Step by Step by Step

Even as I'm practicing my photography, coming up with new designs and pieces for my wearable art and managing our campground and farm here....maintenance and improvements on the property are ALWAYS in progress. In fact some weeks it feels like I drive a lot of miles...back and forth to our local Menard's. There's always a "missing link" for some project or another, a tool that's broken, hardware that's run out, some crazy widget we need to improvise...you get the picture.

Since I'm mentioned my new floor now in progress, I thought for fun I'd post before and after photos of some earlier work done on my little space in our campground this past Spring. When I decided to put a little travel trailer on a site back there, I chose the "crummiest" spot, which happened to be nearest the "office," and the least likely to be selected for use by our transient campers or full time guests in the condition it began in. A year ago last Spring, with a front loader and the help of a friend, we put fresh gravel down to raise the parking pad for the trailer. This put me above the grade, but unfortunately, left me with a really rough slope at my front door, as is sort of visible in these early spring photos. And when rains are heavy, temporary rivers flow around both sides of this pad heading down hill towards the pond.


So this spring, another friend was willing and able to design and construct this wonderful deck that I could park the trailer next to, effectively giving me a generous, level, dry "front stoop" with a lovely view. Right now, this deck has become a kind of woodworking "shop" as I put the finishing touches on the floor I keep talking about (mainly because working on it has sort of consumed several days of late.)


These photos show the damage that was discovered, due to leaks suffered over our long hard winter, after the old flooring all ripped up. Freezing and thawing of the wet subfloor had fractured the old covering, making it useless. And unfortunately, as the old vinyl was ripped out, we realized several sections of subfloor had to be replaced, too. This has been a pretty big job, and had so many steps to it, that the fact that I was finally able to put a top, finish layer on it this past week is a huge relief. Keep in mind, I had to stay here and work many long weekends and more the past few months...anyone who has ever had to LIVE within a REMODEL knows exactly what I'm talking about here! Ugh, it gets old....

I'll pick up this thread again when photos OF this new floor project, now almost finished, are ready for prime time.....Thanks for dropping by, friends, and hope your weekend is lovely!