Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Jaws, it's all looking great.
Glad to hear everyone is doing better with the health issues.
I'm new to this part of the forum, not reading and researching, but the jumping in and doing it.
I too have spend a lot of time going over flboy (Don) and Karebru's builds.
You mentioned not being a carpenter while doing the steps for the house.
Though, your cabinets are working great.
I can't wait to get started on those.
Doing insulation now. Insulation is not hard to do, but time consuming.
Will be following your build also..

Hey David,

Thanks for the kind words. I also started following your build and looks like it's progressing nicely.

I find the cabinets to be much more enjoyable to work on than the bathroom and utility stuff. They are at least square and above ground level. Trying to cram a bath in the V-nose has been challenging. I've also surrendered to the fact that there is nothing fast about this build, so might as well make it look as nice as possible. Hoping to get the lower cabinets and bathroom finished by mid June so I can actually use it this year.

Jeff

jaws_1972 wrote:Hey David,

I find the cabinets to be much more enjoyable to work on than the bathroom and utility stuff. They are at least square and above ground level. Trying to cram a bath in the V-nose has been challenging. I've also surrendered to the fact that there is nothing fast about this build, so might as well make it look as nice as possible. Hoping to get the lower cabinets and bathroom finished by mid June so I can actually use it this year.

Jeff

Jeff,

Thank you, yes I'm moving along. Having fun doing it. The heat this time of year is a little to much. Opened mine up earlier about4 pm, was 104 inside. Sets right in the sun. Usually cools off to 80 something after opened up awhile.
My Rvlovent fan will be going in this weekend for sure. That will help.
We elected to not have the bathroom inside. Port-a-pot yes. Can shower outside, have a nice shower tent for that. "I don't sing that loud".
That eliminates, the water weight, plumbing, tanks for us.
I'm no hurry to get this one done, just want it nice, usable and able to enjoy it.
So, we'll just keep moving along.

Let's see where I left off. The palm sander that exploded and scared the beejeebers out of me. Literally sounded like a gun shot going off. Took me a second to realize what had happened. After I figured it out, I check my gut to make sure I didn't have any shrapnel in me.

Some progress on the face frame and doors.





Primed and ready


Pocket hole drawers out of 1/2" ply

Real foreshadowing on what the lowers will look like. Need to paint the walls white (or cream, or antique white, etc). A couple more days of work....

The Ikea $119 Vrena veneer counter top was 100% worth it for time savings. Especially when 3/4" ply is going for $75 per sheet. I bought the 25.5" wide counter top and cut 4" off. That gave me me 1.5" over hang on my 20" cabinets (21.5" counter), and also gave me 4" to use as a backsplash.

VRENACountertop, oak/veneer 74"x25.5"x1-1/8"

Jeff, that counter top looks great in there. I like the beadboard wall board, and carrying that over to the panels in the doors..
You're doing great on this build.
Your sander reminds me of a couple years ago.
I had a nail gun. Laid it down on a work bench to check a couple measurements. It blew the cylinder cap right off the top of the gun. After getting up from behind the work bench a closer inspection showed a weak area in the cap casting.

Actually this is the last week updates with a couple minor "niggles' that destroyed entire days.

First off, found a place to put the 1-pound Coleman bottle for the stove. It's next to the switchable outlet for the water heater. The nook for storage space has worked out, more on that later.



Made a template board and drilled the cabinets for shelves.

Next up I finished the side shelving that covers the fresh water inlet and makes a nice lighted shelf for the side of the bed/couch. I wish I had taken more pictures of the build as this wasn't easy.





The top with the 12v LED light.


The lighted space.


With the removable shelf installed highlighting the 12v and 120v outlets and USB ports. The top strip was in the trailer when I bought it, so I wanted to repurpose it. .


Water inlet hookup and vent hose for fresh water tanks.

The sink nook. My wife asked me to utilized all of the space and I had extra hidden hinges so this happened.

The water heater overflow drain. So this is the episode that destroyed a day. After having it sit in my basement for a year I was able to hooked it up. Finally had a chance to fill it and the overflow pressure relief valve starting leaking right away. Really PO'd me initially. After some pondering I decided the easiest and best course of action was just to run to the big box store for replacement valve since they are a standard item (even with a 4" temp probe). So $17 dollars later I was ready, but then had to head back to big box store for more PVC elbows. Although I was upset about a new item being defective, I've come to terms with this being a blessing. I was originally not going to connect the overflow valve, but seeing how cheap they are I decided to make a drain for it which will save me (or the trailer) in the long run.

More progress with the drawers installed. First time using sliders.



Doors and some hardware installed.



Space for the water pump and drain. Eventually I'll have to fill that hole with some expanding foam.

Installed the fresh water tanks. The previous owner used a bunch of the composite board as kick boards, so I used them to the build the water tank boxes. Probably $100 worth of material in today's market. Very glad to be able to repurpose it.





Fits nicely below the bed / folding couch.


Currently the 2nd tank is gravity fed through the inlet from the 1st tank. However, there's plenty of room between the wall and the bed frame so this may change in the future. Not at the top of the priority list right now.

And the end product. I needed to hit the easy button and just use a nice piece of 3/4" Birch for the cabinets (Edit: the plywood was just used for cabinet body. The face frame was built from 2", 3" and 4" wide 1" thick hardwood pine boards using pocket hole connectors). I'm really glad I did as the end product totally exceeded my expectations. Most of the drawers and shelves could use some more finishing (sanding), but good enough to go camping for now.



My favorite angle.


All of the drawers and shelves.