Homemaking

by

A New Addition to the Family

I mentioned to Jody the other day that I wanted to try my hand at keeping houseplants on board, most specifically aloe vera since it’s a good air scrubber and it also has medicinal value. Lo and behold, Jody had an aloe vera plant to give away!

It’s hard keeping plants around my cats, so I’m hoping the aloe vera is getting enough sunlight from the dressing room skylights. If I think it’s doing poorly, I’ll try to hang it from an overhead cabinet in the library by a window.

When it comes time to repot the plant, I’ll pick something that fits into my decor a little more. 😉

And hopefully I won’t have any trouble crossing the border with this plant!

by

Making Good Time on the Destriping

The passenger side is just about half done, if I count from bumper to bumper.

IMGP1901

IMGP1902
Every colour behaves differently. The beast is the emerald green, which leaves behind the thick grey glue. Second is the teal, which leaves a a chalky white residue. The best are the burgundy, the lettering, and the swipes, which just peel right off.

I put in a solid day of destriping to get to this point, starting around 9:30 and working two hours, then putting in another four hours this afternoon. I’m on flier duty for the rest of the week, so it’s nice to get a head start. This is not an onerous chore, believe it or not. I love working on my home and being out in the sun feels so good!

My tools for this project are:

-a hair drier that blows really hot;

-a narrow metal paint scraper (thrilled to find one that isn’t wrecking the fiberglass!);

-an old Petro-Points card for scraping the bottom stripes that are on white painted metal, not fiberglass;

-an old pair of tweezers for picking at small bits;

-WD-40 for loosening the adhesive prior to blasting with heat.

I have two thoughts about this immense project that may shed some light on why I’m putting myself through this.

The first is that Miranda was due for a really thorough exterior restoration. Why put in all that elbow grease only to cover decals that are cracked, peeling, and dated?

The second is that I have a number of options for how to restripe, in a variety of prices and difficulties. If I end up with a worst case scenario, that even with a thorough buffing I still have ghosting, or, even worse, I can’t get off all that grey glue, then I can get three rolls of wide striping in different colours, plus a couple of stock graphics, and just reproduce what was there in a more simple design. Total cost for that would be a few hundred bucks and Miranda would still look better than she does now. I’m exploring all options, including professional restriping and even, gasp, painting, but I know that regardless of what I end up doing, it’ll be completely worth it.

As a side note, I love my location. After working all day in the hot sun I really wanted a cold beer and there just happens to be a liquor store across the street!

All this work today was also a good distraction from my feeling of impending doom about the election results. Two and a half hours left until the poll results start trickling out…

 

by

RV Freezer Defrosting Tip

I took advantage of my electrical problem yesterday to defrost the fridge and freezer. In the fridge it’s always half of the coils that turn into a mass of ice while in the freezer it’s the back wall that gets thicker and thicker.

The fridge ice falls off the coils very quickly after turning off the power, but the freezer ice behaves as though it was attached with crazy glue. It’s a bad idea to use anything sharp to scrape and a hair dryer or other heat source can also cause damage.

The solution is to lightly coat the freezer walls with a non-salted oil, such as vegetable or olive. Ice will build up as normal, but after letting the fridge sit for about an hour a gentle tap will loosen it. Dispose of the ice, wipe down the walls, and reapply the oil before turning the fridge back on.

I would not try oiling the coils in the fridge.

 

by

Destriping Preview, This Time For Real :-)

Seems like my great joke was thoroughly unappreciated. And I thought my readers had a sense of humour! 😀

This afternoon, I made some real in roads in destriping Miranda. I’ve discovered that a hair dryer and a scraper are the only things I need to do an efficient job. The hair dryer softens the vinyl and adhesive and the scraper allows me to bring up an edge that gives me a good grip for removing large chunks. I just need to find the right scraper. Plastic isn’t sharp enough but metal is too damaging. The perfect thing is a finger nail, which is less than ideal!

I’m now working at doing whole sections and not worrying about ghosting at this time. I’ll get all the striping off then see how uneven the finish is after doing a thorough buffing.

Here’s the passenger side before:

Today, I got rid of the writing at the back, the big burgundy swipe next to that, and the wide burgundy stripe under it.

that white patch once held writing and a big burgundy swoosh; you can also compare the compartment door to the wall to see that I removed the wide burgundy stripe below the green and pink

that white patch once held writing and a big burgundy swoosh; you can also compare the compartment door to the wall to see that I removed the wide burgundy stripe below the green and pink

you can see the ghosting of 'Royal Classic'

you can see the ghosting of ‘Royal Classic’

You can see the ghost of the big burgundy stripe above the green

You can see the ghost of the big burgundy stripe above the green