Friday, March 16, 2012

Hallie's small steps

Hello,
Im a poor blogger so far, but Im going to be better!  Most of my progress has been documented on our website, but I thought that I'll post the smaller progress stories here, and some pics of the lifestyle I've been leading in the process.

Last August I drove across the country with my truck, trailer, and materials.  In September, Dave (my sweetie) and I built a tarp tent, and parked the trailer in it.  We unloaded the materials, and by my birthday on January 6th, I put up all the walls.  In January, it was clear that in order to build the stage walls and to stabilize the structure's sheer strength, I would need some steel reinforcement.  Since then, a local steel artist and fabricator, Randy Kirk, came on board.

This is Randy in his studio, cutting the steel for me. Randy procured the steel and is sharing his expertise and skills by advising me and helping with the next steps. He is an accomplished fabricator, and is helping with the ideology, "the poor help the poor!" 





This is a 18'1" steel tube sitting on top of the SIP walls of the trailer. I have two tubes on top of the walls (one on each side), and the next step is to weld these tubes to vertical supports, to attach removable steel supports on the end of the trailer, and then .... drum roll, please....  add the hinged walls.  Of those four steps, only one is complete.  Patience is my best friend, as has been true for this entire project! Tomorrow I will secure the steel in relation to Foxy's trailer frame (vertically), and screw the steel into the outside walls. After this I will use clamps and straps to square the walls, and then Randy, Dave and I will be ready for the next step: welding the vertical and horizontal steel crossmembers to the steel wall supports.


Meanwhile, I bought a parts RV from a local RV sales lot (in February).  When Sarah and I visited an RV store in Illinois last July, the salesman said that new RVs are partially traded for parts RVs all the time. I found out that the same is true here in the Seattle area. This is a pic of me and the trailer waiting for the ferry back to Vashon.  I won't mention how much it cost for the RV to ride the ferry.  Although leaking badly in several places, the RV has everything I need....  gas range/stove, gas/AC frigde, water tank, battery charger, sink, ventilation fans, shower, outdoor shower/water hookup, doors, piano hinges, DC lights and other incidentals like water and gas and electric supplies!  We tested all these elements, and all but the charger are in working order.  (Perhaps this trailer base will become the next, the third EcoDance trailer...!)  Because I have time on my hands while waiting for the structural elements, I decided to design my kitchen in a step by step process.  So, I started transferring each appliance one at a time.








This is the range/stove. It needs to move from the RV to "Foxy", my mobile performance dwelling (Foxy is short for Foxglove, my favorite native flower that grows here in the PNW). So, I started with...
... this reclaimed mobile home stud wall (thanks to Jill Johnson) and transformed it into...
...this stove holder.  It (and the stove) will eventually be placed in...
...Foxy's kitchen/bath area.

That is my EcoDance update, as of today, Friday, March 16th.