Thank You! Thank You!

 

Thank you Amy and Glenn for the lovely old hinges and knobs. These will be great when we start making kitchen cabinets!

Thank you for the mini-fridge, Mom. I hope we can really fit all our food in here! I'm a little worried about freezer space, since I totally filled my full size one with tomatoes and raspberries last summer.

Walls: Week Two

     Framing is officially complete! Phil framed where the hearth for the wood stove will go (we still need to get the wood stove). We also got the stone for the hearth, and just set it down where it will go for now. Phil also made the frame for the futon and framed the huge art table/ computer desk that will go in the front of the bus.
     We spent the majority of this week on the walls, trying to get as much paneling finished as possible. We finished the bathroom walls, and the kitchen walls, and the bedroom is finished for now. There are just a few small places that still need paneling. I started making shelves and sanding edges of walls too. Everyday I get completely covered in sawdust! I really enjoy sanding and making everything smooth, but I cant wait for woodwork to be over.

A view from the front of the bus: On the left will be the art table, and on the right will be the futon. Both are just framed so far. Also, you can see our flooring stacked up there on the left. Its 6" unfinished yellow pine, T & G.

Walls, Kitchen counter, mini-fridge

Here is a pretty crowded work shop. Power tools and cords all over the place. But the walls almost finished!

I am not a carpenter, and I sometimes get impatient with the boring early stages of building things. I can't wait to do the nice detailed work, and I want to see something finished! We don't have a lot of time to spend on these things now, but I just had to put some shelves in! So here are my toilet paper shelves, built into the wall in the bathroom. The bottom part is a compartment for holding sawdust (which we are saving by the bucket load!) and will have a hinged lid. This is for the composting toilet.  I have to say, I am quite happy with how this tuned out, since its pretty much the first thing I ever built.

Lunch: Orange-glazed tempeh with shredded carrot. Israeli cous cous with tomato sauce.

Walls!

THANK YOU so much, Stacey and Brian! You guys are awesome! Your old walls are now becoming our new walls, and we are so happy with how they are turning out! We really appreciate all the beautiful wood paneling you donated to the bus!

So, we finished almost all of the framing, and we spent most of the weekend putting up the paneling on the walls. Making templates for the ceiling and walls of the bus is ridiculous and takes forever! And so is cutting each piece of wood and sanding it to fit in place. And it doesn't help that the bus' shape isn't consistent, so the templates don't always fit in places other than where they were made. But despite the slowness, we think the walls are coming along quite well so far.

Here is some of Phil's crazy cutting skills.
I'm so glad we only have to do this in a few places.

Bathroom walls.

Bedroom walls. Its starting to feel a little like a log cabin in here.

Bus Meal of the Week: Roasted butternut 

squash lasagna with creamy sage and 

garlic sauce. We were so hungry we 

scarfed it before I could get a photo. 

But here is a pic of my peanut butter- 

chocolate shortbread cookies. 

mmmmm.

Purchase of the week: We got an oven! Its so little! 
only 20 inches wide. We found it on craigslist 
and it was a great deal. Its gas, so we can use 
a propane tank mounted under the bus for fuel.

Framing. Framing. Framing.

The bus is no longer level, the bus walls are not quite perpendicular to the floor, and it seems like no measurement is consistent throughout the bus, yet we managed to get a lot accomplished with framing the walls this weekend!

 Left photo: inside the bathroom cabinet with the wheel well boxed up.
On the right: Studs on the floor.

Here is one of the kitchen counters where the sink will go. 

 

A box over one of the wheel wells. This is where the closet will be.

The bathroom cabinet and counter where the sink will go.

    Here is most of the frame work we finished. Way in the back is the bed. On the left is the shower room, followed by the kitchen counter with sink.  On the right is a room for the toilet followed by the closet (with the boxed in wheel well). There will be another kitchen counter after the closet.

We also started to cover the insulated walls with plywood under the windows, and partially covering the windows where counters will be (The windows are 30 inches from the floor, and the counter tops will be 36). We're almost ready to start putting up the walls!

Bus meal of the week: Spicy curried chickpeas with roasted winter root vegetables. Chocolate chip cookies for dessert!

THANKS AGAIN, DREW!

For all the tiles, plywood, and screws. We really appreciate it!

Framing

 Another cold and icy week working on the bus, but at least it was sunny!

 We started framing the walls for the bathroom(s).
Because of the weird linear bus space, we'll have a shower room and a separate toilet room, and a hallway in between them. 
Screwing into the ceiling was quite a challenge. We broke at least 4 drill bits, a few drywall screws, and even the self tapping ones were difficult going in!

Framed so far: bed in back, two rooms on either side with a hallway in between.

I have been working some days by myself, while Phil is at work. Usually he will show me how to do something (like the framing) while we are working together, then I can continue on my own. There is no way I could be doing this all on my own, with my very little knowledge of building things. Yesterday a neighbor came over to say hi and check out the progress.

Gareth: "So you must be the carpenter in the family"

Me: "oh no, I've never built anything before, actually I dont even know what I'm doing."

But I managed to frame out the room on the right alone, with much frustration and many broken drill bits.

Bus Meal of the Week: Mashed sweet potatoes, black beans and brown rice, steamed kale...and lots of hot sauce, with vegan buttermilk biscuits and hot tea! Good eatin'!