Lamphouse Progress: Darkroom's (pretty much) Done!

 

Hey party people, what's up?

 

Hopefully you're enjoying some fine, fine springtime weather wherever you find yourselves. Us? We live in Kansas so the chances of that happening are hovering somewhere around 1%. And since we decided to start a business that requires working outside, they've dipped down to something like 0.0%.
But when it has been neither raining, nor snowing, nor hailing, nor a combination of all three in one day (seriously) we've been hard at work on the little Lamphouse Photo Co. trailer.

 

If you're into it, step behind the cut and take a look at the non-house stuff we've been up to!

Warning: a million trailer pictures ahead

 

 

 

 

 

So, when we last left you, we had finished up the exterior wiring and it was fantastic

 

 

Pretty lights!

 

Next up, we moved inside and started the interior wiring and framing
All of the nasty, rotten wood was replaced (including some that are in this picture still) and we also got rid of the trash bag that took the place of the old air conditioner.

 

 

That area back there is where the darkroom is. We built half a wall so we would have a place to attach our darkroom light/light switch to but left the other half down so we could build shelves and move around in there more easily.

 

 

After everything was wired up and insulated, we started putting up the plywood that covers the framing. Starting to look like something...

 

 

I'm missing a few pictures of this next step because, bless his little heart, Conan put all of the trim up to cover the seams AND he put the floor down while I was at work on a Sunday : ) What a guy!

 

I really love that floor. We got it at a remnant place and it looks great and according to Conan it was very easy to install.

 

 

Here's a couple more pics of the inside of the darkroom with all of the lovely trim. Soooo woody!

 

 

But not for long!

As you can see, the floors were all covered up and ready for me to lay down some paint.

We went with the Olympic interior satin "Black Forest" color so we could cut down on the light bouncing around in there too much.

 

This picture is more of the floor than the walls but whatever, that floor is awesome.

 

 

It's really hard to take a good picture of the space also, because it's so little! You get the idea though, right? Right. Moving on!

 

Then I helped Conan build our darkroom shelves for all of our equipment. I didn't take pictures of that because my hands were usually holding a drill or pushing down on a piece of wood but trust me, they're terrific and very sturdy.

 

We used plywood and some remnant laminate to make our own countertops. We lucked out and the remnant place had enough laminate in a normal-ish forest green color.

 

 

Here's a (terrible phone) picture of Conan putting the contact cement on the countertops in the attic. That stuff was soooooo stinky that we literally ran out of the attic afterwards. DEFINITELY use in a well-ventilated area. Trust.

Also, look at all the random chairs in our attic. Yay for compulsive thrift store shopping : /

 

After the countertops were on, Conan went back (again, while I was at work) and painted all of the bottom parts of the shelf - the visible ones anyway. He also added a nice little bit of trim around the countertops so nobody cuts a finger off (that laminate stuff is sharp! It will Mess You UP!).

 

 

Conan took these wide angle shots for you nice folks so you can see a little more. He also moved most of our equipment in so we can see how it will all come together.

 

GPOYH

Lookin' like a boss with his shelves and stuff.

 

 

So, if you need a little refresher, the back of the trailer used to look like this...

 

 

then this...

 

 

and now this...

(plus the shelves)

 

 

Very cool! And so exciting!

 

My parents installed the AC a few weeks ago which is great because it's supposed to get near 100 this week in some parts of Kansas. What? Seriously? Yeah.  

 

 

That's actually a picture I took of the shroud just sitting up there but believe me, there is now a real, live AC there. I promise.

 

P.S. this picture has been 'shopped a bunch because we've since removed some vents and I'm too lazy to go out and take a new picture. Also because it just looks better. And third, because we're painting it all anyway so...whatever. Yay for bad photoshopping!

 

Speaking of painting,

Conan sanded and primed the big dents and dings and started putting some Bondo on them. He's put a couple of coats on and it already looks about a million times better than this picture.

 

 

Home skillet also FINALLY got all of the old seals off of the Grand Wagoneer's oil pan and replaced them. It was a real pain and it took forever and he's toying with the idea of blogging about it here. I highly encouraged him to do so. That things was leaking SO much oil on our driveway before but now it's good as new.

 

He seriously spent a month under that Jeep. They are VERY well acquainted now.

So that's pretty much everything.
There's lots of little stuff that I'll get around to talking about someday but I figured I should just check-in and say something instead of nothing.
We're going to begin putting up walls in the studio half of the mobile studio and darkroom here in a little while so I'll sign off for now and go do something worthwhile like laundry or sleeping or just sitting on the couch and staring straight ahead. That's not weird, right?

Anywhoodle, chicken noodles!

I'll leave you with one of our rainy/snowy/sleety day projects: shirt making!

: D