{"id":22223,"date":"2010-12-06T12:52:24","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T20:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/?p=10539"},"modified":"2016-09-16T20:14:35","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T17:14:35","slug":"slowly-starting-on-the-loft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/slowly-starting-on-the-loft\/","title":{"rendered":"Slowly Starting on the Loft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have started to make a tiny bit of progress in the loft makeover. Looking at this &#8216;before&#8217; picture of the loft, it seems like such a nice, bright space. But it&#8217;s not.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/loft.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10540 alignright\" title=\"loft\" src=\"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/loft.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"386\" height=\"234\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThis space is the biggest challenge, and it is of an environmental nature. The loft is <em>damp<\/em>. The makeover&#8217;s first purpose has to be the remove the humidity in that area. I think that the main source of moisture is condensation from the windows.<\/p>\n<p>I also had issues with mould and mildew <a href=\"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/?p=3043\">because of a leak<\/a>. Thankfully, I was able to fix the leak perfectly and there does not seem to be any further damage from it. There was also a problem with moisture <a href=\"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/?p=5541\">under the original mattress<\/a>. So, I <a href=\"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/CIMG000116.jpg\">raised my mattress onto pallets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Removing the original mattress and adding the pallets made a small difference in the loft&#8217;s comfort level. I&#8217;m hoping that <a href=\"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/?p=10463\">running a dehumidifier<\/a> during the day is going to reduce the humidity to a tolerable level. I&#8217;m already noticing a difference and dumping about half a bucket of water a day. I had thought to stow the dehumidifier up in the loft and have not given up on that idea; I&#8217;m just trying to figure out how I could still make the bucket accessible enough to make dumping it feasible.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I started to remove the window valance brackets in preparation for adding tinted window film to the loft windows. This film will serve two purposes: 1) add privacy and 2) add a small amount of insulation. I looked long and hard for insulated tinted window film, which I know exists, but which was unavailable locally. Research tells me that even regular film will help, so at $18 a roll and needing two rolls only, I thought the experiment would be worthwhile.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things I miss in my RV bedroom is having access to my &#8216;to be read&#8217; pile of books. I used to keep this pile by the bed in my previous home so that I would always know just how much reading material I&#8217;d brought in and hadn&#8217;t read. Forget doing this in the loft; anything I&#8217;ve left up there turned soggy and mildewy! \ud83d\ude41 The reduced humidity makes me hopeful that I will be able to store some books up there now. I will be using part of the valances on the side windows to hold books. The tops of these valances are solidly constructed shelves, perfect for holding a few tomes, a box of tissues, an iPod, glasses, etc. I&#8217;ve been using them as such since I moved into the rig, but I have to remember to take things down when I move. So one thing on my loft makeover list is to add cup hooks and elastic to make it possible to secure things on these shelves.<\/p>\n<p>Before I can do anything up there, I need to move the mattress and pallets back down, a really daunting task.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll have to clear space in the library for them and move my bedroom into the study temporarily. When the loft is empty, I&#8217;ll be able to add the window tinting as well as a mildew-resistant paint. I may splurge on peel &#8216;n stick tiles for the floor, too.<\/p>\n<p>The pallets have been working out super well, but I am really close to the ceiling. I can gain almost two inches by removing their bottom braces, so I&#8217;ll wrangle them outside and get those bottom braces off, which should be <a href=\"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/?p=5559\">entertaining for my neighbours<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Once the pallets and mattress are back in place, it&#8217;ll be time to finally make a decision on window coverings since the tinted film won&#8217;t be enough. I may cave and just make curtains, but the cats spend so much time in the loft that I really do try to reduce how much fabric is up there. And then, finally, it&#8217;ll be time to add my new bedspread and the new privacy curtains.<\/p>\n<p>Getting the loft emptied and moving into the study is so daunting that I&#8217;m having a really hard time getting going on this project. But it&#8217;ll get done in due time and it&#8217;ll be nice to have a healthy and functional sleeping space at last!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have started to make a tiny bit of progress in the loft makeover. Looking at this &#8216;before&#8217; picture of the loft, it seems like such a nice, bright space. But it&#8217;s not. This space is the biggest challenge, and it is of an environmental nature. The loft is damp. The makeover&#8217;s first purpose has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442,632,6,635,1283,5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britishcolumbia","category-canada","category-homemaking","category-north-america","category-osoyoos-bc","category-rving","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}