Blather

Here's what the aft end of Last Resort looks like. That's a folding chair just below the open window. The bed is to the left, the small TV is just visible on a makeshift ledge on the right. That's a very nice tapestry I brought back from Kyrgyzstan, thick wool, embroidered with folk designs from a very different part of the world.

With the camo pad gone, you can see the painted headboard with modified steel frame. The wall behind is about 38" wide; headboard is 39." Note the gap between headboard and wall- the bottom of the headboard is touching the wall. Storage tubs slide under the frame with about an inch and a half clearance. Allow for the thickness of the mattress and you still have a good height for a bed.

Here's the curved corner. Visible are five angles that make the curve. Also visible is the obviously modified spring arrangement. The walls slope, though the amount of slope may not be obvious- at the foot, it's about four inches from the floor to the edge of the bed.

Home sweet home. Not a huge bed, but comfy and very cozy. I've got to get some better linen than these pink monstrosities, but it works. I tried it out and it's very easy to fall asleep there. Not visible is the small TV right behind me as I take this pic.

This is the $30 king headboard I started with. An ugly greenish oak color with a few dings, but the alternative- a 30" Home Depot kitchen counter didn't look as good and cost three times as much. Not counting the legs, this is 20" from top to bottom.

Below is the headboard with some sanding and staining. The astute reader will note that the legs are missing. I really like my Japanese saw- it cuts a very straight line, allowing even a so-so craftsman like moi to cut a straight line with a hand saw. Varathane stain and two coats of the boat resin make this tatty headboard into a good-looking shelf/desk/workspace.

Here's a shot of the finished shelf. It's supported on the right by that small built-in cabinet and a scrap of maple from the white headboard. The white stripe at the edge is a reflection of the sky from the window.

Here's the aft end of the workspace/shelf/desk. Note the top end of the leg is inverted and supports the shelf. Oops! On the floor is the scrap piece of two by two that I used as a template for the leg. Disregard that.

See that dark square in the window screen above the outlet? That's my pike opening.

My trailer has a name.

When I got him, I was afraid that my then-wife’s financial choices would lead me to live my reluctant retirement under an overpass with a shopping cart full of aluminum cans. Because I like double entendres, I named him “Last Resort.” The “resort” part was because I want him to be a comfortable place to live, both for short periods of aluminum-twinkie style camping and for extended periods of residence in some distant place. The “last” part is because when I am forced to leave my home, I’ll have something suitable to live in, as in, “That old Airstream Sovereign is my last resort when it comes to housing.”

A few weeks ago, after taking him on a long weekend to the School of the Renaissance Soldier, I decided I didn’t like the 20-year-old, stained and matted rug. So I began by pulling the rug out. Then I thought the double bed should go, too, since I plan to travel solo. So the bed came out. Then the two built-in tables in the front had to go as did the built-in hide-a-bed couch. I was left with ugly plywood floors, naked except for a gazillion rug staples and a few bits of caulking that the factory's assembly line didn't clean up. Last to go was the rug in the bathroom. I’m not sure who thought that a telephone-booth-sized bathroom needed a carpet, but it was there, so it came out, too, smelling old and musty.

How to replace the carpet? I considered more carpeting, but thought it would end up like what I took out. I didn't want to drive around with a carpet full of what fell off my shoes. My son’s girlfriend recommended stick-on vinyl tile (cheap and easy to apply) and several RV forums on the net said this was a good choice. Home Depot had good tile, but I was afraid of the glue letting go, then little bits of dirt getting in the cracks.

I was looking for something durable and attractive. A trip to TAP Plastics in San Leandro (just north of Hayward) showed me some examples of boat resin that I liked. People use this resin with fiberglass cloth to make boats. And since boats kinda have to remain waterproof, I figured the material was pretty good. (I’ve never heard of anyone making a boat out of stick-on vinyl tiles.) I returned from my first trip with some bondo and resin and two-inch fiberglass tape. I filled the obvious holes with bondo, then I used the fiberglass tape and resin to ensure the plywood wouldn’t create visible seams- Last Resort now has a completely seamless floor. After another trip to TAP, I applied the first coat of opaque resin. That looked very good. The second coat got sprinkled with color chips from Orchard Supply Hardware’s garage paint. Sanding the chips that stuck up, I put a third clear-coat on, putting extra thickness right inside the door and in front of the sink. When it cured, the floor, including the bathroom, looked great! I’ve been going in and out for a couple of weeks and all I need to do is broom the floor and it’s clean.

But taking out the bed left a functional void- I needed a bed. I tried putting the twin bed I slept in as a child in there. (The bed is something I took from my mom’s house when she died a couple of years ago.) Little did I suspect, but inches are important in an RV where they don’t matter so much in a house. The double mattress I took out was only 73” long and my twin bed is 80.” My old H. C. Capwell's maple twin bed wouldn't fit. This perplexed me a bit.

Another factor that I couldn’t avoid was the aeronautic shape of my old Airstream. The walls taper inward, making the floor footprint a wee bit smaller than the mid-point of the walls, as if the designers were airplane builders. Well, they are, so that explains the curvature of the Airstream. And this brings me to my next consideration- the curve of bedroom corner. Yep, the corner of the bedroom isn’t square; it’s rounded. So what to do about a bed? How to make it fit the curved bulkhead?

I wanted the bed to be along the side wall at the back of the trailer. I thought of making a plywood box, putting a foam mattress on a hinged top, then cutting the foam to fit the curve. But I didn’t like the notion of sleeping on a plywood box because it could be a bit too firm. Lifting the mattress to access storage would require three hands. Sleeping on the couch in front showed me how comfortable a bedspring support, covered with some foam, could be.

Last Tuesday, I took myself out and bought a metal twin-bed frame. We’re all familiar with this- made from ugly brown, painted angle-iron, with holes punched for springs, looking like a a reject from the Army’s basic training barracks. I took some of the springs off and traced the cardboard template curve onto the metal. I acetylene-torched a series of narrow “Vee” cuts into the top part, and then heated the vertical part so the right-angle corners became a curve. The results are pretty good- the five angles correspond to the curve of the trailer wall plus or minus an inch all along the corner. Getting focused on my work, I forgot to eat lunch but I drank three or four bottles of water. Skipping lunch earned me some chiding from my big son and his girlfriend. I made up for lunch by eating a lot for dinner.

Wednesday saw me pick up a garage-sale queen headboard. I cut it down to 39,” reinforced the cuts with strips of wood glued and screwed to the back of the headboard and filled the evidence of my faulty workmanship with more bondo. I put the first coat of paint on the headboard and two more coats of paint on the frame. I cut the extensions off the frame (where it bolts to the headboard and footboard from the factory) and welded them below the frame. This shortened the frame about four inches, making the length just about perfect for the space I wanted. The frame has to be about three inches shy of the back wall because that back wall tapers in, making the floor footprint smaller. I put on the first coat of Rustoleum enamel. Now the length is perfect, even with the three-inch-thick headboard.

Thursday was the day I second-coated the frame, measured and drilled holes for the frame into the headboard and footboard, carried the freshly-painted headboard and footboard and the much-modified frame into the trailer and assembled them. Then I took a few photos and watched TV as I lay on the bed. Woo hooo!! Broadcast TV has over a dozen channels.

On Friday, I went to Home Depot to look at kitchen counter tops because I thought that a Formica top would make a good work surface. After a bad case of sticker shock, I decided I didn't want 30" of counter sticking into my small bedroom. The backsplash was also something I didn't need. And they didn't even carry any faux-wood formica. I wanted something that looked like wood because I like wood. So I chose a used king headboard. This remnant of 70's-era furniture styling was a bit dark, even fading to murky green with age, but the piece was was 75" of solid wood with a 3" ledge. I cut the legs off, using Lee Valley Hardware's Japanese hand saw. Then I sanded the surface with my belt sander. Good job I had some very coarse belts that made short work of age and grime. Varathane stain made the color warm, improving the feeling you get from wood. Since I like the floor's shine and durability, I covered the surface with two coats of boat resin. My shelf/desk/work surface is now very durable and glossy with a very nice warm wood color. I recycled one leg into a support for one end and used some left-over maple from the bed headboard as support brackets.

Another of my on-the-road goals was to carry my pike with me. For the Sacramento SRS event, I unscrewed the back window screen and slid the 16 feet of steel-tipped ash through the window and let it sit on the floor. But that meant I couldn't open the window because bugs would come in with no screen. I put some new screen material on the tired screen and made two squares of leather (visible in the photo above) and sewed Velcro to the leather. With a lot of trepidation, I cut a hole in my new screen material and attached the two pieces of leather through the hole. Now I have something that comes off, lets me slide my pike through, and closes up with just some Velcro. This sounds like a minor thing, but it's really a good thing for me: I can take my pike and not worry about bugs.

Now I’ve got pretty much what I want- a good floor, a multi-purpose desk/shelf and a single bed along the wall, comfy and cozy. Oh, I may yet get that European Sleepworks mattress and cut a corner off to fit, but for now I’m happy with the camping pad on top of the springs. And plenty of pull-out storage in those tubs. Yes, I have more things to do- get new curtains and refinish the shower but I’ve gotten past some big humps- the floor, the shelf/work surface and the bed.

Yep, Last Resort keeps getting better and better.