Over the ground lay a carpet of white...

 Bright and sunny, cool and crisp.....what winter should be really. Maybe not for weeks at a time but definatley a few days strung together here and there to make sure you remember you live in Canada

 I was driving home from work yesterday and I had to stop. Although the picture does not do it justice, the field looked like a thick lush carpet rolled out for all to see. When I was growing up, I would see a field like this and just ache to drive a snowmobile through the fresh powder, bouncing from ski to ski floating on the powder cloud beneath me. But alas, it's not my land and I don't have a snowmobile, perhaps its better this way, now everyone can enjoy the fresh clean field.

 I know the saying is the" eyes are the window to the soul", but I love doors. They are like the first impression. A small statement to the world saying this is who we are

The vibrant colours of central america...

The ornate doors of east Africa...                                  And the humorous doors found along the way

My doors, aren't quite as ornate, or funny, but they have their own little nod to Michelle's family and their time in Kenya.

I cut back the drawer fronts and trimmed them with Muvuli

Looking pretty sharp in my humble opinion....I even got the nod from my 14 year old son, who said, those are lit.

One more time

I am not complaining, I design the thing to allow me to back up and re-do. It's a way to compensate for my poor planning, or ignorance to the order of business really. But the bottom line is I often feel like "I have been here before"

This time rather than pull Jeff away from something important.....like homework....I decided to reinstall the fridge on my own now that the 110V electrical wires and plugs have been installed on the passenger side.

Next was to put the final coat on the rear cabinets. After much effort using the HVLP spray gun, I decided to explore another option. Airless. After some research, some consultation with contractors, and reading what the oracle had to say on the subject, I decided to jump in head first, no toe dipping here kids! It was time to rebuild a spray booth

And a fine one it was/is....

The results were way better than expected. As my good buddy Harold told me....'this happens fast'..."this thing puts out a lot of paint, and fast!"

 So I was a little unprepared, I thought I could spray a few pieces and then move on to the rest another day. The set up process takes some time, the painting process takes seconds....so I really couldn't bear the thought of cleaning up, packing up and then setting up all over again. So some quick movements and I was able (with the help of Jeff) to move the big pieces and set up the table for all the door fronts.

 Then another 20 min of rookie clean up and we were all put away! The finish is great! Ill let things cure.....yes I got impatient and touched a piece leaving my finger prints on it....so I only have one piece from 14 that I have to re-do!

Open and shut case

A bit of a contradiction if you asked me, perhaps a double meaning but not a double entendre. What? No, not what but perhaps better stated Why?
The title open and shut case infers that the topic, or better said the task, of the post would insinuate that the job was quick, easy, simple to execute. And that perhaps is what it should have been, but as I have grown to know that is never, and I mean NEVER, how things work themselves out with Fillmore.

My plan was to simply trim the side of the drawer in question off of the assembled drawer then simply trim,sand and flip and put it back in place. Which I did.....twice. Don't ask, but suffice it  to say that the second time I did it I had to make a new drawer side.

In the end however the drawer was a great fit.

If you go back to the last post you can see where the screw up was. This is what the cabinet was supposed to look like. A few extra cuts, a few extra minutes

 And now the painting continues...

my mind is a scary place

Maybe it's cabin fever, maybe it's my warped sense of humour, but when I saw this I laughed heartily and then took pause and said...."I want to make that!"
The neighbours may not think it's quite as funny as I do but, maybe I won't put it on the side of the house that they see.....

OK maybe I'll wait until I have a loss of projects to do....THEN this guy will adorn our downspouts!

It's a time to make up for past mistakes. As I prep the cabinets for paint, I am starring in the face of a screw up when I built this cabinet. The lower drawer space is to small (by a significant 1/2" or the drawer is too big by a 1/2") so I modified the design and placed the ball bearing slides flat to allow for the mess up. It kinds worked, but when you do this the drawer runners sag when pulled out all the way and the drawer hits the floor. Unacceptable......and now is the time to fix it.

Just like a haircut it was time to trim a bit from the side, cut a new side and put the new drawer back together.
My problem is, I keep thinking. Thinking is good but it can lead you off path or in great new directions. I think so much that sometimes my mind is a scary place.....so the plan changes...and therefor so does the finishing complexity...which translates into time. I have some exotic African wood from my in laws. I can't remember the name of the wood. I was convinced it was Muldova....but that is a small landlocked country in eastern europe, oddly enough,according to LonelyPlanet dubbed the least happy place in a best selling book over a decade ago.A little more historical research found the name Mvuli.  I decided that the drawer faces would be painted the high gloss white like the cabinet walls, but the edges would be trimmed out by the hardwood.















The concept is good, I'll keep you posted on the execution, this could look really sharp, or I could be making new doors...

In the meantime painting has begun...

...and test fitting pieces for the drivers side drawer cabinet is underway.

All progress came screeching to a sudden halt right here. The white cabinet is for the drawers on the passenger side, the bare wood is the test fit of the drivers side frame. All measurements and cuts were correct save one. The rebate for the solid shelf was cut on the wrong side of the outer cabinet wall. when put together it looks fine, a smaller sized duplicate of the passenger side cabinet. The issue is it is not supposed to be a duplicate but a mirror image.
Back to the cutting table...

Electrifying

It seems like I've got a few things on the go lately, I am still awaiting the news of our building permit application. I am finally getting to build the shop I have wanted for close to a decade. It is now in the hands of the municipal bureaucracy to see if it passes their magical guidelines. In the meantime work continues on Fillmore.

Next on the list is running electrical. You see I have the fridge cabinet in place and then finished the trim for the microwave. So now it is time to put the microwave in place....which means I need to plug it in, which means I need to run electrical cable   and outlets, which means I need to take the microwave and fridge out!

makes perfect sense really.

While doing this I decided it was time to run all the plugs, which means I need to take some of the rear cabinets out to create a wire chase.

So many times you start a job, which requires you to remove part of a previously finished job, which then makes you realize that you could have designed the initial step better to give you easier reversibility. Take the furnace ducting... I designed the bench seat to be able to be quickly torn down to give me access to the battery bank. But as I contemplated taking the seat out I realized the furnace ducting was run through the seat in a way that did not follow the same design mantra as the bench. I could easily take a section of bench out but I'd have to cut the furnace ducting to do it. So.....

I improvised! 2" PVC has the same  60mm diameter as the interior of the ducting. So I cut pieces so I could remove sections easily.

And so it did!.......now onto the real matter at hand.

Never too late...

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2017

 OK, so there is often a little lag between events taking place and blog pictures being posted. Sometimes it's because there is a back log of info to hit the blog...and sometimes it's just because I don't have my shite together and get things posted in a timely manner. Most of the time may be the only one who is aware of the change in timeline, but in this case... my apologies for the obvious delay.

It did seem fitting though to ring in the new year in style, we had a couple families over for dinner, the Funks and Barries. I held myself to one glass of wine with dinner so that I could be the DD for the post supper trip to Redwood Meadows for the annual fireworks show (taken place at 8pm)

 So we loaded up, bundled up...

 And whooped it up!

 Of course nothing says party like Karaoke!!...lets just say there is no post-able video but this is the best still shot that encompasses the feeling of the evening.

The next day was a late start...gee I don't know why?... first order of business, turn the coffee on, then turn the bus furnace on. Once things were sufficiently warm and caffeinated it was time to reinstall the bathroom walls. As this had been done before the re-paint, this was really just a plug and play exercise.

The new work came with running new plugs for the TV and DVD player/PS3, and the controls for the rear heater core/aic conditioning unit.

At days end, the plugs were live TV was mounted(again) and we are ready for the next challenge.

Winter wonderland

I love winter. When I say that, the majority of people giv em a face like they accidentally bit into a lemon instead of an apple. But the truth of the matter is, I love the look of winter, the snow on the trees the distinctive crunch of your footsteps in the cold winter morn....it's all good in my books. Now granted, you have to be prepared for the cold, and that takes time, and being that the days are short...winter is less productive. But, if you get your work space all fired up and your webasto heater is purring along like a kitten, the next thing you know you are snug as a bug in a rug at 20C inside the bus listening to CBC radio and drinking coffee. I tried to convince Michelle and the kids to come out there with me,THAT would have rounded out the situation and created the perfect afternoon, but alas....my nirvana is not necessarily everyone's nirvana.















Today was a day of reinstall and reconnect. Fridge cabinetry was put back in. I must admit, it suffered a little warpage on the one piece due to what I can assume was the sheer amount of painting it went through. The compartment for the microwave above the fridge has a rebate in the vertical wall to slide the shelf into place. This leaves the plywood in the area 5/16" thick. That is where there is a "wow" to the board. fortunately the mounting bracket holds the piece in its original  position and therefor the "wow" is negated.

While I reinstalled the back wall of the fridge cabinet It was time to properly place the rear light switch control for the center isle lights and for the rear pot lights. Unfortunately they did not work when I powered them up. A quick tear down investigation revealed the problem. It was so obvious I wasn't quite sure how it happened, but I'm going to blame beer

On the right is correct, on the left is not correct. Fortunately the power was also not hooked up so when I did provide power to them all, there was no harm done.

Now that I have lights to work, it was time to finally mount the inverter and furnace controls.

Yes, I know its a lot of pictures to show off two little panels, but I just love the way it looks!

A long time ago in a grage far far away...

The title for the blog seemed fitting as the new Star Wars movie Rogue One has been released and thanks to a Christmas gift from my brother and sister in law we are soon to go and enjoy the show!
Let me start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, I hope this year is full of love and happiness for all.
It has been a while since I have updated. There has been lots of action around the Sinclair house, and some of it even had to do with bus stuff. I finally was happy with my spray technique and managed to re apply paint to all the cabinets for the fridge and for the bathroom walls.

The finish is glassy and smooth, it gives it a acrylic feel.

Now that this part of the project is done, it was time to allow the family to park back in the garage so the spray booth dismantling has begun.

And now it's time to get the walls back where they belong!

Baby it's cold outside!

The weather has turned....after a particularly mild fall and beginning of winter, mother nature decided to rear it's ugly head and throw winter at us. Like REAL winter, not like southern Alberta winter which consists of two days of -18-23C....I'm talking -32C for two weeks. Square tires on the car in the morning, and I embarrassing realization that I didn't even inquire if the recent car we bought had a block heater.....which it does not....yep I've gotten soft.

I continue to dominate the garage space, but I can hear the clock ticking.....so I enlist any and all help when I can. The kids have learned the hard way when I ask..."Do you have any homework?" the best answer is "yes" otherwise you end up in the garage....

using 600Grit sandpaper in a very repetitive motion

After much practice I have finally come up with a spray technique.

I thin the paint by 15% and then because the ambient temp of the garage and therefor the paint is about 13C I warm the paint.  It allows a better flow from the gun. The downside is the paint will slump easier.

 I have found that I must spray them in the horizontal position and be VERY careful on the amount applied on vertical surfaces

Some applications have been very successful....

And others not so much....