gingerbread & caulk jokes

[kellan_the_tabby]

…okay I’m actually skipping the caulk jokes because I think y’all know them as well as I do by now.

There were about two weeks where I really couldn’t work on the tinker’s wagon for a variety of reasons, most having to do with the weather, but last week I FINALLY got it moved to the driveway, & I’ve gotten a fair amount of stuff done this week.

I got the last bit of the last wall done, & I’d planned to do the roof next, but I thought about it & realized it’d be easier to paint & finish up the walls before the roof goes on. Before I can paint, though, I’ve got to fill in a variety of gaps in the walls.

Some of them are just where one board buts up against the next, but there’s also places where I couldn’t get the boards to slot together properly, & there are some pretty big gaps around where the rafters meet the walls, too.

Basically I spent a lot of time squeezing out a lot of caulk & then smooshing it into places with my fingers. I’ve got the front wall & the left wall done, & most of the right wall, but I need more caulk. Again.

There’s also the gaps at the corners. Look, I’m just not very good at cutting things with any precision.

(That’s the worst one though, the rest are WAY less sucky.)

I went looking for wood corner trim at Home Despot, & found that it was 1) expensive, & 2) too small to cover that anyway. So! Plywood & DIY. & since I’m cutting it myself, why not take a bit more time & make it pretty?

…a lot more time. A lot.

But WOW is that gonna look nice.

I had to slap a couple pieces up quick to get the curve at the top marked out for the pieces going on the front & back walls. Check THIS out, & it’s not even painted yet:

I went inside to trace the line …

… & got all four of them marked & cut.

Et voila!

I’ve got the four pieces for the front & back walls cut, & I need to sand the edges & paint them. I’m hoping to get the sanding done tomorrow so I can paint them inside over the next couple days when it’s cold & crappy out.

The four shorter pieces for the side walls are marked out, & I started cutting the first one today but only got partway before the jigsaw battery died. I have more batteries, but I needed a break anyway — using the jigsaw for too long at a stretch makes my hand ache, because the grip is just too big. I’m gonna see how many of those I can get cut out & sanded tomorrow, too, but sanding all those short bits is slow, so who knows.

I’m getting there. It feels slow as hell, but I AM getting there.

---

This was posted originally to my Patreon, a little over a week ago.

If you want to see these posts sooner, & not incidentally help support me & my cats in our travels & such, the way to do that is to sign up as one of my Patrons for as little as a buck a month.

I’d REALLY like that.

---

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Ooo! That's pretty.. I take it you're painting eventually, I dare you to do the 'gingerbread' in white, os it looks like frosting!

[kellan_the_tabby]

Alas that it is too late! They're the same purple as the lower parts of the tinker's wagon, because the walls are a pale lavender.

[corvi]

Fancy!!

[kellan_the_tabby]

I'm a fancy enby!

[montuos]

Caulk jokes have always been a reach for me anyway. They're much funnier if your dialect actually pronounces it "cahk" instead of "cawk".

Those corners are gonna be so pretty! :)

[kellan_the_tabby]

I say it the same way, but one day when I was writing picture descriptions I got to wondering how screen readers would pronounce it, & well, that's how THAT happened.

(Apparently it depends on the screen reader & your settings, but the answer is: sometimes, yes, it's the same.)

[sporky_rat]

It ruined a friend's joke to me because I had no idea that some dialects don't have the 'ul' in caulk pronounced!

[kellan_the_tabby]

Language: it's SUPPOSED to make communicating easier!

[thewayne]

Nice! Capping the end joints is much prettier than what I would've done, which would've been to cram a 2x2 in there. I might've thought about sticking some insulation in the corner, or maybe a tube of pipe insulation? Might improve the thermal efficiency of the wagon a bit and make it a bit less wind leaky (I'm really good at ideas and making things more complicated than they need to be). Dunno if you already have them in place at this point yet.

[kellan_the_tabby]

... ooh, I hadn't thought of that. I did squish a lot of caulk in there, though, which might have some of the same effect?

[thewayne]

The caulk should certainly serve as a wind seal, but not offer much in the way of thermal insulation. Another possibility if you can access that void from the top would be to seal the bottom and pour in insulation from the top.

[kellan_the_tabby]

I think I can; I'll have to climb up & see. AFTER the rain's done.

[luscious_purple]

Very cool! That curves-and-points design reminds me of the woodwork above the kitchen sink in my childhood home (which my parents built with their own hands before I was born).

[kellan_the_tabby]

It's a pretty common pattern for stuff like that. & that's awesome that they built the house you grew up in! My dad built the house I grew up in (& my sister & her family live there now); he owned an entire house-building company.

[cellio]

Those corner pieces are great! Extra work, but so pretty!

[kellan_the_tabby]

Totally, entirely worth it. Thanks!