My Quilt Palace - Progress Report

Trip to Quilt Heaven:

First, I wanted to share a few photos from my wonderful trip to the divine town of Hamilton in Missouri, a place that eats, lives, and breathes quilting. I will write about this trip with more details soon but meanwhile:

Wonderful quilt art outside of Missouri Star Quilt Co. 

The main quilting establishment in Hamilton MO

Update on my Quilt Palace:

New Window:

Here where you see the small window, there used to be a vent for an old, non-functioning mini-fridge inside. Now, as can be seen, I now have a lovely window!

 

Before & after

As can be seen, the original hole was not quite the right size for the window, but it was surprisingly simple to enlarge the hole and insert the window purchased at a local trailer shop. The metal was easy to cut, especially since the new insulation and wall coverings had not been attached yet.

The fridge was removed at the very beginning, during the demo part of the project, when we removed everything and left only the outer shell of the trailer. The fridge was surprisingly difficult to remove, but the area cleared was well worth the effort.

Hubby cutting the space for new window

 The Walls

The following photos show the great progress we have made inserting the new wall material, which we purchased at a local building supply company for an unbelievably good price. It's always great fun to support the local economy when working on projects, and even though we purchased a fair number of our materials at Home Depot and such, we also got this great wall material from down the road.

As can be seen, the process is fairly straightforward. 

We measured the space inside and then cut the wood pieces accordingly. Particularly challenging was the cutting of rounded corners, but we managed well enough.

Before walls went in, however, we had attached the insulation material, We chose Styrofoam insulation, which was a great deal, in price and ease of installation; also, there was no danger of inhaling that dangerous fiberglass powder that regular insulation has. (Additional photos can be found further down.)

This part of the process alone took a good many days, since we had to measure and cut each piece to fit in between the studs. If I've learned anything through this process, it is PATIENCE. One cannot speed up the process nor use shortcuts, lest we pay the price later. I am grateful for the opportunity to expand my skill set into home construction as well, ha ha ha!

Insulation was later covered with paper so as to smooth out the surfaces and prepare for installation of the wall covering material.

Math calculations

Some of the cuts required a bit more planning than just straight measuring, and my husband's math skills came to the rescue, as can be seen in the photo.

We found a really great material for the ceiling. It was not your usual ceiling material, but it proved to be the best alternative, since it proved to be quite reasonably priced, as well as pliable enough to accommodate the curves that we had to deal with. It was also light weight, which was also an important requirement.

We attached the wood paneling with simple screws and decorative florets, as can be seen above, with plans to add basic molding over the ugly space between laminate sheets. Since we're doing things as simply, cheaply yet as elegantly as possible, this allows us to build up the inside of the space with the least amount of time, materials, and expenditure. I also want to maintain the character of a vintage trailer as much as possible.

Walls are in

Ceiling is in

construction in progress

fitting material around windows and such

Husband hard at work

cutting wall coverings

more cutting

piecing together

piecing around a crevice

covering unprotected insulation

curves ahead!

insulation is covered

finishing up the insulation job

insulation going up

Solar Lamp

In addition, I wanted to share these images of this groovy solar-paneled nightlight we installed. For a very affordable price, I now have a light which allows me to enter and exit at will, even when the sun is gone.

 This great little light is off during the day, but on at night. Not only does it allow me easy access at night, but it can serve as a safety feature as well. It is also rather cute.

SO that's all for now! As can be seen, a lot of work has been completed, but a lot more still to do. 

Still, the end result will be more than worth it. And the best part: even if we were to leave this house, we could take the little fellow with us, so all the effort would never have been for naught.

More later! Thanks for following this adventure.