We opted to put a lot of the structural carpentry on the outside, for a couple of reasons. First, it frees up space inside so that shelves and things don't have to be cut out around the supports. Second, it gives us all kinds of "trim" to paint on the outside shell, which makes it look more like a real vardo. It's a win-win situation.

I spent today stenciling gold designs on the freshly painted surfaces. Stencils may not be appropriate in the purist's eye, but one of the things we've discovered over the years is that road debris makes it necessary to repaint the wagons every two or three years. Stencils are much less time consuming to redo than freehand painting. To all the traditionalists out there, please forgive us.

Darren put a piece of plastic tubing around the edges of the arch. This helps pad the canvas so it doesn't wear out as quickly. My Dad did some interior carpentry to finish out the bed frame.

Although there's no photographic evidence. We'd like to give our (very understanding) father credit for spending half a day under the wagon, drilling holes and getting the lights rewired, as well as installing new tires to deal with the added weight of the new build. Thanks, Dad!

The painting is mostly done now. The green and gold are really rich together, but the photo isn't quite doing it justice. (I also didn't paint the shutters yet. I hate painting shutters, so I left those for Darren. It's HIS wagon, after all.)

The creamy color is the interior, in case it's not clear from the picture. We went with a nice light color so it wouldn't be too dour inside. The undecorated green area on the left of the photo will be covered by the canvas. Hopefully we'll have time to get the final fitting on that done in the next week or two. That will put the crowning touch on things.