Day Twenty

Oh boy.

Here's the thing.  If I'd started with any real carpentry skills, most of this would have gone much faster. As it is, though,  my carpentry skills were rudimentary, at best.  If the good soul that is Jim had not come earlier this week to give me Molding 101, I would still be outside destroying 1/4 round.  God bless him.  Be that as it may, I went through LOTS more than was necessary and got more than a little frustrated in the bargain.  

BUT!  There is progress to show.  We have molding!  We also have more than a little caulk.  Jim told me an old saying that essentially means that caulk and (was it paint?) makes me the carpenter I ain't.  My buddy, G said the same thing (only a little differently, I think), but the fact is, it is TRUE!  Molding was a real struggle for me.  I'll get all of it painted in the morning and you'll never even know!

I also took off the lighting fixtures, went over them with first coarse, then fine steel wool, primed and sprayed them with a nickel finish.  Obviously I have not yet removed the tape and paper.  I fear that removing the tape is going to remove the original stripes.  If that happens, I'll go over them with the deglosser and remove the lines entirely.  I kinda hate to do that, but I'm not sure that the product used to put on the stripes can withstand the Frog tape + 40 years of wear and tear.

Let's see.  What else.  Oh!  More molding.  Quarter round in the corners and 1/2 round across the center.  Just LOOK at the dirty fingers marks on that pristine paint!!  Arg.  Oh well.  I still have the window molding to put on, so I figure I'll get all of that on, then devote a day to touch up.  

Pfffffff!!!!  Who'm I kidding!  I don't have a day to devote to touch up.  My first camping trip is less than two weeks off.  God help me!

Oh yeah!  I got the bunk back in.  Jiminy H. Crickets!!  What a chore that was.  AND, to add insult to injury, I completely wrecked the laminate that I'd just glued back in place.

OK.  Repeat after me....in through the nose, out through the mouth...no one will notice. Repeat until you believe it.

I, uh, kinda wrecked the paint job in any number of places getting the bunk back in, but it went well, all in all.

A couple of scrapes.  A couple of dings.  I can fix that.  I'll weep now.....patch later.

Remember the long bench on the starboard side?  Here it is all primed, with one coat of finish paint.  I'm hoping to get that in tomorrow.  Well, the fact is,  I'm hoping to get it in, get the top on, put tops on both of the dinette benches, do all of the touch-up painting and paint the cabinet and drawer handles.  Hey!  It could happen!!!!

I had to call it a day because a "big storm" was rolling in.  It was terribly impressive for about 5 minutes, then bupkiss!!!!  Oh well.

Tomorrow is another day!