An Abandoned Blog For Three Weeks

I cannot believe that we have not posted here for three long weeks. What has been going on that took us away from our blogging duties?

Well, we were doing this and that and just could not bring ourselves around to blogging for the past few weeks but some stuff was accomplished and this is a good thing.

Edith and I have been out and about and making plans for the future. Edith has several new outfits and I finally got some clothes on that I like.

David and I visited the RV, Ms Lucille/Esmeralda several times over the past couple of weeks and made some progress with repairs but less than we planned and wanted to do. We re-wrapped the RV with the tarp and secured it with rope and just a few bungee cords and it is holding up well. We applied LiquidWood to the bed-over-cab area but wasted quite a bit of it because we mixed too large a batch for the job. But had we investigated the exterior lower passenger side of the RV earlier we could have used the extra LiquidWood there to strengthen the obviously rotten wood in that area too! Live and learn!

Edith and David painted the cabinets in the bedroom/lounge area of the RV as well as painted and applied wallpaper to the cabinet doors and does it ever look good. All of us are quite pleased with the way it looks and the job isn't even done yet.

Photos will be posted once the job is complete. See our previous posts for some hints on paint colours and the wallpaper used to get an idea of what we are doing.

So yes, David and I explored the exterior of the RV, more specifically the lower trim and discovered that the wood veneer underneath the fiberglass paneling is dry, rotten and brittle and practically disintegrates upon your touch. Bad news definitely but the bright spot in all of this is that the driver's side of the RV is rock solid and was mostly likely repaired in the past. We simply planned to replace the lower trim with a flat, lower profile metal strip but when we removed the old trim the water damage to the wood veneer was quite obvious. Are we up to the task of doing this repair job ourselves? We hope so but we will need to take more time to investigate the amount of damage and how much work needs to be done to make it right. So we will explore more and keep you all posted. Hopefully, we can get the RV repaired and on the road in short order but we remain flexible as we want to do it right and have the best darned RV that we can before coasting down the highway in her.

Sorry that we abandoned all of you, our faithful readers for so long please continue to check in as we should be blogging more regularly from now on.

Take care,

Eugene

More of This n That

Since we have picked up everything we think we need to complete the repairs on the RV we will soon be putting them to use.  Unfortunately, not everything on our list was available so we had to find good alternatives and we hope they will work just as well if not better than our original ideas.

Last night, I was dreaming about making the repairs to the RV.  I am glad that my dreams are helping us plan the most effective way to make these necessary repairs.  We will complete the one side for now and get that behind us before tackling the rest of the front end of the bed-over-cab area as I think it best to reseal the entire front of the RV.  This way it is done to our liking and if it leaks then we know we did not do a good job and have no one to blame but ourselves.

We have a few things to do as we move forward and I think that as we repair the front and then wait for things to dry and what not we will go about cleaning the RV starting with the bathroom and follow that with the bedroom and lounge area before tackling the kitchen and dinette area leaving then the bed-over-cab area until the very end as that will involve refinishing it and enjoying the new look of the RV once it is complete.

We need to actually pick up a few things now that I think about it so we can actually tie the new and old pieces of wood together as well as tie the new wood to the base of the bed-over-cab area.  I will find some metal strapping and short small screws to fasten the strapping to the wood.  Some construction adhesive will also be necessary I do think.  We then need to clean up the piece of paneling I peeled off and broke into pieces so we can reuse it and then fill in any minor defects with wood filler or epoxy.  All in all I think that this repair is an easy and minor one to to take care of as it could be a lot worse.

One other area of concern I may have mentioned before is around the rear passenger side wheel well where the wood is soft but not totally rotten.  If I have enough Liquid Wood left or even if I need to order more we will tackle this area at some point in the future as is it is secure enough to leave alone for the short term I think.  But then again we might be able to get to it sooner so we shall see how it all works out.

If the weather remains rather nice like it is we should be able to get in a couple of hours of work every night after my work day in late August and a good days work three out four weekend days so the work we need to do should be be easily completed during this time as Eugene and for that matter Edith are quite eager to help me get these repairs completed so I am confident that the three of us should take care of this in very short order.  I think the only delays we will experience are the waiting times for things to dry such as the LiquidWood, 24 hours and the wood epoxy, also about 24 hours and maybe the weather, if it decides to rain.  Otherwise, I think it will be a rather quick exercise as I am primarily focusing on the front half of the RV so cleaning and repairing are not as overwhelming as they could be if we were to tackle the RV in its entirety.

Crazy Busy With Work

As you can probably tell I have been busy with my day job as I have posted for a week.  My plans to use the three weeks I had by myself at my day job to effect some repairs to the RV have been thwarted by work.  Is this not always the case where a job is quiet when there are more than enough employees around and as soon as one of those employees goes on holidays is when more work than one person can handle comes in a wreaks havoc with your plans of enjoying the time by yourself in your own very special way such as repairing an RV.

Work is not the only hindrance as the weather is wet and it is no hurry to provide us with any long term sunshine so RV repairs can be made out of doors.  If I want to make any sort of repairs right now I will need to erect a temporary garage cover over the RV or even rent some indoor space to get busy with the absolutely necessary repair work.  No worries though as it will eventually get done.  I basically know what I need to do so it is just a matter of having a stretch of good weather that will allow me to get the repairs under way and complete hopefully before summer has come and gone.

If it is quiet today and if tomorrow looks the same I may take a quick trip across the border to Camping World and Karl's Paints to purchase a few things.  Camping World will likely be an all day affair as it is sure to be filled with many items I just need to have. . .but my RV is small and I will do my best to remember my minimalist ways.  Karl's Paints and I will confirm this with a quick call apparently carries LiquidWood (Abatron) so I would like to pick a couple of quarts if not a gallon of this stuff to restore the wood that is showing signs of deterioration in the front driver's side corner of the bed over cab area of the RV.  I was hoping for drier weather so the wood dries out a little bit so I can apply this to it before tackling the outside as I am not sure how weak the wood has become since it has more or less been saturated with rain for the past twelve months.  LiquidWood will apparently make the wood a new and stronger product than what it was originally and  I like that. . .

I called Karl's Paints and they no longer carry LiquidWood so after more research I found V I Color Mart Stores in Victoria, BC.  Bishop was very helpful and well informed about the product.  I gave it some thought and placed an order.  I had to arrange for and pay for shipping but this is a small price to pay to have such a great product.  I look forward to using it and giving the RV a new lease on life.

I also dropped by Rona the home improvement store and saw a few different rolls of wallpaper that I think I would like to get and apply to a few walls in the RV.  I really like the brick and different stone patterns but I am not sure if they really work in an RV but there are also weaves and stripes that will work just as well.  I will give it a bit of thought and if I decide "yes" on the wallpaper I will also look for and pick up some thermal drapes to cover the windows with as well as separate the living area from the driver's compartment.  This will provide me with warmth in the cooler months and coolness in the warmer months so I be more than comfortable in my little nest I hope to create fro myself in the coming months.

Tomorrow I shall pay a visit to Travco and pick up a few items to stop the leak(s) with and get the RV water and weather tight in the next few weeks.  I may even be able to get started on Saturday.  I am feeling so much better now. . .

What a bad leak I have in the RV

Yesterday afternoon I paid another visit to the RV to check a few measurements and have a more thorough look at what needs to be done to reseal the roof and joints and I made a shocking and disheartening discovery.  The rainy day was good in that I was able to see exactly how bad the leak is and where exactly it may be and it is worse than I thought.  I cut away some of the wood paneling in the area where water has been coming in and the wood behind it was saturated with water.  From the outside it is not apparent where the leak is coming from but my guess is the joint between the front and side walls and possibly between the walls and roof.  Another area could be the front and side windows and perhaps the clearance lights.

I left the RV very depressed, disheartened and dismayed almost throwing in the towel and had a restless sleep.  But waking up after an almost sleepless night I am in a much better mood and frame of mind.  Yes, the RV leaks and the damage is bad but on the good side it is repairable and this is what I must remember as I move forward.  I will take the work slowly and methodically making sure I do an effective and safe repair and do so one step at a time.  I will focus my repair work on the front corner and work from there as I did not see any other areas that should be of concern.  After ensuring I have stopped the leak I will go about repairing the interior area where the leak has occurred.  Again working carefully I will go about repairing and replacing any damaged wood as necessary as well as use LiquidWood to re-stabilize some of the damaged wood to reduce what I need to do to ensure the wall is safe, secure, and dry.

Noticeable and Necessary Repairs

As you will see from the photos I need to make a few repairs to the RV with the first priority being the roof to eliminate any more water leakage to the interior of the RV.  The second and third repairs will be to fix the areas most visibly affected by said water damage.  Namely the bed-over-cab area and the passenger side rear wheel well.

 

I came across a product to repair the water damage to the wood and it is called LiquidWood by Abatron.  (LiquidWood)  This will repair the damaged wood itself eliminating the need to replace the wood.  And as far as the roof goes I am still researching the different possibilities regarding its repair.  I have no firm ideas as to how to approach the roof repair but what I do know is that it needs to repaired to stop water leakage into the RV.  As part of the roof repair I will reseal all possible areas of water penetration from around the roof vents, the clearance lights to all seams, edges and around all windows and doors.  All in all I believe that this will be a fun exercise and a good way for me to get into the whole RVing lifestyle.

I am quite enjoying writing this blog and I cannot wait for both Edith and Eugene to join on this blogging and RVing adventure.  It sure appears to a great activity and lifestyle choice.  Oh, and by the way, Edith and Eugene did move their box so it is likely that will be making their  grand entrances pretty darned soon.


Bye for now!