Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The first walls and other thoughts

The original idea was to have the shower and toilet as separate "rooms" on the bus. The new idea is to combine the shower and the toilet as an all-in one. The toilet will still be on one side of the bus and the shower on the other. What has changed is that now there will be no separate door for each nor even a curtain for each. Instead, there will be a door to the bedroom, from the shower/toilet area and a door from the shower/toilet area to the kitchen/dining area.
Looking at the walls of the bedroom, it seems the bedroom is exactly 12 feet long. Not only is this the same length as the PVC planks from Lowes that come at $50 each but a quick calculation says that 6 should do each wall at a grand total of $300 a wall. Living full time in the bus and saving my money, that could become a possibility. For right now, the plan is to continue on with OSB sheeting for the walls.

As the home does not have to be luxurious - merely functional - I can afford to build most things from OSB, furring strips and 2x4. For fanciness, I can slap paint on the OSB. The bedroom plan is to build some closets down one side and a desk at one end. There will be closet space under the bed too.

I'm probably not keeping any of my current furniture as it'll all be redundant given the stuff I am building for the bus. Having said that, I don't have much anyway - a cheap folding bedframe, a cheap desk, a cheap swivel chair, a cheap foding card table and chairs, a few cheap lamps and a couple of very cheap sets of drawers. If I have $200 in furniture, lamps etc then I will be astounded! As it all came from Walmart or His House, I doubt any of it would even be salable.

The plan is to complete the bedroom and be move-in ready for the end of April, completing the bathroom and kitchen at leisure. Worst case scenario - I end up washing in a bucket and using another bucket as a toilet while I complete the bus. Cooking - I can use a camping gas stove temporarily while I'm working on the electrical cooking system. As its now summer, I don't have to worry about keeping the bus warm. Keeping it cool is just a matter of using a fan.

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