Mary: I am at Home Depot,
my happy place. I'm going to build closets today in the bus,
you want to help? Let's go get some wood
The key is not to get sidetracked, I'm going to try to
pick up everything else I'm going to need for the whole rest
of the build. But nothing more, you know, and just the stuff I
need not, no matter how cute some of those tools are. Not
gonna, I'm not even gonna look at them. Right?
Well, I was able to pick up a lot of the things on my list,
but not everything. I have what I need to do the walls. And that
was my main goal for today.
So the good thing about having so many things on my list is
that I didn't really have the energy or the time to browse,
'cause me browsing in Home Depot, I tend to get kind of
lost in there and end up with things that are "No, but I
needed it. I really did." Because I mean, a lot of times I
do need it a lot of times I don't.
I am amazed though, at how expensive lumber has gotten.
It's crazy. I just bought one sheet of three quarter inch
birch plywood, and it was $59. So last time I bought that it
was like maybe 32?
I think this street is always going to be a nightmare to drive
on. The bus itself makes a lot of squeaks like the body of the
bus. And I didn't really realize that because there was so much
inside the bus that was making noise that I wasn't really
hearing all the squeegees of the actual physical bus itself. And
now I am.
I had the cutter guy cut my sheets of plywood into two
pieces that are 20 inches by 74 and five eighths inches, that's
the height of the side of the wall that's toward the middle.
And of course there's the curve going into the wall. So I have
to cut the top of the plywood to fit into the curve. I'm not
going to worry about the sides because it's too complicated.
That's just a recipe for frustration and disaster, it's
gonna be a little tricky to show you what I'm doing because they
don't want to show you too much of the bus because I'm really
looking forward to having like a big reveal.
So I'm going to start off, I'm going to use this newsprint to
make a pattern, it's really flexible, and I can really jam
it into the curve.
So then once I have that paper version, I'm going to lay that
down on cardboard and cut out a cardboard pattern. Then I'm
going to take that pattern and hold it to the wall and make
sure it works. And in this particular case, there's a
copper pipe up here, there's a channel here along the wall that
holds all the electrical and I need to cut a notch for that.
Last time I did this, it was the first time I had ever used a
jigsaw. So... and that was when I did the cabinets. So I only
had to cut small curves and I had a hard time with that. Here
goes.
I'm gonna cut on this line all the way out. Then I'm gonna cut
this notch. And then I'm going to come back
and cut this.
And of course, I accidentally had the rear camera on when I
was actually cutting.
Okay, I guess I need to cut that again. I had to cut a whole I
got to use my hole saw here. But I had to cut a hole so that the
copper pipe could go through here because I'm not going to
take the pipe down, I need the curtains. And yeah, it's not
really an obstruction in the closet. So I'm just gonna let it
be.
I'm gonna apply contact paper, I'm using this little squeegee
thing to do this. With this, you can push out bubbles and stuff.
And it's not going to be perfect because nothing I do is ever
perfect. But it's at least going to be flatter than it would be
if I didn't use the squeegee.
These rivets here. I thought they were showing me where the
support beam in the ceiling and the wall was but they are not.
These - there are rivets that run across the bus on the beams.
And then there are rivets that hold the sheet metal onto the
ceiling and that's what these are doing. So there's really no
strength in this top piece. I'm still going to put an L bracket
there because it provides support, but I'm going to attach
it to the floor and then on this side, there's this very
substantial rigid piece going down the side that I can use to
to bolt into. Okay, so that's done and not perfect, like I
said, but what is?
I wish that the pieces were a little bit longer, but I guess
that's 20 inches because that's what I asked for.
So now we're gonna do the other side. The other side's a little
more complicated because it doesn't have that solid piece
for me to bolt into for one thing. The bed will be right up
against that wall, the closet on the other side is 10 inches,
this side is going to be 12 inches. I have a couple extra
inches on this side, because the other side has the door.
I'm not gonna say I screwed up, I'm just gonna say I take things
that I should be questioning at face value, and then I question
things that I should probably trust. First of all, I did the
measurement for the other side the same way you saw me do the
last one that is I use the paper, then I copy that onto
cardboard, then I cut the cardboard, then I put that on
the wood. But I said to myself, somewhere in there, this can't
possibly be right, it looks - the curve is too curvy. So I
adjusted it by eyeball. So I don't trust a template that I
made by measuring and coming in contact with the actual curve.
But I trust myself to judge the curve by eyeball.
Obviously, I had a lot harder time getting that went to work,
I had to recut it a bunch of times. It's not as lovely as I
would have liked. But I did get it to work. And then once I had
both of the walls up, and I was finishing up last night, they
definitely did not look the same size. And it's not because of
how I cut it. I didn't alter the width at all. But the guy in the
lumber department who cut the wood for me, he gave me one
piece that's just shy of 20 inches and one that's just shy
of 19 inches. So yeah, they're wrong. And they're wrong
different from each other. So you see what I'm saying - I
should have measured the Home Depot cuts, because now there's
nothing I can do about it. It's still better than what I would
have done with my jigsaw. But I do have to find a solution to it
this morning. And I have to find it quick because it's about to
rain, and I won't be able to cut wood in the driveway once that
starts. So if my solution involves any cutting, I'll be
out of luck, because my canopy is in Warren, where I'm doing
the rebuild, because that's one of the things that's gonna go in
this closet. I have an idea though. And it involves a return
trip to Home Depot. No cutting this time. Wish me luck.
So here is the final product, this stuff is finished to look
like barnwood. And I'm not normally into the fakie fakie
thing, but it was a quick solution. And I needed a quick
solution. And I think it actually looks pretty good. It
made both sides, both closets a little bit sturdier. And by
positioning that framing wood straight up, I was able to make
them look like they're the same size. And of course, they looked
a little slanted because of the curve of the bus. But by putting
the wood trim - I put it straight in relative to the
door. And that kind of creates the illusion that they're
straight. This side I'm going to keep all my tall things - the
canopies I use the swap meets, awning poles, not the awning
itself because that compresses small enough to fit in a
cabinet. But the poles. This side is going to be shelves, and
the shelves are going to be on the slide out the pullout kind
so that I can get better access to the stuff that's in there.
That's the plan anyway. The one on the driver's side, that one
will have the bed up against it, but there's a gap showing. It
doesn't have that yellow piece that goes vertically down the
side. But I know how I'm gonna fix it. I can't show it right
now because it's part of the reveal. Like I just want to be
clear too, that I could edit out all the dumb things I do. I
leave them in because maybe if you see me do it you won't, and
the truth is they're not actually dumb, i's just the
learning curve, not to be confused with the wall curve.
I'm rounding the corner on the rebuild so I should be able to
show you something soon. Fairly soon. If you're not caught up,
maybe watch this, it'll catch you up. I'll see you there.