We had been absolutely dreading this project. I kind of just wanted to go on vacation and pray it was magically done when we returned. Unfortunately, we have no magic bus building elves. So, we had to just suck it up and do it - build the cabinets in the
Securing the Refrigerator in the Bus
Long ago, we decided that we wanted a residential refrigerator in the bus. We have enough battery storage to maintain the 120V needs of a refrigerator when boondocking, especially because newer residential refrigerators are very energy efficient. Our biggest limitation when deciding on a refrigerator was the height of the
Building the Tech Cabinet
The day had finally arrived!!! We were somewhat giddy to start this project - the Tech Cabinet. For months and months, all of our electronic gear has been sitting on the floor of the bus in a box just waiting to have a home. When we wired everything in, we
Building the Broom Closet & Pantry
Building this bus into an RV has been a long project...a very long project. The one good thing about that is that there has been plenty of time to soak up as much knowledge from other RVers and renovators as possible. One of the common issues we have noticed
The Wardrobe - Part 4: Device Charging Station
The project for this week may very well turn out to be my favorite functional part of the bus! With six people living, working, and homeschooling full-time in the bus, we knew we needed to make a space for all the devices. Laptops, iPad, tablets, a few phones, not to
The Wardrobe - Part 3: Building Drawers with Under-mount Slides
After last week’s slight fiasco with painting the face frames, we were so thankful to move onto building again. We are becoming a bit more confident with some basic woodworking skills, so we're excited to build the drawers for the wardrobe.
We planned six large drawers for the bottom
The Wardrobe - Part 2: Misadventures in Painting
Well...we don’t have too much good to share this week. Mostly a bunch of mistakes that we call “lessons learned”. We try to research and research and plan and plan, but sometimes we just screw it up.
The project for the week was to build face frames for
The Wardrobe: Part 1 - The Carcass
Finally...after all of this time...the day came to actually start building some real structure into this bus. I know we already have the pocket doors in, but starting the closet feels much more momentous. Also, I’ve decided not to call it the closet. I want to call
Building the Pocket Doors
In last week’s video and post, we shared with you part of our design plans for our two pocket doors that will be for either side of the walk-through bathroom. After finalizing the plan, we got to work building the doors.
We started with a sheet of ¾” birch plywood
Planning for Pocket Doors - A Peek Inside our Thought Process
Although the demo process of the previous conversion was long, arduous, and mostly gross, the fact that we bought a bus that was already converted did give us one big advantage. We were able to really get a feel for what would work and what wouldn’t work for our
Wiring for Overhead Lights
We finished the first part of the insulation (Ceratex) and the furring strips. Before we could move onto the rest of the insulation (Roxul) or putting up any structure, we had to get the wiring in place for all of the overhead lighting.
When we last shared our progress with
Framing the Windows
After we finished installing furring strips on the ceiling, we finished cutting and installing the furring strips on the lower part of the bus under the windows. Again, we made the 1/4" plywood pieces 6" wide, attaching them to the ribs. The extra width will allow us to tuck
Installing CeraTex and Furring Strips
After finally deciding on a plan for insulation, we got to work. We were ready to start with the first layer of insulation, Ceratex. This ⅛” ceramic fiber paper insulation is extremely easy to work with. Since the giant roll of the Ceratex comes on a cardboard tube (like a huge