'76 Shasta rebuild

[cowcharge]

Here you can see some of the floor tiles I bought at Lowes. I also slapped together an oven support frame out of scrap wood so that I could use it Christmas Eve, but it was after this pic was taken (no kitchen counter yet either). In the back on the right is my temporary bed, two stacked lower-bunk cushions topped by two stacked upper-bunk kid cushions, with a sleeping bag. On the left in the back hides my desktop computer, sitting on the floor, you can just see the end of the keyboard sticking up. For some reason my LCD monitor is acting squirrelly. It takes about 20 on-off cycles to finally get it to stay on. I'm wondering if it's from being cold for weeks on end, or perhaps the whole computer's drawing too much juice for my little inverter.

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[cowcharge]

Partial kitchen counter. Skil saw really needs a bigger generator.

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[vikx]

Good work, Cowcharge!

[cowcharge]

Thanks vikx, even after measuring and calculating fifteen times I was still surprised the stove sat on the supports and fit in the hole at the right height, lol. And I was congratulating myself on my economy, using two old slats from the bunk bed to support the stove, until I realized too late that I had my Kreg bit set too deep for 3/4" wood, bah.

It was quite a puzzle getting it in there with the sink plumbing not removed (I didn't want to take the plumbing apart because it's all glued PVC). The 3/4" "sides" on either side of the stove have cutouts in the bottom rear for the wheel well, so there's a red 1x2 cross piece that runs down the center at floor level to connect the rear bottom corners in front of the wheel well (the bottom of the trash can is backed up against it, and you can just see it under the stove behind the gas line). That runs under the plumbing, so I had to lift the whole cabinet on its face to get that cross piece over the high plumbing vent and maneuver it down behind and then forward under the plumbing where it runs along the floor.

Still have to cut out the hole for the sink, do the face frames, make the drawers and doors, and do the countertop. And it isn't attached to the wall yet because I don't have all the paneling behind it yet (once it's attached it won't be going anywhere, that 3/4" birch will be strong enough to... sit on). But in the meantime it makes a good workbench and place to mount my mitre box.

I'm having fun trying to come up with cool stuff to use the extra space behind and to the right of the stove, too. There's about three inches of space between the stove and the bedroom wall. The pic is my first draft of an idea for a retractable spice rack on little vertical drawer slides, and using a small pneumatic strut like the ones that support car hatchbacks to raise and lower it. Be pretty cool to push down on the counter and watch it raise itself, hehe. Might do the same with a frying pan behind the stove, or vice versa. I'm also thinking about making a section of the front countertop trim movable to activate a drawer lock for towing...

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[cowcharge]

It sucked having to go to the second page to look at my thread, so I figured I'd better throw a few new pics up. Haven't been doing too much, the budget's not there, but I've slept over a couple of times and done some cooking, lol. Crank up the thermostat, watch a little telly... Stare at the walls and imagine new cabinets so I can put all the dishes away...

The partially-functional kitchen and workbench. The sink's under the counter. Mitre box, microwave, oven, rolling poop tank, the TV and computer are covered by a blanket behind the poop tank. You can see the bathroom wall over on the right.


The starboard aft corner of the bedroom, with window insulation and anti-peek shade. The water tank is under the window. The former upper bunk window will be inside a cabinet/closet. The wires are for a 12v double light that used to be under the top bunk to light the bottom bunk, it'll eventually light the counter that'll be my desk (the bedroom will double as living room, using a folding futon I haven't built yet either). Yes, I got clumsy with the paint roller, but the good thing about tung oil is that you can just sand the paint off and re-oil it.


My painted (6 coats of Krylon Burgundy, 6 coats of Clear, wetsanded to 1500 grit and rubbing compounded) and reinstalled plastic bathtub, it used to be yellow, babysh- I mean, classic 70s Harvest Gold. You can just see the edge of the matching elliptical plastic bathroom sink peeking in the lower right, there's no counter for that yet so it just sits in the pipe. The trim is the original gold anodized stuff, with putty tape behind it. The shower wall is Masonite from Lowes. That's the oven hood sitting on the floor. I've been sleeping on all four mattresses from the old bedroom bunks, two thick lower ones and two thin kiddie upper ones.


This is the back side of the bathroom wall/shower, on the front street side of the bedroom. The insulation is more to make it not sound hollow when I bump my elbows in the shower than anything else. Framed out of the same poplar 1x2s that I'm making all my cabinet framing from. There will be a pocket door for the bedroom that slides between this wall and a thin closet wall, then my couch/bed/futon thing with cabinets above it aft of that. I like how the flash bounced off the insulation, you can kinda see how the birch looks with tung oil. I wanted more of an old library feel to the paneling than the shiny finish most of you guys go for.


Birch with tung oil. It doesn't shine, it just sort of glows, it's hard to get a good picture of it. This is with a flash, so you can see it doesn't reflect a lot of light, but when light hits it the grain really looks deep.


And here's the bad side of town (no barn, everything has to be stored in the camper, makes it like working on one of those plastic letter puzzles with the one empty square, I have to move everything fom one side of the camper to the other when I change what I'm working on). It's effectively the tool shed, workbench, kitchen table and cogitating area. It's about a sheet-and-a-half deep that isn't paneled yet, the new dinette will go there where the old one was. That old upper bunk can fold up and become cabinets, there are two doors in the face facing down. Everything's up there, chemicals, any hardware removed from the camper like cabinet pulls, scraps of wood an insulation, anything else that was in the way. It will of course be torn out and replaced with new cabinets like everywhere else. The bottom wall framing's done, the upper side roof framing was done from outside, the floor is framed but there's still the right front corner of the floor to be insulated, plywooded and tiled. I have yet to tear out and insulate the front wall and windowsill, or the ceiling above the dinette. The batteries and my baby generator are under the table, the inverter and converter are temporarily screwed to the wall behind the table. I can plug my shore power cord into my generator and charge the batteries, and run lights and small tools like drills or shop vacs from the outlets. For saws I go outside and plug them right into the generator 'cause it's only a $150 baby one from the hardware store. The 12v stuff all works, furnace, lights, and water pump, and I can run my TV or computer from the 1000-watt inverter and batteries, although the computer is a stretch, what with the surround sound and high end video card, I have to boot it up with the monitor and sound off or it shuts off the inverter. The dresser is my toolbox. I painted the light fixtures and the roof vent trim with the same Krylon Burgundy as the tub.


Took all of these yesterday.

[Hamlet]

It's looking great, and we love the tub!

[cowcharge]

I'm loving the 1 1/2" walls the most, I think.