ROOFING TO STAINING :: Hobbit Hole Teardrop Camper and Mobile Library

05/24/2015 23:33

We have a floor, we have walls, we have the thing wired, insulated, and the siding is on. Now it's time for . . . a roof.

We used ONDURA corrugated asphalt roofing sheets after contacting the company to see if it would be suited for our camper needs. They assured us it would as it is often used on tiny homes and can handle highway speeds. We've seen that to be true and have had no trouble with it so far as we've taken the camper on the road; the Ondura has worked well. (We did have to use screws instead of the recommended nails.)

After the roof was on, we were ready for staining.

Removing the doors, AC hatch, and shudders wasn't too difficult, and after 2 coats of a nice honey colored stain on the outside, it was looking pretty good. The weather didn't agree with us right at this stage in the build. The heavens decided to open and unleash torrents of rain, keeping it pretty humid in Minnesota and not ideal weather for drying out fresh paint and stain. We resorted to firing up the wood stove to help cure it and got the garage to a toasty 90 degrees.

Eventually the skies cleared and after a few days, we had the outside stain finished and a nice forest green on the doors, shudders, and front electrical box.

Reattaching everything was not quite as quick and simple as removing it was. Some mystical force changed all the previously drilled holes around, I'm pretty sure. That or the humidity and fresh coats of paint and stain had caused things to shift and warp... but I like the "mystical force" explanation.

Staining the interior however, was not as simple as the exterior (you can see that process here). Despite April picking out the stain and approving the wood sample, after seeing the job done, she wasn't too happy with it and felt it was too dark. After some varnish and a few days to come to terms with the stain, she came around. (Click here for pictures of the finished product.)

Getting stain into all the nooks and crannies of the joints and the trim was no easy task. We had to go over everything with small craft brushes to get into all the tight spots and staining the ceiling was a pain in the ass and in the back. Eventually though, we had it done and despite a few flaws, it looks good. For the back hatch we went with a lighter color and staining that went much more quickly.

With some finishing touches like lights, switch and outlet covers, storage and wood prop supports for the back hatch-- the hobbit hole teardrop was complete and camping ready. But first, the dreaded weigh in.

We had a pool going to see who could guess the closest final weight (April's dad won guessing 1,423 pounds). It was just a little nervewracking waiting to see the numbers settle and find out if we needed to swap out the trailer axle (rated for 1,980 pounds). We had the camper loaded with as much stuff as we could to get the closest estimate for actual hauling weight and it came out to exactly 1,400 lbs. That, coupled with the fact that the camper had handled its first drive down the highway with no problems, made for a night of celebration.

At this point we're still doing the odd tweak here and there, but have shown off the camper around town and taken it out for a real night of camping. Today it even sat through its first heavy rain, after which we dutifully checked for leaks and only found one small drip by the vent that a little silicone will fix.

We're proud of our little camper and mobile library (affectionately dubbed "Book End") and are very excited to take it out on many adventures.