Primer & a turning point

Only a few hours put in this weekend. We sanded down all the bumps from the drips from last week's priming attempts. The paint was actually pretty thin, so the texture wasn't as bad as it looked and I was less mad at myself. Still, Peter did the rest of the painting because, well, he deserved a turn. 

We finished priming and also put a second coat on there. We also towed the Silverado out of the way so we could hitch the trailer to the F-150 and take it on a jaunt around the yard. Very cool to see it moving! Wheels, tires, axles, and shocks all seem to be functioning properly. We asked Will to bail us out with wiring the brakes and the tail lights, and we are thinking about towing it to a friend's house so it's a little closer for purposes of working on it through the winter. 

The ceiling is still not installed, in part to spare Will the aggravation when installing a few additional lights this week, but also it's just a pain. Maybe we are a little insecure, too. Last year we buttoned it up around November, but now that we are at the fun part it seems a shame to press pause for the winter again. 

Venting, plumbing, and framing are next. Wall and bed frames need to be built around the vents, so I guess vent pipes come first. Plumbing is our next summit. Also need to box and insulate the wheel wells. But it seems like there are a million other little tasks to occupy ourselves with. A little TLC for the windows, their fixtures, and their frames, replacing rusty external rivets, rehabbing the faded blue paint, addressing the red numbers and external stickers, creating a spare tire holder, sanding and painting the hitch, repairing the canopy, et cetera, et cetera. I feel a little overwhelmed, but luckily I'm not the project manager. ;) 

The amazing thing is, we have a portable camping shell with working lights and fans and propane, and even if we take our sweet time with the inside, it is so satisfying to have covered all this ground the past six months! 

OMG SOME PAINT YESSSSSS!

Rolled into our worksite just after 7am and got to work. Peter patched (1) around the back window, (2) a slot in the back wall where the shower was, (3) where the hot water heater was, (4) the original location of the outlet we moved, and (5) the fridge vent. He also made wooden mounting plates for our two new 12v outlets. He filled the tires to the appropriate PSI.

Then he turned his attention to a house projects, specifically, replacing the tiles in front of the fridge, which involved cutting away the rotted subfloor, fitting a thin plywood board to reinforce the floor, and laying tiles. (No grout or sealant because the tile mastic needed 72 hours to set.) 

I was on paint-prep duty. I finished sanding the walls, then I sanded the aluminum, then I washed the walls with TSP, then I wiped them down with water. I taped all the windows and fixtures over with newspaper, and then I used self-etching primer on the two end caps and aluminum patches. (It took 4 cans! Omg!) 

Like, it sounds like not a lot, but for some reason it took me like all day. 

I spent a little time looking around for the paint sprayer, but unable to locate it, so I left for a run with the sisters. When I got back, Peter had found the paint sprayer and was testing it with some old blue paint, but the sun had already set and the Alabama game was starting and it didn't seem to be working properly, so I thought, well, paint next weekend . . . 

But my husband is not to be deterred like that. He made our 3rd Home Depot run of the day (first, rivets, second, insulation and more self-etching primer, third, nozzle for paint sprayer) and we got to painting around 8pm. And actually the painting part itself took maybe 15 minutes. We didn't get enough primer! Probably some waste during the testing/unclogging portion, and then I sprayed it on too thick before I got the hang of it--I was so dismayed to see some dripping in some parts! The key is to hold it at least 14" from the wall, and to hold it sideways like you're a gangster about to fire a Glock semi in the movies. 

Next weekend, we will (1) sand down those drips and thick spots, (2) get the ceiling panel attached and (3) finishing priming. May we will just throw the final paint color on there, too, while everything's taped up? 

Concern

My husband read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, but it was before we were even dating, so I didn't get the benefit of his audible processing of the material. My friend turned sister-in-law* also read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and she got to me first with this message:

We each have a circle of concern and a circle of influence. If we focus on our circle of concern, our anxiety and powerlessness will expand until we are so immobilized that our circle of influence shrinks. Conversely, if we focus on our circle of influence, it will continue to expand until we have more control over the things that concern us. 

This blew my mind. 

Because how often have I dreamed of hiding away from it all? Just finding myself a spot of earth in the middle of nowhere, so I could live simply and quietly, not hurt anyone and not be hurt by anyone. Sometimes I just want to disappear. If I can't make the world a better place and alleviate any suffering, why should I even be here, making things worse with my shallow existence?  

Reading the news and cringing at all the pain in the world, both up close and far away. A client struggles to come up with $20 additional dollars to pay for the required flu vaccine. Getting texts from my former admin at the public defender's office about a frequent flyer client. Uighur people in China in modern-day concentration camps. Refugees and asylum seekers biding their time in the crime-plagued border towns. Families I love battling autoimmune diseases, mental health episodes, financial hardships, and relationship dysfunctions. The persecuted church. 

Bad things happen. The world is broken. We are broken. The only place we can go to escape the weight of all these brokenness is the arms of Jesus and the seat of His promises that He is coming back for us and He is making all things right. 

So, there is an escape. And that escape is not daydreams about traveling or backpacking, it is not the zany antics of Malcolm's family. The escape isn't online shopping or cooking or yoga or face masks. Not that any of these things are bad or wrong, but I am still using them to soothe an anxiety that they cannot soothe! 

The escape is in obedience to Jesus. In remembering and encouraging my friends. In taking care of my husband. In working as unto Him in my job. In praying for those who suffer and are persecuted. In studying His words and promises that I will not forget what He said. In serving strangers with my time and money. 

Only He can help me grow my circle of influence so I am not swallowed up entirely by my circle of concern. Only He is my escape. 

*If you are the wife of her husband's brother, you are sisters-in-law, and this is the dream of most friends, that you marry a pair of attractive brothers and your kiddos grow up as cousins, I am living that dream, y'all!

End cap completion!

Friday night we rolled in like ghosts and loaded up, eight--yes, eight!--tires into our Toyota Camry to try to squeeze them in with an oil change. It was only $25 per tire to swap them out and balance them! (Also I learned what it means to balance a tire, lol.) The wheels were too old for the place to guarantee the tires for warranty purposes, but they put new valve stems on there and they look 100. 

Peter finished bolting the shocks into place with the tires off and successfully made his own washer using a fat titanium drill bit. (Glad I did not see that project in process!) While the tires were off, he used some Rust Reformer paint to hit the exposed frame in that area--the steel was in great shape already, but some extra protection is good for peace of mind. 

I spent some time with the wire brush on the drill trying to polish up the hubcaps and they are 90% of the way there, save for some stubborn spots. Now that the wheels, axles, and shocks are all set, and the jack still works, we can tow this thing to the welder to get that one outrigger fixed! (Okay, after the brakes get wired in and we replace our taillights--still flummoxed.)

Inside the rig, I worked on prepping the walls while Peter (and Amanda, thank the Lord!) worked on the back end cap. It is a thing of beauty to watch them work together--they are in sync, Amanda can anticipate what Peter will need handed to him next, they see the same problems and speak the same language, and also, she never skips arm day--she is strong! 

It made me feel bad for a sec--the wife who will never be as helpful as the sister--but I was cheered to think that he still chooses to let me partner with him in this project and takes the time to teach me things even though this doesn't exactly come naturally to me. 

So I took some Bondo and patched empty rivet holes, small rips, and places where the vinyl had peeled away from the aluminum. In some spots I used heaps of the stuff, which mean sanding it down took foreverrrrr, but I was pleased with the end effect. I also continued my battle to scrape paint off from around the front windows and doors, as well as the door frame. Like I wish I knew what primer they had used for that first facelift painting, because it will not budge! 

The back end cap looks so nice. Peter used a thicker gauge for the height of the curve and for the center piece, and the original gauge for those two pieces on either side. A compromise for weight and strength. Each slice ended up with more like 9" width instead of the 11" in the front end cap, and so the middle piece is 2'. But it looks tight, strong, and symmetrical, and the fact that it doesn't "match" the look of the front end cap shouldn't matter since the view of it will be interrupted by the bathroom wall. 

Fewer electrical probs this time around, too. We only used one power tool at a time plugged into the trailer outlets, and compressor stayed plugged in to the house. We plugged into the living room outlet instead of the outside GFCI outlet. Surge protector did the same thing where it blocked power to the system, but after a few minutes it self-corrected and started working fine. And the battery charged! 

We bought some Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3 Primer, painter's tape, and some self-etching primer at the end of the weekend. Now we just need to figure out how to support the wires in the ceiling and squeeze insulation in there, and we can hopefully close the ceiling up and prime that ish. Also, patches.