Well, we finally worked up the gumption to start installing the Tongue & Groove (T&G). Turns out the first one (and starting a straight level run) is the hardest part.
The first day Carrie was running the tape measure in the van, calling out measurements and I was on the miter saw shortening boards and making angles for her. I'd cut, hand off the board, she'd apply the liquid nails (AKA Unruly Peanut butter) to the firing strips, then I'd help slot them together and hold while she'd go "range day" on it with the brad nail gun.
We had some "is this going to fit?" moments while trimming custom notches and slots for the bed frame but everything turned out amazing by the end of the first day.
Second day, role reversal...
My turn in the van and Carrie on the saw. Turns out I had massively taken for granted Carrie and her ability to eyeball an angle, double angles (lots of parallelograms in the corners) and even her ability to not make a mess of the liquid nails (Damn unruly peanut butter). I was wasting wood, making a mess and on track to drag the T&G project into a third day. That is untill Carrie reminded me that this is our first van project and for knowing as little as we did when starting, it's coming along fairly nice. And with a renewed confidence we finished out the T&G on the sides of the van.
We decided to throw up the melamine white board ceiling to cap off the weekend. That presented it's own minor challenges but we both decided that more screws than we had originally planed on and a healthy application of unruly peanut butter would serve as a fitting remedy.
Had we have known what we know now, we wold have started with the install of our firing strips before even insulating. A more robust wooden framework would have made this so much easier, but hindsight is 20/20.
Now how to transition from ceiling to wall?.....
~Tim
