My Little Helper and the Floor!

As I stated in a previous post, we decided to go with 2x2 for the subfloor and 15/32 for the plywood layer. We don't have much by way of insulation, so we decided to use the pink foam board ... it will add only R5 but it's something. We purchased it at Home Depot for about $20 a board and bought 6 of them, including 6 styrofoam boards with silver HVAC backing. Those ran about $12 a board.

While Daddy 💕 and I were getting to work on the floor our daughter, Katilyn, and grandson, Garet, showed up. It was a warm day so his Momma had him in his diaper 😂 They both helped out tremendously! Little Buddy held on to the marker and tape measure!

While Daddy 💕 was cutting the wood down to size, me and daughter were setting them in place. We screwed the outside down and plan to toenail the cross rungs.

Supplies Purchased:

• 50 2x2
• 12 insulation boards
• 10 2x4
• Liquid Nails
• Wood to metal screws 2 1/2"
• a new exacto knife

We decided to go across the width of the bus versus the length so that we wouldn't have to keep butting up wood pieces. We cut off about 4" and they fit across the bus perfectly! We were going to use  Liquid Nails but it would not stick to the Flex Seal ... like not even close! So we ended up using the wood to metal screws on the outside pieces and will probably use brads to toenail the rest. We got a lot done; Freedom is starting to take shape!!

Happy RV'ing!!

The In-Between #3

Yep, it's that time again ... the afghan is coming along nicely! This square was not one of my favorite but I persevered through it! In the end, it turned out perfect!

Square #3:

Happy Hooking!!

Finally ... a Color Palette

Daddy 💕 and I had decided on the colors for Freedom, but only in the yarn I was using to work on the afghan. I finally got around to Home Depot and pick out some lushes colors from Valspar.

We choose a very, almost white, gray for the walls, two other shades of gray to share among things such as the cabinets and fabric, a green and a teal. I was uber excited and glad that I can get all these in high quality paint from Valspar.

Paint Codes:

• Gray Palisade 7006-2 - walls
• Lead Cast 5007-2B - TBD
• Hazy Stratus 4004-1C - kitchen cabinets
• Ocean Voyage 5003-8B - TBD
• Olive Marinade 6007-SC - TBD

Anything that is metal will be primed with 123 Primer first and then painted with an oil based paint + primer. Everything else will either be satin or high gloss, depending on their application. I am über excited!!

Tools Needed: TBD

Happy RV'ing!!

FAIL! The War with Flex Seal ... and Caulk

We were wanting to replenish the flooring and cover up the holes from the seats at the same time. So, we had an employee of Home Depot recommended Flex Seal. Keep in mind that, one can costs about $90.

It comes out thicker than latex paint but thinner than oil paint. It stinks, so have a mask if you use it ... it rolled on with a regular roller and was quite easy to install. One can is not enough to completely do the 71 passenger bus and it did not fill in all the holes. The larger holes required me to go back and caulk them ... the fail was several days later, the caulk had not set. It was gooey and a waste of time. I had to go purchase a small can of Flex Seal and brush each hole slowly ... the second coat worked.

This stuff does not clean up, so do not plan on saving the paint brush or roller. If you get it on the side walls of the bus, you can use a scraper to remove it, it peels off with a little elbow grease.

Tools Needed:

• regular paint roller
• paint brush for small places
• one regular roller pad, two if you don't complete the process in one day
• an extension pole of some sort, it'll save your back - dove used a telescopic paint stick 
• 2 cans of black Flex Seal
• and a full 48 hours of drying time

The end result ...

Happy RV'ing!!

The In-Between - Alternate #1

I decided to add a very large square to make my and Daddy's extra special afghan  ... here is Moon's Shadow square ... (you can purchase it here)

Alternate #1:

Happy Hooking!!

Layout Attempt #2

The first attempt at planning the layout was with rough estimates of cabinet sizes, eyeballing the shower space and going with a smaller refrigerator (we did decide to upgrade to a bit bigger Magic Chef).

We will have the final layout once we have the cabinets, toilet and shower completed. For now, this is a great representation of what we're wanting ... the green tape is if we place the cabinets in a straight line, the blue is the L-shaped. Think I'm liking the blue tape ...

What do you think?

Happy RV'ing!!

The Dreaded Heater

It's time to get the floor going. I am supposed to seal all of the holes left by the seats ... but had to remove the HUGE, useless heater in the back. Each line has antifreeze in it and while you can turn the valve off on the radiator ... you cannot close off the line that goes to the engine ... what fun!

This was not a project that I could do by myself, so I had to bribe my son, Nathan, to come over ... it was promise of dinner LOL I was glad he came to help cause I knew it would be a mess but didn't anticipate that much of a mess! 🙄 A-N-T-I-F-R-E-E-Z-E every where ... literally!

Nathan and I were working along when I almost messed up the whole project by trying to by-pass the antifreeze lines under the hood. Daddy 💕 wanted to make sure that the heater by the driver worked ... OOPS! Glad I caught it before it was too late ... well, good thing we had lots of extra hose ... shhh! Don't tell Daddy 💕!

During the whole process, we ran to the auto parts store like 100 times trying to find the right parts to by-pass the heater in the back but maintain the drivers heater ... yikes! After cutting, removing and getting literally drenched in antifreeze ... we called it a day and I ordered the special 90º brass elbow we needed (I was able to find it here).

Once the elbow arrived ... it was time to get this part of the project completed! It only took 2-days to get the part! YAY!

There were lots and lots of hose ... but thankfully Nathan is smaller than me and can fit under the steering wheel .. LOL Here he is being a doll and getting under the steering wheel to work with the hoses ...

Tools you will need:

• exacto knife to cut hose
• wire cutters to cut power lines
• 90º brass elbow
• replacement hose clamps incase any of yours are damaged or missing (we didn't have to replace any)
• 5/8" ratchet/socket
• philips screw driver to remove the control panel under the steering wheel, there's two of them
• patience
• a small person ... LOL it's tight under the steering wheel
• and replacement antifreeze, you're going to lose some

So ... what did we do?

• turn the shut-off valve to the off position; under the hood that goes from the radiator to the heater box
• disconnected the heater and lifted the hoses so that the antifreeze would not run out onto the bus ... oops! That still happened because the hose fell out of the window ... it didn't get tons of antifreeze on the bus but it was enough to be annoying!
• cut the power lines and wrapped them up for Daddy to remove from the main control panel later (still waiting for that to get done LOL)
• drag the heater off the bus into a safe place, lots of people are looking for those! Might be able to sell it
• remove the main two hoses
• the return hose from the heater unit is what required the 90º elbow; we had to reconnect it under the hood on the drivers side
• refill lost antifreeze
• turn valve back on

That's it ... if we had the 90º elbow ... it would've taken only a few hours to complete the job. 

Happy RV'ing!!