We're Floored.

 (No, Really!)

See?

Barbara came, along with Comet the Chihuahua, and with much cursing and banging, installed the floor. It's bamboo locking floor from Lowe's, about $2.50 or so a square foot. I must say she did a very good job. In addition, she did a little more work on the benches and counter, and stained the ceiling beams which will remain exposed when the faux tin ceiling is put up.

Norm and I concentrated on the exterior paint job, which is proceeding apace. It doesn't look much different than the last photo, but we've been able to apply additional coats and the color is nice and even now. I'm really pleased with it.

One of our major successes this week was finding just the right kind of beadboard wainscot paneling for the walls. You'd think it would have been easy to obtain this, but the stuff at Lowe's and HD was just...not good. They had stuff that was thin and cut with two repeating grooves, and looked cheesy to my eye. What I wanted was the real deal, the thicker stuff with the bead actually rounded. And I wanted it in either a light stain, or plain wood. This proved surprisingly difficult to find. Norm the ever-resourceful, called just about every lumberyard in the area and finally found a place that said they had it. But did they? Norm wanted to be sure it was the right stuff, so early Saturday morning we took a trip.

The stuff is PERFECT. Unstained, just thick enough, with a nice rounded bead. We'll slap a coat of Minwax PolyShades Honey Pine on it, and it will be just right.

This week should see a bump in progress, as Lars the Renaissance Man is due to commit a blitz-build. I can't wait to see what's waiting for me when I get home from work.

Norm got into the habit of calling the vardo 'Brigitte Vardo'. One of his co-workers at the park decided to make a sign for her. I don't have the heart to tell him he misspelled it, so she's 'Bridgette' from now until forever.

I'll leave you with a photo of my newest decorative acquisition. Sun faces! $25 at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Not sure where' they'll go yet, but I'll find a place for them.

It's Been Awhile..

But, we're back!

After a few years of no progress, we've finally picked up the hammer and brush and are determined to finally finish this project. We had a fairly rough few years, which included the passing away of Norm's dad, and three (count 'em three) deaths in my family/friend circle. Add to that a change of jobs and the result was stagnation on the vardo-building front.


On the plus side, the new job is much better compensated than the old one. This gives Jen more money to spend on vardo-related stuff. So, round about February we met with Lars, our wonderful renaissance man to discuss PLANS. And now PLANS are becoming ACTION!

A Colorful Harlot She Is...

So we had originally planned to stain and seal the vardo and keep the natural wood color. This was a good idea in theory, but did not pan out well in practice. We had several years of excessive rain and the mildew got a foothold. A REALLY GOOD FOOTHOLD. So I made the decision to strip her down and paint her with this stuff: Valspar Reserve Exterior Paint. It costs quite a bit (about $50/gallon) but should keep us from having quite the same problems as before. (I hope). In any case, if over the years she gets grimy again, we can just re-paint her. I chose 'Brown Berry' and 'Indigo' colors, and the decorative trimwork will be in a metallic copper. (The copper paint isn't an exterior, so I'll have to clear-coat that.)

We're about half done with the paintjob, here's a peek:

Interior: Moar Progress!!!

So Lars has returned with help from the way-cool Barbara. Together, these two can build just about anything, I'm convinced. Lars is a renaissance man in every sense of the word, (he built large chunks of the NY Renaissance Fair, plus, he's also a metalsmith, photographer AND works in film (I really believe he does just about everything, from lighting to camerawork to stage combat to camerawork to voiceover.)

In any case, here's what they accomplished in an afternoon:

Woo! 

In addition to all this, Jen went shopping. I bought all kinds of things, including bamboo flooring, faux tin ceiling tiles, lanterns that we're going to wire with led's that will run off of a 12v system, a solar panel to charge the battery, a housing and exhaust vent for the battery, marine 12v outlets, plugs, and baskets for the shelving. Whew!

I'll post more pics as we use these items. We're on our way!