Tag Archives: water damage (H3-40 cockpit floor)

2015/11/12 (R) Unforced Solutions

When I got up at 7 AM Linda had already left for the bakery. I had granola for breakfast and made a cup of Stash China Black hot tea. I went to my office and processed the photo that Byron sent me of him and Betty and e-mailed it to Gary and Jorge at Bus Conversion Magazine. I then replied to an e-mail from Nancy (& Big Bill). We met them at Suncoast Designers in Hudson, Florida in April 2014. They are from Ontario but have a place near Ocala, Florida where they spend at least part of the winter. I also replied to an e-mail from the Mitch in Florida regarding good places for bus service and forwarded my reply to Chuck. I cleaned the kitty litter tray and finally got to work on the bus.

A piece of scrap SurePly underlayment used as a spacer/guide for the Porter-Cable oscillating saw to undercut he bottom edge of the side wall panel so it can be removed above the floor tile.

First up was to finish screwing the down the SurePly underlayment on the floor of the passenger seat platform. With that done I turned my attention to trimming the switch panel next to the passenger seat. This panel is just 1/4″ walnut veneered plywood but has both AC and DC switches mounted in a row across the entire top portion. The added thickness of the underlayment and tile on the floor and back wall of the platform required the bottom and back edges of the panel to be trimmed so it could be installed and removed in case I need to get to the wiring behind it. I used pieces of underlayment as spacers/guides and trimmed off the edges using the Porter-Cable oscillating saw. This was the perfect tool for this situation where I could not remove the panel and take it to the shop.

With the panel trimmed and the sawdust vacuumed up I turned my attention to the tile. After test fitting some pieces to see where the edges would land I decided to tidy up the front of the bus so it would be easier to work. While that was certainly true it was also a tactic of stepping away from the work and letting solutions float into consciousness rather than trying to force them out. After several trips to bring things inside the house and garage it was noon and time for lunch, which meant more time to relax and let my subconscious work on the tile layout. Hummus and sourdough pretzel nibblers made a quick, easy, tasty meal and a cup of Constant Comment decaffeinated tea helped wash it down and warm me up while I worked on this post.

Two scrap pieces of the Armstrong Alterna Luxury Vinyl tile used as feeler gauges to make sure the side wall switch panel will clear the floor and rear wall tiles.

As long as I was taking a break I called Pat/Vickie Lintner to let them know I would be coming through Elkhart tomorrow (Friday) and verify that they would be home in the morning. That sounded fine to Pat. I will be picking up an accessory for a Nutone power base unit from them. We have one of the power bases installed in the kitchen counter of the bus but the blender was the only accessory that came with the bus when we bought it. Pat and Vickie had a power base in their bus but it broke years ago. They never replaced it, and don’t plan to, so they no longer needed the accessories and were willing to give them to us. We got most of the pieces from them at the GLCC Surplus and Salvage Rally back in September but we were missing a critical piece which Vickie thought she still had and eventually found.

After my break I reinstalled the large front trim board on the driver side vertical wiring/plumbing chase that is located on the outside wall next to the back of the driver’s chair. I don’t recall how I got it out but I could not get it back in. I ended up trimming off a small protrusion on the lower end and then it went into position without any further difficulty. It was a small thing, but it needed to be done and it was good to get it checked off my (mental) “to do” list. When I cannot solve the problem I am trying to solve (tile layout) I try to keep moving and get other small tasks completed.

I took a few more minutes to carefully measure the adjustment needed to the bump out on the passenger side HVAC duct cover and the dimensions for the two new pieces of walnut that will go on either side of the sofa seat. I brought the old pieces in the house and found the leftover walnut in the garage as I have to take some of it with me tomorrow to Jarel’s cabinet shop in Logansport, Indiana. I think an hour of my day disappeared between these small, simple tasks.

I continued to ponder the tile layout for quite some time, taking and retaking measurements as I tried to figure out an arrangement that would allow the joints to fall in reasonable places while making sure I could notch around things that go through the floor and avoid having any small pieces. That is a lot of constraints. The arrangement I finally came up with had three full 16×16 tiles centered on the landing and into the driver area. There will be pieces about six inches wide along the fore and aft edges, and the first full tile will also be about six inches back from the edge of the landing (by the entry stairs). The joints (grout lines) resulting from this placement will continue up the front of the passenger seat platform and result in tile placements on the platform that should work out well.

Linda called at 4:15 PM to let me know she was on her way home from the bakery and was stopping at Kathi’s on the way. I was done working in the bus for the day so I adjusted the thermostats on the heaters and checked the house battery bank status. The battery bank voltage was at 25.0 VDC, just slightly down from the 25.2 V level of a fully charged and rested “24 V” lead acid battery (2.1 V per cell x 12 cells in series). The State Of Charge (SOC) was at 84% and I decided to leave the charger off until Saturday morning after breakfast. I did have the shorepower turned off for a few hours Wednesday so the refrigerator was running on the inverter for a while but there are no DC loads operating in the coach at the moment and the Magnum remote is showing zero current coming out of the battery bank. There must be some loads, however, as the battery SOC wound not drop that much that quickly due to self-discharge. I locked up the bus, went in the house for the evening, and turned on the outside lights for Linda. Given when she left the office I knew it would be dark by the time she got home.

I took a few pictures throughout the day so I went to my office and off-loaded them onto my computer. I had an e-mail from Gary at BCM with the latest markup of the PDF for the December 2015 issue. I proofread my article and highlighted a half dozen things that needed to be changed, using the sticky note feature for the first time to indicate the corrections, and e-mailed it back to Gary and Jorge.

Linda got home about the time I clicked ‘send’ so I wrapped up my desk work and went upstairs. She had not been grocery shopping this week and wasn’t sure what to fix for dinner so I suggested vegan pancakes. Fifteen minutes later we were enjoying flapjacks with real maple syrup and cups of hot tea. Breakfast for dinner is always a treat. We spent a little time in the living room by the fireplace and then went to the rec room to watch a few TV programs while we doodled on our iPads. We have been trying to break the habit of watching TV in bed but we finished watching the last show in bed and then turned out the lights. In a reversal of our recent usual morning routine I have to be up early and Linda does not, but she still fell asleep before I did.

2015/11/11 (W) Two for One

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We had late morning dentist/hygiene appointments today so Linda did not get up early to go to the bakery and we slept in and got up at 8:30 AM. We showered and dressed and finally had granola for breakfast at 9:15. She made this batch of granola yesterday and it was very yummy.

Since the mice have recently been defeating our simple live traps I cleaned our more complicated one yesterday and set it up last night with a broken open peanut butter pretzel for bait. When I checked the trap this morning it had two brown field mice inside. They were anxious to get out and I was glad to oblige. I set them free in the southwest part of our property on the other side of the road. The last I saw of them they were headed south into dense cover and away from the house.

Our appointments were at 11 AM in Dearborn. Linda left at 9:45 and I followed about five minutes later. We took separate cars since she had to go to the bakery following her appointment. Before I left I checked on the state of charge of the house batteries in the bus. There were at 95% SOC. I turned the charger off last night to let the battery bank drain down a little. I turned off the Broan cube heater and the three toe-kick heaters and then shutoff the AC power coming into the coach. I checked that the inverter was working, which it was, and left for my appointment.

We both had good checkups but Linda will need a crown in the spring. A tooth with an old filling had weakened and needs to be capped. The dental assistants/hygienists have started taking blood pressure readings as part of modern dentistry’s role in monitoring and promoting overall health. I don’t know how accurate the wrist cuff machines are but my blood pressure was 121/59 and Linda’s was 128/67, which are excellent readings if they are even close to being correct.

On the way home I stopped at the new Menard’s on Wixom Road just north of I-96. I was looking for 1/2×2″ fine thread carriage bolts but all they had were coarse thread in longer lengths. As long as I was there I picked up a 6-pack of work socks and two more of the good live traps like the one we already have.

Back at the house I called Terry at A-1 Upholstery to confirm that our spacer cushion for the bus sofa was ready and that she would be there Friday morning. Her response was affirmative on both counts. I then called Josh to verify that he would be at his shop on Friday morning and he said he would. I need to stop there on the way to A-1 Upholstery and return two swivel seat ring bearings.

The new gravel driveway extension and RV parking pad. Phil, on the left side of the driveway by the nearer utility pole, rakes out the topsoil he placed along both sides of the driveway.

Philip Jarrell from Precision Grading was here working on the driveway extension when I got home. After my phone calls I changed into my work clothes and went out to chat with him for a few minutes. Phil had brought another load of screened topsoil and was using his track loader to place it along the sides of the driveway extension and at the west end of the property where the French drain begins. He rough graded it with the track loader and then raked it out by hand and spread grass seed. He will bring straw bales with him on a subsequent trip to cover the soil/seed but he wanted to get the seed down before he left as we have rain and wind forecast starting late this evening and through tomorrow into Friday.

I finally got to work in the bus at 2 PM. My objective was to get the SurePly underlayment installed on the passenger seat platform floor. I lightly sanded the floor patch compound I spread around last night and vacuumed up the particles. I then mounted the head of each of the new carriage bolts to a thick plastic washer using 3M Heavy Duty (double-sided) Mounting Tape. I slid the heads into the two mounting channels with the washers under them so the washers held the bolts up off of the bottom of the channel and forced the square collars up in the open slot of the channel where they could not turn when a nut was tightened on them. This was a critical step because once the underlayment and tile are down I will not be able to get to the heads of these bolts.

With the bolts in position I got the piece of SurePly from the garage. I was starting to slip it into position when I remembered that I installed an angle bracket yesterday but had not cut out a small piece of the underlayment to fit around it. So I took the piece back to the garage, cut out the necessary space, and took it back to the coach. I am starting to wonder how many hours I would have saved by having a proper shop set up right outside the front door of the bus.

[ Photo 2 of 2 – HR – The SurePly underlayment on the co-pilot/navigator platform floor showing how it fits under the outside wall panel and over the four mounting bolts for the seat. ]

The SurePly underlayment on the co-pilot/navigator platform floor showing how it fits under the outside wall panel and over the four mounting bolts for the seat.

The underlayment slipped under the switch panel by the outside wall and dropped over the four mounting bolts just like I planned it, so taking most of yesterday to carefully cut and drill the piece paid off in the end. That felt good, especially in comparison to how yesterday felt.

The weather today was lovely, reaching a high of 58 degrees F with sunny skies and I am sure that added to by general sense of well-being. Our part of Michigan is under a high wind warning starting this evening, however, with maximum gusts of 55 to 60 MPH possible. It’s a good thing we have a whole house generator because those kinds of winds cause power outages.

I decided to screw the underlayment to the bus floor rather than use staples. Again, I did not want to get the big air-compressor and staple gun out, but I also wanted to use the screws to pull the underlayment down tight to the bus sub-floor. I was about 50% done when I saw that Phil was putting his track loader back on the trailer. I thought he was packing up to leave so I went out to talk to him briefly. I went back to the bus and got another 25% of the piece screwed down before I ran out of screws. I was using primarily 1″ #6-SR self-drilling screws with some 1-1/4″ of the same kind. Once again my work was halted short of completion by the lack of some small part.

Phil was finished and on his way at 4:15 PM and by 4:30 I was headed to Lowe’s. Linda texted me that she was leaving the bakery and I had a nice QSO with Tom (K8TAF) while running my errand. Lowe’s only had one pack of the 1″ screws, quantity 100, but I thought that might be enough to get me through tomorrow. I also bought a pack of 100 1-1/4″ screws.

For dinner Linda cooked a couple of yams, heated up a couple of vegan sausages with sautéed onions and red peppers, and steamed some fresh green beans. Yum, yum, yum. After dinner we sat in the living room for a while using our iPads. At 8 PM we watched a few nature and science programs on PBS. Jarel called to confirm when I was coming down to Logansport, Indiana and said that Friday would work. Linda is headed back to the bakery in the morning so she went right to sleep after we were done watching TV.

2015/11/10 (T) A Rainy Day

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I checked the TV weather station before I turned off the lights last night. Rain covered most of Indiana and Ohio and was moving northeast. We were going to get clipped by the western edge of the moisture but the heaviest rain was forecast to pass to our south and east.

Linda planned to go into the bakery today and had her alarm set for 5:45 AM. It went off and I woke her up enough to shut it off and go back to sleep. Around 6 AM we both received e-mails on our iPads and phones, a sure sign that we had lost power to the house. I was awake at this point but stayed in bed until 6:45. I was not falling back asleep, so I put on my robe and made coffee. I finished up the Kenya AA, which is not decaffeinated, figuring we could both use the boost this morning.

While the coffee was brewing I cleaned the cats’ litter tray and checked my e-mail. I had a reply from Bill Tharpe which decided for me that I would be going to Indiana on Friday. I also had replies from the two Mitch’s who had contacted me as about articles I wrote in Bus Conversion Magazine and replied to both of those. I edited the e-mail with the minutes of Sunday’s SLAARC meeting and forwarded it on to the club officers. An e-mail from Gary at BCM indicated that they still needed a photo of Byron and Betty Pigg for the December featured bus article, so I replied and cc:d Byron. Writing for BCM is sometimes a lot of work, but it’s a hobby for and I enjoy it so I do not mind.

It was wet outside and still raining lightly, a perfect day to sit by the fireplace in a robe and drink hot coffee. Phil was hoping to return today with a load of screened topsoil and get it placed and graded along the edges of the driveway but said it would depend on the weather. Once the topsoil is taken care of he will grade the driveway with his bulldozer and make sure the 40 foot long parking area is as flat and level as possible.

Linda finally got up at 8:30 and was starting to get dressed to go to the bakery when I suggested she stay home, rest, and get well. She was immediately OK with that idea, put on her robe, and took her iPad to the living room to enjoy the warmth of the fireplace and some hot coffee. I finished up my draft blog post for yesterday, e-mailed it to myself, and started this one. I really cannot afford to lose a whole day of work on the bus but this is the kind of day where we like to just sit and do quiet things, or even nothing at all. We finally finished our coffee, got dressed, and had a light breakfast at 10 AM.

Taking care of Madeline for three days and nights took a lot of Linda’s mental and physical energy and her cold took what was left. She headed back to bed and I got my thoughts organized relative to working in the bus. I talked to Jarel yesterday and found out that it would cost $50 to have a sheet of 1/4″ Baltic Birch plywood delivered to his shop because he did not have a regular delivery scheduled and the $50 cost of the 60″x 60″ sheet would not meet the minimum cost for free delivery. I did not need the piece of plywood badly enough to pay a 100% surcharge to get it so that idea was off the table until next year.

My goal for today was to get a piece of SurePly underlayment cut and installed on the passenger seat platform. Before I even started on the piece I had to resolve what to do about the four carriage bolts that are used to mount the base. One of the four bolts has some messed up threads but I have a tap and die set and might be able to clean them up. However, I am adding the thickness of the underlayment and floor tile plus a washer to what was there before so I wanted to use a longer bolt. I already knew that Lowe’s and O’Reilly’s did not have what I needed and I presumed that The Home Depot did not either.

I finally went to Howell Hardware and had a good QSO with Steve (N8AR) on the drive there. As I had been told they had a very good selection of hardware, by the piece, but they did not have fine thread carriage bolts in the 1/2″ size I needed. I bought four of the 2″ long coarse thread bolts, four flat washers, four lock washers, and four nuts. I also picked up a large washer to match the other three I already had for securing the central mounting stud along with two nylon washers. That trip took over an hour out of my day before I even got started on my main task.

It took me several hours and many trips back and forth between the bus and the shop (in the garage) to get the piece of underlayment to fit just right. I made one small mistake but the piece was large enough and complicated enough that I did not want to take the time or material to remake it. Before I could install it I needed to get the outside end of the floor patch secured. Yesterday I tried to screw that end to the material underneath it but the screw would not penetrate. I scratched my head for quite a while until it occurred to me that I could use a small angle bracket attached to the vertical wood wiring chase in the forward outside corner. I had limited access to that area, and it took me multiple attempts before I finally got the screw in, but I did. Securing the bracket to the floor patch was a lot easier.

After securing the end of the patch I realized that the area between the front mounting channel and vertical front of the platform was slightly concave. It was not a big dip but it was big enough that it needed to be patched. Floor patching compound was the last thing I wanted to deal with today but it turned out to be just that, because once I applied it it had to dry for hours. It was heavily overcast all day and my mood was correspondingly suppressed so I felt like I was doing everything in slow motion. Based on the fact that I did not even get the piece of underlayment installed perhaps I was.

I try to keep an eye on the “house” batteries in the bus. When I checked them this afternoon the reported voltage was higher than normal so I turned off the charger function on the Magnum 4024 to let the batteries rest and see where the voltage really was. The DC draws on the battery bank were minimal.

I am finishing this post a couple of days later and no longer recall what Linda fixed for dinner but whatever it was I’m sure it was good. After dinner we relaxed in the living room for a while, watched our Tuesday evening TV programs on the larger TV set in the basement recreation room, and then went to bed.

2015/11/09 (M) Clever Mouse

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Madeline coughed quite a bit last night and we were up several times to check on her, so we did not have the best possible night’s sleep. We got up to stay at 7:30 AM and Madeline got up about 15 minutes later. I made our morning coffee while Madeline helped her grandma wash blueberries and make vegan blueberry pancakes. We had a lovely breakfast with orange juice, pancakes with real maple syrup, and blueberries, raspberries, and bananas on the side.

I check the mouse traps in the pantry every morning. A couple of days ago I found one of them broken with the food gone and some mouse poop left in its place. The pantry doors had been left open overnight so I figured one of the cats had discovered the trap (we use live traps) and tossed it around until the door fell open and the mouse escaped. I threw it away since it was broken. This morning I discovered that the food in the other trap had been replaced by mouse poop but the trap was upright with the door closed and was not broken. The pantry had been closed all night so I knew the cats had nothing to do with it. Apparently we have a mouse that has figured out how to defeat the traps. We are not going to set kill traps so we will have to see what else we can find.

We lingered in the living room for a while enjoying our coffee by the fireplace, listening to Madeline play (with) the organ, and watching her play with some of her toys. She made her futon into a car and took her two “bunnies” for a ride. By 9:30 AM I had finished my coffee and changed into my work clothes. It was just below freezing when we got up this morning, but it was a bright, sunny day with no wind, so it would be a comfortable enough day for working on the bus once I turned up the thermostats and warmed up the interior a bit.

My focus today was to get the SurePly underlayment installed on the floor of the passenger seat platform and maybe the two walls. I also wanted to get the outside wall panel trimmed off so it will fit around the tile and needed to build a new step with an open front, but I did not expect to get to those tasks today. First up, however, was getting the small patch I worked on yesterday to fit better and be secure.

I trimmed both ends of the underside of the main patch and recut the side/support panel. I trimmed the side panel several times before I was satisfied with the fit. I used heavy-duty double-sided tape to hold the top patch and side panel to the metal structure underneath. I used a 1-1/2″ stainless steel self-drilling wood screw to secure the top to the vertical piece of 3/4″ plywood that forms the face of the passenger seat platform, and a shorter screw to secure the side panel to the same piece of plywood. I then attached a temporary plate of SurePly over the side panel to the edge of the top plate to hold the side in alignment with the top.

The metal under this patch is rounded leaving a small space between the top and side pieces where they meet. The vertical plywood front face is also beveled leaving a void. I used Door and Window Trim Spray Foam Insulation to fill these areas. This foam has a lower expansion than most spray foam insulation. I did not overfill the voids but put enough in that it expanded out past the edge. I will trim it off flush tomorrow when it is cured. The foam adheres to anything it touches and is rigid enough to be somewhat structural so it should stabilize and secure the patch. Once I trim it and cover it with underlayment it should be good as new.

Madeline’s Aunt Meghan, who is also her buddy, came to visit and play with her today. She arrived at noon and I took a break to visit and have lunch. After lunch Madeline, Meghan, and Linda went to the Brighton Mill Pond Playscape and I resumed working on the bus. They were gone for several hours.

Floor patching compound being applied to the co-pilot/navigator platform.

Before I could put a layer of underlayment on the passenger seat platform I needed to use floor patching compound to fill in some low spots and create a smooth taper from the plywood to some metal edging. But first I removed all of the screws that secure this edging and counter-bored the holes so the screw heads would be flush. As often seems to happen when I am working on something like this some of the screws were rusted and I did not have appropriate replacements. I then have to make a trip to Lowe’s, which is what I did, and bought a small quantity of three different size flathead wood screws. I stopped at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to see if they had the large metal or nylon washers that are used with the swivel base for the front chairs. They didn’t, but once again suggested that I try Howell Hardware in downtown Howell. I have received that suggestion from people at several different stores so guess I need to check the place out.

When I got back home I finished installing the new screws. The floor patch compound takes a minimum of three to four hours to dry, sometimes much longer, but after two hours it was dry enough for me to use a sanding sponge to smooth out some ridges and feather some edges that needed it. It was clear, however, that I wasn’t going to be able to accomplish what I set out to do today. And so it goes; I need to do the work correctly which means doing all the things that need to be done in the order that they need to occur. Everything takes time and things that have to dry, set, or cure do so on their own schedule, not mine.

Phil had shown up around 3 PM so I went out to chat briefly with him and then went inside to change clothes. He had a partial load of topsoil left from a job earlier today and dumped it on the other side of the street by the 3rd driveway culvert. He used his front loader to place it along the south side of the new pull-through driveway extension and moved the small pile from the west end of the property to the north side of the driveway.

I still had plenty of daylight and wanted to make some good use of my time so I started thinking ahead to the layout of the tile in the cockpit. I measured various parts of the cockpit and although the number of square feet is small compared to the main floor the layout will be more difficult. As with all tile layouts it needs to be “balanced” while avoiding small pieces. Linda and I agreed that the pattern in the cockpit does not need to match the main floor, which is laid out diagonally, so that opens up options for how to lay out the tile.

The main landing is less than two tiles wide (front-to-back) so the best layout for that area is with a grout line dividing it in half, but that might not work well in the driver’s area. The driver’s area presents the additional problem of a steering column, brake pedal/valve, an accelerator pedal with its electrical cable that goes through the floor. The “holes” in the tile to accommodate these things have to be created using two notched pieces so they can be installed around the protrusions. I also need holes for the seat base mounting bolts and power cable for the 6-way power base. Those can be actual holes but I do not want grout lines to fall at the edges of the base. I also have to be cognizant of the walls, which are getting tiled. The distance along the face of the passenger seat platform is close to 65″. The tiles are 16″ squares so four tiles with three 1/8th” grout spaces is only 64-3/8″. See, it’s complicated.

The other thing I pondered and measured was the new step between the passenger seat platform and the main floor. Again there are several parameters: (1) We want the finished (tiled) height to split the distance from the tiled platform to the tiled main floor exactly in half; (2) we want the finished depth to be half the finished depth of the platform, and; (3) we want an open front so we can store shoes under the step. The total rise will be just under 14″ so the step rise will be a little less than 7″. Subtracting about an inch for wood and tile will leave a 6″ high space for shoes. The platform is 29″ deep so splitting that in half results in two treads of 14-1/2″, plenty deep for shoe storage. I considered having the step angle across the platform, being deeper by the driver seat and shallower by the passenger seat. While it would add an element of aesthetic interest it would greatly complicate the construction without adding any practical utility, so I rejected that idea.

As I considered the construction of the new step I was also thinking about the fact that there is a hole in the front end of the passenger side HVAC duct. The hole opens into the space behind the switch panel on the wall next to the passenger seat and just aft of the entry door but there is nowhere for the air to go from there. The hole is easy to see but not easy to reach so I estimated it to be three inches in diameter which is approximately seven square inches in area.

One possibility is to install a 4″ diameter circular louvered duct in the switch panel. It would be large enough in area, could be rotated to direct the flow in any desired direction, and has internal shutters that could be closed down to reduce or cut off the air flow. The main downside is lack of space behind the panel but I could cut off the tube behind the locking tabs. Another downside is that the cats sleep under the passenger chair while the bus is moving and the direct airflow might be uncomfortable and/or annoying for them.

Another possibility is to create a narrow duct along the back wall of the platform the same height as the new step and tie it in to the inside of the step, allowing the conditioned air to come out the open front. That will involve a bit more woodworking and complicate the tile installation, but could be added later, so I will probably opt for the round louvered register for now, if I do anything.

When I was done pondering the HVAC possibilities I put the seat pedestals back on the landing, locked up the bus, and went inside to change clothes. Meghan left while I was changing clothes so I did not get to say goodbye. Apparently Linda thought I was taking a shower and would be a while. Since we needed to get Madeline back to her house well before her bedtime we decided to head to Ann Arbor and have dinner there. I deflated and rolled up her portable toddler bed while Linda and Madeline gathered up her clothes, books, toys, and other things. I loaded the car while Linda got her dressed to travel. I checked in with Phil to get a status update and let him know we were leaving. We were on our way at 4:45 PM.

The drive down was OK as the really heavy traffic was headed north out of Ann Arbor. We tried to keep Madeline awake by reviewing all the fun things she had done since she got to our house late Friday afternoon but we were not successful. As I exited M-14 eastbound onto US-23 southbound I could see that traffic was stopped not far after the Plymouth Road exit so I left the highway and headed west on Plymouth Road to Huron Parkway. From there I headed south, paralleling US-23 to the west. At Washtenaw Avenue I turned east, and after a short distance turned left into the small shopping plaza where Elevation Burger was located.

I order a grilled cheese sandwich and Mandarin oranges for Madeline. Linda and I had vegan burgers and fries and Linda shared her fries with Ms. M. Madeline was slow to wake up but perked up when her food arrived. That girl likes to eat! 🙂 After dinner we made the short trip to Madeline’s house and arrived at 6:30 PM. Linda got Madeline into her pajamas while I brought all of the stuff in from the car and turned up the thermostat.

Madeline was wide awake and full of energy so she played with her kitchen toys and tools and had Grandma Linda read her four stories. I dozed off for a little while and then spent some quality time with Gus the cat. Gus loves people but tends to keep his distance from Madeline who is just a bit too energetic and enthusiastic for him.

Brendan and Shawna’s flight was due in to Metro Airport at 6:50 PM and he texted Linda at 6:51 that they had landed. They were home before 8 PM and got to spend time with their very awake, excited, and active daughter. We left at 8:30 and stopped at Biggby Coffee on Washtenaw Avenue. Rain was moving into our area from the south but had not yet arrived and the drive home was uneventful. We were home by 9:15 PM and headed straight to bed where we watched Scorpion and NCIS-LA. Linda came down with a cold while Madeline was here and went to sleep as soon as NCIS was over. I watched Travelscope on the Create channel and left the TV on while I worked on this post. It was another long, busy day during which I made forward progress on the bus.

2015/11/07 (S) Measure One, Cut Twice

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We were all up at 7 AM. I got dressed and left at 7:25 AM for the SLAARC breakfast in South Lyon. Linda and Madeline had toaster waffles and fresh berries for breakfast at home. The main reason I went to breakfast was to talk with Larry (K8UT) about a plug-in for WordPress that he recently found and though I might want to use for the SLAARC website. He purchased a five site license for the full version of a survey plug-in and was willing to donate one use to the ham radio club.

When I got home at 9:30 AM the girls were getting ready to leave. Linda’s plan for the morning was to take Madeline to the Howell Public Library. The library has a very nice play area for younger children and a good selection of children’s books. Apparently they planned to be gone for a while because they had a bag packed with snacks and other things for an extended outing. I changed into my work close and when they left I resumed working on the bus.

My first objective was to cut the final piece of SurePly underlayment for the entry landing and area under the driver’s seat. It was a large and complex piece that took me a long time to lay out even using the piece that goes under the driver’s seat as a template. When I finally had it cut and drilled with the holes for the seat mounting bolts I took it to the bus to see how it fit. Unfortunately I could not get it in. It had to go under something on the front and back and also had to fit around curves and angles, and it just was not physically possible to get it in place in one piece. It was immediately obvious that I would have to cut the piece into two parts but not so obvious how best to do that.

Linda and Madeline returned about this time (12:30 PM) and I was ready for a break. They brought in their “haul” from the library—eight books and five videos—and laid it out on the living room coffee table. The play market that Madeline likes so much had been replaced by a play kitchen. The librarian told Linda they rotate the playsets every three months to keep it interesting for the children.

After going to the library Linda drove to the Brighton Mill Pond so Madeline could play at the Playscape. Linda reported that Madeline has figured out how to pump a swing and is able to keep it going once someone helps her get started. As a special treat they went to the ice cream shop nearby and Ms. M got a scoop of ice cream. She did not tell me what flavor, but she said it had sprinkles on it.

It was going on 1 PM and seemed like a good time to have lunch, so Linda made hummus sandwiches with sliced onion for us and hummus on bread for Madeline. She washed off a big bunch of grapes and we all enjoyed some of those too. After lunch I read one of the library books to Madeline and then Linda read her a different one. At that point I excused myself and went back to work on the bus.

I pondered the situation with the piece of underlayment and finally saw what appeared to be a natural cut line. After considering where the tile would go, however, I decided against it. Unlike the tile on the main floor of the bus, which is installed on the bias, the grouted joint lines in the cockpit/entry are going to run straight fore-and-aft and side-to-side. I was not sure, however, exactly where they would fall. I needed to avoid having a grout line fall on a joint between two pieces of underlayment so I ended up cutting the piece that covers the landing at an angle. This gave me a smaller piece that tucked under the center console on the dashboard and a larger piece that tucked under some metal trim behind the driver’s seat. I was now able to get both pieces in but they did not fit properly.

I had used my last large piece of SurePly to make the original single piece, and it had taken me hours to do, so I did not want to remake it. I made any trips between the bus and the garage/shop, trimming a little bit at a time and rechecking the fit, until I finally got the piece to fit correctly. In the process the piece had changed enough that the smaller piece was now too small and could not be trimmed to fit. I searched through my scrap pieces of SurePly and found one that was almost big enough to remake the smaller piece, but not quite.

It was now 3:30 PM, and I still had some good daylight to work by, so I secured the floor patch under the driver’s seat. The patch consisted of a 1/4″ thick layer of SurePly with a 3/4″ thick layer of oak veneered plywood on top of it to make a 1″ thick piece. The SurePly was screwed to the 3/4″ plywood from underneath. With the patch in place I installed another piece of 1/4″ SurePly that covered the patch and extended out over the old surrounding wood, which was still sound, and filled in the area once occupied by a 1/2″ thick piece of plywood. I used 1″ self-drilling screws to secure the top layer of SurePly to the underlying wood, slightly countersinking the heads and pulling the underlying patch up tight while pulling the SurePly down tight to the old wood. I walked on it and it felt secure. There will be one more layer of SurePly and a layer of tile before the seat base gets re-installed. Bolting down the base will obviously pull everything down tight to the structure of the bus if it isn’t already.

Linda and Madeline spent part of the afternoon baking vegan cupcakes. Linda usually makes chocolate ones but I requested white/vanilla ones this time. She found a recipe that looked promising and used it. They needed frosting to finish the cupcakes so they bundled up and went to Meijer’s. They got back a little before 4 PM, frosting and sprinkles in hand.

I needed more SurePly to continue working, not that I was eager to; I had spent most of the day trying to make one stupid piece of wood and still wasn’t finished. The temperature had been dropping all afternoon and it was down to 55 in the garage, which was open so I could go back-and-forth to the bus. I still had the antique SUN distributor tester in my car and determined that I could not get 4’x8′ sheets of material in the car with the machine in there. Linda and Madeline put on their shoes and coats and came outside so Linda could help me get the tester out of the car. I then went to Lowe’s.

I had a nice QSO with David (W8DRD) from our ham radio club on the way to Lowe’s. At the store I was struggling to get the SurePly off of the top of the stack, which was above my head at the limit of my reach. A customer stopped and helped me which I appreciated. I needed one sheet to finish the driver/landing area and get the piece I need for the passenger seat platform floor, but I bought two sheets just in case the various scraps I have are not large enough to do the walls of the passenger seat platform.

I was back home by 5 PM and unloaded the two sheets of SurePly. I put one on the 2x4s across the sawhorses and the other one in the small bay with the other sheet materials. Linda and Madeline put their shoes and coats on once again and came outside so Linda could help me load the distributor tester back into my car. Linda said we would eat dinner around 6 PM so I started working on remaking the small piece for the front portion of the landing.

I used the original piece as a pattern for the edges that fit properly but cut it larger than needed for the edge that needed to match the other piece where I cut it into two parts. After getting it trimmed to fit correctly on three sides I put the larger piece in place overlapping the smaller one and traced the edge on the smaller piece. I took it back to the garage and used the clamp-on saw guide to get a clean, straight cut. When I took it back to the bus and set it in place it fit. Success at last.

By now it was dark and getting close to dinner time. I decided to leave the securement of this last layer of SurePly until tomorrow when I was refreshed and had better light. I had hoped to get this landing/driver floor finished today, as well as the floor for the passenger seat platform, but given the difficulties and frustrations of today I felt like I had ended at a good place. I locked up the bus and closed the garage door on my way in. I expect tomorrow to be another good day, but then if I didn’t, why would I bother?

I changed out of my work clothes and put on my sweats. Dinner was vegan cheeseburgers with a vegetable medley on the side and fresh pineapple. Dessert was vanilla frosted white cupcakes with sprinkles. After clearing the table I interacted with Madeline while Linda cleaned up a few dishes. She and Madeline then prepared the baked French toast, which has to sit overnight. As promised, once all of the stuff was done we went to the basement and watched one of the Daniel Stripped Tiger videos. When we had seen enough episodes we turned off the TV set and went upstairs. Madeline got into her pajamas and went to bed. I put a load of laundry into the washing machine and then settled in to my usual evening routine. I pulled the laundry out of the dryer at 9:45 PM and we turned in for the night at 10 PM.

2015/11/06 (F) MEF3

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Rain was forecast for overnight with the highest probability between 4 and 7 AM. I think we had some light rain starting a little after midnight but around 6:45 AM a front moved through with intense thunderstorms. The heavy rain lasted at most 15 minutes, but while it was coming down I could not see past the railing on our deck. The winds were also very intense judging by the sound and movement of the Crimson King Maple Tree next to the deck.

When we finally got up Linda checked the weather. The storm front had already pushed into Ontario, Canada and it looked like we were done with the rain. Temperatures will drop during the day and we have some below freezing lows coming up the next few nights, but it’s November so we can’t claim to be surprised and have no basis to complain.

Linda left around 9:45 AM to go to the supermarket. While she was gone I worked on my iPad finishing my posts from Wednesday and yesterday. I made a few phone calls and sent several e-mails before getting to work on the bus.

One call was to SLOAN’s in Linden to see about having the lawn tractor repaired. The service tech said the normal turnaround this time of year is about two weeks depending what is needed and whether they have the parts on hand. He said that if I brought it in soon and they did not get it finished before Thanksgiving they would store it for us until spring. Given the limited space in our garage and the need to get Linda’s car in there for the winter having them store it would be a real bonus but would require the better part of day to borrow Mike’s trailer, haul the lawn tractor up there, and return the trailer to Mike.

The second call was to A-1 Upholstery in Elkhart, Indiana. Terry said the fabric was sewn for our spacer cushion and she was expecting the foam today or Monday. Once the foam was stuffed into the fabric she would have to stitch the seam closed. She figured it should be ready by Wednesday.

My last call was to Pat Lintner from our FMCA Great Lakes Converted Coaches (GLCC) chapter. He and Vickie live just outside of Elkhart, Indiana and found several pieces for an old Nutone kitchen counter mounted multi-function appliance. We have a Nutone power base in our bus that works and got a few accessories from Pat and Vickie at the GLCC Surplus and Salvage Rally back in September. They subsequently found more, and were going to bring them to Florida, but I let them know I would very likely be passing through Elkhart late next week and could pick them up. Pat offered me the use of the guest room, as he always does, and I may take him up on it this time. Given the number of places I have to stop it will likely be a very long day.

One of my e-mails was to our cabinet maker, Jarel Beatty, to update him on when I might be coming to Logansport and to see if he could/would get a 60″x60″ sheet of Baltic Birch plywood and cut it into four 30″x 30″ pieces for me. I then e-mailed Bill Tharpe to let him know I would be in his part of Indiana late next week and would drop off the antique SUN Distributor Tester at his place in Mexico, Indiana.

Bus floor under the driver’s seat. Black tray to rear (upper left) has been sprayed with rubber undercoating. Seat mounting rails (center) are visible. Open area is the bay below the driver’s seat.

Linda got back around 11 AM and we finally got to work on bus-related projects at 11:15. The POR-15 and black spray-on rubberized undercoating paint seemed to have dried adequately overnight but the wood I treated with Thompson’s Water Seal was still tacky. The directions said it took 48 hours to dry but we don’t have that kind of time to wait.

We removed all of the painter’s plastic and painter’s tape from the cockpit of the bus and put it in a trash bag. I then drilled a 1/4″ drain hole in the bottom of each tray area where water had accumulated. The one under the passenger seat opened into a dark space but I was fairly certain it was outside the body behind the plastic wheel well trim. I could see the driveway gravel through the driver side hole so I knew it was outside the body.

The next task was putting spray foam insulation in a few critical spots. We did not need much for the bus so I sealed two holes in the floor of the bedroom in our house (under a couple of the baseboard radiators) and then added some around the back door frame of the garage. Once I start using a can of this spray foam insulation I find it best to use it up.

Cutting and fitting the new plywood to patch the area under the driver’s seat in the bus.

Patching the floor under the passenger seat involved three pieces of wood. The tray area under the plywood floor between the seat mounting channels is slightly raised along the inside edges of the channels. I had cut a piece of 3/16″ SurePly to fit between the raised edges and slide under the existing floor towards the center of the bus. I set it in place and slid it under the old floor while Linda and I help it up slightly with pry bars. Because of the geometry of the situation I had to cut about six inches off of the end of this piece towards the outside of the bus. I had notched this piece to fit around the drain line for the front AC evaporator, so it slipped in behind the first piece just right. The third part of the patch was a piece of recycled 3/4″ plywood that I had cut yesterday to just fit between the mounting channels. With that in place I screwed through the old wood into SurePly and screwed through the 3/4″ plywood into the SurePly and pulled it up tight.

By this time it was 1:15 PM and I was ready for lunch. Linda made hummus and onion sandwiches and served them with tangerine halves. A simple but delicious mid-day meal.

After lunch we worked on the driver side floor patch. The driver side was trickier because the patch has to rest on and span structural members. As with the passenger side I am trying to replace 1″ thick plywood without having access to material of that thickness. The plywood sold as 3/4″ actually measures from 0.707″ to 0.717 inches in thickness. As it turned out the combination of so-called 3/4″ plywood with the SurePly underlayment plywood was just thick enough to match the old 1″ stuff.

Yet another layer of plywood to fill in and even up the floor under the driver’s seat in the bus.

I had to trim the piece of SurePly several times and drill holes for the seat mounting bolts. The holes were not quite in the right place but I was able to trim it to my satisfaction and it was generally a good fit. We then used it as a template for laying out the same shape on a piece of 3/4″ oak veneered plywood.

Hardwood veneered plywood is more expensive than regular fir plywood but it has more layers and is dimensionally more stable. I had a piece that was flat and big enough to cut out the part we needed so I used it. After some minor trimming it fit properly and lined up with the SurePly layer. I turned them upside down, aligned them carefully, and screwed the SurePly to the underside of the 3/4″ piece. I then installed them back into the open area.

We now needed another piece of SurePly, but it needed to be larger and a different shape. It would be one of two pieces that would replace the 1/2″ thick top layer of plywood. I removed the old piece from the bus after feeding two wires back through a hole. We used the old piece as a template to outline the new piece and mark the four holes for the mounting bolts and the one for the wires. I cut out the new piece and drilled the holes and then put it in place. I was surprised by how much it was off. It needed to be wider and longer and the holes were not as well aligned with the holes in the plywood below it as they needed to be.

All of the patch pieces in place in the driver’s compartment. The four holes are for the mounting bolts for the seat pedestal base.

SurePly is not expensive but it’s not free either. It is relatively easy to work with, however, so making a second piece was not a big deal. What was a big deal was the cloud cover, dropping temperature, wind, and diminishing light, all of which were making outside work more difficult and less enjoyable with each passing minute. But we took our time and got it cut, and after some minor trimming it fit very nicely. I did not, however, secure it, or the 1″ plywood sandwich under it, as I needed the top piece to use as a template for the final piece. This last piece will not only cover the area under the driver’s seat, it will extend out towards the door and cover the landing. Once I have that cut correctly I will secure the bottom sandwich and then use floor leveling compound to fill in gaps. I will then install the last two layers of SurePly. At that point I will need to go to Lowe’s for another sheet of SurePly to finish the passenger seat platform and will probably get two sheets just to make sure I have enough. As much as I like going to Lowe’s and The Home Depot, each trip takes time away from actually working on the bus.

We quit working at 4:30 PM to get the tools put away before Brendan and Madeline arrived. They got here at 5:15 PM and she was very excited to see us and be at our house. Linda and Brendan got all of Ms. M’s stuff from the car to the house and Brendan transferred the car seat to Linda’s car. Brendan entertained Madeline while Linda got the inflatable toddler bed set up. Madeline went immediately for the cabinet under the sink in the hall bathroom where we keep the bandages and found one to put on. She likes cartoon character bandages.

Brendan hung around until 6 PM and left just as Linda put dinner on the table. He and Shawna are headed to Ajo, Arizona this weekend for a wedding. Their flight to Phoenix leaves tomorrow morning so Madeline will be with us until Monday afternoon when Linda takes her back to her house in Ann Arbor. Her parents’ flight is due in at 7 PM so Linda won’t be home before 9 PM that evening.

For dinner Linda made roasted potatoes and mock chicken tenders. She and Ms. M had broccoli and peas but she was kind enough to only serve me broccoli. I don’t think I will ever develop a taste for green peas.

By the time we finished dinner Madeline was a little tired and had a brief crying episode when I told her she could not use our bed as a trampoline. Linda offered to let her watch an episode of Daniel Stripped Tiger and that seemed to ease her distress at having been told ‘no’ which is a very traumatic experience for her at this age. She wanted to put on her pajamas and brush her teeth first, so Linda helped her with that. The two of them climbed into our bed and watched the video on Shawna’s iPad while I stayed in the living room and wrote this blog post.

When the video was over Madeline wished me ‘good night’ and went quietly off to bed. Linda and I lingered in the living room and I texted Chuck to inquire about their travels yesterday and today. I then went to my office for a while where I updated our WordPress site, off-loaded photos from today’s work, logged in to RVillage and checked the forums of various groups, and dealt with a few e-mails. I came back upstairs at 9:45 PM and we were in bed by 10 PM where I finished the draft of this post.

2015/11/05 (R) POR-15

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Linda was back at the bakery today, so she was up early and gone before I even thought about getting out of bed. Having her homemade granola as our standard breakfast means I can feed myself under such circumstances with very little time spent on preparation and cleanup. I made a cup of Stash China Black tea instead of coffee; it’s quicker and cleaner. I like tea, and only started drinking coffee at age 50, but this morning the choice was motivated by ease and quickness of preparation and minimal cleanup as I was anxious to get busy working on the bus.

My focus today was getting the areas in the cockpit where I cut out the old water-damaged plywood ready for the installation of new wood. That meant getting POR-15 applied to the areas of rusted metal in the cockpit and spray painting over it with black rubberized undercoating paint. I also wanted to start cutting and fitting the wood pieces that I will use to patch the floor. I finished building a pair of sawhorses and set them up in the driveway just outside the large garage door so I could measure, mark, and cut wood at waist height. I was working on one of the pieces when the whole house generator came on at noon, ran its exercise cycle, and shut down 20 minutes later. Shortly thereafter I heard the rumble of a big truck coming down the road and a few seconds after that Phil’s truck and trailer drove past.

Phil drove to the west end of the property, turned around, and parked down there. He brought his Takeuchi front loader and used it to spread the large pile of topsoil around the part of our yard where the French drain starts. He filled in low spots and graded everything off to blend in nicely. He then worked his way up the drain line towards the culvert that goes under the road. When Phil was done moving dirt around he spread grass seed and loosely distributed three bales of straw. That gave him a good idea of how much more straw he would need.

I eventually took a break and walked down to chat with him in the middle of all that work. He finished moving some dirt and also took a break for lunch. He will have a load of screened topsoil delivered as soon as he can to use on both sides of the new gravel driveway. He also clarified that the 40 foot parking pad portion of the driveway is probably not flat/level as it is not finished yet. When he places and grades the topsoil his equipment will tear up the driveway a bit. He will then use his bulldozer to finish the driveway, making sure the pad is flat and level. That was a relief as I thought he was done and I was fairly certain the pad was not flat or level.

By 2:30 PM I finally had the areas of rusted metal prepared and masked off with painter’s plastic. I applied the POR-15 with a foam brush. In spite of being careful I got some on my hands and in retrospect should have worn disposable gloves. The only way to get this product off of things, including skin, is with the POR-15 solvent, which I had failed to purchase. Once dry it is permanent, so my right hand is going to look like I just changed the oil on the bus until the old skin gets replaced with new. The drying time for the POR-15 is 2 to 6 hours. The afternoon high temperature was 72 degrees F so I figured I would check at 4:30 PM. The directions said I could paint it while it was still tacky as long as it set enough not to transfer.

Linda got home around 3:30 PM and changed into her work clothes. Phil was still here working but we left him alone. The weather forecast for overnight and into tomorrow was for rain, possibly heavy, so we did not want to cause any delay in Phil’s work. I had cut and fit four pieces of wood earlier. We put painter’s plastic over the sawhorses and laid them out bottom sides up. Linda put 2×4 blocks under them to get the edges off of the plastic and I coated them with Thompson’s Water Seal. I am doing what I can to protect this new wood from water damage.

I needed to finish masking off the cockpit with painter’s plastic before spraying the black rubberized undercoating paint so Linda helped me with that. The plastic is very thin and much easier to handle with two people. While we were doing that Phil drove past. We took a break and walked down to west end of the property to see what Phil had accomplished today. Back in the bus we had the area masked off to my satisfaction by 4:45 PM.

The base of my thumbs were bothering me (arthritis) so Linda shook the paint can for the required three minutes. Although the light was fading due to the hour of the day and the cloud cover, I was still able to see well enough to spray the paint where needed. That was the end of our work for the day, except for cleaning up, and I was satisfied with what we had accomplished. We put some painter’s tape over three areas where we thought water might be getting in and then started putting everything away.

The wood pieces we treated with Thompson’s Water Seal were still wet so I picked them up from underneath and carried them into the back of the garage. Linda brought the blocks in and set them on the floor and I put the pieces back on top of the blocks. The directions said to allow at least 48 hours for drying but I plan to flip them over and coat the other side tomorrow if possible. We are running out of time and I cannot wait two days to seal the other side and then another two days for it to dry. We put the various tools away, removed the plastic from the sawhorses, and moved the 2×4 stringers and the sawhorses into the small garage bay. It was 5:45 PM when we closed up the garage and it was getting dark, a clear reminder that summer was behind us and winter was approaching.

We relaxed for a while before dinner. Linda made a nice salad and reheated the whole wheat linguini she made the other night. We opened the bottle of Frey Natural White wine to try it. I liked it even less than their Natural Red, if that’s possible. It was very dry and since I do not care for dry wines I was not able to judge its other qualities. Linda did not care for it either, and she tends to be OK with dry wines, so I suspect it is just not a very good wine. I suggested she find a recipe that calls for white wine and use the rest of it in the dish.

One of our favorite TV shows is The Big Bang Theory. It has moved to Thursday evenings this season, so we went downstairs to watch it. The problem is that once we are in front of the TV set we tend to stay there. I use the time to multi-task and work on my blog post for the day, so it’s not a complete waste of time. Besides, we do not consider being entertained a waste of our time. I am enjoying working on the bus, and although some aspects of the work appear humorous in retrospect, I am rarely laughing while in the middle of it. I like things that make me laugh, and The Big Bang Theory is a very cleverly written show that is well acted and very funny.

2015/11/04 (W) Southbound Liberty

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Linda decided last night to work at home today rather than driving into the bakery in Hamtramck. That meant she did not have to get up at 5:45 AM. She was up just before 7 and I was up just after that. I made a large pot of Sweet Seattle Dreams half-caffe coffee and Linda toasted slices of cinnamon raisin bread for breakfast. After breakfast she settled in to work at her desk while I tended to several chores.

I last changed our whole house water filter in May (of this year) and it looked like it was overdue for replacement. I had one filter element left so I used it. The process is simple enough: I turned off the well pump, shut off the valves on either side of the filter housing, released the pressure in the housing, and unscrew the removable bowl. When I unwrapped the filter and read the directions I was reminded that I am supposed to clean the bowl with warm, soapy water, rinse it clean, and then sanitize it with a bleach solution and rinse it out again. That requires water, of course, but I had the water shut off and the filter housing disassembled so I had n way to turn the water back on. The only way to accomplish this would be to stage the needed water before shutting off the water system but I never remember to open the new filter element are read the directions before I start. I mean, really, it’s not the sort of procedure that requires me to read the directions each time.

One of the old swivel bearings (L) and one of the new swivel bearings (R). The new one is obviously smaller than the old one and was not compatible with our pedestals and power bases.

Not having any running water I wiped out the bowl with paper towels as best I could. The directions called for lubricating the main O-ring with silicon grease. I knew I had some from the last time I changed the filter. It was hiding in plain sight but took me a while to find. After greasing the gasket and installing it back on the bowl, I put in the new filter element and screwed the bowl back into the filter head, tightening it with the filter wrench. I turned the well pump back on, opened the inlet and outlet valves for the filter, and let the trapped air out with the purge valve.

Our filter housing takes a larger than usual element. It is 10″ long, which is the most common length, but 5″ in diameter, which is much bigger than usual. It’s a dual density spun polypropylene material with a 50 micron nominal rating at the large outside surface and a 5 micron nominal rating towards the smaller core. These filter elements are not available at the local home stores so I get them from Adam’s Well Drilling and Water Treatment, who installed out current water treatment system.

I gathered up the laundry and put a load in the washer. I took the label from the new filter element and headed out on an errand run. My first stop was Adam’s where I bought four filter elements and two bottles of chlorine tablets for the taste and odor portion of our water treatment system. Wilson Marine is located next door to Adam’s so I stopped there to see if they sold marine grade plywood. They didn’t but I had a good chat with the associate. He suggested that for patching the floor in the bus I just use treated plywood or use Thompson’s Water Seal to treat whatever wood I use.

One of the new swivel bearings on top of one of the old swivel bearings clearly showing that the new bearing is small in diameter, inside and out, than the old one.

My last stop was O’Reilly’s Auto Parts. Their parking lot was finally open so I could park near the door. Ronald had me load the containers of used oil and the bag of filters into a shopping cart. The bag had leaked onto the paper towels I put under it in the back of my car so Ron gave me a cardboard box to put it in. He simply put the bag of filters in a container but he emptied the six containers of oil and gave them back to me. They recycle oil but not the containers.

When I got home Linda checked to see if we could take the plastic oil bottles to Recycle Livingston. Used motor oil is considered hazardous waste and anything that has had used motor oil in it is considered a hazardous material so we could not take the containers there. I helped Linda load all of the other recyclables into my car and she made a run to the recycling center, the first in a few weeks. After moving the laundry from the washer to the dryer and putting another load in the washer I got back to work on the bus floor.

The area behind the panel to the right of the co-pilot/navigator seat. The mouse nest is gone and the damaged wood has been removed from between the side-to-side seat mounting rails.

I spent most of the afternoon working on the floor under the front passenger seat. First I removed the blocking that provides support for the bottom edge of the switch panel but also spans the three floor boards. I cleaned out the mouse nest behind the switch panel and found the skeleton of a small mouse. I then got the piece of wood between the mounting channels out. The drain line for the front CruiseAir evaporator went through this floor near the outside edge but the floor was rotted enough that I was able to break out the wood on the back side and pull the board out. As I did this I was reminded, once again, about how much of this conversion was built with the idea that it would never have to be disassembled.

I took a break for lunch, which was leftover lentils and quinoa pilaf with some fresh fruit. After lunch I resumed working on the floor under the front passenger seat in the bus. I managed to remove most of the rusted metal filler plate. I made a lucky guess as to where my wire brush was stored and used it to clean the surface of the rusted metal that remained. I played with different combinations of wood thicknesses and pondered how I will rebuild this area. I then sprayed the rusted areas with POR-15 cleaner/degreaser and scrubbed them with a sponge soaked in hot water.

I moved to the driver’s seat area and repeated the process. There was one area with damaged wood that I still had to deal with. There was an edge about 10 inches long capped with two thin gage metal angles that were badly rusted. I removed as much of the angles as I could. I cut off a strip of wood about 2″ wide and 10″ long and removed the rest of the angles. I wire brushed the area but left the POR-15 cleaner/degreaser for tomorrow. In anticipation of applying the POR-15 tomorrow and coating it with black spray on rubberized undercoating paint I began masking off the area with painter’s plastic.

For dinner Linda made a salad, roasted eggplant with garlic and breadcrumbs, and mock fish with vegan tartar sauce. We finished the Frey Natural Red wine with our meal. I would love to support this company but this wine is too dry for my pallet.

PBS had an interesting lineup of shows this evening on continental formation, natural wonders, and the human brain. I dealt with e-mail before the shows and we turned in after the last one. Chuck and Barbara were planning on leaving this morning, southbound for Florida in their 1993 H3-40 Liberty motorcoach. I did not have any messages from Chuck today so I presume they got away as planned. They bought a lot at the Pelican Lake Luxury Motorcoach Resort in Naples where they have spent the last six winters and that is where they are headed. We will be staying about 90 minutes north of there in January and February and will get together with them as time and commitments permit. We are looking forward to seeing their lot; it has a coach house and they are doing some landscaping, including large palm trees.

2015/11/03 (T) The Penultimate Cut

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I heard noises in the kitchen at 7 AM and thought the cats might be up to something. I got up and discovered that Linda was just leaving the house. She is normally out the door between 6:15 and 6:30 AM but did not set her iPad alarm last night. I stuck my head out the door and said “good morning” as she was getting in the car.

I had my usual breakfast of granola with fresh blueberries and brewed a half pot of Sumatra Mandheling half-caffe coffee. I was enjoying my cup-a-joe by the fireplace when Linda called to let me know there was a story coming up on Michigan Radio (WUOM) at 8:30 AM about an underground landfill fire in Bridgeton, Missouri. Bridgeton is where my sister, niece, future nephew, and grand-niece live and I had just heard about this fire for the first time on Sunday evening while talking with my sister.

I got the leaf blower out at 10 AM and spent a couple of hours blowing as many leaves out from under bushes and away from the house into the yard as I could. Keith arrived at 10:30 AM and followed his usual mowing pattern starting with the west half of the property. The lawn in the immediate vicinity of the house is the last area he cuts which gave me enough time to get the leaves out into the yard where Keith could mulch them.

Most of our trees have dropped most of their leaves by now and Keith’s mower did a pretty good job of mulching most of them. Before he left we discussed having him come back one more time. The grass has quit growing so my preference is to wait two weeks but that will depend on the weather. Keith will check with us next Monday and we will decide what to do at that time.

Mike (W8XH) is planning to come over tomorrow after breakfast and help me work on the tower and our Hi-Q 6-80 antenna. I have been collecting materials that I need and took a little time to see if they would work with the tower. I also took the Diamond X-300N antenna down as I planned to put it on the tower in place of the X-50N that is currently up there. My materials were not working quite the way I had hoped they would so I headed to Lowe’s to see what else I could find. I also planned to drop off the used oil and filters from the bus at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store.

At Lowe’s I found clamp sets designed for mounting antenna masts and bought a pair. O’Reilly’s parking lot was still closed off. It looked like it had been re-blacktopped and they were painting the stripes for the parking spaces. This was my second attempt to get rid of the waste from yesterday’s bus maintenance. I will try again tomorrow; with any luck the third time will be the charm.damage

The area beneath the co-pilot/navigator seat. Not a pretty sight, especially when racing against the clock to get the coach finished for the upcoming winter season.

I finally got back to work on the bus at 2:30 PM and removed the front passenger chair pedestal base. The entire area under the base, between the side-to-side seat mounting channels, was rotten so I cut out the water-damaged wood. Just below the wood I found rusted metal which appeared to be delaminating. Metal does not do that so I presume there was a layer of sheet metal on top of a metal housing. The main structure of the bus is welded stainless steel but mild steel was obviously used to create compartments. Ugh.

After cutting out the damaged wood the remaining piece towards the outside was loose but would not come out. I removed a couple of screws from the 1/4″ walnut veneer side panel and pried the top out with a small screwdriver. This panel has a lot of switches mounted in it and a lot of wires behind it so I could only pull it out about four inches. That was enough to see a 3/4″x3/4″ piece of blocking screwed to the floor to catch/secure the bottom edge of the panel. It also enough to see a very large nest made of tiny bits of shredded paper.

The cavity behind the panel to the right of the co-pilot/navigator seat was apparently a great place for a mouse to build a nest.

I left the nest alone for the moment and removed two screws from the block that went into the piece of wood I need to remove. It appeared that a drain line for the front air-conditioner went through the floor near the outside edge and possibly some wires. I left the nest for Linda to see and will resume working on this tomorrow.

Linda made vegan grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and served them with some of the leftover broccoli soup and sliced fruit. We each had a small glass of the Frey Natural Red organic/vegan wine.

After dinner I called Phil to see what his plans were for this week vis-a-vis our driveway and French drain projects. I got his voice mail and left him a message. When we left on Saturday afternoon he was just finishing up placing and compacting the gravel in the driveway but said the west end of the yard needed to dry out (again) before he could finish working down there. Hopefully the new drain will help speed that process along.

The floor area under the driver’s seat in the bus with all of the rotten wood cut out.

Phil uses a self-leveling laser level system to measure elevations. Not only has he assured me that the new 40 foot parking area is level, he has demonstrated it with his system. Still, it does not look level, especially from certain points of view, and it does not feel level when driving in it, although that may also be an optical illusion. We have a transit level and I plan to use it to check the pad, but it requires two people, one to hold the measuring stick and one to look through the telescope and record the readings. That means I need Linda’s assistance, which means this will have to wait until the weekend. Perhaps by then I will have the cockpit in the bus repaired. It’s also possible that Phil will have returned and completed the job, I which case I may have him help me use the transit as a check on his laser system.

We watched our usual lineup of Tuesday evening TV shows while Linda checked in on her online word games and I worked on this post.

2015/11/01 (N) Brunch with Kathi, Farewell to Uncle Bob

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We switched from Eastern Daylight Time back to Eastern Standard Time overnight. It was 11:30 PM when I turned off the lights and 7:30 AM when I got up, and since I had not reset my nightstand clock I got my eight hours of beauty rest. I put my robe on and started setting all of the clocks back one hour. We have a LOT of clocks.

My cell phone adjusts automatically, as do the computers and satellite linked thermometers. I reset the clocks in the microwave, range, and coffee maker, and stopped the grandfather clock, which is only supposed to be advanced, to let the time catch up to the setting. I reset the clock on our phone system, the clock on my night stand, and on two of our thermostats. The Wi-Fi thermostat already had the correct time so it may have adjusted automatically or perhaps was never changed to EDT last spring. We have three battery powered clocks that I did not reset as I wanted to change the batteries and the incorrect time would serve as a reminder that I had not yet done that. I still need to check the clocks in the two digital cameras, as I like to have correct time stamps on my photos, and there are five clocks in the motorcoach that need to be reset. We have a lot of clocks, but I quit wearing a wrist watch when I retired. I always have my phone with me anyway, and it usually knows what time it is in whatever time zone I happen to be in.

While I was in the basement I checked e-mail, replied to one from Gary at BCM, and then cleaned the cats’ litter tray. Linda was up by then so I made coffee. I turned on the fireplace and we settled in the living room to read, write, and savor our morning brew.

Kathi Slater, a long-time friend who Linda hired on at the bakery some years ago, came to our house today for brunch. I think it was only her second visit since we moved to this house but then most of our friends have been here at most once, if at all. Family members visit more often, of course, but that does not mean frequently. John/Dianne Rauch and Steve/Karen Limkemann have been here the most, along with Mike Sharpe (W8XH) from our SLAARC ham radio group. Philip Jarrell of Precision Grading, and Keith Kish of Kish Lawn Care, have been the most frequent people here on business, along with Kerry Fear, who does our snow plowing, and Darryl Mech of DMC Heating and Cooling, who did a lot of work for us when we converted from propane to natural gas. We do not, however, feel isolated here. We are getting to know a few of our neighbors and we are only minutes away from three communities full of people and shopping options. Both of our children and their families are only 30 to 45 minutes away as are the northwest suburbs of Detroit where some of our friends still live. But most days we live quiet, undisturbed lives at our home in the country, and we like it that way.

Linda and Kathi had “things” to discuss that did not involve or concern me, so after brunch I busied myself with other things. After checking e-mail I started downloading an update to Adobe Photoshop CC (2015). These downloads are huge and very slow so I left it to run. Chuck texted me and arranged to pick up his eight gallons of oil around noon. We chatted briefly when he arrived and he took a second look at our water intrusion problem. After he left I went to the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store in Howell to buy grease. Joe told me to get two tubes of the best stuff I could find, synthetic if possible. O’Reilly’s had Mobil 1 synthetic grease for almost twice the price of anything else on the shelf so I bought three tubes and used my $5 off reward card. Lowe’s was right across the street so I popped in there and got three boxes of Scott blue paper shop towels. I use a lot of these when working on the bus.

When I got home I changed into my work clothes and got to work on the bus. I stayed on that task the rest of the afternoon except for a few short breaks. The first break was for linner. The second break was to start the bus engine, raise the body, put the stands under it, set the body on the stands, and dump the air from the suspension. The third break was to say “goodbye” to Kathi and the forth break was for another brief visit from Chuck to pick up a bus engine oil filter from me.

In the course of the afternoon I managed to cut out most the rotten water-damaged wood from the floor in the driver’s area of the bus cockpit. Cleaning up the metal and protecting it, providing a drain for the water, and then patching in the floor is going to take several days. Finding and plugging the entry point may not happen. It’s November 1^st and I only have about three (3) weeks to get the bus put back together to the point where we can use it this winter. The reservations are made, winter is coming, and we are out of here before the calendar turns to December.

When I wrapped up work in the bus around 5:30 PM I had been using a two-tube fluorescent work light for an hour. By the time I set the thermostats back, and changed the time on the microwave and the battery powered clock in the living room, it was approaching 6 PM and it was dark outside.

Linda made broccoli soup from scratch for dinner. It was a mild, subtle dish and we both had seconds along with a few crackers and strawberry preserves. I called Butch after dinner to update him on the floor situation in the bus and get his opinion on my idea of filling the “tray” with expanding foam. After talking it through I decided it might be the best idea I ever had.

While I was talking to Butch I got a call from Joe and handed the house phone off to Linda. Joe was northbound on I-275 in Michigan. He was at most an hour from our house but getting ready to stop for the night. He wanted to be close enough to Chuck’s house to get there easily by 7 AM and did not want to backtrack the 20 miles from our place. As we say in ham radio “QSL” (I understand).

I got the phone back from Linda and was continuing my conversation with Butch when I got a call from a 405 area code number that showed up as “unavailable.” I don’t usually answer those calls but they left a message and called back about 12 minutes later. I had not even checked the message yet but figured it was someone actually trying to reach me so I gave the house phone back to Linda and took the call. It was my nephew (by marriage), Philip Pelton, calling to let me know that my Uncle Bob had passed away a couple of hours earlier. He was also looking for a phone number for my dad.

Bob was my dad’s younger brother by two years, his only sibling and my only Uncle, my mother having been an only child. Bob was 88. Linda and I saw him in April on our way home from our winter in the desert southwest. Bob had Parkinson’s disease and was in a rehab center near his home fighting an infection. He did not look at all well to us at the time so I was not really surprised by Philip’s call. According to Philip, Bob had developed pneumonia in both lungs shortly after we were there and the doctors were never able to cure it. He was at home when his blood oxygen dropped, he lapsed into unconsciousness, and expired.

Uncle Bob was an interesting and unusual guy. He had a Ph.D. in micropaleontology and was a brilliant geologist. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, he moved to Oklahoma and spent his entire career studying the geology of that state. He developed an interest in genealogy somewhere along the way, and did some significant research on the various branches of our family. He married Helen Pelton, second marriages for both, but never had children of his own. Helen had one son, Scott, who passed away some years ago, survived by his mother, ex-wife Linda, two children, Tiffany and Philip, Tiffany’s three daughters, and Philip’s son and daughter. He was known to all of them as Papa (PawPaw) and they obviously adored each other. We only had a few visits with him over the years but they were always very interesting.

We wrapped up the call with Butch and I called my sister. Philip had already reached her but we had a long chat. She reported that our father is doing better and has recovered somewhat from his stroke of a couple of months ago. My grand-niece, Lilly, is having short seizures again, which is concerning to say the least. The doctor has adjusted her medication but it will take a week to see if the higher dose is effective or they need to move to a different drug. Lilly is six weeks younger than Madeline and just the sweetest little girl you can imagine. It is most unfair to her, and her parents, to have to deal with these seizures.

I went to my office and downloaded e-mails (which were painfully slow). I had two in our general contact account, which I do not check every day. They were both from BCM readers letting me know that they enjoyed my articles and actually found them useful. I replied to both and answered their questions as best I could. I then logged into RVillage. We had one message, which I responded to, and 153 notifications. The vast majority were from the Comic Relief group and I think I will have to turn off notifications for that, and perhaps other, groups. In retrospect I should have created a separate e-mail account for RVillage, but I didn’t.

2015/10/29 (R) A Setback

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Linda turned off her alarm and slept a few extra minutes before getting up at 6 AM. I watched the weather on TV while she got ready to go to the bakery. She left at 6:25, about 10 minutes later than usual. I am always amazed at how quickly she can get showered, dressed, and out the door.

The temperature across our area was 37 degrees F, more or less, and the wind was blowing, which we could see just by looking at our trees. The winds were forecast at 15 – 25 MPH out of the SW gusting to 40 and strengthening into the morning hours as they shifted out of the west in advance of a second cold front.

Last night I shut off the color laser printer, the two NAS units, and the Linux box as a precaution against losing power but left my laptop on since it runs on its own internal battery. Even though all of our devices with hard disk drives are plugged into uninterruptible power supplies, and we have an auto-start whole house generator with an automatic transfer switch, I decided to leave all of these computing devices turned off until the wind subsided later today. Morning showers were forecast as likely, with the possibility of a few snowflakes, but never materialized. Overnight lows tonight are forecast in the mid-to-lower 30’s. The bus is not winterized, and I have been working in it almost every day, so I have had the heat turned on in the bus for most of October. I do, however, set the thermostats back to approximately 55 degrees F when I am done working for the day.

I got up, put on my robe, fed the cats, and made a half pot of coffee (Sweet Seattle Dreams). While the coffee was brewing I heated up a banana-nut muffin, poured a small glass of orange-grapefruit juice, washed the last of the blueberries, and fixed a bowl of granola. I was done with breakfast by 7:15, took my coffee to the living room, and enjoyed it by the warm glow of the fireplace as I worked on my iPad with Juniper on my lap and watched the night yield to the orange glow of sunrise.

New photo accessories from B&H Photo Video in New York, NY., photographed with the new Sony a99v-DSLT camera.

My main focus today was the cockpit of the bus, specifically the floor/wall tile, but first I got dressed, turned up the heat in the bus and the garage, and then opened the boxes that arrived yesterday from B&H Photo. I managed to do that at 8:30 AM; well ahead of my usual getting started time of 10 to 10:30 AM. Most of the items were in one large box but two small items were in a separate box that must have been shipped from a different location. The shipping boxes were in good shape and the B&H sealing tape was intact. I removed everything from the shipping boxes and then checked them off on the packing slip. Again, all of the individual product boxes and other packaging were undamaged. I opened each item, carefully removing all of the pieces and manuals/paperwork. I arranged everything on the dining room table and took a few photos to document what was there.

I had been pondering the damaged plywood under the driver’s seat ever since I removed the old vinyl tile. The exposed plywood was screwed down in lots of places so I figured it was not the original floor of the bus. I could also see many additional plywood layers in the holes for the seat mounting bolts. Closer inspection revealed that the top layer of plywood in the driver’s area was in two pieces, fore and aft, and that only the aft piece was damaged. Based on all of that information I decided to try removing the aft piece.

All of the screws came out except for two and they just spun in their holes so I figured the wood around them was bad. It took a little prying but the piece popped loose. I pushed the two power wires for the motorized seat back through a hole and the board was free. What I found made my heart sink.

First look at the water damage in the aft portion of the driver’s floor area.

The underside of the plywood was much more damaged than the top side and it was moist. The original bus floor was even worse. Part of it was missing and I was able to crumble much of what was still there from the rear mounting holes back. It was obvious that there had been considerable long-term exposure to water but it was not obvious how this had occurred and was, apparently, still occurring. I texted Linda and Chuck with a photo of the damage and heard back from both of them fairly quickly. This was clearly an unanticipated setback but long term it was better that I discovered it, and had a chance to fix it, rather than having covered it up.

Speaking of covering things up, the top layer of plywood must have already been damaged when we bought the coach in late 2009. One of the things we had Creative Mobile Interiors (CMI) do to the coach between September 2009 and April 2010 was pull the carpet out of the entry and cockpit and replace it with the gray vinyl tile that I just removed. The tile was under the swivel pedestal base of the driver’s seat so whoever installed the tile must have removed the base and must have seen the obvious signs of damage. They should have stopped right there and let someone know and CMI should have contacted us to discuss a course of action. The obvious course of action would have been to pull up the top layer of plywood and see what was going on. We would not have been happy about it at the time as we were already spending more money on fixing things than we anticipated, but we could have discovered and fixed this six years ago.

The floor directly under the base of the seat is the ceiling of the first bay on the driver’s side of the bus. It was very chilly outside so I put on my hooded sweatshirt and had a look from below. I could see that the four threaded holes for the seat mounting bolts were part of two large steel angles running fore and aft that were welded to two square tubular steel cross members. From that observation I decided on how to proceed.

My plan was to cut out the bad plywood by cutting between the centers of the holes. That would leave half of each angle to support a new piece of filler plywood. I got the Porter-Cable oscillating saw and started cutting out the really rotten wood aft of the rear seat mounting holes. I was not prepared for what I found when I finally got that piece out.

The damaged bus sub-floor cut away. I could see through into the bay below the driver’s seat. The blue to the left is paper shop towels soaking up the water and rotted plywood in a small tray area.

What I found was water; not dampness, but standing water. And debris, lots of mucky debris. We had a lot rain starting late Tuesday evening, all through the day yesterday, and overnight into early this morning so I suspected that this water might be “fresh” as in recently arrived in this location.

The cross member aft of the rear pair of seat mounting holes is the top of the rear wall of the compartment under the driver’s seat. All of the water was in the area aft of the cross member in what appeared to be a kind of tray about two inches deep below the level of the driver’s floor. It was almost full of disintegrated plywood, and other stuff, and obviously did not have a natural drain. I sent a second text message to Linda and Chuck with a photo of the water/debris-filled pan aft of the rear mounting holes for the driver seat pedestal. Some things you just have to share, and some things you just have to see to believe.

It took me a little longer to realize what was going on as my immediate concern was cleaning up the mess. I put on a disposable glove to pick up all the detritus in the tray and put it in a trash bag. The tray extended under the floor towards the outside of the coach so I reached back in there and just kept pulling out more and more wet junk. At this point I started to analyze what was in front of me.

It was now obvious to me that the damage to the floor under the driver’s seat was caused by water filling this tray and coming in contact with the bottom of the plywood bus floor. With nowhere for the water to drain it was able to stay in contact with the plywood for very long periods of time allowing it to penetrate the plies, soften them, and destroy the (water soluble) glue between them.

Clearly I needed to figure out where this water is coming from and stop it, but that was not going to happen today. I did, however, go back outside and check the front electrical bay. Sure enough, there was a little water on the floor of that compartment, so it was possible that the water might be coming from there somehow. If so, I need to find the breach and seal it. That, however, just pushes the problem down the road as I will still need to figure out how water is getting into the electrical bay in the first place and stop that.

The more I studied the way the bus was built the clearer it became that the original plywood bus floor extends under the left console into the first bay and separates the small upper compartment from the larger one below. But this tray-like area was below the floor and farther back which meant it was under the front electrical bay and above the driver side steer tire. I will have to check again but it appeared that this piece of plywood must be the floor of the electrical bay.

With a better, but still incomplete, understanding of the situation I resumed cutting out plywood. My oscillating saw went through the rotten wood like a hot knife through butter, but did not cut the undamaged plywood very well. I figured the blade was dull so I opened the Bosch replacement blade I had on hand only to discover that it did not fit my Porter-Cable tool. Arrrgh.

It was probably a good time for a break anyway, so I went to Lowe’s to get a couple of extra blades. I had good QSOs with Mike (W8XH) going to and from the store. The weather is supposed to be very pleasant all next week, with afternoon highs in the upper 60’s, so we are going to try to find a day to work on my antennas and the small tower next to the house. Bus or no bus, I also have to make time for our amateur radio hobby. When I got home I made popcorn for lunch and then got back to work. It’s a good thing I don’t have to fix most of my meals.

Linda called at 3:15 PM to see if she needed to come home and pick me up before going to Ann Arbor. Given what I was dealing with I was tempted to say ‘yes’ but I knew that this was a situation where I needed to stay on task until it was fixed. Brendan and Shawna both had work-related obligations this evening and asked Linda if she could watch Madeline for a while. Rather than have her cut her work day short to come home she left the bakery and drove directly to Ann Arbor while I continued to work on repairing the floor.

I called Chuck to see if he had time to consult with me about all of this. He called me back and we talked it through. He thinks the entry point for the water could be the frame on the large piece of fixed glass just aft of the driver’s position. I know we have a leak near the front of the large window assembly just aft of that one and the forward edge of the window panel may also be above the front electrical bay.

As soon as I was done talking with Chuck I removed the reading light on the vertical walnut chase by the driver’s left shoulder and then removed the nine screws that hold the cover in place and took it off. I have known for a long time that there was a lot of stuff running through that chase but I had never removed the cover to look inside. It is crammed full of AC and DC wires, coaxial cables, air lines, and residential air-conditioning refrigerant lines. My immediate interest was evidence of water, and I did find the same stains that were similar to ones we have found elsewhere in the coach, but I did not see anything that looked or felt wet.

With the new blade for my oscillating saw I managed to cut out the piece of plywood between the four mounting holes but it wasn’t easy. With that piece out, however, I could use my inspection mirror to see the underside of the floor and reach into the space below to determine distances to various structural members with my carpenter’s tape measure.

I still had more wood to cut out but by 4:15 PM I’d had enough for today. I set the top layer of plywood back in place and covered all of the larger holes with painter’s tape in a feeble effort to keep critters and cold air out of the coach overnight. I also used two pieces of felt and painter’s tape to seal the hole where the steering column goes through the floor. I took a few more photos, which I had been doing all along today. Tomorrow I think I will use the circular saw and/or the cutoff tool and try to make quicker work of this.

Before quitting for real I decided to unscrew the 3-sided bump out from the passenger side HVAC duct cover and measure the left desk base and pedestal to see what the correct distance needs to be. The bump out protrudes about four inches but it should only be three inches. As I suspected it is too big by the width of the wood, but I will take more careful measurements before I take it to Jarel to have it cut down. I also discovered, however, that the filter material we used to cover the hole where the heater hoses previously came out of the HVAC duct was interfering with the fit of the duct cover, including the bump out. While I was thinking about it I pulled out the two filler strips that go on either end of the plywood sofa seat. Jarel is going to remake them longer and out of solid walnut. Since we moved the seat board out almost five inches one side of each strip is now exposed and visible and the stained plywood edge is just not the look we want.

We had a heavy overcast most of the day and by 5 PM the light was fading. I dialed back the thermostats, grabbed the camera and the house phone, locked up the bus and went inside. I changed into my robe and then fixed dinner. I did not want to spend a lot of time preparing and eating a meal by myself so I had a can of Amy’s Chili with Vegetables. I added crackers, Smoked Tabasco Sauce, and shredded Daiya mozzarella vegan cheese. Some strawberry preserves on crackers added a touch of sweetness and Stash Raspberry Pomegranate Green Tea added its own warmth. Given a little more time I can make a better meal for myself but ever since Linda retired and took over preparing our whole-food plant-based (vegan) cuisine I am no longer as comfortable/confident in the kitchen as I once was. This way of eating involves ingredients and techniques with which I am simply not familiar.

After dinner I sat on the living room couch in the same spot, and in the same robe, as I did at the beginning of the day and worked on this post. I like the sense of things coming full circle, but mostly it is a comfortable place to sit and use my iPad. Linda and I texted for a while after she had put Madeline to bed. At 9:07 PM she indicated that she was leaving Ann Arbor and heading home. She got home a little before 10 and we sat in the living room for a while and finally turned in at 11. It had been a long day for both of us.

The Phase Place

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Tag Archives: water damage (H3-40 cockpit floor)

2015/11/12 (R) Unforced Solutions

2015/11/11 (W) Two for One

2015/11/10 (T) A Rainy Day

2015/11/09 (M) Clever Mouse

2015/11/07 (S) Measure One, Cut Twice

2015/11/06 (F) MEF3

2015/11/05 (R) POR-15

2015/11/04 (W) Southbound Liberty

2015/11/03 (T) The Penultimate Cut

2015/11/01 (N) Brunch with Kathi, Farewell to Uncle Bob

2015/10/29 (R) A Setback