Sketches!
I have been working on a 3D model (again, after losing my first one). I have been working in Google Sketchup, for those of you not familiar with it it’s a free software that is great for quick mass modeling. I am using it also for material counts/verification. I am leaving this in sketchy format still because I think it looks cooler than the ‘fake’ looking materials of Sketchup and also because it’s only modeled out to the plywood, so it’s not too ‘pretty’ anyway.
This is a view from back right of trailer. You can see a hint of a fold down patio I have been kicking around. I am trying to work this into the design but I am looking at some non-standard materials to save on weight. If this porch was standard wood it would be really heavy to lift up and also add a lot to the trailer weight, so I am leaning towards some sort of expanded metal material. Problem with that is I want a dog once this gets done and I think that could be hard on his little feeties. If anyone has any ideas of a light-weight, durable material that may be good for this please feel free to let me know. 🙂 I also plan on having a 5’ patio built-up over the trailers dovetail (so long as I can get away with that).
This is the ‘sorta’ plan. As I was drawing this up I got more ideas (this happens a lot in my life…), I imagine the plan will flex up until the actual point I construct it. I have the kitchen/bathroom/water storage toward the rear of the trailer with most of the weight centered over the axles. This is in an effort to make the trailer better to pull and keep the weight distribution as close to the axles as possible. As I was drawing this up I actually started to consider a loft for sleeping again, weird. The whole point of me getting the 24’ long trailer was to avoid the loft so it’s surprising to rethink that for me. I think it may work better because the ‘loft’ is really only about 5’ up max, it’s the portion on top of the goose-neck. I can get the head height up to about 5’ in the ‘loft’ area also (which has always been intended as a storage area above the bed, for lamps and cloths). I was thinking I could even incorporate some sort of dresser with steps up to the loft rather than a ladder, which I don’t like because said dog will be sleeping with me :). If anyone has any ideas about this or any other part of the plan I would LOVE to hear all about them!
As you can tell there aren’t any windows in the kitchen area, I am torn on this because I will probably spend a bit of time in that area but I want to use the wall space for open shelving for all my cooking stuff (which will be minimized substantially). My thought is that there are some big windows in the other areas of the house and I plan on having a half window in the door to the back patio so it won’t be completely closed off feeling… I also have a couple of 1’x5’ windows I intend on using high in the space to let more light in, I am working on some arrangement for these so they don’t look goofy. I will update as I can!
Let me know your thoughts, if you have any, I am always excited to hear ideas. There are a lot of things I don’t consider so I would really like to hear some feedback from anyone brave enough to give it! Thanks for reading, I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend!
~Macy
