Saturday, April 27, 2013

Planning and Patience

This week we finished installing the rest of the insulation and got the last ceiling panel back up. Hallelujah! We also perfected the panel installation method. This was helped along by my dad who bought us an awl from home depot. We stuck the awl into the hole of the middle screw on the panel to line up all of the screw holes and then used the middle screws on either side of the panel as a pivot point to line up the rest of the screw holes.

Our trusty awl




The final panels with lights installed!

We also started working on removing the reflective tape from the back of the bus. The heat gun and paint scraper worked well to get the initial layer of tape off.


After peeling off the tape, it left a sticky layer of glue on the bus.





I used a squirt of mineral spirits and WD40 to wipe down the stickiness and a flat razor blade to scrape off the goo.




Icky
After vacuuming up all the metal splinters that fell to the floor from the hundreds of screws we put into the ceiling, and the itchy scraps of insulation, we spent most of today working on the floor plan and finishing adding the final piece of plywood. We gathered all of the things we've already bought for the bus to put them in place and get a feel for the layout. We're still not sure of the exact order of the oven, sink, washer/dryer combo/tub but are getting much closer!

Willow's mid day siesta

We had an extra box spring which we used as a place holder for our bed.
The dogs really liked having it there, so did Chris.

Trying to determine how high we want the counter tops. This is the sink at a standard 36" high.

After planning all day, we decided we wanted to get something physically accomplished, so we set about putting in the final piece of plywood for the floor.

It was a funky cut around the driver's seat and stairwell but fit nicely after careful measurement.

The corner needed some adjustment to fit.







Just Right Fit!
Next on the agenda is getting the electrical wiring and plumbing installed. We're still trying to find an electrician with experience wiring RV's (or boats, or bus conversions) with enough knowledge of battery banks and solar to hire. If anyone recommends anyone that'd be interested and qualified for the job, please feel free to share their contact info with us!

It's frustrating that we aren't further along, however every time we settle on the "next step" we manage to think of something else that needs to be considered before that step can occur. Things are slowly but surely coming together, as they always do, but this whole process is taking a lot of patience on both of our parts. Fortunately, Chris and I work so well together and always manage to have a lot of fun in the process!

While we worked the dogs played by running in circles around the bus and wrestling.

This awesome bromeliad is blooming near our building site.

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