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!