Big progress on the Alma

After the first day of work on the Alma we made pizza - Every morning we woke up sore!

This is Scott's work area- he has a good plan for the benches that will fold into the second bed. As you can see he needs to finish up so he can get the boat out soon.

This is the back of the trailer we will put the name - keep voting - and the blog name.

We have some ideas for painting the outside- but will need to get some tips on all the how to's.

Laura could not wait to put her mark on the outside.

Suggestions welcome - "the big brown turd" needs help on the outside... but inside is looking good!

We opted for 4 colors, red, turquoise, yellow and lime green.

Scott made the table out of a vintage 1950's tabletop my daughter used in college - the legs were replaced by a post that can raise and lower for when it is used as part of the bed.

The tile was a great find from Century Tile. The brand is called Excelon. It comes in a variety of colors and is easy to install with just glue. I made all the cuts and will glue down with Scott's help next time.

Laura painted the icebox silver - this is the before.

This is the one piece of tile I did not cut - the straight cuts were easy- this will not be!

Another job we still need to do is polish all the windows.

Check out all the wood- Laura did all the poly work while I put on all the cabinet doors and flooring.

The oven is another big project - we need to paint- we are planning on black but are not sure if we can remove it to paint it.

Laura wanted some splashes of yellow - this will wake us up in the morning!

Laura painted the outside - we need to clean up the inside.

The fridge is looking good.

The curtain pulls got some color - another fun touch. I think we are still on track to be done my June. Keep voting on names!

Sanding and Poly

Last weekend the temp was too low and the wind was too strong to stand inside a tin can trailer and sand. Thankfully this weekend Scott remembered the space heater and and I sanded until my shoulders hurt.

Last weekend when I did'nt sand, Laura was lightly sanding and putting the 2nd coat of poly on the  doors in the warm basement.

It looks like we will only need one more coat:)

Looks Like NEW!

Lots of decisions need to be made- Laura needs to get to Michigan and stand in the trailer with us to finalize plans.

I got almost all the sanding done except the ceiling- I am hoping Laura's strong 16 yr old son will want to sand it- need to start collecting bribes.

It the walls turn out as good as the drawers we will be good. to make sure all the old stain is out- I think we will need to use some TSP with steel wool.

The long shelf across the back is 10 inches wide - not sure what was stored in it- maybe we remove it and gain 10 inches. Decision 1.

The plan is to add benches and a folding table that a mattress will sit on at night- if we change out the sink and shorten the counter top we could make the bed 47 in wide, the same as the other bed- so technically 4 people could sleep in the trailer. Decision 2.

The one thing missing from the trailer is a water tank- so if the sink really can not work- do we leave it in? we have a slab of granite we could use as a counter top. Decision 3.

The tile is in perfect condition, but pretty boring- do we replace it, paint it or maybe clear coat photos on it. Decision 4.

I started to sand above the stove then thought maybe we can either tile or add some kind of wall covering - Decision 5.

We have decided to paint the inside of the cabinets- but what color? Decision 6.

What do you put in this small storage area? Decision 7.

Storage under the back bed- how do we make this usable? Decision 8.

What color do we paint the light fixtures? Decision 9.

Refinishing begins

Not exactly dressed like Tanya and Tracy from the "Picker Sisters", Laura is more like an advertisement for John Deere. (Click on John Deere to link to their clothing central.) She is taking the last of the hardware off the cabinets.

It is a goal to have the trailer ready for a road trip by late spring, so that means we need to work on it whenever we get a chance. Here is a before and after sanding view.

We did the sanding in the garage, heated only with this one small heater. it was windy and 25 degrees outside.

We are using Minwax Pecan Satin Poly, very similar to the original finish, just not as shiny. After one coat, it is obvious it will take at least two more.

We also had to fill a few holes. We will need a lot more of Minwax Wood Putty on the walls.

When the doors were wet they looked great, but after they dried is when I noticed that they were going to need more coats.

Since the wood is in such good shape, we want to keep it original, but to brighten up the interior we are going to paint the inside of the cabinets and add lots of fabric. We grabbed some paint samples and I dug through some of my fabrics, Laura has been collecting vintage fabrics for years and both of our moms collect fabrics, so we should have tons of options.

This is Laura learning how to tweet. I also showed her the Pinterest site I set up so she could start collecting ideas as well.