Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away

Well, hello there
My it's been a long, long time
How am I doing?
Oh, I guess I'm doing fine
It's been so long now, but it seems like
It was only yesterday
Gee, ain't it funny, how time slips away

I just looked back over my blog from the past few months, with some surprise. I realized that I only posted once in the entire month of May, and May is perhaps the month where I've actually made the most progress. But the problem is that I now have a bunch of half-complete projects, and I just don't want to blog and post pictures with half-done stuff. I was working so hard to get things ready for our annual BFN campout in mid-May, that I skipped through a few major projects just to get the Airstream road-ready.

So now here I am, trying to go back and pick up where I left off. Unfortunately I did not manage to get the gray water and fresh water all plumbed in before the trip as I had hoped. I did get the black tank installed and the new Valterra valve assembly put on it, but because I didn't have any freshwater for flushing, the toilet was for #1 only. Not a big deal because the campground has full facilities, and the ability to wake and at least go #1 in the middle of the night without leaving the trailer was still pretty nice.

I also did not manage to get the tall wardrobes or beds installed as I had hoped. There are a few cosmetic details that really need to be completed before the wardrobes go in, so those are the things I am working on right now. About the last thing I did before buttoning everything up for the road, was to spray in some low-expansion urethane foam to support the tub from underneath. This is what the factory did originally, and it's what I decided to do as well. So first I laid down some plastic sheeting over the floor, so that the foam would not become one with the floor if I ever need to pull it again. Then I installed the tub drain assembly. Next I riveted the tub into place along the wall, and then put some weight in the tub to prevent it from rising on top of the foam. Then I just sprayed in the foam (Great Stuff Door & Window) as far back as I could, all the way around.


That sure was a lot of exposition for just one simple picture, wasn't it? That's how all of these projects seem to be going right now...

With the tub completely installed, I then installed the black tank and vanity, cleaned up my monumental mess, and went camping.

Where, of course, it rained all day Saturday. That's okay-- a canopy, some dice, and beers, were all we needed.


But the Airstream still looked great:





We still had a great time, as we always do. Many thanks to Dave and BG for taking care of all of the campsite details!

After spending so many hours preparing the trailer for the campout, I had quite a backlog of other chores and duties, so for the past couple of weeks I haven't done much at all. But this week I decided I needed to get back to it, and one thing had been bothering me for some time. I just didn't like the way this bathroom light had turned out:


I don't have a metal brake, so all of the bending was done with a makeshift brake I fashioned from a vice, some clamps, and a couple of pieces of wood. It wasn't horrible, but I just couldn't live with it. So, I took it down, started over, and this is what I came up with:


I think it looks much nicer in ribbon-striped African mahogany. I also installed an aluminum side plate and mounted the switch there.

I know these aren't very good pictures, but once it's installed I'll take some better ones and it will make more sense in the overall design.

Okay, now back to work.