Francesca's Gettin' Gorgeous!

Francesca now has all her interior paint done, the floor is done, the strips to cover the panel seams are on, and all the edges inside are caulked--AWESOME!!   She's looking like a real camper now!

I guess I'll be looking at redoing and building cabinets next.  So many decisions!  My galley cabinets--both lower and upper--are in reasonably solid shape and the doors and drawers are good.  However, I need to rework the one tall cabinet (which holds the fridge).  First off, I don't like the way previous owners sectioned it off to hold a larger fridge and the microwave.  It lost some storage space.  I want to add some storage space in there with maybe a smaller fridge and put the microwave elsewhere.  I tore up the panel facings on this cabinet so I need to replace them with some new plywood.  Also, I'm planning on building a new cabinet between the one tall cabinet and the dinette.  I'm trying to decide whether to make it a tall cabinet, a short cabinet, 24" wide or 36" wide.  Then there's the decision to paint all the cabinets or stain them...Time will tell!

I also realized that I have the cushions from the gaucho that I can use for my bed mattress.  It has 3 pieces, but I figure that I can take the foam out of the covers, top them with a mattress topper and make a cover for the whole thing.  That would save me the money of getting a nice thick pad which I haven't really been able to find yet.  More on this experiment later... 

Now to the inside!

I've gotten just about all the outside stuff done that I can for now so I'm heading inside for my favorite stuff--painting and decorating!!  I'm waiting until the late spring--after the pollen is over and done with--to paint Francesca's outside and turn her into a proper Tuscan Villa.  I figure this is the time to do some of the painting and laying floor tiles before the temperatures bottom out. 

I spent yesterday painting the Masonite panels with Kilz to prep them for paint.  Man, I don't know what hurts more--my neck, my back, my hips, or my hands!  You have to be a contortionist to paint this ceiling!  After two coats of Kilz, I stopped for the day.  It'll be good and dry by tomorrow...

Today I headed out with paints in hand--and rollers and brushes and trays and newspapers!  I decided to give the center panels (aka Masonite) the same beige that I painted the side walls.  However, I thought that the entire interior done in that might be too much.  As I'm coming up to the ceiling, I think "Hey, this center part would look nice just left white!  Kind of breaks up the whole thing a little and marks off the dining end and the sleeping end a little!"  Not real sure about this, but I can always paint over the white with the beige.  And I'll have strips covering the seams to add some interest.  It's all trial and error!

I rummage through the paints to see if I have anything white-ish that will work--everything was white white, the whitest whites!  I figure I can add some of my beige to the white and make a white that has the same color family as the rest of the walls.  It worked!!!  Okay, so I'm officially getting excited again! 

Door, Edge Strips, Campout, Oh My!!

Just baby steps right now, so I'm going to lump several things together.  November began with my brilliant idea to take apart the entry door--despite the fact that I've seen what others have found inside theirs.  It really wasn't as bad as it could be.  The door is filled with a honeycombed corrugated cardboard--most I've seen have large sheets of the stuff.  Most of it was disintegrated which is okay with me because I'm going to replace it with styrofoam anyway.  The door handle/lock is in good shape and works.  The window is a different type than the older models of Scotties and was not hard to remove or repair. Most of the wood framing was okay, but should really be replaced and this is where the problem comes in. The wood they use for the frame is 1-3/8" by 1-5/8"--and it doesn't exist anymore!  I'll have to come up with pieces glued together to make it right, but I decided the edge trim was more important to getting Francesca closed up so...

Before

After

 

I'm spending a few days cleaning up the edge trim strips that close up the top skins to the side skins.  Ted already spent a couple of days working on them, but I'm trying to make them shine!  One more day and I'll be done and ready to get them back on Francesca!!   The work is tedious and is really taking a toll on my hands--especially my right hand.  I think I'll get a manicure after this is all done!

I've had Francesca for almost 5 months now and I've been working on rebuilding her for 4 months almost non-stop.  I've done no camping since I started working on her, but have taken two RenFaire trips with our RV.  I REALLY miss just going out camping!!  Getting my Scotty camper was supposed to be for me to head out camping at a moment's notice.  The weather this week is so beautiful--warm days, sunshine, cool nights--just right for camping.  I couldn't take it anymore!!!  So I cleaned her up a little inside--put away tools and vacuumed the sawdust--and brought out my air mattress, a lantern, my heater, a radio, and all my blankets. 



  Last night Lucca puppy and I slept in the camper.  It was a little chilly even with the heater--the windows, door and vent aren't in yet.  But it wasn't too bad at about 41 degrees. I think Lucca is planning on taking over my bed! 

So I finally got to camp in my Tuscan House for the first time!!!    Man, I can't wait to get her roadworthy!  Just what I needed--some motivation!!