Upper Cabinets...Hard Part Done!

It's always nice to get past the hard parts of any task, and as of yesterday, I feel that I am at that point. In this post, I will show the installation of the first part of the upper cabinets around the curved front of the trailer, and then let you know about Angel's progress on his leg healing up.

In the last post, you saw the upper cabinet for the left front corner. In this post, that cabinet has been joined to the microwave cabinet, and the entire assembly attached to the wall. But before that could be done, the front upper wall cover had to be installed.

In the previous post, you saw how we used a heavy duty ratchet strap to "pre-bend" the piece of plywood to make it easier to fit into the rounded front of the trailer.

The upper front of the trailer wall with the cover in place.

After checking out the wiring to make sure it was OK to cover it up, the curved section was set in place, held up by my handy trucker's bar. This was picked up at a truck stop somewhere in our travels for a paltry $25, and was intended to expand between sides of a truck to hold cargo in place.

We originally bought it because it looked like a very handy device to put under the very long front overhang of our truck camper, to keep it from tipping over when being used off the truck, but it has come in handy on many other occasions. I used it when installing the ceiling braces to hold them tight to the roof, and again when installing the ceiling plywood. Now it is again being used to push this plywood cover tight to the ceiling while I get a few screws started in it. In the photo above, I am already done using it, and it is simply leaning against the front wall.

I had made a few pencil marks on the wall on each side, in half-inch increments... measured from the floor (since the trailer itself is not quite setting level). Before installing screws, I checked both sides to make sure the plywood was both level and flush with the edges of the vertical sheets below it. The screws at the top and bottom of the panel will be hidden with trim when the project is all finished.

Although it will be a real pain if I should ever have to remove this panel, it "could" be done by removing the screws, including those holding the cabinets to the wall, and sliding it straight down. Hopefully, there will never be a need for that!

The next step was to prepare the ceiling. When I had installed the ceiling plywood, it was screwed into the steel roof bows, but I also stapled the edges into the blocking that I installed along both sides. That took the "crinkling" out of the edges, but also, I discovered that the blocking was shallower than the roof bows in some places, and that led to a dip on either side of the bows. Before the cabinets were hung, I had to pop those edges loose from the staples and allow it to relax. When the cabinets were hung, shims had to be inserted along those edges to pull the plywood down tight against the tops of the cabinets, to make everything look straight.

To make sure that the faces of the cabinets lined up and wouldn't get skewed by a potentially crooked ceiling, it was necessary to bond the microwave cabinet to the printer cabinet, and then lift the entire unit into place. This is the only way to be sure that they line up with each other before securing them to the ceiling. (Please excuse the fuzzy pictures from my cheap cell phone. The light was very poor in the trailer, and I could not tell how bad they were when I took them.)

The microwave cabinet being secured to the printer cabinet prior to hanging.

This was a simple task of just joining the cabinets end to end while setting on the counter, and adding a couple of bar clamps while I pre-drilled the screw holes. I also used a counter-sink bit to make sure the heads of the screws would be hidden, and I installed them from the right-hand side, away from direct line of sight when they are hung. The screws were 2-1/2 inch all purpose screws...three of them, only in the face frame. No screws were used at the back of the dividers, so that the cabinet can conform naturally to the wall.

The microwave and printer cabinets installed on the wall.

With that done, I manually lifted the cabinets to the ceiling and used the trucker bar to hold them in position while I installed the screws. Remember that wide piece of 3/4-inch plywood installed on the top of the microwave cabinet? That got three screws through it into the wood blocking behind the plywood ceiling. In each of the 3/4-inch vertical strips down the back of each divider wall and also along the bottoms of the cabinets, I found that the pocket hole screws worked out very well (without the "pockets") for length and ease of installation, as well as holding ability. I have to buy some 2-inch drill point screws yet, and then I will come back and add those into the steel roof bows, for additional strength.

I had originally thought of even gluing the backs and tops of the cabinets to the trailer, but decided against it. If we should ever have a need to remove these cabinets and put them in a larger trailer, they would be a bear to get off, and also destroy the walls of this trailer for resale. Screws will be enough to hold them.

The left half of the upper cabinets.

With these cabinets in place, there is exactly 21 inches of room between the microwave cabinet and the closet wall, which is sufficient for most apartment-sized refrigerators. (They're typically about 20 inches wide.) I double-checked the width of ours, and it's actually 19 inches wide, so that leaves plenty of room for ventilation around it.

Keep in mind, these apartment-sized, household refrigerators should never be built into a cabinet with no air space around them. The condenser units have to be able to "breathe"...to allow the heat absorbed from the interior to escape to the ambient air of the room. In this case there will be space on the sides as well as the top, to allow free air flow around it...especially at the back where the compressor and cooling unit is located.

The floor of the printer cabinet, specifically inside the section where the voltage regulator for our computers will go, required custom fitting to the curvature of the front wall. It's not 100% perfect, but since all the cabinets are going to get painted anyway, it will be easy enough to apply some painter's caulking around the perimeter to really seal it up properly. We don't want little things like paper clips falling down into the cracks...not that we would ever use paper clips there. Just saying.

There may be room to add a shelf above the power regulator and still leave enough ventilation above it, but any extra shelves in any of the cabinets can be added later. For those, I will add vertical steel shelf standards with adjustable clips, so we can adjust the height of the shelves.

The floor of the power regulator cabinet.

After that project, I decided to keep going and build the other cabinet for the right-hand front corner of the trailer. I already have about 8 of the divider/end panels already cut, so it was mainly a matter of building the the face frame and the rest of the box and adding the 3/4-inch square nailers and other supports to it. Many of the face frame pieces and other stock pieces are already cut, other than to length. With the difficult work out of the way, the rest of the upper cabinets will be completed fairly quickly. I would venture to say that I can do all the rest in a day. This one only took me about an hour.

The front right cabinet.

Again, it required building a template to get the curvature and angle just right for the floor of the cabinet, but worked out well. The front of the trailer actually starts out about 9 degrees out of square with the side walls.

The cabinet for the front right-hand corner was very similar in shape, although the photo makes it look like a tighter radius. Maybe it was the angle from which I took the photo.

The floor of the front right cabinet.

Notice that I have not closed up the front vertical corners, nor the upper edges of the ceiling yet. What you are seeing is the blue rigid foam insulation that had to be cut in strips in order to bend around the corner. I have aluminum panning material that could be used to form into those corners. It will be stapled down both sides, after which some lattice trim will be installed to hide the sharp edges and cover the staples. That is what is used in most of these trailers, anyway. It will be primed and painted.

On the edges of the ceiling, inside the cabinets (in most places), I plan to use pieces of luan paneling, set at an angle, so as to provide a wiring chase down both sides of the trailer. The only places it will not be inside cabinets, is above the head of the rear bunk, inside the wardrobe closet, over the refrigerator, and above the entry door. Those covers will be removable, in case I ever need to get into them again. This is why there is an angled opening at the top rear of all these overhead cabinets. There will also be an angled chase down the right hand side of the closet wall, for access to the battery compartment. All of these will eventually be covered, after all the wiring is in place.

These front corners are the two worst places to deal with in this trailer project. The only other one will be at the top of the wall behind the rear bunk, but since I already have the template made for the ceiling at the front, it should be easier. Hopefully, there won't be much difference between the front of the trailer and the back, and there will only be the arch of the roof to contend with, as there is no curvature around the back of the trailer. Everything will be flat back there. Easy peasy.

In case anyone is wondering, the microwave cabinet and the printer cabinet are designed to be 15 inches out from the wall and 17 inches down from the ceiling at the front. Not only did those appliances need that much depth and height (especially the Lexmark printer), but it was also determined by the amount of headroom we would have above the couch seat. We will still have enough for our height that we won't bump our heads when seated at the couch. A front shelf will also be installed across the width of the trailer at a level even with the bottom of the cabinets. It will be about 8 inches deep at the middle point.

Also, on a trailer this small, we wanted to take advantage of creating storage space by any means we could. The cabinets along the right-hand side will be the standard 12 inches out from the wall, but we are making all of them 17 inches tall at the front. Originally, I was just going to build regular "boxes" and leave the tops open, for whatever we might want to put up there. What changed my mind was the strength and stability of such a design. It would have been totally dependent on the walls, with no means of securing the front of the cabinets to the ceiling. By making them full height to the ceiling, they can be secured to the ceiling/roof at the front edge of the cabinets, making them much more secure for bouncing down the road.   

I am hoping to get by with three cabinets along the rest of the upper right side wall, each about 30-inches long, but I have to get an exact measurement yet. Before I can install those, I have to take down the temporary steel pegboard that I put up for tools. It is simply hung from the top edge of the plywood with S hooks temporarily scavenged from some rubber trucker's bungies.

My temporary pegboard work station.

I also have to take down two other pegboards of that same size that are still in the garage, and then reinstall (with screws) two of them on the back of the rear bulkhead wall in the trailer, plus one along the right side wall in that storage compartment. These will hold other tools and help secure anything that would normally be laying loose in the back of the trailer. Rather than hooks, we'll use mostly spring clips and rings, so that tools won't bounce off when going down the road.

Once those are done, I still have the front couch and rear bunk to build yet, so I will be adding posts about those as they are built. I hope to have all the larger components built and installed by the first week of June...weather permitting.

The rain this year has been relentless, but we have no worries of getting flooded here. We are a good 200 feet above the Spring River, so everything drains downhill from here. We can see on the news that other areas of the country are not so lucky, and our hearts go out to those who have lost property or loved ones in the devastating floods.

Yesterday, the phone line excavating crew finally showed up to bury a permanent line to replace the one that got chopped up during our septic system installation of a year ago last winter! We have been relying on a thin, orange temporary line strung on top of the ground since then, which also got cut by our new lawn crew, and had to be replaced!

But as always, they have created new work for me. Even though they used a vibrator trencher, which requires very little backfilling, the wet ground almost got their machine stuck, and raking it back level again never seems to happen (by them), even in dry weather. I'll have to get out there with a landscaping rake and flatten it out after the mud dries up. 

Now, as far as Angel, I noticed when I let him out yesterday, that he was actually standing on his injured leg to go potty, so that means it is slowly getting better, He is putting some weight on it, although he still tends to "hop" once in a while. He isn't up to jumping up on the bed yet, and is still a little off balance, but he doesn't show any signs of pain (no yelping), and insists on trying to do things himself (like getting in and out of the vehicles) even though we try to help him.

We have another half-week of anti-inflammatory medicine to give him, but he seems to be on the mend, although it still may take another month before he is back to normal. But we are thankful for any improvement at this point.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know. If the comment form is not showing, look for the blue link for comments directly below, and the form will open.

Thanks for reading. 

Falling Angel Drama

Angel, our German Spitz.

We had quite a scare Sunday afternoon, after Sharon came home from work around 3:30. I was outside working on cabinets for the trailer, and Sharon was in the laundry room. Angel had been laying on the top of the couch, in his usual spot to see out the front windows. We heard Angel let out several cries, and Sharon came running from the laundry room to the living room, and immediately called for me to come in from outside.

We aren't sure what happened, as neither of us saw it, but we can only assume one of two things. We had an old cross-stitched afghan over the couch to protect it from Angel's claws and it had become quite frayed. There were a couple of spots where it had loops pulled in the fabric, one of which was large enough for Angel to catch his claws in, or even a foot.

The other thing that could have happened is that he might have gotten his foot caught between the couch, and the ottoman part of the love seat, which sits very near the couch at one corner. Either of these instances could have caused him to twist his leg or pull a foot.

When I got in the house, he was holding his right rear leg up close to his body, and couldn't put weight on it. We immediately feared the worst, that he might have knocked his hip out of place, and that's never a good thing for dogs...or anyone else!

We got him to lay down and we checked his back and hip, but could feel nothing wrong...but then...we aren't experts, either. We laid him on his back and felt around his leg, and he could move it and extend it without pain. In fact, we could move all parts of his leg with no signs of pain from him, so we figured he might have just strained a muscle. He just wouldn't put weight on it.

With it being Sunday, no vet around here was open, but we called on Monday, and got an appointment for him on Tuesday morning. Sharon worked all day Monday, but was off Tuesday, and since it could take both of us to carry him, open doors, etc., this worked out better for all of us.

The doctor checked him over, and we noticed that his right foot, from his ankle down, was slightly swollen, but nothing appeared to be broken. It appears that he might have strained a ligament on the top of his ankle. Think of it as the top of a human arch, just in front of the leg. They decided that they wouldn't do X-rays, but gave him some anti-inflammatory medicine to help take the swelling down.

We were greatly relieved that nothing was broken, and even more so, that Angel wasn't in constant pain, although that's hard to tell with a dog. He was obviously lethargic for the first couple of days, and didn't even want to go out to potty. When he did, he tried to lift his good leg, and it took him awhile to figure out that he needed to turn the other direction! I carried him outside and down the steps and back again so he wouldn't have to get out there on his own.

However, going #2 was another story, since he couldn't squat down on his sore leg, and couldn't balance himself. He didn't go #2 at all on Monday morning, or even Tuesday morning, and we felt bad for him, but the doctor said Angel would figure it out on his own when he had to go bad enough.

By Tuesday morning, after the vet visit, Angel seemed to be doing better, and was at least touching the ground with his right foot. After lunch, we went outside with him while I showed Sharon the progress on the trailer, and we noticed Angel finally figured out how to squat. He wasn't his usual graceful self, but he got the job done, and acted like he was feeling much better.

Since yesterday, we have noticed that he is attempting to put a little weight on his foot, so we think he will be fine, although it may take up to a month to get back to normal again.

While we were at the vet, we also got all of Angel's shots and medical needs up to date, and also put him on a heart worm and flea and tick regimen, to be taken internally once a month. With our future travels, he will need all of that. We had never worried about that stuff before, because he is inside most of the time, and when he does go out, we usually go out with him, or at least keep an eye on him.

After all, he is our "baby", and what parent does not keep an eye on their child? Having a dog around is like having a two year old, autistic child around. When you think about it, their intellect is about the same, as is their mannerisms, i.e., they hear but don't always acknowledge it, they like routine and are happy with the same food all the time, among other things. Any parent who does not watch over their child doesn't deserve to have a pet!

We also went up to the city, and spent another $15 for the city tag for him. Being with us all the time, we had never felt a need to have it before, and looked at it as more of a revenue stream for the city, but we figured as long as we were making everything else legal, we might as well do that, too, even though we will be leaving here in another 70 days or so, and probably have to renew them in our new state of residence.

Since we will be roaming all over the country, we also plan to order a custom tag for him with our web information on it, and our phone number. These days, the quickest way to get in touch with a traveler is through a web site, which is why any traveler with a pet should have at least a free blog. If they don't have a blog, then an email address is the next best thing. Some people are too tight to call a number if it isn't toll free, but they can always go to a web site or email and make (nearly) immediate contact.

So between the incessant rain that we have been tolerating, and having to care for Angel, I still managed to get a couple of the overhead cabinet frames done. Below, is the cabinet that will go immediately to the right of the microwave cabinet, This one will hold the computer printer that we currently have, and to the right of it will be the Perma Power line filter that protects all of our computer equipment. We may add another shelf above the equipment later.

The computer printer cabinet for our cargo trailer conversion.

Because this cabinet fits into the rounded front corner of the trailer, it took a little more work than just a square cabinet. No side could be used on the right-hand side of it, so other ways to secure it had to be designed into it.

The back side of the printer cabinet.

In order to find the right radius for the corner, I first cut a slightly longer piece of scrap plywood to the same depth as the shelf, for a template. I then held the edge of that against the back wall (left outside wall of the trailer), and used a simple mechanical drawing compass, set at the widest point of the difference in shape, and scribed around the front corner. After cutting that first cut, I tested the fit again, and made the final adjustment, using the belt sander, to the pattern so that it fit tight on both the side wall as well as front wall.

Notice in the photo that there is a large plywood panel across the top of the left (printer) compartment. That is 3/4-inch plywood and was made extra wide because these cabinets (the microwave cabinet, too) are 15 inches deep, rather than the standard 12 inches of most overhead cabinets. In order to secure the cabinet to the blocking that I installed down both sides of the ceiling at 12 inches out from the side wall, the wider piece was necessary to reach it.

Also, on the back of each divider wall, I attached 3/4-inch-square cleats, and also on the right-hand side, behind the face frame. There will be screws run through these into the outside wall of the trailer. Under the bottom shelf is also a piece to support the shelf, and it will also get screws through it into the outside walls of the trailer. All parts are glued, as well as having the longest staples or nails possible to put in them...and plenty of them. After all, these are going to be holding up to 30 pounds in each cabinet, and have to sustain bouncing down the road. The printer cabinet will also be secured through the side of the face frame to the microwave cabinet...so each helps to support the other.

The angled corners on the tops of the dividers are for the wiring chase that will run along both sides of the trailer. It will eventually be covered with flat pieces of paneling installed inside the cabinets and closet, and above the entry door. In fact, the one above the entry door may also provide a place for the monitor panels and switches. We'll see.

As luck would have it, I happened to have in stock some primed 3/8-inch AC plywood, that I am reserving for the bottom shelves in the cabinets. After we get on the road, I will prime and paint all the cabinets, both inside and out, but at least this will provide a nice clean shelf to start with. I didn't get a photo of the microwave cabinet, but they are both built the same way, except that I didn't need any curves on the microwave cabinet, other than at the top (for the ceiling curvature). It's basically just a rectangular box. When I get them hung, I will take a photo of them both together, in place on the wall. 

Before any of the overhead cabinets can be attached, though, I have another problem to solve. The upper wall of the front of the trailer is open at the top. My intention was to leave an accessible space up there as a wiring chase, which I still plan to use. There are connections up there for the clearance lights on the trailer, also, and as per wiring codes, no connection should ever be buried in a wall and made "non-accessible". If anything should ever fail, you have to be able to get to those connections for troubleshooting and repairs.

As a cover for the upper part of the wall, I figured on installing another piece of paneling or plywood over it...something that could be removed if a problem ever came up. Originally, I had thought of using thin luan plywood for the cover, but the truth is, I ran out of pieces large enough to do the job!

The only answer was to use a piece of the same 3/8-inch plywood that covers the walls of the trailer. But even after making a template and cutting the piece to shape, it is too stiff to push it into the curvature of the front of the trailer! Although the height of such a piece was going to be short, I decided to make it extend down to the bottoms of the cabinets on either side...otherwise it would be a pain to try to trim around it.

I am a big fan of ratchet straps. I probably have at least twenty of them in various sizes, up to 2-inch width, that I have actually used to pull a vehicle with. So, I came up with the idea to use one to create a bow effect...to bend the plywood to the approximate shape that I need for the front wall. To keep the hooks from cupping the ends, I also added a couple of braces, secured with clamps, just to keep the ends relatively straight.

The plywood cover for the top of the front wall, being "pre-bent".

Such a task could be accomplished by steaming the wood, as most curved wooden pieces are made. The problem is that I don't have a steamer, let alone one this big! So all I can do is try to "over-bend" the plywood, and leave it set for a few days to (hopefully) retain some of that curvature.

I will add some extra tension every day for awhile and test it from time to time, to see how far it remains bent, and when it becomes sufficiently bent to be able to anchor it in place, I will do so, and then it will remain that way. If I need to fish wires behind it, I have steel electrical fish tapes to poke through the insulation from either corner, hook the wiring onto it, and then pull the wires through. God forbid I should ever have to remove it completely, but it could still be done. I hope to never have to! I will make sure all the front lights work before I install it! In the meantime, I have plenty of other things to work on.

I still have to make the dividers for the bottom of the wardrobe closet to separate the battery compartment from the porta-potty, etc., and I need to start on the front couch framework, as well as the bed platform at the rear of the trailer. But I figure the cabinets and frames are about half done at this point, so it will get there in plenty of time. I'll do the drawers and cabinet doors last. I also need to free up the other two steel pegboard panels from the garage and those will be hung in the storage compartment...two on the back of the bulkhead wall and one on the right side wall.

I was hoping I had a couple more to hang on either side of the wardrobe closet, but it appears I won't have enough. I want to add pegboard there to hang things like the broom, vacuum attachments, shoe bags, and other things on. I have plenty of various hooks, and those plastic clips that keep the hooks from falling out, so I may have to buy a half sheet of regular pegboard (also cut in half) to use on each side in the closet.

We had rain again this morning until noon, and only three days of clearing before we have yet again another five days of at least 50% chance. The yard is a muddy mess again, and trying to get back and forth from the deck to the trailer just creates more mud. But I will keep at it as much as I can, in between the showers and "life" getting in my way.

As always, thank you for reading, and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Addendum 5/21/15: It has been brought to my attention twice already, that some people with Yahoo email accounts are being blocked from making comments. They get the following message back from the server:

The error that the other server returned was:
550-5.7.1 Unauthenticated email from yahoo.com is not accepted due to domain's
550-5.7.1 DMARC policy. Please contact administrator of yahoo.com domain if
550-5.7.1 this was a legitimate mail. Please visit
550-5.7.1 http://support.google.com/mail/answer/2451690 to learn about DMARC
550 5.7.1 initiative. z92si7133232qgd.1 - gsmtp

Please know that I have been trying to resolve this issue, but as it clearly states in the error message, you must resolve this with Yahoo. I find nothing in the settings on Blogger that will correct it from my end. If you have another email account, try to register with a different account. If I find any other information on this, I will update it here.