RVing

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A Filing Cabinet

One of my biggest decluttering challenges was to go from six overflowing filing cabinet drawers to just one. I moved into Miranda with a plastic bin of files. That worked reasonably well until I started to have to keep more accounting and business records and needed a more accessible system with room to grow. It was time for a proper filing cabinet.

I could have bought a cheap and ugly two-drawer metal one, but I really wanted a wood-finish lateral unit as it would look more like furniture. The top drawer could be for files and the bottom for office supplies. Staples was the only store to have what I wanted, but at $300 and with the wrong wood grain, there was no way I was proceeding with my idea!

When the beyond perfect thing showed up on Kijiji, I knew I had to have it even if it meant a drive to Penticton. It was advertised at $55 and I got it for $45:

It matches my new desk! Their dimensions are so close, also, that the room room really feels balanced now.

The drawer on top is the night table for which I have yet to find a permanent home. I think it’ll stay there, stuffed with printer paper, with the printer on top. Best place I’ve found for it so far.

One of the things I really like about this filing cabinet is that there are rails that let me fit files in horizontally, so that I can have them facing me. I can put personal files on one side and business files on the other:

The drawers glide beautifully and silently. For particle board furniture, it is of excellent quality.

Donna deserves another thank you for helping me haul it out of the car and into the rig!

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Fixing Holes in RV Walls

RV walls are made of thin paneling. You would think that fixing those holes would be a lot of work, right? That it’d involve filling the hole, patching, plastering, and sanding, right?

hole from ugly light fixture (and the green paint!)

Nope!

Here is how to fix a hole in an RV wall in just one step! One!

you’d never know there was a hole here!

Of course, this works best when the hole is at a convenient height to put a picture. 😀

A couple of days ago, I found myself staring at two holes on either side of the big picture window in the rear after removing the ugly light fixtures. I didn’t have any suitable art with which to cover them up and I wanted a matching pair of pictures.

So, I did something I’ve never done and actually went out searching for the perfect thing to cover those holes. I’ve always acquired art on a whim and made it work within my home. These pieces had to fit my decorating scheme and have some personal significance. After trying several stores and looking at pieces that cost more than $100, I found this butterfly and a matching dragonfly at a dollar store of all places, for $2 a piece! The colours are perfect; the frames are nicely distressed; and insects remind me of a major crossroad moment in my life.

The paint job is a mitigated disaster. I really would have needed a third coat (!). I’m just going to put everything into place and scrap every last drop out of that can to touch up the really obvious bad spots. But the colour is so lovely and rich that I’d rather have a bad paint job in here than those ugly white and sage walls.

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Green is Good

The paint colour for the study dried to a beautiful dark olive tone that I really like. You’ll have to wait till I get some natural light for a glimpse of it; it photographs much too yellow, as though it was still wet.I wasn’t so enamoured with the paint, however. It streaked and dripped, behaving like a very cheap product when it is a higher end one. Most disappointing. One can was barely enough; I had to leave the inside of the wall cabinet unpainted. I also applied the product very lightly where the walls won’t show. I don’t intend to ever redo Miranda, so it’s okay if the paint under paintings or furniture isn’t perfect. I have just enough left, barely, to do the touch ups once the artwork and furniture are in place.

I’m so pleased to finally have a green room in Miranda. There is just something about green that I find very soothing. All my homes thus far have featured green. The hospital/mint green that came with Miranda just didn’t cut it; I like my green to be very earthy.

Between coats, I managed to get the curtains cut. Getting them done will be one of tomorrow’s projects, but it’s not so pressing as getting the furniture back into place so that I can move around my RV again!!!

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Prepping is Always the Worst

Been quite a day, but the study is primed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Painting is always a cinch at this point. It’s all the prep before that is a real pain.

As a sneak peak, I’d like to share what the valances look like now:

I would have liked to have done away with the valances altogether, but wasn’t able to for reasons that will become apparent once I get the curtains up. The ends of the valances have nice oak pieces, so I would have liked to make the front an oak strip. But I’m not made of money. 🙂 So, my solution was to strip the old valances right down to the piece of paneling, which I then recovered with paintable wallpaper. I reinstalled them and will be painting them the same colour as the walls. A roll of wallpaper was $20 and will do all my valances, with tons to spare.

When I bought primer in anticipation of doing the toilet room, I went for a full gallon. This is how much I had left after the toilet and dressing rooms:

In case that’s not clear, I’m only an inch down. Doing the study didn’t use up that much more. I’ll probably have a full half gallon left by the time I’m done with the whole rig.

Finally, I opened up the green to paint a test patch. I wasn’t crazy about it, too much yellow. I’ll have to see what it looks like in daylight. I don’t mind buying more paint if I have to; what I saved on the toilet and dressing rooms more than makes up for the losses.

This is what greeted me when I opened the can:

Talk about well separated paint!

I don’t even know if Home Hardware is open tomorrow, so I really hope the current paint grows on me. I’d like to have the first (and hopefully only) coat on by lunch, then spend the rest of the day working on the curtains for this room.

This afternoon, I bought one additional bit of storage for the room, a bin to fit at the end of the mattress where the desk is. It’s always been a sore spot as it collects ‘stuff.’ I found a clear Rubbermaid tote that has almost the exact same dimensions as that spot and I’ll fill it with the out-of-season clothes and extra bedding that is currently eating up two overhead cabinets. The other storage item I bought will take care of the rest of the overflow, and then I can spread out the cabinets a bit more neatly. Living in a motorhome is like living inside a giant puzzle!

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The Final Assault

Yesterday, I went to Penticton to pick up the one thing I was missing to finalize the library’s footprint. It was another case of being at exactly at the right place at the right time. I don’t want to say what it is because picture will make a bigger impact once I get the thing in here!

Today’s goal is to get the study emptied, prepped, and primed.  It’s going to be a huge job; I have to remove the valances and ugly light fixtures and find space for everything I’m moving out of here. But once that’s done, the rest of the work will come together. I’d like to get a first coat of paint on first thing tomorrow so that I can then work on the curtains. The toilet room only needed one coat of paint, so I’m hoping it will be the same with the study.

Then, I’ll get the rig prepped for my departure to make it easier for my cat sitter to do her tasks. When I come back from Montreal I will do the loft, then the kitchen. It’s funny how my original plan had me going the opposite way–kitchen, loft, study, but this new addition to the study makes it necessary to reverse the plan.

Here’s a quick before shot of a study valance, which will be undergoing a makeover instead of a removal for reasons that will soon be explained:

yuck

And here is one of the roller shades that is now in the dumpster. I have had to live with this monstrosity, tear and all, for two years:

ew

Getting this room DONE is going to be so awesome!