We awoke around 7 AM and noticed that it had rained overnight.  We had Linda’s homemade granola with fresh blueberries for breakfast, followed by a pot of coffee brewed from the Cafe Europe / Columbian Decaf blend I got from Teeko’s on Tuesday.  As we do most mornings we enjoyed our coffee while using our iPads to check in on the world (Linda) and write about our day yesterday (me).

While Linda went for a walk I checked e-mail and responded to several from Gary Hatt at Bus Conversion Magazine.  I then unloaded all of the boards, slides, battery terminal covers, and the pneumatic disc sander and discs from the car.  I set up our 15 gallon portable air compressor by the entrance door of the bus, got the long air hose out of its storage bay, and connected the air sander.

When Linda got back from her walk we unloaded the pull-out pantry from the car and stored it on top of some of the bookcases in the library.  We had a light lunch after which Linda settled in to work at her desk and I busied myself with sanding the floor in the bus with the air sander.

Floor prep tools: 4” belt sander, hammer and chisel, 4” rotary pneumatic body sander.

I was eager (anxious) to get the initial sanding done so I could apply the floor leveling compound.  Like drywall compound it will be a multi-day process.  I needed to fill any deep gouges and voids, let the compound dry, and then lightly sand it with an orbital pad sander and finer grit sandpaper to make sure it is smooth.  I then needed to fill the shallow grooves that exist between the ridges of thinset and mastic that I could not sand off completely.  Once that dried I would again sand it off lightly and then apply a final, very thin, skim coat to the entire area, feathering it into the areas where tile was never installed.  Finally I would go over the entire area gently with the pad sander one last time to make sure the surface is as smooth and flat as possible before installing the 1/4″ underlayment.  The tile will be installed directly on the underlayment.

I considered using self-leveling instead of troweled-on floor leveling compounded but decided against it.  Self-leveling is thin, like water, and flows.  As such it seeks its on level and forms a smooth flat surface that is “level” as determined by gravity.  Although it offers the possibility of a single step process with no sanding, it also offers the potential to go wrong and not be repairable.  The bus subfloor would have to be dead level side-to-side and front-to-rear.  There would also have to be a border to contain the liquid and there could not be any holes or cracks that it could leak through.  In particular it seemed I’ll-suited for feathering into the adjacent areas of the subfloor that were never tiled.  And so I decided to fill in and “level” the floor the slower and more labor intensive, but more controlled, way.

For dinner we had the other half of the gluten free pizza Linda made on Tuesday.  We had peaches, strawberries, bananas, and an orange melon that were all ripe so she made a fruit salad.  We finished the bottle of Cupcake Black Forest Decadent Red Wine.

We decided to turn in early and watch a little TV.  Part 2 of The Mystery of Matter: The Search for the Elements was on PBS at 8 PM.  We saw Part 3 last night and did not realize until 7:45 PM that Part 1 was on this evening at 7 PM, so we still have not seen it.