We had closed up the house and turned on the air-conditioning before going to bed last night and had it set at 72 degrees F to make sure it ran long enough to pull some of the humidity out of the air. I awoke at 7:30 AM on this penultimate day of August hoping to be able to open up the house, which Linda prefers in almost any weather, but was greeted with fog and temperatures in the mid-60’s so I turned the A-C back to 70 to make it run for a while and move the air around.
Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest but not for us, at least not today. I gathered up the laundry and started a load in the washing machine and was just starting to prepare our morning coffee, Kenya AA (not decaf), when Linda emerged. She washed off some fresh blueberries and got our granola ready. We were both dressed to work but enjoyed our coffee in the living room from 8:30 until 9 AM.
Our first bus project task was to trim the passenger side front piece of underlayment that we cut last night. With that done I rolled the air-compressor out by the entrance door, uncoiled the air hose and connected it, unrolled the extension cord and plugged it in, oiled the air stapler, and connected it to the air hose. I loaded the staples and, with Linda standing on the pieces to hold them flat, stapled them down.
The next piece of underlayment, which would finish the hallway, was a very tricky piece with lots of angles. The problem in measuring a piece like this, in which sides may not be exactly parallel and angles not exactly 45 degrees, is finding a reference corner with two factory edges from which to measure everything. I take the time to make and check the measurements by making a small, approximately to scale, drawing.
The cutting of these pieces involved a 7-1/4″ circular saw and a saber saw. When using the circular saw we usually clamp a saw guide to the panel, allowing us to get a clean, straight cut that is almost as good as a table saw. For shorter cuts on edges that will not abut other panels I use the saber saw without a guide and just follow the pencil line as carefully as my skill and eyesight allow. I also have to use the saber saw for blind stop cuts, such as notches and tabs.
We took a break to have PB&J on whole grain bread and fresh apple slices for lunch. As we were finishing lunch I exchanged TXT messages with Chuck. He wanted to chat and called about 5 minutes later. It turns out that he has an air suspension seat base and thought I might want it. After getting a better understanding of what it is, and isn’t, I agreed that I wanted to see it. It would be very cool if I could use it to replace the driver seat pedestal in the bus as part of putting in the new Flexsteel seat but I will have to check with Josh to see if that is possible.
The bathroom underlayment was next. We considered various ways to install it and came to the conclusion that it would take three separate pieces for this small space. The reason was deep toe kick spaces on opposing walls, angles and notches, and a drain pipe and water supply pipe for the toilet that project out at least eight inches from a third wall just an inch above the floor. Those features made it impossible to get a single piece installed. We might have done it in two pieces but I did not like the way I would have had to cut them. These three pieces took quite a while to lay out, cut, trim, and staple down.
The bedroom was the next/last piece of the main floor jigsaw puzzle. It was after 6 PM by this point. We knew we would not get the bedroom done today but decided to try and get one more piece installed. Most of the bedroom floor is taken up by the storage box that serves as the base for the plywood bed platform. This box goes all the way to the driver side wall and has small Isles on the other three sides. If not for end cabinets by the head of the bed and deep toe kick spaces in the cabinetry to the rear of the coach the underlayment would be a simple “U” shape. The actuality it will take four pieces to complete this space.
The first piece was a simple shape, a rectangle with a large piece of one corner cut out. As I have for every other piece I took the initial measurements but noted them on a freehand sketch rather than a scale drawing. When I laid out the actual panel the numbers were not quite working out so I rechecked my measurements. They appeared to be correct, which meant some of the right angles must be off slightly. I modified the layout to make the panel a little longer than I thought it needed to be and made the cuts. Inside the coach we were not able to get the panel positioned because of interference from a 4″ round HVAC duct and a door and handle on a lower cabinet (the end table). I removed the HVAC register, which helped and then discovered a piece of vertical trim in the passenger side front corner. The bedroom has less natural and artificial lighting than the rest of the coach and I had not noticed it before now.
Tired and a bit frustrated by this latest turn of events we decided to wrap up our work for the day and have dinner. We accomplished a lot today but I had hoped (expected) to have all of the main floor underlayment done. We will finish the bedroom first thing tomorrow. That will leave only the entryway/cockpit to do and we will defer that work so I can start laying the new tile floor.
While Linda prepared dinner I checked my e-mail and then checked in to the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club information net at 8 PM. I was just completing my second turn when Linda called me to dinner. She made her own version of red beans and rice and served it with a glass of Cupcake Black Forest Decadent Red wine and a large piece of honeydew melon on the side. The main dish was excellent, the wine was OK (a little dry for me), and the melon was not as ripe as we would have liked it to be. Still, it was a nice meal.
We watched an episode (rerun) of Sherlock at 9 PM and then went to bed. Linda played Scrabble while I worked on this post before falling asleep.