The last four days have been quite productive but not quite
as planned or visualized.
I set out with clear goals and plans as to what I wanted and
needed to do regarding repairs and renovations to the RV and they started off
on track and as planned but adapted to the time available each day as well as
the heat that hit hard on Friday.
On Friday I did a little shopping at Lowe's before arriving
at the RV where I set out to give her a bath. The "wash bay" I
chose was somewhat private but I soon learned that privacy was very wet.
The water hose leaked something terrible and I was as wet as if I'd taken a
shower but my RV was spotlessly clean, more or less. Then I set out to
clean around the window opening where I removed the window back in 2010 and
replaced it with an enclosure. Cleaning this area took hours to do as the
gunk was not coming off without a lot of muscle and sweat on my part but
eventually it was clean. I used Eternabond Tape a few years ago to prevent water leaks but I never painted over it and it came gooey and tough to remove.
I taped the area off as good as I thought it needed to be but
the Flex Seal had a lot of over spray. . .oops, drop everything and get that
stuff off of where it don't belong. Okay, the area is sprayed and looks
good if you like black. Yikes! Taking the tape off made it look worse
than I thought. Oh, boy! Don't worry and move onto something else.
Let's move onto cleaning up the bedroom area and get it all
ready for the new framing and storage box. Wow does time fly. It's
time to go home, it's 4:30pm already.
It’s Saturday morning and another morning shopping trip to
Lowe’s. Need some lumber to build a bed
frame and storage compartment.
So I start measuring and cutting the lumber and other wood
for the bed frame and storage compartment. Let's start to construct,
check for fit, looks good, let’s anchor it in place. Hey, good job.
I like the results, looks better than I thought I could do. And I made the decision to just build a
simple storage box and forget about adding a door and shelving to the front of
the box for kitchen stuff. It just does
not make sense to go through so much work for so little gain. I’ll add a separation if need be later.
Let's take a look outside at the blackness of the Flex
Seal. Hey, it doesn't look as bad as I thought. Not the same colour
as the RV yet but it can be painted. Stop sweating the small stuff.
Time to go home before they lock me in the storage lot.
But the window enclosure needs to come out more even with
the exterior wall. How I can I fill it in and make it flush with the rest
of the wall. I have a lot of paneling
and plywood, something might just fit.
Perfect thickness, let’s mark it out and cut. It fits.
Spray another good coat of Flex Seal; make sure it gets into all of the
nooks and crannies. Grab the panel
insert, screws and a screwdriver, screw the panel into place. That looks better.
Time for lunch. How
about McDonald's and then a trip to Home Depot?
That was a decent lunch and a worthwhile trip to Home Depot. Picked up some trim to clean up the window enclosure
and a quart of paint to paint it with.
I’m back at the RV and hit a mental void, not really into
doing much more as its past 3pm and the lot closes in less than two hours so I
clean up a little, sweeping the floor for the hundredth time. I move things around a little and then head
home.
Sunday morning. Lowe’s
again? Yup, need to get something for
the house, the stick and brick home this time, oh and some small nuts and bolts
to secure the hinges in place when I get to add the lid and mattress support to
the storage box.
I’m looking at the back wall and the window. Am I up for the challenge of removing it and
filling in the opening? Thinking,
thinking, still thinking. So I set out,
removing the screws from the interior frame and am struck and amazed at how
much light is coming into the RV. I’m
thinking that it’d be a shame to lose so much natural light so I take a quick
break, relaxing as much as I can, another decision is coming. I’m going to keep the window but what about
this big hole in the wall. I need to
fill it in and make it look like it was never there. Where is that thin piece of paneling I
saw? In the bathroom. This almost looks like the wall paneling. .
.hhhmmm.
Many measurements and calculations later I’ve got a piece
cut and ready to cover the hole but wait I already sprayed and sealed the hole
with Flex Seal earlier and screwed in a piece of plywood on the lower half of
the wall well over a month ago. Remove a
few screws and carefully pry the plywood away from the framing. I can barely pull it back enough to put the
paneling in but how to do both at the same time? Use the chisel as a pry bar and try to get
the piece of paneling in the opening. So
I get it in but have to work a little harder to put it in the perfect
spot. A bit of hammering and it’s in
place. A few adjustments here and there;
add a few screws, some wood filler and seam tape and it’s done.
I am so glad that I decided to keep the window. Even with the wood filler it looks good, the
window really had to stay. More cleaning
up and analyzing the exterior corner and the blackness of the Flex Seal that
maybe just maybe I should not have used.
It is so ugly. I sure hope it
paints well.
The day has gotten by me again and it’s nearing time to head
home. Another bout of sweeping and
organizing and off I go.
Monday morning and a trip to. . .Canadian Tire. I needed a change and they have some sealant
that works well to keep water at bay and I also want to find a glass scraper to
start another stick and brick home project.
Besides, traffic is a nightmare to get over to where my RV is. Several years ago they spent tens of millions
of dollars to improve traffic flow on and off this bridge I have to cross and the
traffic is the same if not worse than it was back then.
What do I do today on the RV? Sweep and clean a little, sand the back wall
a little but need some fresh sanding blocks to do the job right but it still
looks good; sit and relax, have a snack and drink; another good coat of Flex
Seal on the bed-over-cab driver’s side exterior corner, paint the window
filler, cut the trim to size and paint the cuts. My choice of paint is off and is much lighter
than the colour of the RV. I’ll need to
change that as it’s too much of a noticeable, very noticeable difference. I I remove all of the tape and newspaper I
added to eliminate overspray and am horrified to see that speckles of Flex Seal
still made onto other areas where it does not belong. Yikes!
I’ll need to clean that up later.
So I clean and organize some more walk around the inside and
outside the RV. I like my RV. One thing I need to do now that the bedroom
storage box framing is in place is to remove one of the dinette benches to make it
is easier to move around the RV. I do
not have much space to walk between the bed, the closet, or the refrigerator
and not having that particular bench in place will do wonders to the feeling of
space I have, or don’t have.
Four days of effort that did not go quite according to the
plans I had but I feel a sense of accomplishment none-the-less. I did a good job and look forward to doing
more.
I guess I’ll post a few photos tomorrow.
Happy Camping
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