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....

Forest of Trees

I was thinking of a quote from Tom Althouse, " 
“There is beauty all around us,  
and the light finds us when we realize,  
we are all part of that beauty and worth the cherishing."
This rings true so much in today's world, when so much of the youngest generations psyche is so heavily influenced by the constant stream of electronic social and marketing criticism, either active, passive, positive and negative. It's hard for kids to be able to filter through what is real and not real, important and not important, genuine and self serving. As parents in today's world, we are charged with helping to guide our kids through the tumultuous social/digital world which is a task that feels like trying to find your car keys in a dark room.  Michelle and I have found through trial and error that coming back to the simple things in life is likely the best way to keep our kids, and ourselves grounded. Simple things like a meal together at the kitchen table, or a simple walk outside to simply  breathe the air and see the real beauty.
The obvious analogy is that a walk in the woods is fraught with challenges, each tree or bush could be considered  an obstacle, but if you change your point of view those "obstacles" are what make up our world. When you look at the big picture all those obstacles together help shape your world into a thing of beauty.

Keeping that in mind, I tripped on another "obstacle". I was making a trip into the city to pick up Jeff and his cronies from the pool. I stopped in at the paint store and handed them the previous can and said...."I'd like another please bartender!" The helpful sales person said " Sure!...let's see Advance paint, in Chantilly Lace and a semi-gloss" and she went into the back to mix.

Now I distinctly remember buying the paint and discussing with the sales rep at that time, that my goal was a super smooth and shiny finish, she help up the product and said "this is it!".....and I trusted. Now that I was in another Benjamin Moore dealer, the sales rep had made a point of reading that the can was a semi gloss....it took a few seconds but I quickly made my way to the back of the store and said...." This will sound stupid, but is there a high gloss in this product?"
I think you know where I'm going here. My point is NOT that you should trust no one, my point is that you can always ask the obvious clarification question without sounding confrontational. I did not, and it cost me time more than anything....but I'm going to do it all again......

Now that the temp has dropped outside I can no longer spray in the driveway. And the open spray in the garage was too messy. So I have created a temporary spray booth.....yes I asked permission and YES I have a very UNDERSTANDING AND PATIENT WIFE!

But I mean look at this, one top coat.....

And this is dry!!

Microwave magic

I would say it was the early 80's, a magical time really. The advancements in technology was astounding....well, to us. Keep in mind we were coming out of the 70's, and anything more technical than a disco ball was mind blowing. I distinctly remember standing in front of  the door of this new kitchen appliance with my nose pressed to the glass of this thing called a microwave. It was huge, it was loud, and it was expensive. But it magically heated things up!
How far we have come. Now microwave ovens are relatively inexpensive, small, lite, and quiet. No longer relegated to just the kitchen, they are found in dorms, offices and even RV's!

The challenge with an install in an RV is motion. The appliance cannot simply 'sit' on the counter. Fillmore moves and shake,bounces and rumbles. Not really an install situation conducive to the appliance staying put.
In Fillmore the location for the microwave will be above the fridge. I know I know, not tremendously creative or original but from a space and functionality standpoint it is where we want it to go. So with the install space defined it was time to fabricate a surround/trim

The trim fits the cabinetry well, now we just have to get a mounting plate for the microwave to hold it steady during travel and to set the appliance at the correct height for aesthetics.

In the shop, all looks well. Now it was time for the dry fit!

Things will look better when the cabinetry is painted, but things look good! 

Now that everything looks nice and I'm happy with the fit, it was time to tear it all out and move the cabinetry to the shop for filling and sanding. Haven't quite figured out where I will spray the cabinets. I wasn't real popular taking up the garage to to the bathroom walls.

One more kick at the can

Now who remembers playing kick the can as a kid? I am sorry to say I don't think my kids have any idea what that game is. Basically a game of hide and seek. If you are caught you go to a detention area, the only way to get free is if an un-caught participant sneaks up and frees all the captured team mates by kicking over a can or bucket. Incredible feeling of elation when you are stuck in the jail and you can see your team mate slowly sneaking up on the can, on the flip side of that coin, a tremendous sinking feeling of despair when as the guard you hear the sound of the can clanging down the driveway reverberating off the sides of houses in the neighborhood. But, you take a moment to re group and then set the bucket back and start again. Slowly rounding up the escapees and ultimatley giving them one more chance to kick at the can...

So with the thought of nothing lost, it was time to regroup,repair and  repaint

 

This time I was even happier with my finish, and smart enough to get some help to get the walls to the drying table.

Round, Round We Go

The vision of Bill Murray in Groundhog day comes to mind, I feel like I have been here before, and I have. As a matter of fact I have lost count how many coats of paint I have sprayed on these walls. Its decieving really how little paint is actually sprayed when you do paint, so it's not like the walls are 1/4" thicker than they used to be. It's just that I'll lay down a coat, then find some reason why I am unhappy with the finish. I'll sand, fill, sand repaint....repeat.

But this time was different......

This time I was happy. I liked the coverage, I liked the surface. All I had to do was transfer them to a drying rack....

And then that's when hell broke loose. It was my fault, I was pushing the clock. I had to leave to drive Anna to dance and I was pushing it down to the wire. I transferred the first wall in, no problem. I went to move the second.....and it slipped and hit the first panel on the rack. It got gouged and the paint on both got marred...........uuuuuuuuuhhhhhghghghhgh!