Nope, I’m not giving up. I just love the part where I finally get to drill and screw some wall panels into place, knowing that all the measuring and re-measuring, drilling and re-drilling, cutting and re-cutting, cursing and re-cursing — is all done and has paid off. I call it “buttoning up.”

Yep, I got the final two window holes cut on the passenger side, and without incident. I felt like I found a good groove and this phase is getting easier, if not tedious. It turns out my hole saw is still sharp enough. Maybe sharp enough to cut the remaining 16 corners on the driver’s side wall. But my DeWalt 20V drill and its batteries keep overheating from all the torque of spinning a 6″ metal tool. So each corner hole takes one battery and then a half hour to cool down and another half hour to recharge. But it does help me pace myself.

My neighbor Bob came over to hold the P3 and P4 windows in place while I put some temporary screws through their clamp rings. Those four side windows are designed to resemble app icons in the iPhone’s dock. They’ll each get a “title” decal (using the San Francisco iOS font) as part of my branding plan.

Here’s the passenger wall, dry-fitted. All done except for insulation and the final window seals. The 1/16″ aluminum wall panels are very sturdy and super easy to remove and reinstall, which I had to do a few times to achieve accurate fitting. The smudges and scratches will all buff out, of course. The corner cavities above these panels will get overlapped by their own panels with 90° bends.

The RETROpad (yep, that’s what I’m calling it) is progressing nicely. Gary came again yesterday and finished digging the utility trench from the house to the power station. The RETROvan will moor just on the other side of the big umbrella and the hops garden.

Here’s how the design is shaking out so far, looking from the front of our house. I have a paver and fencer coming to give bids soon.