Template Time

And we're underway. I think the hardest part of any project is starting it. I can over think things, overwhelming myself and beating myself into a stagnate state. It's like jumping into a cold river. If you think of how cold it's going to be, then yes it will be that cold and then some. It's that mental toughness, the invigorating spirit that comes from doing a cannonball into the unknown.

With these templates, Kaycee and I are plunging into the waters of our renovation. I have been unable to locate a CAD file of a 1986 Airstream, so I have been forced to do it the old-fashioned way. I am the Production Engineer for Moon Woodworking in Bend, OR, (what exactly that means I too am trying to figure out). I oversee the technological side of the production of our cabinets using a Biesse CNC Router. I was hoping to find a CAD file of the Airstream in order to program the cutout of the cabinets to match the curvature of the walls exactly, but have been unsuccessful thus far.


In these photo's I've taken some 3" rips of 1/8" material and hot glued them into lengths that follow the various radii of the trailer. Then I used a scribe to trace the curvature of the body onto the glued up lengths. I then took these lengths to work and cut the scribed line on a band saw. I can now transfer this line to a jig or fixture that can be used to shape my cabinets to it (Not nearly as cool as programming the Router to do it).

As I said before this is to be a three stage process. The first is the back half of the interior. I am in the process of designing a electrical radiant floor heating system on warmlyyours.com, they have a great interactive website that allows you to customize a floor layout, position a thermostat, and use various flooring conditions, and applications and get quotes in real-time without the cold calls or junk mail.


Next comes the mill work for the interior walls, which will be made out of Lyptus , it is a "green" Hardwood, and is moisture and rot resistant. And we have a surplus at work which I am able to buy at cost. It will be applied much the same as the assembly of a wood strip canoe. More to come on that.....See, the water's not so bad afterall.

Oh, Yeah. The silver turtle in all her glory. The renovation will begin in the near future. It will be a three part process. First the rear of the stream will be brought up to date; that is from the
end of the galley kitchen back. The Bathroom, closets, and bedroom, will be ripped out and returned much the same, except with room for a tiny Dark room. Details will be laid out in a future post. Think, Yacht. The Second phase will be from the kitchen forward, a reinvented living space customized for all of our items, Very Mod-Euro, not original pink floral. Less awkward, more sweet?....Yes. More Sweet.

And last of all, because come on it's an Airstream, the outside. A buffing to a new shine, some sweet dome hub caps, some custom flaps for winter skirting, and lets not forget the speaker jacks for some summertime partying. Then we will christen her with a new name befitting of her sleek beauty, no not Excella, because WTF is that all about, something Eloquent....yes, I trust the process will reveal a name.

Life and the magnetic laws of consumption

So, there are challenges to living in a self contained "silver twinkie." Not necessarily the ones you'd expect, but challenges none the less. We, my wife and I have faced this challenge before when we moved from TN, it is this re-occurrence that leads me to believe it is an epidemic. Crap-Magnets. Take a look around your house. Yeah, you know where that catch all is. A drawer with 15 thousand pens and pencils with no erasers...these are just the small things that can be stuffed out of sight. How many of us have storage units? For what? Miscellaneous crap that spills over from our consumer lifestyle ie. the acre/ft of inflatable Christmas yard decorations consisting of: giant plastic snowglobes, Frosty and his crew of 15 plastic elves, all preforming some sort of indistinguishable mundane task, an entire team of pre-lit reindeer that you no longer put out because the overly friendly guy down the street bought a set just like yours. Things that are oh-so valuable that we dare not get rid of them, like the Nordic Track, treadmill, or Bow-Flex. Well, moving into an Airstream is our answer to reversing the flux lines between us and our crap.

When two adults, a 30 lb. cat and a 30 lb. dog live within 200+ square feet, you rapidly become aware of what "stuff" is important, and what is not; it reeks of the "quality not quantity" cliche. I am working on my OCD concept of reducing my essentials to the minimum ie. socks, 5 pair all exactly the same (the conundrum: black or white? If they all have to match, and you may have to go to a wedding or a funeral, then they're going to have to be black); Pants- two pairs of work Khaki's, a pair of jeans, slacks, and comfy cargo; work boots, relaxing boots, and tennis shoes, etc. etc.

My one magnetic knife, and one glass full of one of my favorite suds, because let's face it you can't have too many of those. (Frank Zappa Tribute Ale from Lagunitas Brewing Company, Petaluma, CA.)

In the kitchen, I'm aiming to have one of everything I need. Who needs 10 plates in the cupboard? I will have one. One fork. One Spoon. One knife (Ironically, I stole my one knife from a Red Robin in CT, because it possesses magnetic qualities, it can actually pick up a spoon). My glass is hand-blown by an artist in NE Oregon, who makes pint glasses for the local brewery ( I highly recommend Terminal Gravity Brewing in Enterprise, Oregon if you're in the vicinity). Continuing in this fashion I will eventually have only things that have some meaning to me, or a story to go with them. At least that's what I tell myself.

Christmas in the Trailer Park

I thought it was time to set into motion the wheels of inevitability. Someday, my wife and I will set sail in our Land Yacht, a soon to be renovated 1986 Airstream Excella. With the wind at our back we will travel the country, following our whims and desires, creating art and reveling in music. In order to do this, not privy to any stellar financial skills or trust fund our quest will be fueled by our talents.

Kaycee, my wife, has committed to her artwork full time now and posts about it at http://artappropriatelyamiss.blogspot.com/
A crazy good artist with insane amounts of talents, it has come oozing out of her pores since she committed to it full-time. She also manages her website @ artamiss.net

I, am a cabinetmaker....yep.... living the dream....it just happens to be somebody elses. I have aspirations making a living by taking photos of mundane things that typically go unnoticed....so, I'll probably continue to make cabinets for sometime yet.

This weblog is dedicated to those photos, the renovation of our yacht, new music discoveries, and living the dream...ours.