Isn't it aDOORable?

Yup that's right we now have some doors on our camper.  Well 2.5 to be exact.  The  ultimate goal is to have four but man are they time consuming to build.  Every time I pick up my tools and start working on this project I think why oh why did I decide to insulate this thing.  The decision to insulate meant the walls and doors need to be framed out with 1x wood and then skinned on either side with 1/4" luan plywood with 3/4" thick insulation filling the spaces in between.  Had I opted not to insulate, the walls and doors would have been cut from 3/4" plywood shaped up a bit and installed.  Yeah...that would have been a lot easier.  Oh well hopefully come next November when the mercury dips below freezing we'll be happy we've got a bit of extra protection from the harsh weather outside.

 The use of regular residential door hardware also added a bit more work but saved some money over other alternatives and allowed us to have both doors and the deadbolts on the bike garage all keyed alike.  

The doors had to be reinforced in order to work correctly with the standard hardware.  

 And the trim was added around the outside to provide a location to install weather sealing.  I also think it gives the doors a nice finished look.  

This weekend hopefully I can wrap up the bike doors, do a preliminary install of the rear hatch to check for fit and operation then start focusing on utilities.  All the while Jess should be able to start focusing on getting some painting done on the inside.  Last weekend she did a wonderful job of bondoing all the screw holes both inside and out which unfortunately was a very long and boring project.  Time to get busy.  

We're Building a House!!!

You read right, we're building a house.  Attached two bike garage, master bedroom, kitchen, wheels, the works...   The new "house" will be our home on wheels following us around wherever we go.

The design of our new house is inspired by the original teardrop camper designs developed back in the 1930's. The basic concept is a fairly small, compact, (somewhat) aerodynamic travel trailer that can be towed by just about any vehicle.  I choose to design around a harbor freight 4x8 utility trailer and integrate sleeping quarters, a storage area for our two mountain bikes, and a galley area accessibly from the rear.  The design evolved over a month or so with a lot of the basic design influence coming form the Teardrops and Tiny Travel Trailers forum (tnttt.com).  I started a thread over at tnttt that goes into lots more details of the design and includes some of the evolution it went through if you want to check it out.

The finalized design looks something like this:

The front compartment gives us enough room to store our two bikes with the front wheels removed as well as some of our other inevitable dirty and smelly outdoor gear.  The central area is the cabin which is accessible from both sides and will have a 6" memory foam mattress, 12v led lighting, large windows, and a ceiling vent fan for ventilation and of course a radio and some storage space to make life in the little box a bit more comfortable.  At the rear is the galley which is accessible through a flip up rear hatch.  The galley has cabinet space to store all the necessary cooking and eating supplies, the camp stove with a built in propane connection, 12v led lighting and a flip up counter for some additional work space. The galley will also be home to a 10 gallon water tank with a counter mounted hand pump and the battery and electrical components.  All in all pretty much everything we need to keep ourselves and our bikes warm, dry, and well fed on the road.  

We'll be towing our new home behind my '06 awd Toyota Matrix and are hoping to achieve fuel economy ratings in the mid 20's.  My estimated total build weight is in the range of 800-1000 pounds and the design attempts to keep the camper drafting the car as much as possible to reduce drag.  I've got my fingers crossed that she'll tow well.  

Construction is currently in process with a huge boost coming last weekend with the help of my dad and all his tools.  We are hoping to have everything wrapped up by sometime in June so we can take the new rig on a trial run to shake things down before we set off for real.  

Here's a few pictures of the ongoing construction: 

Assembling and modifying the trailer frame.  The axle was moved back and mounted lower to work with my design.  Shocks were also added to smooth out the ride.  

 

Then the floor went on

Followed by laying out and cutting the wall skins: 

Then the walls got assembled as complete panels laying down.  Jess did an excellent job running the glue gun: 

Next the walls went up and were screwed to the floor subframe and temporarily held in place: 

Then my dad showed up and a lot happened in short order without much progress pictures taken

Here's the nearly finished kitchen area

And the inside of the cabin with the terrible to build wheel wells 

And the roof skin shortly after we put it on.  1/4" plywood does not like to bend around that tight of a bend 

Then we built the rear hatch with it nailed in place on the trailer to make it easier to work on 

The moment of truth... Do the bikes actually fit in the space I designed for them...They Do..Wooohoo 

And time to put her back into the barn after a solid weekend of work before the rain starts 

Overall progress is going well and it's really exciting to see things starting to take shape.  I'll make sure to update with more pictures as things progress further.  

Why?

"Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows." ~Pope Paul VI

I started trying to think about how to start this blog and really the biggest question on our minds and I know many of our friends and families minds is why?  We've got so much now, a nice little house, good jobs, new cars, we're living the "American Dream."  Why throw it all away?  I feel kinda like a jerk saying this but "because we can".  

Jess and I have been married for coming on three years now, so much of those three years has been full of wonderful and joyful experiences but as in every relationship we began to increasingly face some struggles. A few months ago things kinda came to a head and we finally got the courage to really open up and share our inner struggles with each other.  We realized that we felt resentment for feeling like we were trapped and were being kept from our dreams.  We had done it all right, went to school, got married, settled down, but it wasn't satisfying us.  What we realized was that we weren't ready to settle down.  We felt we had missed out on our twenties, we had both dreamed of traveling, spending some time out west, working seasonal jobs, getting to bike, hike, ski and enjoy this great country in so many different ways.  We had both had this dream hidden inside us but felt like somehow now that we were together we could never pursue it.  

So we took a step back and evaluated everything.  We looked at our finances, we looked at where we were in life and realized, what were we thinking?  Of course we can live our dreams, marriage shouldn't feel like a trap keeping you from your dreams, it should be a way to more fully pursue them.  We didn't want to separate in order to follow our dreams.  We wanted to walk down that road hand in hand as best friends and lovers and have the opportunity to share these magnificent experiences with each other.  

Now this isn't to say that we don't want a house, a good job, and children some day.  We both agree that we want that but we're just not ready for it yet.  The dreams we have now are to travel, be a little crazy, and really enjoy this time we have to explore before life get's too complicated to do so.  As in the quote I started this post with "Whatever you want to do, do it now!", that's precisely what we are doing.  Doing it now "because we can," before life get's away with us and we can only look back and say I wish I would have done that when I had the chance.  

I'm sure this road won't be all rainbows and butterflies (though hopefully we'll see lots of both) and I know there are some sacrifices we are making along the way but I am so excited for what life is going to bring as I pursue my dreams with my beautiful wife by my side.