Follow Our Progress
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October 3rd
2003
We stopped by the home improvement store this morning and picked up
enough 1/4" plywood sheeting to finish up the side walls of the
bus. We also picked up some 2"x4"x8' boards to make the
supports for the beds in the back room if we had some time to work on
that.
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We started to install the paneling on the lower half of the
window, but I couldn't get the seams to line up or sit flush
against the wall. It turns out that when we put the panel
back up (after doing the vent modification) we put it up
slightly overlapping the one next to it... Of course we
didn't notice yesterday and had installed the next panel
perfectly flush with the one that was overlapping...
Bottom line, I had to remove both panels to fix the
overlap.
It was pretty frustrating to have to remove all of the
screws, move the panels 1/4 inch and then put them back up with
all those same screws... I'm glad it's done though.
It looks so good now.
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Here's a shot of the paneling job over the wheel well. It
took a few tries to get the first one done, but this one was
almost right on using the tracings that we made from the first
side.
This is also a good example of how varied the plywood
sheeting color is. If I had picked a better grade of
plywood, we might have just sealed it and left it wood color,
but as you can see here, it would look a bit tacky.
This section of the wall is inside a closet and under one of
the beds in the back. Nobody will see the patchy looking
job here. We managed to make use of a lot of the scraps
left over from the upper paneling, so not as much money was
wasted as I thought might be by keeping the visible seams to a
minimum.
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Both side walls in the bus are now almost completely covered by
the siding. There are just the two front wheel wells and
"D" shaped windows that need to be paneled.
it looks so much cleaner in the bus now. I had to clean
up a bit and put the appliances back in there places just to see
how nice it all looks now.
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I made a promise to the girls that when we were done with the
siding on the walls that they could draw pictures all over it
since we are going to paint over it at some point anyway.
They spent over an hour making all sorts of fun
drawings. They had a lot of fun telling us the stories
behind them and what each picture meant. It was a nice
break for us too... I took lots of pictures of their
drawings for us to keep.
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You can see that the paneling on the walls has made a huge
difference in how the bus looks. The next big metamorphosis
will be when all of the paneling is painted to match.
Painting will come after I have all of the cabinet faces in
place.
We haven't decided on a final color yet, but we want it to
look good with aluminum and stainless steel. It also has
to be light in color to keep the space feeling as large as
possible.
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We finished off the day by putting the last two wall panels in
the bathroom. Up to this point we had a couple of sheets
of scrap plywood leaning up against the wall to give us a bit of
privacy. Now the back and shower side wall is in place and
the bathroom is completely sided.
I may end up having to pull these panels to work in the
plumbing... We have put everything in the bus together
with screws, so everything is somewhat easy to work on if we
need to.
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Here's where the kids spend most of their time while Becky and I
are working on the bus. Nicholas and Alexander (Tedd and
Linda's children) have graciously offered to let the girls play
on their swing set. It's pretty fancy.
The girls really look forward to their play time when the
boys are home. They all seem to have a great time and get
along really well together.
I am very lucky to have such good friends and such a great
environment to work on the bus in. The minor issues of not
having the bus at our own home do not compare to the extra
benefit that we get from Tedd's generous offer to let us
"grace" his yard with our bus.
Thanks Tedd & Linda! You are great friends and we
appreciate it every day.
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This weekend I need to fix the clutch master cylinder on the
Jeep. If we have any time to work on the bus I will concentrate on
framing out the rest of the back walls that separate the laundry/storage
area from the bedroom. I have plans to meet with a few friends
this weekend, so there may not be time for any work on the bus.
We'll play it by ear... |
