gingerbread & caulk jokes

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…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.

The spot where one of the rafters comes through the top of the wall. Yeah, there's a pretty big gap.
The join between these two tongue & groove boards really doesn't, well, join very well. But it's full of caulk!

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.

A corner where the walls are supposed to come together & sort of don't.

(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 sheet of plywood with outlines for fancy trim marked on them with sharpie. Also, there's a sharpie.

…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:

The corner of the tinker's wagon is now covered with two of the trim pieces. Each extends about four inches from the corner along the wall, entirely covering the gap.

I went inside to trace the line …

The corner from the inside, with the top of one of the trim pieces extending above the curve of the wall.

… & got all four of them marked & cut.

Et voila!

The top end of one of the trim pieces, now cut into a curve that will match the wall.

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.

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