March 29-30, 2009

It is spring break so we are trying to get as much done as we can in the short week off that we have. Our lease is up on May 31st so we need to really start cracking down and getting the trailer livable in two months' worth of weekends. On this trip we got the LP lines riveted to the underbelly. It is very secure and strong, despite using aluminum rivets rather than the steel ones which broke two of our riveters.

We also tore up most of the floor and removed the old insulation. Some of the screws did not come out so we had to drill them out using two 1/4" bits. After getting up some small hidden screws that were holding two sheets of plywood together the floor could be taken up, and the insulation removed. There have been two mouse nests so far, but they were old, so we will be putting screens on all of our vents and openings to avoid that in the future.
We found that there is a gap between the top and bottom parts of the shell where water is coming in and settling on the inside of the underbelly. The fiberglass insulation and mouse poop were soaking all of this up and making a huge mess. We are going to remove the strip of metal that is holding these two pieces together and maybe caulk it to prevent this.
The insulation that we are thinking about using now is a new technology that is called Aerogel and is the best on the market right now. It will probably cost us about $1,500 to insulate the whole trailer, but will definitely be worth it. The material is mostly air with some silica, and was used in space technology before recently being available for commercial use.

We finally decided how we are going to position the bed so we do not have to move the shore water and power reels, which are sticking up out of the floor about a foot. Also, the layout gives us more room for a bigger shower and wardrobe!
From here we are going to start the plumbing for the shower and re-doing the ABS for the bathroom and kitchen areas.

List of progress

• Installed new propane lines
• Started fixing outside step
• Tore up three of five sections of the floor
• Removed old fiberglass insulation

Tools and Supplies

• Allen wrench
• Hack saw
• Tape measure
• Heavy duty riveting tool & rivets (to secure LP pipes to belly of trailer)
• U brackets
• Toolbox
• Charged electric drill and 1/4" drill bits
• Dust masks
• Safety glasses
• Skill saw
• Shop vac
• Rubber gloves
• Keys

We had to remove the toilet in order to get the floor up
We labeled where we need to cut the floor with masking tape and a sharpie

We had to use the hack saw to cut some of the ABS to get the first section up

The Skill saw worked perfectly to cut the 3/4 in plywood floorCarolyn cleaning out the old fiberglass insulation from under the floor

The second section we removed had a huge mouse nest!

We found out why the trailer smelled like rodents.

See how long the screws in the floor are!? They are barbed at the end.

A little hole where mice burrowed. How cute.Three sections of the floor are gone

Cleaning up with the shop vac afterwards
When we finally came inside it started to snow
Throughout the night we got a few inches on our new home