Campbell River

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Improving a Bare Room

I have a confession to make: I can’t remember the last time I saw the floor in the toilet room.

It’s crowded in there, with toilet paper stacked on one side, paper towels and kleenex stacked on the other. Today, I took a huge step to making this room prime storage real estate.

toiletroomshelf

The shelf is at exactly the right height to fit two rolls of toilet paper stacked on top of each other and is still high enough for a tall person to get up comfortably from the toilet.

I went to Home Depot to get some brackets to affix the shelf to the wall. This was my strangest Home Depot visit ever seeing as staff was super helpful! My first stop was to get the door catches for the over fridge cabinet (2.50$ total) and I hadn’t been two minutes in the hardware section that a helpful clerk was directing me to the door aisle. Next stop was braces and after finding what I wanted, I started to look at screws when yet another helpful clerk came to see if I needed help. I didn’t think I did, but this guy was clever and he managed to take me from ‘I’m fine, thanks’ to ‘I’m looking to screw something into motorhome paneling to hold a shelf’ in about thirty seconds. He talked me out of screws and braces and suggested I use an adhesive. So, having a tube of No More Nails at home, I left with my door catches only, having saved about 5$. Finally, I wasn’t even at the cash yet when a cashier waved and told me she could help me. Very, very, very strange. I noticed last year that service out west is better than out east and that seems to be holding!

I’m now giving the glue time to cure before I load the shelf.  I’m not putting anything heavy up there and the shelf is wedged in tightly, so I’m sure that the adhesive will be enough to hold the whole thing up, even under driving conditions. Time will tell.

Total project cost so far is $0.00 seeing as I had the glue and supporting pieces and Croft told me I could help myself to his plywood scraps. 🙂

When I get around to trim, I’ll add some to the front of the shelf to give it a nice finish. Paint will also happen sometime in the near future.

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Weather Forecast

I’ve found Campbell River to be very balmy so far. In fact, I’ve taken two blankets off the bed and am sleeping without socks, something I haven’t done since early September! I just checked the forecast for the next week. Now, I know those things are rather variable, but the lowest low it predicts is PLUS five and the highest high is TWELVE!

Needless to say, I keep reminding myself that Oliver was very mild until early December last year. *cue in horror movie music*

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Makeover Kickoff!

As funds present themselves this winter, I plan to begin a complete makeover of Miranda to fix her little imperfections, make her reflect my personality, and combat some of the wear and tear on a twelve year old RV not designed for full-timing. I’ve been planning this makeover for six months now and have determined which projects will be done in what order, as funds avail themselves. I could luck out with work this winter and get enough funds to do everything, or I might only end up doing a few things, but as my favourite architect says “A good house is never done” so I will content myself with what I can do to make Miranda more livable.

My first project was one of the more blurry items on my to-do list, one of those problems that can only be resolved when you’re staring at the solution. I hadn’t been at Croft and Norma’s more than an hour when Croft was showing me around the workshop and casually told me that I could use some doors if I found a purpose for them….

What a waste of space. :( Most RVs I've seen have a cabinet either above or below the fridge. I have no idea what Glendale intended for this space; it's too high for a microwave. I've been storing two baskets up there, but they are so cumbersome and need to be taken down when I drive.

What a waste of space. 🙁 Most RVs I’ve seen have a cabinet either above or below the fridge. I have no idea what Glendale intended for this space; it’s too high for a microwave. I’ve been storing two baskets up there, but they are so cumbersome and need to be taken down when I drive.

This is where I paused for lunch while waiting for glue to dry. :)

This is where I paused for lunch while waiting for glue to dry. 🙂

These doors just about match my other cabinet doors!!! Once I've painted (*g*), the difference will hardly be noticeable. When I made my initial measurements, I thought I would have room for two doors, but they each wound up being about a half inch too wide. This turns out well, though, since I was worried about finding latches secure enough to make me feel comfortable that the doors would not open while driving. Now, I have only one door to worry about and I can secure fragile things, like the blender, behind the fixed panel.

These doors just about match my other cabinet doors!!! Once I’ve painted (*g*), the difference will hardly be noticeable. When I made my initial measurements, I thought I would have room for two doors, but they each wound up being about a half inch too wide. This turns out well, though, since I was worried about finding latches secure enough to make me feel comfortable that the doors would not open while driving. Now, I have only one door to worry about and I can secure fragile things, like the blender, behind the fixed panel.

This is the new cabinet with the door open. It will be easy to access items stored behind the fixed panel.

This is the new cabinet with the door open. It will be easy to access items stored behind the fixed panel.

Using only materials Croft and I had on hand, I now have an over-fridge cabinet!

To keep myself honest, I decided that I am going to detail how much money I’m laying on this project. Total cost so far is $0.00. 🙂 I used some 1X2’s Croft had lying around to build the supports for the fixed panels. For the fixed panels, I dug deep into my large pass-through compartment to get the boards for the other bed. Now that I know I won’t be selling Miranda and will most definitely not be needing those boards any more, I can use them for my projects to keep a matching finish throughout the rig. I used Croft’s nails and my own screws, his wood glue and my own braces. One thing I was especially grateful to have access to was his brand new table saw! Works great, Croft! 🙂 It’s amazing how much more quickly a project goes when you have a table saw instead of having to fight with a combination of a jigsaw and miter saw!

The project’s not quite done, but isn’t far off. The space wasn’t even remotely square, to my immense surprise, so I decided that it would be easier to add trim to cover up gaps than to try to cut the particleboard exactly, something I know would probably be impossible to do. I also need latches for the door to keep it closed. Neither items are particularly expensive and I’ll pick them up next time I’m out and about. The final thing is to get a door pull, but that will wait until I’m much further along in the renovation process and know exactly how many more pulls I’ll need seeing as they come from Lee Valley and are cheaper when bought in bulk, plus I’m sure I’ll need other goodies from them.

I’m very pleased with how this project turned out!

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Un-SEAM-ly

I frequently check Miranda’s far flung corners to make sure there are no leaks. The other night, I got the impression that the dampness in one corner of the sleeping loft was from water infiltration, not regular condensation. I did an exterior check of my seams and found that they all seemed water tight… except the corner where I’d noticed wetness inside. Crap.

Some research and advice asking revealed that while plain old silicon caulking isn’t ideal for filling in seams, as it doesn’t last, it’s fine in a pinch. I had a tube of bathroom and kitchen caulking to use up. Being unemployed and on a tight budget, as well as facing a few months of wet weather with no certainty that I’d have time to find the right product, I decided to go with silicon for now.

First step was removing the old putty-type caulking with a fine blade. It was all dry long the seam except the corner, where the putty came up sopping wet. I don’t even want to think about how much water damage might be hiding behind that wall and can only hope that I caught the problem in time to prevent mould. 🙁 I then used a scrubby pad soaked in rubbing alcohol to clean the seam so that the silicon could adhere well. Finally, I laid a wide bead, which I smoothed out with a damp finger, making sure that the silicon went as deeply into the seam as possible.

Now, I just have to hope the weather stays dry for another 24 hours to give the silicon time to cure.

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And… They’re Off!

This morning, I got up early to help Norma and Croft finish loading up the motorhome.

It is here that I have to comment on how horrible RV manufacturers are to give modern RVs so much storage space and just about no carrying capacity. I once had Croft crunch the numbers and their rig was seriously overweight. Their rig is sagging so much the belly scrapes the pavement! Okay, I’m being facetious, but, really, all that storage space is misleading! I know that Miranda’s previous owners didn’t give a second thought to carrying capacity, which gives me the willies.

Norma added onto my list of things to do this winter and gave me an incredibly onerous task: emptying out the freezer, fridge and pantry. 😉 I managed to squeeze the cold goods into my fridge and freezer, but I now need to rearrange the pantry to get rid of the mountain of stuff in my entry way. I won’t have to go grocery shopping for a couple of months! 😀

They set off in glorious, pattern-breaking, weather at 10 o’clock, bang on time. Tonight, they will be going all the way to Victoria, at the other end of the Island, and sleeping at the ferry terminal.

We got along so well that I actually feel a tad bereft right now, all alone in a strange town. *snickers*

Looks like the weather will be holding (yay!) so I’m off to tackle a fairly major exterior job on Miranda and then I’ll be free to start working on the inside!