Floor!

The floor ended up at the top of the list.  I had everything for it, so I started.  It is amazing how things get finished after simply starting.  (Philosophical thought for the day).  I had a small dilemma because I bought the radiant floor before I changed my mind about the inside layout of the house so I had to reconfigure a little bit. The way it is layed out now...4 1/2' x 10' of radiant heat down the middle of the main section, a 1 1/2' x 5' section in the bathroom, and another 1 1/2' by 5' section near the entry door (but not centered because of the "closet" that will be on the starboard side.  

So here are the photos... view from the entry.

View from the bathroom door

Then putting in the laminate.  

Halfway there...

One row left at 10pm.  Thought I'd give my neighbors a break and not run the saw at that hour so I waited until the next day to finish up. :)

All finished and the fridge is back inside before the rain.

Bathroom floor and under the rolling pantry/bathroom door

The last thing to do was attach all the wiring to the thermostat, which had to be done about 4 times but finally got finished and finished properly.  Need a little power to try it out now...

Big ticket items...hmmm

So now that I'm at the point where I need to begin plumbing and powering TB, I've taken a step off a cliff.  Probably to most people it won't seem like such a big deal, but it sure is to me.  I have been watching the price of some solar panels for a few months now.  The panels seemed like a too good to be true kind of thing, but all of the many customer reviews were quite positive.  I didn't purchase them because I wanted to wait until I had the cash available. Then a couple of weeks ago the price went up $100 per panel, so I figured I'd missed out.  After looking around I found a very similar panel for a price similar to the previous price.  I decided to buy two and took the credit card plunge.  I know, I'm sure I've fallen victim to some capitalist scheme, but I just bought two 136 watt flexible panels for $195 each.  Can't imagine finding a better price.  And no, I'm not particularly scared about Unisolar going out of business.  

It wouldn't have been so bad if I had stopped there.  Following on the propane thread, I've always watched the price of the little Dickinson P9000 marine heater (for 6 years now) and Sure Marine has them regularly for much less than anyplace else.  A little google search proved once again that was the case, so I took the plunge there too.  The funny thing is that I have no buyers remorse this morning...only relief.  I guess I'd better get busy so I can have a place for these things to go once they get here.  

Getting closer!

Update...even though it is Saturday, FedEx delivered the solar panels today!  So excited! Here they are all rolled up in the box.  I'd better get busy finding just the right charge controller, batteries, and inverter! Whoa...am I really this far in the process?  Sometimes I have moments of disbelief that it is all coming together.

Loft floor

I was so much enjoying the ease of putting together the flooring on the wall that I thought I'd do the loft floor too!  It really was THAT easy. Ok, I know it is just a rectangle with no difficult cuts, but it was very rewarding and didn't take very long!

Underlayment...

Halfway...

Finished!!

Now for a couple of days off from the bungalow to plant my garden and get my yard looking like someone lives here!

First sleep out!!

I slept in Ticklebelly Bungalow for the first time last night! It felt more like camping out because I was in my sleeping bag on my camp pad, but it was fantastic! Although I shared my little loft with a pile of laminate flooring boxes, it was quite comfortable.  It is all coming along quite nicely.  YEEHAAAAAA!

Starboard wall

As I was debating whether to hang the door or put up wall covering, "eeny meeny" determined that wall covering was the very best one that my mother told me to pick...the door was not it.  So here is the beginning...

One section up to the loft joists...

Before the second section...

After the second section.

Almost finished with the third section...

That wire looks so strange hanging out of the wall, but it does have a purpose.  It will attach to the thermostat for my radiant floor, which thermostat is in the interior wall that separates kitchen from bathroom.

Whole wall finished up to the loft joists.  Yehaaaa!

So now it is time to seriously think about finishing up the electrical, and beginning the plumbing.  Electrical will go out the wall on the tongue side with the breaker box and all the electrical paraphernalia being in a box that sits on the tongue of the trailer.  Plumbing, both water and propane, will all live in the port side wall.  

Blinds for the bathroom

Latest adventure...I was over at Big Lots and I found some bamboo placemats that were the colors I want to use in the bathroom and living area. The placemats were $1 each so I got some thinking that I might actually use them as placemats. After I got home I had the bright idea that maybe I could use them to make blinds for the bathroom instead. Here is the first finished blind. I made two for the bathroom window. One will go above the other, so if you want to open the window the bottom one can be opened alone, if you want light and privacy the top can be opened alone, or they can both be opened. I suppose technically each panel could be opened separately, but I'm not sure what the purpose or benefit would be to that. Anyway, total cost for both blinds...$9.  I think I'll get some more placemats and make blinds for the other windows too.  

First I cut the mats so they would be the correct width for the window.

I used dowels that I already had, which had been used as props for a dance piece in a previous life. I pre-drilled holes for the eye hooks. 

Eye hooks...$1.29 for 10.

Dowel with eye hooks.

Then I hot glued the placemats to the dowel.

Tied the string around the base of the eye hook and hot glued it in place.

Fed the string between the bamboo to the front of the blind using a very small crochet hook.

Pulled the string through.

Wrapped the string to the bottom of the blind and up the back to feed through the eye hook.

Then fed the string through the fourth eye hook at the end so that all the strings would be together.  Here the strings are loose and not all through the last eye hook.

Pulled all the strings tight.

Decided to put beads on the ends of the strings for easier pulling.

Hanging...not yet on the bungalow's bathroom window, but I wanted to take a pic, so you get to see my neighbor's garage though the window.