Reader Vicki asked for more details about how the door between the living area and cab of my motorhome works.

The door fits over the loft floor.

Detail of how the door slots into the loft floor. The bottom part allows the door to slot into the passenger side wall.

From inside the living room, I grab the top of the door with both hands and lift the door to slot the bottom part into the wall to the right of the door.

The door is now out of the way and I can access the cab.

I then slide the door out of the way along the wall towards the driver’s side.

I just about never go between the cab and the house through that opening. I prefer to park, get out of the driver’s side door, walk around the rig, and enter through the house door. But it will be nice to now be able to go in this way when it’s wet out.

My mother and I blasted through our to-do list today, leaving only a few minor things to finish up. This was the first time that we were able to get through the list without adding anything to it!

Even though my floors have been in since the winter of 2010, the trim has been troublesome. I blasted through the easy parts and made a failed experiment on the hard parts, then pretty much gave up.

Being a woodworker, my mother knows offhand what trim is available on the market. So she looked at the bits we had left to do and made a list of materials needed to get around the problematic parts. The biggest problem I had beyond the funky angles was that the edge of the floor wasn’t flush with the wall, so there would be a gap behind the trim. I had thought to get trim in and fill the gap with putty or caulking, but my mother had a better idea, of course.

Now, I am going to share some pictures, but, please, no comments on the state of my floors! I had the energy to either blog or scrub floors this evening and I thought blogging would be more interesting. 😀

This is what the front of my fridge has looked like for two and a half years:

This is what the front of my fridge looks like with two layers of trim and a bit of putty:

My mother didn’t like the threshold I put in the toilet room (neither did I!) and she had a piece of proper threshold the right size, so she used a band saw to cut it to fit the awkward space:

She did an amazing job along the vanity and shower in the dressing room:

We also finished up the door to the cab, adding some trim to make it look more finished:

Now, I just have to paint all of that new woodwork. The trim will be painted golden brown and I am undecided about the new wall. Logically, it should be yellow, but that may end up being too much of a good thing. My mother suggested wallpaper and I am considering it. That would add a little bit of texture to the room.

Besides all of this, we also put in new bookcase dowels and fitted the male end of the 120V wiring that will connect the inverter to the shore power cable. It was raining, so we’ll leave the female end plus the final bit of work on the new front door exterior window frame for a nice day.

I have to say that Miranda is looking really good these days. I almost feel like I have a new home!

I’m always amazed by the number of RVers who don’t worry about their rig’s carrying capacity and fill it to the brim. I want to live in Miranda until I choose not to rather than because she has fallen apart due to improper care. So carrying capacity is always foremost on my mind. When I bring in something, I do consider where I will store it, but I also fret about the added weight. Whether it’s a box of printer paper or a plywood for a wall, I think of each item’s weight and whether it is worth the carrying capacity it will take.

So cast iron might seem like an odd choice for an RVer, but for me, it has made perfect sense. I have been so happy with the cast iron pan I picked up in Lynden, WA. Admittedly, it took me some time to learn how to properly care for this precious addition to my kitchen; how to season it, clean it, and cook with it. But the end result has been worth the effort. There is just something about food cooked in iron over an open flame. Seared meat becomes succulent, pan breads are extra flavourful, and sauces are enriched by the tasty morsels scraped from the pan.

The most important things I have learned about cooking with cast iron are:

-add the food only when the pan is hot;

-things that cook quickly, like flat breads and thin cuts of meat, can be cooked over a medium flame;

-things that cook more slowly, like a thick cut of meat, should be cooked over a low flame to prevent the dreaded ‘charred exterior, raw interior’ result;

-clean the pan immediately after cooking with a damp cloth, then rub on oil or shortening before the pan cools;

-wear a very good over mitt, such as an Ove Glove, or two regular oven mitts while handling the pan.

Tonight, I made pitas for the first time. My cast iron pan surely contributed to making my effort extra delicious!

Rolling out dough for fresh pitas.

A still hot clean and oiled cast iron pan ready to prepare another delicious meal.

You can’t get yummy spots like those in a non-stick pan!

(Calling pitas magic isn’t hyperbole; I can’t believe my first attempt resulted in perfect pocket bread!)