Campbell River

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Pulling Up the Old Allure Flooring

Tonight, I pulled up the Allure flooring I installed a year and a half ago. It felt horrible to do so in that the flooring was in perfect shape, but I am so sick of it! I remember why I picked it at the time, and still think the reasons were valid, but that floor was not meant to last the ten or so years I intend to spend in Miranda.

The Allure came up easily. It’s a floating floor so I didn’t have to wrestle with tacks or anything, but the tabs joining the slats were as sticky as ever. I ended up pulling them apart with pliers to save my hands. It took me about an hour and a half to lay that floor and ten minutes to throw it in the garbage. Oh, what a consumerist society we live in. Guilty as charged.

The underfloor still looks good, but I need to get rid of the remaining carpet tacks from the left side of the room.

That little bit of carpet, about 1’x2′, took me an hour to remove this morning!

With the bedframe out of the way, I have an almost perfectly rectangular room measuring 37 square feet (not counting the space at the back where the mattress is). It feels huge!!!

I’ve been trying to guess how many boxes of Allure I’m going to need this time around and the answer is going to be ‘more than I thought.’ Shoot. Each box is 24 square feet. Last time, I did both the study and the lounge with three boxes. I calculated that I’d need at most five to compensate for the extra square footage in both rooms and to throw in the kitchen and dressing room. I think I’ll need at least six. At any rate, I have three boxes on hand and will see how far I get with them.

Laying the new floors is going to present me with  new challenges since it won’t be like laying out the tile-type flooring. I’ll need to stagger the planks and I’ll also have to lay them out lengthwise. I remember laying the floor in my house with my dad the same way. We started in one corner of the house and couldn’t do just one room at a time as our planks would eventually reach a door and spill into the next room. It’s much easier to do one room at a time and add thresholds between the rooms, but I also remember how much easier it was to sweep a smooth surface from one end to the other. I’ll therefore have to start pulling up the hardwood in the dressing room before I can start laying out the Allure in the study. I have no idea yet what sort of job that’s going to be.

Another challenge will be that the rig is not empty. A good installation of Allure needs to be dust free and that’s going to be pretty much impossible to achieve this time around. I’m going to make sure the study and dressing room are as clean as I can make them, then kick the cats out into the front part of the rig. Thank goodness for doors!

One thing will make this job easier than laying out the tile look, however: no grout marks to line up. I made a couple of small mistakes with the original floors and they bugged the heck out of me although the casual observer would probably not notice them.

Finally, knowing that the corner I intend to start with is 100% square will greatly help me get a good start on the project since I won’t have to spend time figuring out how to get a straight first row.

Well, it’s already three and instead of doing like yesterday and going to sleep at 6AM (a bit much, even for me!) because I’m so wound up, I’m going to go take a hot bubble bath. Housesitting does have its perks over RV park life. 🙂

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Renovation Goals

While beautifying my RV and making it suit my personality is a perk of renovating it, I’m not decorating for the sake of decorating.

Most motorhomes, unlike fifth wheels, do not have a layout suited to a full-timing lifestyle. As my friend Donna pointed when she gave me the tour of her place, her fiver has an entrance closet!

I’ve been living in Miranda almost a year and a half now and I’ve clearly identified not only what my layout is lacking, but also how I aim to remedy those deficiencies.

By the time I’m done with the first phase of the renos I hope to have:

1) an entrance area with space for a coat or shawl and footwear;

2) functional storage place for clothing and all the related accoutrements;

3) a more efficient way of dealing with dirty laundry;

4) a way of counter-acting the dampness in the loft and against the far wall of the study;

5) a home office that I don’t have to completely take apart when I drive;

6) a bathroom that I don’t have to partially take apart when I drive;

Those are the big ones. I’ll link back to this post as I cross the items off the list… or add to it. 🙂

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Curiosity…

Might be lethal to cats, but it is funny to their mothers.

Tonight’s project was to get rid of the other bedframe. To start, I had to remove the drawer affixed to the top of it. I removed the drawer from its frame, then went out to get a screw driver. I came back to this:

(pardon the dust, renovating is messy business!)

Oh, I just adore her. 🙂

Removing the frame was tedious, but it’s done! Tomorrow, I’m going to out the carpet and all the staples, then get to work on the desk since I won’t be able to reverse it as is. I’ll have to take it apart to flip some components as well as cut a notch into it because the wall on the opposite side isn’t flat. The vent pipe goes through the corner so the wall was built around it. By cutting the notch into the desk top, I’ll be able to make full use of that side of study and give the desk a built-in look. The desk was finished to fit on this side, so it won’t look as nice once I fit it on the other side, but I intend to paint it the same colour as the cabinets later, so it’s fine. I debated getting a ‘proper’ desk with lots of cubbies and storage but decided to stick with this one because it is so lightweight. Plus, it reminds me doing the initial renos a year and a half ago (already!) with my mother.

Well, it’s midnight-thirty and the night is young so I’m off to work on other projects. Days should be longer than twenty-four hours!

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Weather Frustration

In a bid to open up the rig a bit, I’m going to be doing away with some storage areas inside Miranda. The plan is to do a much needed tear-apart of the basement to get rid of excess stuff and then store there what I won’t be storing inside.

The weather refuses to cooperate for that. Even though I had a couple of clear hours this past weekend, rain was announced for later in the day and I didn’t want to risk having everything out and then getting soaked. And, no, Croft, bringing everything into the house and then back out isn’t an option. 😀

The two big categories that are going under the rig are cold weather gear and blankets. It’s still way too early in my Avoiding Winter Life to get rid of the winter gear, but I really don’t need it on hand. As for blankets, every time I think I have too many, we get a cold snap and I appreciate having them all. I should be able to get everything into the big Rubbermaid bins by doing a major purge of my wardrobe since just about nothing that’s down there is going to fit now. Working thirty-three hours a week on your feet is very good for your waistline even if you spend the rest of the week at a computer!

I also find that my tool storage hasn’t been working out and I think I know how I’ll remedy that. Then, there’s the bucket chairs that need to go, and I’d like to try an experiment: I think I might be able to get the litter box into the basement…

My goal for next winter is to spend it in a dry climate. Damp climates are hell on an RV and I bet the past two winters are going to take ten years off Miranda’s potential lifespan.