Since the side wall has been open for awhile, one of the landlord's roving hens has made a rather itchy nest in my pile of insulation. I've gathered a half dozen eggs from here in the course of my labors so far! When I close up the sides for good I'll have to find her another space.
The skin is back on, and I'm piecing together the area around the replacement window. You can see it is a bit narrower and taller than the original, which was identical to the one to the right of it. In order to keep the tin pattern the same I chose to re-use the piece cut from the bottom part of the opening and make shingles of it to go up the side. There was just enough.
Here is what that looks like. I suppose it was a toss up whether that is any better than adding a solid piece of flat metal, I had one I could have used. After painting perhaps it won't be too noticeable. However, I could always add fake shutters on the sides if it bothers me later.
The replacement window is installed. Looks pretty good, actually. Fortunately, the panes are enough of a match to visually match the lines of the other window, so it almost looks like it belongs there.
Here is the door re-hung. Should I be honest and admit I had problems with this step? Somehow in the framing process the right side of the door jamb shifted a bit and the hole was slightly too narrow at the bottom to accept the door. I had to cut some things loose, as well as the siding, and shift things back a bit to get the door back in.
On second thought, I won't admit it, don't tell anyone, okay?
All that is left to do with this part in this pic is to add a trim piece over the door and along the bottom to cover the new outside floor joist. Some caulking will also be done before painting.
Remember this? this was the same area when I started. No more eggs in here for a while, anyway.
The next part of the project will be to tackle this bad corner. The dark strip to the right is a strip of pegboard, there is a second one above it. These will be handy, but I'll have to remove them temporarily. All the wall framing is rotten in this corner. It'll be an interesting fix.
The end window to the right will be replaced as well with another of those taller windows. It's broken, and will have to be re-framed anyway, like the previous one was. The side window on the left of this picture is a good one, but some of the framing for it needs work. I'll know when I get the paneling pulled off. I'm hoping I don't have to remove this part of the skin. The end wall is already coming off. No doubt the hen will move back in when I open it up!
Eggs are good!
Back to work! I've already had word that I'm losing one of my storage spaces soon, so the pressure is on!
We've had some really nice weather for working on my office trailer project. We definitely need rain badly, but it would not necessarily be a good thing while the wall of the trailer is wide open. However, I could put up with some.
Anyway, I've been moving right along.
Shown is the front end of the trailer. (Front being where the hitch is.) This end will most likely wind up being more for storage eventually. It may look as messy as before, but actually it has been cleaned up. What you're seeing is my scavenged building material ready to use in re-building. The end window was really not fixable. I have to totally re-frame the area around one window on the wall to our right, so I re-located that good window to the end. The (also scavenged) extra windows I have are of a different size. Since I'm re-framing anyway, I will frame it to accept the different size window. I'll have to finagle the exterior skin some, but that will be minor.
Another exterior shot of demolition. Rotted wood and bad paneling are piled on the ground outside. Here you can see where the door was removed.
I replaced the outside floor joist 2x6 along with some judicious splicing. Here it is already attached.
An outside shot of the new floor joist 2x6. This acts as floor frame and also supports the wall. There are metal braces below that attach it to the steel trailer frame.
Here is some of the new floor framing. 2x4 cross pieces were cut and inserted at about two foot spacing. The old flooring was cut even with the next existing 2x6 floor joist. A new 2x4 was added as a cleat against the existing joist to give something to attach the new strip of plywood to. In the upper right corner you can see one of the new floor pieces. I suspect you give up a bit of strength doing this. The floor was originally one sheet of plywood continuous across the width. That continuous piece gives it a membrane effect. To replace the whole floor would involve rebuilding the entire trailer from ground up. I don't have time, energy, or money for that. This will have to do.
New wall framing in place. To be consistent with the existing style of framing, a 1x2 runner was added along the top of the floor edge and new 2x2 verticals added to duplicate the original locations. One vertical stud had to be slightly relocated to accept the replacement window that, again, is of a different size.
Verticals are notched on the outside to accept the horizontal 1x3's as well as the existing wiring. The skin will attach to the horizontals, while the inside paneling attaches to the vertical studs.
All the new framing for this wall is done. We're ready to screw the skin back on, insert the window, do insulation and inside paneling.
I'm not sure how feasible this project would be without having all the scavenged lumber available. So far we've only been out the moving fee for the trailer. All the lumber has come from scrap piles at other vendor's booths out at the Sherwood Forest site. The windows, paneling, and other material came inside this free trailer or the portable office building we were given that we now use as woodworking shop. (See previous post.)
More to follow soon!
