Delivery Day - Thursday (yesterday).
Before breakfast, I went out to the camper and quickly finished the eye-bolt locks - this time for the front cafe-style dinette bench seat.
Street side.
Curbside.
That should keep it from sliding. Big eye-bolts? Not on a trailer called Princess. I think the name Tow-Mater has well fit the build style all along. Not the choices we might have made for a camper under different circumstances, but a day doesn't go by, that we don't feel the name and build style choice was EXACTLY right - in this case. ;)
But we have work to do. Those curtains ain't gonna hang themselves. I called DD to see what time they wanted us to drop by with Tow-Mater.
She said, "we don't need it until Friday or Saturday". Huh?
She said, "yeah, I told you that in my text". Huh?
I looked at my old texts. Sure enough - she was right, camping isn't until NEXT weekend. They only wanted it THIS weekend, if possible, for packing and loading and for familiarization, THE WEEKEND BEFORE their camping trip! (Their work weeks are extremely full).
Oh!
I guess I had got it in my head to deliver Thursday, to pack and load for Friday after work. But cool! We have more time.
Hmmmm, that sheds a whole new light on the curtains; maybe I don't have to get them all done today after all? They're a special install! I was having trouble getting my head into them. And DW said, "you know, we can get the curtains after the weekend. What they might like better than full curtains right now is one or two curtains, and instead, concentrate on getting the lights finished.
Today - 120 Volt Circuit, Lighting and an Outlet.
There are no 12 Volt lights - yet. No battery - yet. That's why I haven't installed the propane detector alarm, which came two days ago. Nothing to hook it up to. 12 Volt will just have to wait. People have been camping without 12 Volt for ages! But the ceiling lights (main room, and galley cabinet) are finishing statements - like the camper. No - the kids have no idea we have gone to this "past week plus" extent!
Yeah - lights. I could get into that! Curtains can wait!
Here is the light choice, and the ceiling medallions to cover up the black water stains on the wood paneling.
LED 120 Volt ceiling lights. Clips that snap into a ceiling box.
Here's our target area.
The inner circle is the inside diameter of the medallion, placed to cover marks.
The outer circle is the cut out for the ceiling box.
Here we are cut out.
Partial installation in the cabinet.
And completed. Power comes from the base cabinet and exterior 15 Amp extension cord connection inlet, up to the circuit breaker box in the foreground. That came out of Lil' Queeny originally.
Both breaker knock outs have been removed, but we have no main, and just one 15 Amp circuit. So the 20 Amp breaker installed is simply a place holder and not connected. But we have ability to install a second circuit, if and when needed, just with this box. It's not likely. I'd just as soon keep only one minimal circuit on a 15 Amp connection. I may finagle this and make a 20 amp Main, with a 15 amp single circuit. One way or another I still need to mark the breakers.
From the box (above) power goes to the far outlet box for GFCI outlet, bringing GFCI to the entire circuit thereafter. From that outlet, it comes back to the foreground for power to the light switch box. Everything downstream from there is "switched power", and goes to the two lights.
The cabinet light is mounted to the above seen box in the middle. And above it, to the ceiling mounted junction box, connecting to the cables I ran in the roof to the center ceiling light.
Those are seen from the other direction here.
Yes these are big, and take away space in an already small storage cabinet. But the cables and boxes also act as dividers placed intentionally between cabinet doors (where possible) to keep stored items from shifting, or falling over. Packing management.
$20 bucks apiece. The kids (their generation in fact) seem to love LED! DW and I are more of incandescent type people. Why? Because the LED tones always left us feeling cold. Perceptions? Maybe. Early technology? Likely. These lights - and their warm color tone - really surprised us. You'll see.
Cabinet.
Ceiling.
Note a small slice of ceiling fade mark still on the wood. I had to accept that, in order to gain good roof rib mounting for the mounting plate screws.
And both.
And check this out. I vacuumed using the on-board power!
And lighted? Let's display the lights turned on, and give you some interior camper views before we move forward with curtains another day. Enjoy the tour.
Note in this next one, the switch box compared to the GFCI outlet. Now do you see why I had to go with Decora? Decora is the light switch style - flat rocker switch.
The rest of the day was spent on the first curtain install. These are custom curtain install techniques and materials. So that report is coming later. But now you'll see the first curtain in the photos.
Before bedtime, DW and I stepped outside to see the lighting at night. You'll like this. :) DW's Route 66 theme. Doesn't it go well?
Now if you had taken possession of your first camper, and planned to "driveway camp" the weekend before the actual camping trip, wouldn't YOU want to hook up an extension cord and have lights over curtains? Yeah baby!
So curtains are important, maybe today's work, or over the next week, but more important right now, is completing the "staging".
The kids come by in the morning (Saturday) to pick up the trailer. They are not aware of the work we've done the past week or so. They only know we have tried to get some finishing work before their trip, including possibly, poly on the walls. :)
They are going to be blown away! Which is just the way we like it. So today we stage, and get ready for the morning reveal. You'll see it in the morning before the kids do! Front row seat. ;)
New countdown to camping - 6 days. Probably Monday morning, I'll go back and pick up the trailer from them, and we'll finish the last items before next Thursday's delivery.
