The good, the bad, and the UGLY

Well this was the weekend we intended to gut Moonraker.  Ah,  so you noticed the use of "intended" huh?  My husband and I headed off in the early morning hours on Saturday and made the 3+hour trip to my sisters where Moonraker resides.  We actually did pretty well but ran out of steam and left the bathroom for another time.

And a cup of coffee to fuel the day and the reno started!     An hour and half later we were still struggling with the gaucho.  Not good, It was in pieces already, so I figured 15 minutes tops.  Those pieces sure were tenuous!!!    I was armed with a battery powered screwdriver (two full batteries) and I figured no problem..... hmmm what I didn't know was that back in the day screws were built a little different.  They were flat head screws that had an unusually shallow slot.  No way could I use the power tool.    We tried the manual screwdrivers too,  but it was obvious that those screw weren't going to move unless we were in a different time continuum!   Then I remembered what Colin Hyde said which was to carefully pry the frames up and that would loosen the screws enough that we could back them out or rip them out of the floor.   Should have listened to the master LOL.   Ah yes grasshopper!

I don't intend on reusing most of the wood as anything but templates anyway.  Its pretty badly delaminated and quite frankly has a ton of random holes in it.  It doesn't look so bad in the pictures, but in person it reeks of a ....well, hunting cabin!   Speaking of which, I'm glad we determined that it was a hunting cabin.  Otherwise I would have been a little nervous about finding these everywhere.  Bullets of every size.  Why does everyone else find cool old pictures and such.  I got bullets and hunting digests!!!!   Blech.



So out came the gaucho!! And I only used about half the tools I brought!   That's my husband, Peter.  He's not thrilled about spending weekends renovating, but agreed to help me with the physical stuff!

One of things that's different from my sisters trailer is that we have these HUGE rivets everywhere.  I used a rivet remover from here.   It looks like this.

 Thank goodness it came with an assortment of bits cause I was thinking I would only have to deal with normal #21 and #30 sized rivets but it appears the PO used whatever was at hand.... cause I have lots of different sizes.  The coolest thing about this tool is that if I back out the the nozzle that sits over the rivet it will take the rivet bits left when you drill(sorry for all the psuedo terminology!)  right off.  Course I didn't discover this til the end of the day but no worries...... plenty of rivets to go!  Would have been nice for this tool to come with an instruction book but de nada

Here's a picture of the rivets   The one at the left is the normal sized interior rivets.  The three on the rght are the monsters.  I wonder what will happen when I replace them?  I hope I don't have t0 go even bigger :(

Then I had to evict another tenant.  Unfortunately this one was alive and blocking my exit.  Finally a good use for the hunting digest.  Squashed!









Then out came the kitchen upper cabinets,  other than a few hidden screws, no problems,   It's already looking way bigger.  The wall to the left of the stove was interesting.  The track that holds it in place had never been riveted to the wall!!!!  Guess they forgot???   It just had a couple of screws going into the cabinet.  That's the one wall I may change.  I'm thinking of making into a half wall.to promote a more open feeling.   They did me a favor cause now I won't have all the  rivet holes to fill!!!!  Karma Thank you!

I know this will mean no bedroom privacy but my kids are practically grown, My youngest, a son turns 18 next week!   WaaaaaaaHHH

So the left twin bed comes out with  few swear words.  As the day progressed I went from happy , to frustrated to resigned ....mostly to it taking WAY longer than we thought.    The girls (my daughter and niece) showed up ready to demolish and put on their best "Charlies Angel's" effort.  They ripped up all the rugs and flooring in no time flat!  Ah slave labor!

They were actually a huge help getting those pesky rivets at the top of the closets as they could squeeze into the closet much better than I!

So ends day one!   The floor actually looks surprisingly okay.  The front is a little spongy and there's  one area by the wheel well that's scary.  Doesn't matter,  Colin will be redoing it during the full monte phase.  And we haven't tackled the bathroom yet where I suspect most of the damage will be.

That's all for now!