Construction Zone

Last October, before I left Mesa Verde, I removed one of the dinettes from my RV. The furnace (it was under the bench seat of the dinette) was removed by a mobile RV tech and he capped off the propane.

This left me with a few challenges to work around. I am building a couch/bed/hinged storage box.

I have a rough sketch of the project, without measurements. I measure and cut one piece of lumber at a time,  fitting it together. I started this more than a month ago and this week have added a few more pieces. It is not really taking long, I have only worked on it about 3 days during this time, maybe an hour each time.  I buy a few pieces of lumber each time I go into town.  I am using a hand saw with a miter box to cut the 1 x 4's.

Originally, I asked my son-in law, Karl, to help me - I did not think I would be able to do this by myself.  I find I am enjoying doing the work myself. I may still need his help with some of it -  I am trying to do as much as possible on my own. I hope he is not upset if I don't need his help.

I could have used another pair of hands
 to attach this long board (72 1/2" long).

Instead, to support it, I set it on a small electric heater

 and a folded up piece of paper - some wood glue and duct tape

to hold the corner before I could add some screws

 I am sure there will be some carpenters laughing

and shaking their head at how I am doing this.

Some of the things to work around

the electric for the outside outlet

the slanted piece of wood is part of the original construction
this is what I found when I removed the dinette bench

there is a little sticker upside down on this piece of wood
it says, LINEFILL and a bunch of numbers
and the date 10/2/2007

This corner is where the furnace was.
The curved area (covered with Reflectix)
is a cut-out on the side of the cabinet over the wheel well.
The vents for the furnace ran under this cabinet. 
I will frame out around this propane pipe
 and make a wall to protect the pipe.


I should have it framed out soon, not sure if I have enough
lumber or if I will need to buy another piece.

Next week I will be going to San Antonio
with Diane and Karl for 3 days,
so it will be awhile before I get around to adding
the plywood top and front.

Almost Ready........

Only a few more days until I'm "on the road again".  I'm taking my cat with me this time and I will be traveling for a month, so this should be an interesting trip. I had a route mapped out, been watching the weather reports, trying to avoid rain, may have to change my route. I need to make up my mind soon, because I wanted to make a reservation at a state park for the holiday weekend, I wanted to avoid driving in the holiday traffic.
I checked weather.com early this morning, most of the flooding is in Southern IL and MO - and further south - near my original route. More rain is predicted for this entire area all week.  I have decided to change my route and cross the Mississippi in Southern Iowa or Northern  Missouri.
Ladynomads blog showed flooding at campsites at Table Rock Lake.  Is there a central place I can find out about flooded areas, or do I need to contact each states Department of Transportation?
I will be traveling through Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and maybe a corner of Oklahoma before I get to Texas.      I checked out a few State Park websites and some were updated to include flood and road closings details on the home page of their website, this is very helpful information.

I still have to learn how all of the electrical stuff works. The water and sewer are a lot less complicated than making sure I have enough power for all of the gadgets and toys and for cooking and lights. On the way home from Florida, I had an electric hookup at each campsite, I did not hook up to water and sewer everyday.
    
I will have to read about the Inverter, vs shore power, vs generator. At a class I attended at LazyDays, they warned about plugging in chargers (for cameras, cell phones, etc) to inverter power, because its not a "pure SineWave". ??? They said a laptop is ok, the cord has that adaptor on it to regulate the power coming in. (I always wondered why laptop cords have that big "brick"). I would like to add solar to the coach - so that I'm not dependent on electrical hookups.
 
I went to the DMV for my license plates. They were not very helpful, luckily I know how to fill out tax forms. They handed me the application and Use Tax form and said they could not do them.  I had called the SOS office the day before, so I had the tax rates and all of the info I needed. I received a credit for the sales tax paid in Florida.  Their website had an Environmental Plate with a Cardinal on it, they did not have these at the office I went to. I have plain RV plates for now. They expire on December 31st, so I will try to get the Cardinal plates when I get a renewal form in the mail.  Not sure if I want a personalized plate, or to just get a random number when I renew. Do you have "vanity plates" on any of your vehicles?

This weekend I've been busy filling up the cabinets and closets with dishes, food, clothing, electronic gadgets and books. The outside storage bins will have a lawn chair, chair umbrella, cleaning solutions, tool box, extra blankets and an extra water hose, cat litter and jugs of water. When I was first looking at RV's, I didn't think I would be able to take books along, thought I wouldn't have space or they would be too heavy. I have one upper cabinet filled with books, they are mostly travel books.  I found a file folder full of maps and travel brochures in the garage. I will sort through this and find a place for it in the coach.

Also, from the garage is a computer monitor that is also a TV. I originally purchased it for my office, and then later we used it in the garage - hooked up to cable TV. I purchased a wall mount for it today, and have to figure out where in the coach to put it. I like that it can be used as a computer monitor and/or TV. I can use it to watch DVD's for now.
I'll have to get a cable outlet installed on the coach.

The dollar store had some nice fabric bins in a bunch of sizes. I am using them to hold books, clothes and kitchen stuff. I took the coach for a short ride the other day and a lot of things moved around in the cabinets. I'm hoping these bins will keep things corralled. I splurged on a set of Corelle dishes this weekend. I have been trying to find some on sale or at a resale store.  I finally went and bought the design and style that I liked.

"SOLOing consists of
three consecutive takeoffs
and landings"
-unknown author