carpentry so I set to and installed film over two window panes. This went well as I seem to have mastered the art of doing it. I kept the offcuts thinking that I might try putting two pieces together on one of the shower windows.

The next thing was to rework two of the three drawers I did yesterday. They didn't slide easily. Now they do. I did intend to install 4 drawers on the other side but I was short of a 16 inch drawer slide. Still, 3 drawers were installed. They all need sides backs, fronts, handles and latches (it IS a motorhome). One doesn't slide easily yet but with a little work tomorrow, it should.

I did notice that some of my drawers done today aren't quite level. I'll have to see if they're off enough to merit working on them. I suspect they're passable though I do like to try to get things right whenever possible.

Not feeling like working more on the drawers having noticed an error, I looked at where I need to put the final cupboard door. I have a policy of doing something different if I make an error. Working on correcting errors when tired makes them worse.

It was 97 in the bus today and if been out for too long. Looking at where the cupboard door needs to go, I needed an extra vertical beam to mount the hinges. Well, I cut the beam and slipped it into place. Then I realised that to mount the hinges I should have drilled holes and inserted the hinges first. Struggling against the tight fit, I realised I was getting a headache and finding it hard to breathe. I'd been out too long and the heat was thrashing me again.

I headed inside to the cool oif air conditioning and gulped down large quantities of water. This South Carolina heat really slows down progress. If I'd been working on this in Britain, I'd have been done months ago. That's how bad the heat is!