Like our presidency……
In with the new and over the old.
This is exactly what I have been up to over the past few weeks covering the old sub-floor in the Overlander with a new beautiful oak hardwood.
I always seem to have a lot on my bee plate but this winter in my down time I have been working on the installing the oak hardwood floor Peter White gave me for the EMoViTO. It was left over from his house floor installed 10 years ago, so as we travel down the road spreading the good will of bees we’ll have a little bit of Peter’s kitchen with us. Completed just yesterday, the floor looks absolutely amazing! It has really changed the dynamics of the trailer and a big surprise to me is the change in the acoustics. The space is less “tin” sounding with the floor absorbing a lot of the treble. The install took much longer then I had originally thought but well worth the effort. The first day I started with the help of Rhue Bruggeman, well okay, Rhue started with my help at around 10 am and I figured we’d be done by 2 pm and out hitting the hills on our mountain bikes. Yeah Right……. I rented the tongue and grove pneumatic nail gun from Central Valley Builders Supply (up Valley) for a day but ended up keeping it three. They were awesome in the rental department because not only did I waggle dance my way out of an extra day rental fee but when I returned the nailer I forgot to include the mallet needed for its operation. Over the period of the three days I got really good at measuring, cutting, and nailing hardwood floor. Rhue started calling me “Rob the Craftsman” when he’d stop by to check on the progress. Amazing guy, not only does he totally embrace the project, lay out a straight floor plan, but he continually offers encouragement and great suggestions to better the bee-mobile. He also has lent me the chop saw, compressor, and jig saw to complete the flooring. I didn’t think I had the skills to complete a project like this, generally I would have just hired it out. But with Rhue’s continual badgering, obsessive derogatory name calling, and numerous beers I persevered. It is really exciting to me because the project has been stalled for so long, to finally see a major leap forward actually validates the project in some weird way.
As soon as I installed the last two pieces of half inch floor in the rear I immediately covered the new beautiful floor with cardboard and started painting, well priming, the interior walls. I have not decided on the wall treatment but figure at the least the walls would need to be primed before moving forward. Painting would be the easiest however I am toying with the idea of installing bee wallpaper.
The other major progress on the project is I rounded up all my medical stainless steel lab tables and moved them into the trailer. I was hoping they would fit a little better, they feel slightly oversized and I’m nervous that to make the space feel proportionally correct I may have to either cut down the existing tables or have the interior all custom built-in.
Lastly, I visited my metal home boys down at CuFe today and scheduled a meeting where both Andy and Loyd will visit the trailer and help me decide what metal to use for the trim (floorboards, window, and interior panel) and discuss the design of what will hold the 11+ beehives steady as we move the trailer around. Andy definitely suggests spending a little more and trimming the trailer out with aluminum.
In with the new and over the old.
This is exactly what I have been up to over the past few weeks covering the old sub-floor in the Overlander with a new beautiful oak hardwood.
I always seem to have a lot on my bee plate but this winter in my down time I have been working on the installing the oak hardwood floor Peter White gave me for the EMoViTO. It was left over from his house floor installed 10 years ago, so as we travel down the road spreading the good will of bees we’ll have a little bit of Peter’s kitchen with us. Completed just yesterday, the floor looks absolutely amazing! It has really changed the dynamics of the trailer and a big surprise to me is the change in the acoustics. The space is less “tin” sounding with the floor absorbing a lot of the treble. The install took much longer then I had originally thought but well worth the effort. The first day I started with the help of Rhue Bruggeman, well okay, Rhue started with my help at around 10 am and I figured we’d be done by 2 pm and out hitting the hills on our mountain bikes. Yeah Right……. I rented the tongue and grove pneumatic nail gun from Central Valley Builders Supply (up Valley) for a day but ended up keeping it three. They were awesome in the rental department because not only did I waggle dance my way out of an extra day rental fee but when I returned the nailer I forgot to include the mallet needed for its operation. Over the period of the three days I got really good at measuring, cutting, and nailing hardwood floor. Rhue started calling me “Rob the Craftsman” when he’d stop by to check on the progress. Amazing guy, not only does he totally embrace the project, lay out a straight floor plan, but he continually offers encouragement and great suggestions to better the bee-mobile. He also has lent me the chop saw, compressor, and jig saw to complete the flooring. I didn’t think I had the skills to complete a project like this, generally I would have just hired it out. But with Rhue’s continual badgering, obsessive derogatory name calling, and numerous beers I persevered. It is really exciting to me because the project has been stalled for so long, to finally see a major leap forward actually validates the project in some weird way.
As soon as I installed the last two pieces of half inch floor in the rear I immediately covered the new beautiful floor with cardboard and started painting, well priming, the interior walls. I have not decided on the wall treatment but figure at the least the walls would need to be primed before moving forward. Painting would be the easiest however I am toying with the idea of installing bee wallpaper.
The other major progress on the project is I rounded up all my medical stainless steel lab tables and moved them into the trailer. I was hoping they would fit a little better, they feel slightly oversized and I’m nervous that to make the space feel proportionally correct I may have to either cut down the existing tables or have the interior all custom built-in.
Lastly, I visited my metal home boys down at CuFe today and scheduled a meeting where both Andy and Loyd will visit the trailer and help me decide what metal to use for the trim (floorboards, window, and interior panel) and discuss the design of what will hold the 11+ beehives steady as we move the trailer around. Andy definitely suggests spending a little more and trimming the trailer out with aluminum.
The new floor.
Bringing the hardwood home.
Stacking it up.
Laying it out.
Moving along.
Running the show.
Almost there.
Nearly done.
Check out the sides.
Tools
More tools.
Even more tools.
Good nails.
Problem nails.
bloody nail.
Sloppy!
Seams
Rob, amazing work! Never would guess that this was your first hardwood floor. Very happy to see this much effort going into the Overlander. Keep up the good work and keep us up to date with photos!
As slow as you feel you're going you're way head of us.
Posted by: scott | January 22, 2009 at 10:34 PM
Rob, I hope you used a lot of those nails, and not the bloody ones. As that trailer goes down the road, the floor is going to try very hard to pull away from the sub floor. Hardwood flooring is not designed to twist as the trailer goes down the road. This is why virtually all trailers use floating floor of vinyl tile. The trailer is designed to twist. It is part of how a monocoque structure functions. Not trying to be a bummer here, I am very interested in your project and want to see you pull this project off. Perhaps you can turn to those over the top Airstreamers that jumped on the 63 destruction to help you. Just a thought.
Posted by: frank yensan | January 25, 2009 at 05:01 AM
Face up to the life with smile , no matter what will happened.
Posted by: Coach Bags | May 03, 2011 at 01:23 AM