Food Cart Project Part XXVI: The Trim is Done!

The trim ended up being a much more involved process than I'd anticipated, but I finally finished sizing it, getting it into place, and painting it. Here are some shots of that:

Here's a shot of the trim around the side window. I'll probably pull the horizontal pieces off at some point and carve some detail into them with the jigsaw...

I also got the ball rolling on the plumbing this weekend. Rick over at Curtis Trailers has my sink and tanks on order, and I'll be picking those up along with the pump, water heater and assorted hardware, hoses and fittings next Saturday. So, things are moving along...

Food Cart Project Part XXV: Nothin' but Trim...

I've spent the last couple of weekends working on exterior trim. This turned out to be a much bigger task than I'd anticipated, but I'm mostly finished measuring, cutting and installing it; just need to finish up on the front window side, as well as a small piece above the door, and it'll be ready to paint. Most of it will be painted with the same maroon I used on the millwork in the door window, but the vertical pieces covering the seams between the siding panels will be the same yellow. Here are some shots of it as it stands now:

So, yeah, just trim. Not a whole lot to look at, but it represents another step forward, and I think once it's painted, it'll make a world of difference, so be looking forward to that next weekend!

Oh, one interesting development that's worthy of mention: My landlords, a couple called Sue and Trip, run a construction business in addition to the three apartment buildings they own. Lately, they've been expanding that business into the development side, and are working on two properties at the moment which will include food cart pods. One of these developments is in SE Portland, right on the new Max line to Milwaukie, and is slated to open mid-fall. I've been renting my apartment from these two for six years now, I have a very good relationship with them, and I'd be more than happy to rent space for the cart from them if the numbers and the timeline pencil out... So that could well be a possibility for a location once I'm done with build-out and have the mechanicals in place. Obviously, this is potentially exciting news... Stay tuned!

Food Cart Project Part XXIV: Big Yella Box, Big Yella Box, Meet Me Down By the Big Yella Box!

I finished gluing up the insulation on the last roof panel this weekend. Behold my innovative clamping method:

With that last panel finally in place, the roof/ceiling is done (the first part of it, at any rate; the upper canopy still needs to be built). Here's what it looks like through the door:

I also got the exterior siding put up this weekend. I went with standard composite bead board. It's not exactly an exterior grade material, so I'm just kind of hoping for the best in terms of how it holds up to the weather. But it's cheap, light, and it was relatively easy to install. Worst case scenario, I'll end up replacing it with cedar shake somewhere down the road...

I finished that up last night, and came in this morning to knock out the first coat of mustard yellow exterior paint:

It's difficult to tell from the photos, but after the first coat, the color is still pretty uneven. Next weekend, I'll give it a second coat, and paint and install the trim. At that point, this thing is gonna start to look like a food cart. It is a pretty aggressive shade of yellow, obviously, so I picked up a can of a slightly lighter shade, and will be using that to paint on a subtle ghosted bamboo pattern, which I think should serve to visually break it up a bit. Stay tuned!