I must say it does get better on the second one as you know not what to do already. This side will also have the stereo fitted above the wardrobe as well as a speaker, so I’ll have lots of wires to play with here. The switch for the bedroom lights will be on this side that will only be 12v for the LED light strip’s.
Setting up to screws to put the wardrobe in place and the power for the other wardrobe light running under the floor.Screwed and glued into place.
Stereo time
Got to have some tunes in the bedroom, so with a bluetooth stereo we can have sound for our phones or the laptops when watching a movie in bed. So it’s time to put the wardrobe on this side as well as fit the stereo so I can totally finish off the wardrobe.
Cut out for the stereo.Well that fit’s.Now to cut the face board to size, not much room to play with.Test to see if it all fit’s.Screwing it all together.All in place, now I’ve got tunes when working.
Finishing it off now
Now the stereo’s in place Charmaine spotted a space behind the stereo that she said would be good for more storage. Looks like I’ve got to make an other cabinet as well, it will all so give us access to the stereo if we need to….hopefully not though.
Here’s the whole she saw.An other odd shape box I had to make.No more whole and access to the stereo if I need it.Cabinet door fitted, this will be covered the same as the wall later.Still have to finish the walk way and utility door.This side done of now.Utility / Bedroom door in place.Light fitted into the utility cupboard, comes on when you open the door.Bedroom door closed or utility door open depending where you are standing.Job done for now.
Apart from the cabinet, draw fronts and wall cladding the bedroom is finish. We still thinking of ideas for the walls, and will get all the draw / cupboard fronts when the kitchen and bathroom are finish. This way we can get them made up all at once, so that will be in the future some time off, for now.
Just recently I have decided to take a whole new approach to shopping and am saving a lot of money…….I am finally back to explain a few things that I have found that has helped me.
Buying only what is on special for that week
If you have not got a fussy eating house hold or you don’t mind thinking outside the box when it comes to meals, then these ideas really could help you save more than $40 per week!
Just recently I have taken a whole different approach to meal prepping and planning for the week. Lately I have let whatever is on sale at the time of shopping, dictate to me what meals I will prepare with what is in the trolley.
Stir up your imagination
This can stir up some great parts of your imagination to think of how you can make a meal out of what you have in front of you as well as in the stock cupboard already.
Hunter Gatherers
Remember that hunter gatherers never had the luxury that we have today to just drive up to our favourite local shops to buy whatever was on there shopping list, their list was what was in season and available in their local area.
Early Ancestors
When you really think about it, our early ancestors were eating everything for their body’s requirements at the exact time they needed it and being supplied by mother nature which was all around them. We have lost touch of this connection to the consciousness of the earth, I hardly know what is in season anymore.
Timing is everything
Timing is everything and if you can go in the afternoon say after 3.30pm when most things are marked down for the fresher things that are going to be put on the shelves for the next morning.
So here is an example of one of my special that I got at one of my weekly trips to the store:
Asian Style Chicken & Corn Soup
We froze the whole thing and have stocked that for another day when the sales at the supermarket are too low to make much of anything else. Its a really handy for another base to a meal later on. NOTE: if you reheat this make sure you eat it all or throw out the rest as you do not want to expose yourself to food poisoning.
These are the packets I found that were all marked down at a great price.
Thai Style Salad Kit with the whole packet of bean sprouts added. Would have cost $10 now $5 for them both
This salad fed us for that night and a enough for a second night as a side dish for the crumbled frozen fish that we got on sale three week before. I did not put the bacon bits as we do not eat bacon and I used two fresh lemons with some sesame oil instead of the packets as who really knows what is in them except loads of sugar most probably.
Simple Stir Fry Traditional veggie the whole packed. Was $5 now $2.502 cups of rice from the stock cupboard, stirred in hot coconut oil to brown before cooking
So with the rice I fried up one onion, a bit of ginger I had around left and mixed it into the rice, but you could put anything you like to for flavour that you may have in the house or for medicinal reasons. Then I mixed the veggies through and sectioned it of into meal sizes as there is only the two of us, this made us our meal for that night and two more meals each.
When I re heat the other meals, for one, I put in a handful of cashews and one chopped up chillies to change the meal taste completely so it did not feel like we were eating the same meal. For the other meal I dropped in a can of corn and tuna that was on special the last week I went shopping. I often do this if I am making a base veggie meal (with no rice or pasta) for the whole week so each meal is still different.
I always comb the fresh food prep areas as you can find some quick meal add ons, this works ok if your not a total organic minded person, saying that I have bought many times very marked down organic broccoli, cauliflower, beans, mushrooms, corn ect.
We bought new wardrobes just to cut them up just because nothing ever fits when your making a motorhome. This will definitely be a custom motorhome with lot’s of storage space, Charmaine’s very happy.
First off we had to make some room to build them as most of the supplies are in the coach as well as being a work place.
There’s a bed behind there some where.
Wardrobe time
Making up more boxes again, screwing and gluing them together after cutting them down to size. We had to cut 35mm off the bottom and around 250mm off the top to make them fit the place as well as some where to put the speakers. The off cuts will be used to make up some more cupboards that will sit on top of the wardrobes, the more storage space the better.
One down one to go.Both made now sitting in place.One more box on top made up of off cut’s.The trim around the wardrobe take’s time.Speaker time.A test fit.
Utility cupboard
Behind the passenger side wardrobe there will be a narrow utility cupboard wide enough to fit the cordless vacuum, the deck ladder for the back hatch roof top deck access and other cleaning things. This one has to be made from scratch as it’s such an odd shape, it will have three to four deep shelves, for laundry washing bottles ect .
More ply to give some more support.The start of the utility cupboard.Power to charge the cordless vacuum in the utility cupboard.
At this stage I’m just making it up as I go along, but I think its enough for what Charmaine needs for the use of this space. Now it’s time to cut the rest of the pieces up that I need so to finish screwing and gluing it all together. The top of the walls actually lean in around 85mm and by not going all the way to the ceiling I don’t have to worry about the curve for now.
Screwing the utility cupboard together.Time for some shelves.Screwed into place.Oh no not another angle!!Packing on the side.Lot’s of fiddly bit’s.Toilet wall in place.
Now for the other side wardrobes
I had already built it so, it’s just a matter of starting on the trim to go down the side between the wall the support under the wardrobe. Then build a small cupboard to go on top and somewhere for the other speaker with the stereo. The passenger’s side has all the wires, 12v lighting as well as the speakers on that side.
With the bathroom floor in place and water proofed it’s now time to start on the walls. But first we have to work out were the toilet window will go and lets hope it’s in the right place.
Passenger side marking out for toilet window.Let’s hope it’s in the right place.We have a hole in the side of the motorhome.One toilet window in place.Window from the inside.
Now to start on the wall’s
First off is to cut the insulation followed by gluing it in place, a job I love to hate. Second stage is to cut the first sheet of ply to size and making sure the window is cut out in the place. Now it’s time to start fitting it to the side of the coach.
Gluing the insulation in place.That will do for now.1st wall sheet up with window cut out.
There will be one more sheet put up on this side for the moment which will finish off the bathroom wall and part of the kitchen.
The shower and toilet side is done.
The vanity and laundry side
This side will be straight forward as there is no window to go on this wall at all. So it’s just gluing the insulation in place then cutting the ply to size. Screw some packing in place so I can glue and screw the ply to the wall.
Vanity and laundry side, with packing screwed into place.More insulation in the wall cavity.Insulation all in.One more sheet to go.Drivers side done in the bathroom.Looking from the front of the coach at the bathroom.Some more sparky stuff.Top of the toilet and shower wall finished.240v for a power point in the vacuum cupboard and 12v for a toilet light.Start of the wall between the bathroom and kitchen.Bathroom / laundry side.Just needs painting now.
After running some more power cables around the top of the walls and finishing off the transition from the walls to the ceiling. Just some more painting for Charmaine to do to finish off the bathroom walls for now. Look’s like the next project will be to build some wardrobes to close off the bedroom from the bathroom.
Now into the bathroom we go, after I’d finished the under floor heating it’s time to fix the bathroom floor. The old flooring will have to be pulled up and prepped for the new floor to go down. Until I started I thought it was going to be easy, but I found rusty screws which were holding the floor down as well as it being glued very well in place. This took me a hell of a lot longer than I anticipated, unfortunately. I also had to grind the old seat rail off the wall to get the new flooring into place.
Will have to cut off the old seat rails too.The old floor has to come up.Bugger that was a lot harder than I thought.One bit at a time or bits…. oh and found a washing machine.Almost gone.It’s not coming up that easy.I’m glad that’s finished.
New floor time
I had already cut the flooring to size using 16mm ply, the old stuff was only 12mm thick. We will also be screwing the same 16mm ply between the supports so the floor will end up being 32mm thick in most places. After letting then undercoat dry it was time to start laying the sheets into place, once again screwing and gluing as we go.
New flooring underside painted.Lets Glue and screw them down.Bathroom floor down.Looks good now after two coats of water proofing paint.
After sealing in between the sheet as well as down each side we put down one coat of water proof undercoat then finished it off with two topcoat’s to seal it off, no water getting through here now.
As this will be our home we had the a thought of under floor heating, not a bad thing when living in the colder area’s of Australia. We will be putting in a KIMBERLY™ Wood Stove with a heat exchange unit in to heat a 50-80lt hot water tank, then the hot water will be pumped through pipe work under the floor, so keeping warm shouldn’t be a problem. The thermal mass heating idea looks the best for us, as once it’s warmed up you can leave it off over night. I’ll all so run a thermostat to turn the water pump on or off while it’s running so we don’t cook our feet.
Now where is this going to going???
Cutting up and painting the form work.Form work screwed and glued into place.Plastic pipe supports in place and water proofing painted on.Inlet and outlet holes drilled into the floor.Pipe work in place.Looking from the back.
Concrete time fun fun fun……. not !!!
It’s not that bad as it’s only 4400mm x 300mm x 110mm so only 0.13m3. This is going to be a strong mix one bag each sand, gravel and cement with a water proofing agent mixed in. I’m going to make the mix as dry as possible, this will make it as strong as I can. I’ll also be using a concrete vibrator as this will get all the air bubbles out of the mix. Now it’s time to start mixing in the wheelbarrow then bring it in one bucket at a time into the coach.
And the concerting starts.One bucket at a time.Just need to go over it one or two more times with trowel.That’s one more job done.
We will be leaving the formwork in place to insulate the concrete and have a 100mm gap down one side, that will be used for air flow later on to circulate air up the back of the motorhome. As you can see we are making things up as we go along, but it’s the first time we have made anything like this and it will be a one of a kind coach design.
We had already got the bed when we were in Yulara N.T. so now it was time to put it all together. Being that nothing is fitting out of the box things will have to be cut to shape to fit in place. The bed head will be to high to start with so that was cut down to size and fitted between the bedside draws.
The bed head cut down to size and only just fitted between the draws.
Because we had to lift the bed up 150mm to fit into place over the motor area, the bed sides will still need around 100mm cut out of them near the bed head.
This will be fitted over the engine bayNot what I expected on the inside.Now lets hope it fits.Now it will fit over the engine bay.Setting up for the bed sides.Screw nuts now in place.Ok that’s the bed frame done.
Something to hold the bed up with
Now that the beds in place we still have to build something to hold the bed off the floor. We will be back setting this so you can put your feet under the bed by around 90mm as we don’t have much room down either side of the bed.
The start of the bed support, screw and glue as we go.That’s the upright bit done.From the front side with a kick board look.A test run.Finishing off with some left over material.That looks better.Bed support in place.Looks like it was made that way.I’ll be putting on the slats in later as they will only be in the way now.
Well that turned out better than I thought, now it’s done. The gas struts work well so we have more storage under the bed, you can never have too much storage space in a motorhome so the more the better. There is also a place were you can open up to work on the top of the gearbox under here too, lets hope not. I’ve also made a draw that slides down the old walkway that goes under the floor for more storage, which makes Charmaine very happy, she loves it.
As nothing is square in the bus, there is always going to be gaps somewhere and they can be put to good use. It’s more ass than class but to my surprise things are fitting into place, if only….. just. On either side of the top cabinets we are putting in some speakers for the surround sound.
This is the odd shapes you have to work with.Looks like a good place to fit some speakers, don’t you think?Now for the other sideBit by bit it’s going together.Fiddly bitsNow we have somewhere for the back speakers.Sound for the bedroomThat is the top half done.
Now for the bottom half
This is a bit more tricky as there is not much room to work with and the shape has to be exact. I will be trying to put a USB charger, AUX and a USB to the stereo on either side of the bed next to the middle cabinets and the wall.
Not much timber to work with here.Where does the time go ???It looks a mess from the back.Lets hope we soldered the wires in the right place.Phone charging points that can be switched off, AUX and USB back to the sound system.Job finished.
There was no room to spare at all, but that was a painful job and one that I’m glad is now over. I sometimes have some great ideas that I end up wishing I hadn’t had, but the job is done now.
Family is very important to me, and since we have been away for so many years its just really nice to book some time every second Sunday with the kids again. Not all the kids have been able to make some family days as Bernie’s two kids have work commitments that make it hard for them to get the time off. Poor Clayton lives all the way up Gympie so it makes it really hard especially with the cost of fuel these days.
Mia and CharmaineDan, Mia and JcJc cruising just below the limit.Why go around when you can go under.Charmaine going for it.
Mia’s 20th Birthday
Today was a special get together as we were also celebrating Mia’s 20th birthday early as well. Getting to the Kangaroo Point Cliff was a little testing as we could not find parking due to the Bridge to Brisbane Fun Run. We had no idea!!! Bernie and I actually got there early to do some bouldering before meeting up for the Kayak booking. Lucky we did, as we needed a whole hour just to find parking three blocks away from the cliffs. It was crazy traffic everywhere, great of all days. lol
Paddling down the Brisbane river on a Sunday after noon.Another great fun day.
Meeting up at Riverlife
JC, Mia and Dan (Mia’s boyfriend) all took the train in as its much cheaper and easier than driving the car all the way into the city. Bernie had bought as a surprise 5 pieces of Vegan Lemon and Lavender cake on Saturday so we could have the treat after the Kayaking. Mia (little sweetie) surprised us and made a yummy vegan Spaghetti Bolognese and homemade cookies…YUM.
Kayaking down the river
Dan and Charmaine
So we had a great first trip going against the current on the way down and taking the current back. Mia’s arms were hurting after 30 mins but she did really well as we were out for over two hrs. I was surprised at how well I managed, with no sore arms at all. Dan towed JC who towed Mia a little of the way back. They reminded my of ducklings all in line swimming behind a mother duck. It was good as it gave enough rest for Mia to do the rest of the way back to base.
Dan going under.And under the Story Bridge we go.
Riverlife Brisbane
None of us realised that Riverlife do many family day activities not only kayaking. So we all started planning for the next months ahead. Our list goes something like this with ever second Sunday cycle Rock Climbing. Bike riding and roller blading are the next to do.
One of the things most people don’t like doing is working over head, but the ceiling has to be done. As we had already cut all the sheets it was just a matter of pop riveting them up in place. This time the ceiling is not flat so it was just a matter of hold it up as best we could and start gluing and riveting as we go.
Lets just get it done.There is so much crap still in the coach to work around.Hard at workStill workingThe pneumatic riveter makes the job so much more enjoyable.
Bathroom all finishedThank goodness for timber propsNow halfway through the kitchen.That will do for now.
We will be finishing off the ceiling later on as I’ll be covering up the front hatch and don’t have the time right now. It was tricky getting it just right with the sheeting needed little adjustments just before gluing. The main work is now needed down the back of the coach as getting the bedroom finished to a stage that we can move back in after we leave this house sitting job at the end of October is our priority.
