Thursday, June 4, 2015

Dismemberment and recovery!

Over the past few days I've not been able to do anything to the bus due to work commitments that have now reduced. Thus, today I set to and recommenced work.

The first order of the day was to install the final supporting member of the dinette. That went through pretty easily. Then I decided to make a temporary countertop so that I could work on the kitchen countertop. That's where things went pear shaped. Having measured and remeasured the countertop and the wood, it still came out an inch short. Not to worry - I can reuse the wood for other projects on the bus.

Having got a temporary countertop in place, the arduous task of sorting the stuff on the old kitchen countertop began. As a result, I find I have far more M5 bolts than I thought and far more brackets too.

After that, I turned to the kitchen counter. That was built solidly but the wood had dried and had began to wobble as a result. While it was screwed to the wall, it didn't notice but when it was detached, it was very noticeable.

At the time I built the kitchen counter, I knew I really wanted something solidly built in but had to throw something together to pacify the insurance agent. I'm still not sure who wasn't being straight there. The end result was I transferred all my policies out of State Farm and will never again consider being a State Farm customer.

Within a few minutes, the counter that took a week to build was totally dismantled. All of the brackets were recovered save for a couple that got bent. The next thing will be to sand the floor and complete the cross members on the two partitions. From there, I can build the two long beams for the kitchen counter. Before all that though, there's yet more garbage to sweep out. One thing is sure though - construction is nearing an end.

I looked to the sub partition in the bedroom and found a light fixture in an awkward place. This has prompted a rethink on the design. Rather than reaching the ceiling, the partition will now be shorter and possibly curved.

Good news on color matching the front partition to Carpenters body colors. Valspar has a pretty close match. I'll get more color swatches and try other colors but I'm pretty happy with what I found.

The front of the bus by the stairwell still needs something and I'm 50\50 over whether it will be a box or a closet. The rear closet needs more work too. That needs shelves, doors and plates over the windows. The bedroom needs a closet rail.

I'm getting more of a feeling of progress now, despite the heat and mosquitoes. Today I think I killed 6 as they landed on me and have been bitten a few times too - including through my jeans. These damn mosquitoes are vicious!

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