Step 14: Trash the joint some more.

Now that the North Wing was done and dusted, I could turn my beady eyes once more to the insides. First off I ripped out the stove stand saving both the stove and diamond pattern ali plate that lined the 'hot' area. Saved both for later.

The increase in floor space was obvious and only spurred me on to deal to the wardrobe as well. Slightly annoyingly I made a bit of a mess of the ceiling panel, it looks like the ali cladding sheets were the last things to go on, the top of the wardrobe having been screwed in place from above. Oh well, cant be helped.

With the wardrobe gone was well, the place was starting to look huge! I was a bit concerned about removing the ceiling support but adopted a 'wait and see' attitude.

Next trick was to relocate the fridge. This was quite easy since the fridge was already in it's own custom wood box, I just had to unscrew the roller feet to be left with a rectangular box. A short search of the wood heap turned up a short piece of board that would do very nicely for a rear support, this was cut to length then angle bracketed upright on the floor of the North Wing to provide support for the back of the (surprisingly heavy) fridge. The  I blocked up the fridge until it was the right height and just drew around it for the right sized hole. 2 Minutes with a jigsaw and I had a perfect sized hole.

There was a small amount of back and forth to establish the optimum inset for the fridge, I just swung the door fully open then pushed the fridge back until the door was flush with the wall. Easy!

That's better! Note the outline of the old wardrobe and stove on the floor. Then it was just a case of trimming some left over paneling to make it look a bit more presentable. While I was at it I moved the bunk ladder over to keep the path into the north wing clear and make the bench accessible with the ladder in place. Wiping the whole lot down with wood stain improved the general look no end.

Not the best photo, but you get the general idea. Now that I had that under control it was time to brighten the place up a bit. I'd gotten sick of looking at the unlined side of the door so covering it up became the next project. My sister had been given a huge mural painted on a 1200X2400mm panel of  wall board, a quick negotiation and I secured for my own use. It was almost the perfect width but much to tall, so in order not to ruin it, I carefully trimmed a piece off top and bottom so the picture was mostly undisturbed. Then I cut out the door panels and riveted the whole lot in place.

 
Quite good! They look like bananas, but it's actually a Kowhai (Saphora microphila) tree in full bloom. I'm liking it! The fridge looks like it belongs, too.

Next on the hit list is the galley. I'm not rushing into this one, it needs to be thought through just a bit....