The work continues.....

There used to be a hole in the roof where the propane refrigerator exhaust vented through. The previous owners sealed up the roof and installed an electric refrigerator. Mom and I are reinstalling a proper RV propane/electric fridge. We bought a new fridge, a used fridge vent scoop, a new roof vent cap and a new inner collar with a screen. I'm hoping all these parts work well together and one day soon we will have a working refrigerator, complete with a new custom refrigerator cabinet.


I put the awning out and climbed up onto the roof to do a little caulking and riveting.


Mom did a great job painting the bumper and adding some weather stripping to help keep water out of the bumper storage area.

The Agony continues

A few weeks ago while saling (Estate Saling) I found a great deal on a bedroom set. It's solid Black Walnut. It's very heavy and very well made. I'm not sure how old the set is. There is a date on the back of the mirror but I can't read all of the numbers. I bought the set on the 4th day of the Sale and paid a whopping $100 (plus tax) for the four pieces - dresser, mirror and two night stands. Plus, the dresser and one night stand have glass to cover the tops. The second night stand has a piece of glass but it doesn't quite fit right.




The Argosy came with thick, solid covers for the front windows. They are good for traveling to protect the front windows from flying rocks, but not good when parked because you can't see out them. We had all the windows tinted, except the two big curved windows. They are just too curved for the tint application. So, Mom made covers for all three front windows. Of course all the snaps had to be changed on the trailer because the new snaps on the new covers didn't work with the old snaps on the old trailer. At this point, most of the snaps are working well. Some need to be tweaked a little. For travel we will insert some of that silver, insulating material between the windows and the covers to help protect the windows from rocks. I'm hoping the snaps will stay snapped while cruising down the highway at 55 MPH.



We had some custom work done on the kitchen cabinet. The stain we picked didn't end up matching quite as well as I had hoped, but all in all we are pretty happy with how it turned out.


It's hard to tell in this picture but the front wall is up in the shower. The side walls should be done very soon. It's coming out really nice!! Again, those curves are making installation of materials very interesting.




And then there's the bumper. I won't go into detail of how I made extra work for us, but it will soon have a new coat of paint. = )


And the biggest source of distress for me is the roof leaks. I can't put it off any longer. It has rained only one day since bringing her to AZ, but my luck will run out eventually, so I am now tackling the roof issues. UGH!!



The Argosy needs a name! So far my favorites are Rosie, the Riveted and Bea, as in Plan "B" because on most projects Plan "A" hasn't worked out well. I'm open to suggestions.

The Big House and the Little House

I spent a year and a half checking Craig's List almost ever day I was at home in Sun City for a good deal on an 8' X 4' window for my front living room. I finally found one. It was just what I needed!! But there was a bit of difficulty with the project as the original window was installed with a 3/4" flange all around it, then the bricks on the front of the house were installed. But, my installer finally got the old, single pane, aluminum frame window removed and got the new one installed. Stage two was installing the wood window blinds I found on Craig's List many, many months ago. First I had to add a 1" x 3" board on the inside of the window opening so the blinds, which were a bit too skimpy, would fit properly. Well, two boards made the opening just a little bit too small, so I had to remove one of them. After I got all that done, the brackets installed and the blinds hoisted up into place, I discovered the cord locking mechanism was malfunctioning. As I tugged and tugged on the cord to try to release the slats the whole shebang came crashing down on my face. OUCH!!! So, I went to the local Lowe's store and priced new blinds and shutters. They ranged from $150-$730. Instead I opted for the window blind repair shop. For a reasonable fee I had the lock/release mechanism replaced, a full tune-up, a foot of unneeded slats removed from the bottom and two additional support brackets to install. The blinds are now up and after about two weeks I now have some privacy again.


Here's the new window installed with some wall repair work yet to be done.



Here's the inside view of the new window and the new blinds, .



Here's the window and blinds from the outside, just in time for Christmas.


When I'm not busy with house projects I'm busy working on the Little Argosy.


Here's some pictures of the progress we are making on the bathroom.





Isn't the little 10" stainless steel sink cute?








Here's a bit of an eye sore...


...that is hidden nicely behind a cabinet door.


The cabinets will eventually be painted white to match the doors. The counter top will remain natural, with about 8 coats of Urethane on it.


My mom and I found the 3 cabinet doors for the bathroom and three for the kitchen at the Habitat for Humanity Store in Peoria, for $2 each.

Here's a kitchen cabinet door after being stripped and sanded, and waiting to be stained and coated with Urethane.



These are ready to be coated with Urethane.



The shower area is the next major hurdle to concur.



And of course the refrigerator needs to be installed and a custom cabinet built around it.


One day we may actually get to use the Argosy. = )