The tiniest rush of relief.

 

Yes there are fingerprints all over the thing, but there are fingerprints all over us as well, and who cares, today we took a very big step.     

It's currently 31° (feels like 34 apparently) and 85% humidity - a bit more of both in the garage and it's a bit hard to handle anything, let alone juggle it into place without getting great smears of perspiration over the lot let alone a few little fingerprints.  But  I digress.

On the the day we picked up the fridge, which only came in one singularly inappropriate colour for a fridge, I determined that we'd try to match the design "language" for the rest of the fit out.  I think we've finally done it, or as close to it as we can!  We've made light plastic drawers look like heavy plastic ones!

Only the galley unit remains to be fitted, and the printer does seem to be enjoying the change of colour as it chugs away making the plumbing fixtures.  

Another day on the net.

Well one of us has had a great day.   She's finished her bit and the mobile boudoir is now complete with mosquito net for those time when we wish we had one. 

Just like pretty much everything else, we'd planned it in detail, made allowance for it to go exactly where it does, and were surprised when it did exactly what it was supposed to do without fuss or bother.  

I guess that's because on the other side of the garage, no amount of planning and allowance could have made up for today's misadventures.   So we're back to being a day behind for every day we work, but thankfully we have a deadline, so I suspect by midnight Sunday, we'll be where we need to be, perhaps with a list of things that still need doing!

Meanwhile, back in the soft-furnishings department...

 

While one of us has been errr…"pacing himself", which is code for "catching up on other projects" while waiting variously for paint to dry, sealant to cure and things to print, the other has been bringing the stuff that most don't think about to a glorious conclusion.

The blackout curtain for the back window is complete with all it's magnets sewn in and if it wasn't so black, what a picture it would make. So would the trials of sewing very strong little magnets into little pockets while simultaneously trying to stop them leaping onto parts of the sewing machine, but no pictures were allowed that day.

The mosquito net is the last bit of insurance we think, and like everything else we've done it's a bit of a fiddle to get it just "so".  If we have a net, even a good looking one,  we will presumably never need it, and sometime tomorrow, we'll have one, quite possibly about the same time that the drawers return to their rightful positions.   

On Monday, we're probably off for a few days!

Sliding (van) doors.

 

Having had a few days off van building to be up to our armpits in little children and some slightly larger ones, it's nice to be home with a clear head and a clear list of things left to be done, as well as one thing crossed off the somewhat longer term list.   

The downstairs bathroom is now complete and in a way it's because of the work on the van.  We we were struggling even before the madness of Covid hit, to find someone to make our wallpaper at a price and in a time frame that was even barely reasonable.   We gave up in the end and decided that task would made a nice perpetual heading for our whiteboard list in the shed.

A week or two ago, before the morning mist had time to clear (if indeed there had been any morning mist, which there never is round here) I was picking up a few nuts and bolts and a roll of tape at our very large hardware store, when another van caught my eye, this one with very subtle graphics proclaiming the driver to be just the person for the job.   I phoned the company, sent them my  image and with no fuss or bother, they waved a magic wand and our downstairs bathroom was complete.

We we speaking to our grandchildren of many things over the weekend.  Of places we'd lived and things we'd done and projects we'd actually completed, and we both became quite tired thinking about them.

So tired were we, that an embargo has been brought down on large projects from this day forth.

I don't think that includes documenting the old ones though!

Atychiphobia

 

There actually may not be a word for "fear of not being able to put the interior of your car back together again after you've insulated the roof", but it does feel something akin to atychiphobia I suspect, and that's probably what I had a very good dose of today!

It was a lovely change for a time, not worrying about the minutia of cupboard detailing, to let the shoulder that comes these days from working overhead take away all other thoughts, that was until we figured there would be no better time than the present to install the telephone hands-free kit properly.

What's the word for "fear of the remote microphone not working after you've made a special fitting, cut a hole in the ceiling, and put all the interior trim back together without testing anything"?

Places to go

 

It was more than satisfying to finally have the first of the drawers in for what should be the last time for the build process anyway.

Ladies and gentlemen our bathroom is installed.   Sure there's not a lot of standing headroom, and nowhere to hang a towel, but when a man's gotta go, he's gotta go and now with the flick of two yellow catches and through the miracle of a small slide, he can!

Today though with the drawer concept proven, and the printer chugging away making more bits, it was time for our second very long lunch of the week.

Everything but the kitchen sink.

 

We are in the midst of something of a social season I'm afraid, but there's plenty of time between visitors to tweak here and there, so we got the galley unit in for a bit of a trial fit today.

"Trial fit" of course ignores the ten thousand kilometres of trial we've already had, but the more observant will notice the white plastic templates held on with blue tape.   The more observant will also notice that the removal of large amounts of building dust and debris is not necessary to achieve a reasonable trial fitting outcome.   

Encouraged by the fact that everything seems to open and close as it should, we've suggested to the printer that it could atone for its sins of the past few days by working overnight.

Perhaps by day's end tomorrow we will be ready to cook, if not wash up although even that might be possible at a pinch. However given that our working day will end somewhere around eleven as social responsibility looms large once more, who knows what boxes will have been ticked!

With only three drawers to go, would now be a good time to note that we haven't soundproofed or insulated the cab area yet.   Will that happen in our next exciting episode?

Some not diamond days aren't bad!

 

Another day "lost" today, but it's not what you think.   

Some good friends decided they could assist in pulling us out of this semi-productive mire, which they achieved by plonking us squarely in a totally non-productive one.   What were they thinking, popping in for coffee like that and dragging us neither kicking nor screaming, to lunch by the beach?

It was all delightful enough that the printer seemed to sense a lightening in our collective moods and set about restoring equilibrium.   

There is great joy to be had in being able to produce products of one's imagination on what ever whim take's one's fancy, however much as we like to think otherwise, the 3D print process is not completely hands-off.  

A printer relies entirely on operator input and will blindly follow instructions even if those instructions doom it to failure at some point of the process.  This is usually timed to have the greatest impact, for instance when one bounces happily up the stairs (OK there's a bit of licence taken there in the use of the word "bouncing"), gently glowing from a few hours of sitting by the beach and eating fish and chips.  

Print failure tends to  leave great globs of molten plastic encasing delicate electronic components which need to be heated to 250° and gently picked out of delicate electronic componentry, usually over the next several hours. 

You know what?

We've pretty much written off today anyway, I think I'll have a nap and think about it later!