Monday, March 9, 2015

The construction of "The Box" (the Interior)

The next installment of this I shall cover the interior. I will start with the floor. This took a long time to decide what to do. I finally settled on laminate. As I said in the last post, I first sealed the floor with 2 component epoxy paint. From there I layed a layer of 1/4 inch fanfold foam. Lastly I laid the laminate over top. Of course I did not read the instructions of how to assemble it first :-). It did however turn out alright.



 
Actually I get ahead of myself with the floor. The first real NEED after heat and cooling was lighting. I wanted to start with "indirect" lighting. Before I go in to details, let me just say my ultimate goal is solar, wind or water power. Because of this EFFICIENCY is my top priority. Both energy and space efficiency. Because of this I exclusively use LED's.
 
The first light was an LED strip.
 

Here I simply nailed a "spacer in to the wall with a piece of wide molding as a shade. I wanted the light but not have to look directly at the strip. At the time I got this, WRGB (White, Red, Green, and Blue) LED strips were not widely available. If I use the strips again ALL will be WRGB units. As you can see, I only had a clip on LED lamp for work light. This had to be changed and is the point where I started getting "creative".


I needed not only a light, but also some way to get rid of the condensate from the AC unit. With that in mind, I made this. The light itself is from a clip on LED desk lamp. If you notice the "water valve", that IS the "switch" for the light. It turns the same direction as any tap to turn the light on. Below that is where the condensate drain is for the AC unit. At the bottom is a normal black pipe flange to screw it to the floor. This also was modified with a pipe to go through the floor (for a drain).

As you can see from this I was already using the space. This was the reason I said in my last posting to seal the floor as soon as possible. Although it no longer sounded like a container, it smelled like one!

It is a mess (you can plainly see why I say START with a 40 footer :-) ), but here are the "in progress" overall photos. Everything I have done here, I have done with the idea of moving in to a 40 footer with this 20' connected to it for some "width". Not only is it my workspace but also "technology incubator".


In this photo, taken from the door, you can see how my desk and bed are arranged. I do not "live" here, but the bed is nice if I need a nap :-) The ladder is from a John Deere combine. In fact my favorite place so far for "decoration" is the local tractor junk yard. Second on the list is the "Pull-a-Part". In the lower left corner is a "dorm" fridge and a propane stove from an RV. Its "installation is the next big project on the list. Not being "lazy" but trying to come up with a way for the "kitchen unit" to be portable.


Now the view from the desk. Not much to see here except the stove. Most positive thing I can say about it is that it keeps it warm here :-)
 
As I said, this one is still a work-in-progress at least from the standpoint of "organization". As far as the main structure goes, the only thing I have yet to figure out is the ceiling. I was planning on a drop ceiling, but changed my mind, as I don't really like the looks of a drop ceiling. I didn't want drywall because I wanted access to the ceiling for plumbing and electricity. Eventually I will come up with something, but for now I simply do not worry about it.
 
I am hoping in the next installment I can go in to the "furniture" and other various things I did not cover previously that I think may be of some importance.
 

 

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