Disaster - the white paint ran out!

At 7pm with just about an hour before dark I'm not going to rush off to Walmart to bug more - not when I'll be right by Walmart tomorrow on my way to and from work!

I started the day, putzing around. The first thing I did was to scrape the frosting spray off the bathroom windows. It took a while and several razor blades but it's done. As the toilet, which I intended to paint, is currently sitting in front of the window it made sense to sit on it to scrape the frosting off. That was better done before painting. I have enough paint on my breeches.

After that I installed the catch plate for my cockpit door. I'd been unable to find it and had used a screw initially. Now it was found, it could be used. Needless to say, I had to space it off the frame with washers. None of my doors are a great fit but then as I keep telling you, I'm not a carpenter. If Jesus were here today, he'd surely roll his eyes at my woodwork! My woodwork is good enough for what I need.

The next thing was to retard one if my drawers. That was a task! I had to keep adjusting and now its 1/32 too low but it slides all the way back. Doing that, I found the bottom drawer also needs adjusting. I didn't do that though. That's a job for another day.

The saloon doors were next on the list. They were carefully given a coat of primer on both sides. Mostly I avoided putting primer on my paintwork. I'll have to touch up where I splashed primer accidentally though. Latex paint splashes are allegedly easy to clean up with a wet rag. That must be on some other planet though where it doesn't start to dry so quickly.

Having painted primer, I broke for lunch but not before taking a huge pile of wood offcuts and tint backing paper to the burn barrel ready for whenever. M'lady is getting restive about debris in her yard!

After lunch I painted the toilet. I'll have to return to that though since I had to paint around the seat. The lid seems stuck down. I might have to apply force to open it!

Following the toilet, most of the saloon doors were painted. The very edges didn't get paint but will later. The fronts were painted first.

Then the backs were painted. I must be some kind of sadist because it would be so much easier to paint them when they're horizontal!

Rather than painting the edges, my attention turned to the kitchen countertop. I'd screwed it down after attending to the top drawer. The bottom drawer needs a little adjustment but it's not bad enough to make it necessary. Seeing as how there was barely half a cup of paint in the pot, I simply poured if on the countertop and spread it around with the brush. By then it was getting pretty dark.

Finishing just before the light vanished, the paintbrush was plopped into a jar of water for later washing. I like that I can do that with latex paint. Tomorrow I shall buy more paint.

As of now, things remaining to do...
1. Finish painting the kitchenette countertop.
2. Finish painting the toilet.
3. Finish painting the saloon doors.
4. Put a protective sheet over the kitchen countertop.
5. Screw down and put a final coat of paint on the dinette countertop.
6. Put a protective sheet over the dinette countertop.
7. Finish putting up privacy film.
8. Put up the closet chain.
9. Touch up lots of areas.
10. Install the shower base mount.

Then it's all electrics and plumbing. I'll probably try to get the registration as a motorhome started before I do much with electrics or plumbing.

Saloon doors!

This morning I put off doing saloon doors because I didn't know how to build them. Thus I started by putting on some window tint. Needless to say, the roll of tint ran out after the first pane. There was enough left over to do one of the two small bathroom windows.

After procrastinating and looking up ready made saloon doors online, I noted that most seemed to be 42 inches long. As it so happened, I had a section of hardboard left over that measures approximately 10 inches by 44. The plan was to use that as a panel set into one door.

Perversity being what it is, looking at my supplies, I didn't have enough 2x2 to make a complete box frame. I did have some 1x2 though. Thus the saloon door became a physical thing. Now, I don't have the time nor willingness to make fancy tops and bottoms for my saloon doors so my initial design is pretty basic.

There were three problems with this. First, the 1x2 was bowed. Second, the cross members were a little long and third, one door is mounted 1/4 of an inch too high.

The long cross members were shortened with the circular saw being used to shave off 1/8 inch off each cross member for both doors. It'll make the insert a strange size but that cannot be helped. The mismatch in height totally escaped me until later.

The bowed 1x2 was resolved by putting an extra cross member in. Having done that, the doors swing freely. Looking at them and my supply of hardboard, it looks as though another pair of cross members lower down might be a good idea. My leftover hardboard is a series of odd shapes and sizes. To hold the hardboard into the frame, quarter round will be employed. I had sufficient, given that my entire doors would be made of 2x2 however since the design has had to adapt to my available offcuts now I might need more but I'll try to work within what I have.

My goal is, working within the wood I have, to build saloon doors. I don't see any value in buying a big sheet of hardboard to use a small piece.

After getting that far, I needed to consider the matter before proceeding further. Thus I grabbed my two big film offcuts and applied it to the bathroom windows. The first piece (pictured) wasn't very satisfactory. One side tore and one corner just won't stick down. I'll redo it when my next shipment of tint film arrives.

Tomorrow I'll probably complete my saloon doors and maybe put up the closet chain. After that, its a case of screwing down countertops and painting the saloon doors, the rest of the toilet unit and that should be most things done inside the bus.

I was going to put vinyl floor tiles down on the countertops. My new idea is to Velcro vinyl tablecloths onto the countertops. Same idea but cheaper to switch out or replace.

Tinting

As my last paint splattered shirt is awaiting the attentions of the washing machine, other things had to be done inside the bus. I took a while to do it but I put 5 sheets of window tint on the windows. I'll probably have to buy yet more tint.

After the 3 tinted windows in the photo, I tinted 2 more before being called away to attend to a shopping trip.

On that trip I called into Lowe's for 3 more sections of quarter round. I have a plan for the saloon doors that uses quarter round to hold hardboard into place on some 2x2. I also bought longer bolts for my knob. It seems its an 8-24 thread.

I'm probably going to run out of tint. I'm hoping I can complete the galley windows but I have doubts. After the galley windows, I have 4 more 11x24 windows and two smaller windows. I know one of my offcuts will do one of those two windows. I'll have to see about ordering more for the others.

The tint is going on well enough though there are bumps where duyst particles have attached themselves. Oh well, its not noticeable unless I really look hard so I'm not bothered. Nothing in that bus is perfect anyway!

Painting yet again

Today started with giving the cockpit partition a second coat of blue paint followed an hour or so later by touching up the edges and corners. It now looks really good.

After that, the bathroom was cleared and plastic taped over the window that I'd tinted. Then green paint was applied. I quite like the green though it's more lurid than the color swatch said it would be.

Tomorrow the plan is to do a second coat of green paint in the bathroom then to do more tidying in the galley prior to doing the purple paint in the galley.

I still have a lot of white paint to apply but since the colors are above the whites, it makes sense to apply the colors first as then I can just paint over the splashes and drips.

It's quite exciting how close I am to finishing! I still have to put a shower base mount and to make my saloon doors but otherwise I'm almost done. After the painting which will probably take a few more days, I'll build the shower base mount and the saloon doors.

I have run out of suitable materials for the saloon doors, believe it or not! There are a few pieces of trim left to fit but that'll take a day at most as will the tinting. Another thing that needs to be done is the creation of a way of unlocking the front door from the outside. I have some ideas for that!

The ants from yesterday appeared to be dead in large numbers but there were survivors scurrying around so I closed the bus for the night and set off another bug bomb. I might have to keep doing this for a few days. The next thing I need to do is to spray all the crevices with bug killer.

Close to the end of internal construction

Well, probably. I have a feeling I might want shelves in my storage closet, overhead bins and more storage at the front but its looking good!

Today I mounted all of the cupboard doors in the dinette/kitchenette. A couple of doors gave me a little trouble. The one that I thought would be the hardest turned out to be the quickest and easiest.

During my drawer installing progress I had to straighten the first drawer I ever installed. It's now perfectly straight. The next things for the dinette/kitchenette will be to put latches on all the cupboard doors and on all the drawers plus handles on doors and drawers. Then it'll be fastening down the countertops, finishing the painting and putting vinyl floor tiles on the countertops.

Using the lift on lift off hinges I got via eBay from Britain solved a lot of problems. They were easy to install too - just drill a hole and screw them in. I used a section of angle bracket to help with this.

In order to paint and clean the dinette/kitchenette properly, I need to clear it of supplies. The floor is currently quite cluttered with paint pots and wood. I could shift the stuff to the bathroom but I wouldn't have space to work in the bathroom.

The solution - to build the planned table for the bedroom. I have a feeling I will be cutting wood to fit, assembling it, painting it then installing it. The leftover plywood from my drawers has given me enough for my table and there's enough left over for a mini shelf over the bathroom washbasin. Great for toothbrushes etc!

I have a feeling internal construction might be done very soon. My original projected date was January 1st, 2015. I'm about 7 months behind schedule!

It was brutal today or how I did my drawers!

Looking at the whiz-bang thermometer gizmo in my bus, I noted that the 102 degrees farenherit combined with 60% humidity might have been the reason for my frequent breaks. I'd work and do very little then I'd be drenched in sweat. Each time I worked, it was like having a mini shower - in sweat!

Despite the heat and a mini thunderstorm, I managed to complete most of what I set out to achieve today. I put fronts on all of my drawers. What I didn't get around to was retarding one drawer about half an inch still there's always tomorrow!

The first drawer front went on and I managed to install it a shade too low and a little crooked.

After that I put the one above straight. Now the reason I got it crooked was that I couldn't find my pre-drilled holes due to my putting glue over them. With later drawers I was careful to avoid covering the holes with glue.

It's a little redneck but I found my way of spacing drawer fronts was easiest using a pair of carpenter's pencils. I'd put them on top of the drawer front below and then just rest the next drawer front on them and wiggle it to the right position before drilling my holes. A piece oif plywood offcut leaned against the drawer front as I worked helped a lot.

As can be seen from the photos, I used a lot of drywall screws. These were used rather than clamping everything together. That really sped things up. I'd drill the holes, take the drawer out and place it on a workbench then apply glue, put screws through the fascia and locate them in the holes on the drawer then screw it together. I'd start with just two locating screws then add more as needed to squeeze the wood together. And the glue I used was Elmers. It seems to have worked well!

Finally, I had all the drawer fronts in place. The bottom left drawer could do with some trimming of the fascia tomorrow. I knocked off after this because I felt I had done well today and didn't want to push my luck and mess something up.

In the dinette/kitchenette, my remaining tasks are hinges for 3 cupboard doors, handles on 3 cupboard doors and 8 drawers, catches on the drawers and doors, painting the drawers, ceiling and floor, privacy film on the windows, painting the door and construction of my saloon doors. There's even sufficient plywood left over for the bedroom table!

More drawers

It was terribly hot again today but that's every day in South Carolina. I went to the bus in 30 minute sessions again. This time I was defeated at the end of the day not by the heat but by darkness. Indeed the longest day was a month ago and the evenings are noticeably drawing in now.

I corrected the upright I tried the other day and put the hinges in place. I had thought that I'd make the door but wasn't in the mood to do battle with a large piece of hardboard so I went to work on the drawers instead.

I looked at the top right drawer that was stiff yesterday and found it was canted. Changing the position of the screw holding the rear of one slider mostly sorted the cant out and the stiffness. Job done! Actually, it is still slightly canted but only by 1/8 inch over the 12 inches width. I'm really not bothered by that. When I put the faceplates on the drawers, they'll all be square. The faceplates will also hide how warped Lowe's 1x4 is. Some of it has a curve across the 4 inch section!

Doing the individual drawers, I put sides and backs on 4 of the seven. The seventh I'll buy a runner for on Tuesday, along with more 1.25 inch drywall screws. 4 of the drawers took sides made of 1x4. Two will need bigger sides because they are deeper.

One drawer which will be my cutlery drawer was a little too shallow for 1x4 and needed 1x3 of which I possessed none. As I needed but 50 inches of the stuff, I cut down some of my strip of 1x4. I doubt I shall need any more 1x4 for the moment.

I didn't have time to complete the drawer before the light escaped on me. What I'd been doing was gluing and screwing the sides and backs firmly into place. I'd drill the holes in the bottom and one section of the side or back then glue it and screw it in place. Then I'd move to the next piece. Ordinarily I'd have glued and clamped but since I have so much to do and since I can borrow but two clamps, I used screws.

This is a drawer I made earlier with screws and glue. Basically, I have four drawers complete bar the fronts, 2 drawers that need bigger sides which I'll cut from plywood and one drawer that needs to be put together. I'll probably use some thin wood or maybe plastic to make the dividers for the cutlery drawer unless I can utilize my existing cutlery tray. I'm not sure whether I designed the drawers to accommodate it.

So, tomorrow should see the backs and sides on all the drawers I have sliders for. I might even make a start on the fronts! Or I might just work on the cupboard door. The beauty is, whatever task I choose, I'm getting ever closer to completion.

As of now, I need to make adjustments to the toilet, paint the bathroom and toilet, give the dinette a second coat of purple and touch up the white. I need to put up the closet chain, build and paint the bedroom table and paint the cockpit all and closet. I also need to build my saloon doors between the bathroom and the dinette. That's without mentioning the tub mount, doors on the vanity and possibly a shelf or medicine cabinet and tinting the remaining windows.

Then I'll be ready to do electrics and plumbing!

The heat broke

Today the horrible heat broke within moments. A thunderstorm rumbled yet there was no rain and a clear sky. The heat dropped from 104 to 90 in minutes.

I didn't do a lot on the bus today. I made two doors for cupboards. One is a bit problematic because of the close proximity of the doorframe. There is a solution however. There is such a thing as a lift on lift off hinge also called a rising hinge. As the door opens, it rises. The door can at any point simply be lifted off its hinges and placed out if the way. Trying to get a pair is hard though. 20 years ago, I bought a pair for my darkroom. Trying to get a pair in America seems impossible though. EBay has them at ludicrous prices though.

Anyway, here's a picture of my doors. I'll do a top for the counter and then paint it. It's almost finished!

Timetable to drawers

As many of you know, I made a drawer base a few days ago. Then I did nothing because it was simply too hot. I've realised the heatwave is continuing so I'm now working in briefer spurts. The temperature in the cockpit of the bus a couple of days ago was astounding. Read the thermometer!

Thus today I set to , to complete my drawer. No plans have ever been drawn up for anything I've done in the bus so far and its all working wonderfully. The first thing was not to start work but to fix a plumbing leak in m'ladys yard. Then it was a case of feeding and watering chickens and doing the myriad of other things one does on a homestead.

Eventually I managed to measure and cut three planks of 19 inches and 15 inches with the circular saw. That was enough and I had to go inside to cool down. It was 104F outside and hotter in the bus. In fact, the bus feels like an oven when I'm inside!

Returning to the bus after cooling down, I worked on cutting two more short planks for the drawer. Sweat was dripping onto the floor with a splashing sound and running into my eyes giving blurry vision and a stinging sensation.

Eventually, after yet another trip into the house to cool off, I assembled the final parts of my drawer. It's definitely heavy. I just hope the runners are up to it!

It could have done with a little sanding and fine fitting but it works. It is my first ever drawer. The next drawer will be lighter and I might just abandon using Lowes $7 runners and just use wooden runners instead. Far cheaper and simpler!

Onward... The next thing to do to the dinette is to put a countertop and two cupboard doors! After that I can paint it and call it mostly completed.