it's a good thing we haven't had a fire.

i think the fire extinguisher is somewhat overdue for a recharge. yikes.

steven was off work today so he got to work on the bus with me this morning. we got a little more rubber flooring up and more vacuuming done. he also started the bus up after having a little trouble trying to at lunch yesterday.

we got one of the bathroom walls down completely, all the plastic sheeting around the shower stall and part of the other wall. one of the copper elbows for the shower had a GAPING hole in it. i think we are going to try to reuse the shower pipes except for the piece with the hole.

we started taking the kitchen area apart too.

we took our first load of trash out. we filled up the dumpster at steven's work. oops. i'm not sure how we are going to get rid of the couch yet. i suggested taking it out to the desert but steven said no. grumble.

the front, behind where the fire extinguisher was, was disgusting. really. there was literally 1/2" of grim. gross.

the filth in this thing is unbelievable.

the people we bought it from lived in it for 2 years. i think 2007-2009. there is WAY more than 1 year of sittings worth of dirt. i don't know how someone could live in this thing for THAT LONG without even once thinking "you know, i think i'm going to clean today." granted, i'm not the best housekeeper. but really, disgusting. even for me.

rails are easy.

the camera was dead yesterday so here are pics of right after the carpet was taken out.



today, i vacuumed a LOT. holy moly. it's FILTHY in there. when i was done steven's grandma was like "uh, you're going to rinse off in the pool, right?" haha


i got up one and a half rails. they were pretty easy. i used a pry bar and the screws just popped right out. the other half rail is underneath the kitchen and couch so i need to do them later after we throw some trash away and i can move stuff around.


we got a little of the rubber flooring up. i keep hearing that getting the rubber up is the hardest part of converting. i think i got lucky because the heat melted the glue. it's just peeling right up.

i also took off the rubber flaps that covered the door edges.

the boys played with steven's little cousin makenzie in the water for a while. they were running back and forth from the yard and the bus.


at one point i had to MAKE them go play. they wanted to work but i was afraid of them getting overheated. haha

registration pt.1

we went to the dmv today to get the bus registered and transferred to our name. we didn't know until the dmv woman told us but the title was just a lien title. ugh. so we have to get a bill of sale form filled out by the guy we bought it from and a lien release form filled out by the guy that he bought it from.

cross your fingers that we can find this guy. it only has a p.o. box for an address on the title.

but the good news is that we got the info we need to get the bus registered as a motor home instead of a school bus. (way cheaper insurance!)

we need 4 of these:

• a cooking facility with an on-board fuel system (i think instead of buying a new rv range/oven, we are going to just get a range and use the toaster oven that we already have.)
• a gas or electric refrigerator (we have an electric mini-fridge.)
  
• a toilet with exterior evacuation (there is a toilet with exterior evacuation but i want to move it to a different spot in the bus.)
  
• a heating or air conditioner system with an on-board power or fuel source separate from the vehicle engine (we have a portable a/c that we bought for our bedroom and to use in the bus.)
• a potable water supply system that includes at lease a sink, a faucet and a water tank with an exterior service supply connection (there is a sink but no water tanks. i guess they were hooking it up directly to the water supply line/drain.)
  
• a 110-125 volt electric power supply (the existing electric system looks okay, a few pieces need replacing though)

~ the maximum length of a motor home shall not exceed 45 feet including the front and rear bumpers (i think it's between 30 and 35 ft so we are okay there.)


if you know anyone named Eric Michael Craig send him our way.

bye bye, carpet

noah and i took the carpet out today. it looked like they started trying to do it "correctly" then decided that just throwing pieces on the floor would be fine.

the front had carpet padding glued down and the carpet edges rolled under and glued to the rubber floor around the outside.

it took us about a half hour to pull it up and roll/tape it so steven can pick it up later to take it to his work dumpster.

i also pulled off a gross press board shelf and removed some cabinet doors to be reused later.

i brought the shop vac with us so i could vacuum too but it was just too hot. it was 108 outside so it was at least 110-112 in the bus. poor noah kept saying "hot! hot!"

nicholas stayed in steven's grandparent's house to play so i didn't have to worry about him over-heating. noah just about drowned in all the water he drank haha.

we played in the splash slide thingy instead of vacuuming.

we'll go back in the morning to hopefully get it done before it gets too hot.

well. we definitely have a school bus.

we got there at 3:00 on tuesday (after a great lunch with kiza!).

hooooly rust bucket. we've got a project on our hands. haha



we were going to spend the night somewhere but decided that since we were done at like 4 we would try to just make it home.



we stopped at walmart to buy walkie talkies and then again for a while so the boys could run around. there was a big rainbow across the sky. we were pretty excited about that. we got back on the road at like 7.





half way through phoenix, in the center lane of 5 lanes, the breaks locked up on the bus. it's like 9pm so it's DARK. none of the tail lights or the turn signals work on the bus. and it won't go over 45. so i'm tailing steven SUPER close with my hazards on and he starts coasting to the right pushing everyone out of the way. we made it on to the TINY shoulder somehow. noah was asleep but nicholas was WIDE awake.

a cop came but luckily he was really nice. he called a tow truck to come help us.

the tow truck guy came and towed us to right outside a shop. he had a key for the gate but wanted to see if he could fix it on his own.

he looked underneath and saw a hole in the break line. they are air breaks so in order for the breaks to work there has to be pressure. but because of the holes, there was no pressure. so he told us where to go to get a new hose.

nicholas was finally asleep by now.



on the way, we saw an advanced auto and pulled in. it was 11:03 and they closed at 11. grr. but there were a couple guys in the parking lot that needed a jump so we got to help them out.

we had to go to 2 other places to get the hose. oi. once we had it we headed back to the bus/tow truck.

the tow truck guy put the new piece of hose on and steven started the bus to see if the breaks worked. they didn't. when he looked closer he notice FIRE coming out from the exhaust manifold. there were bolts missing and there was an opening shooting fire out. the fire melted the break hoses.

so the guy pulled the bus into the shop yard and we had to leave it until morning for the actual bus/truck guys to fix.

we owed him $260 for the tow but gave him $300 for the help. all he had to do was tow us but he ended up helping us for like 2 1/2 hours.

we got a room at a roach motel around the corner. it was 1am by the time we fell asleep.



we got up at 7. steven went over to the shop to see what was what while i gave the boys a (much needed) bath and some (also much needed) play time.

when he got back he said they were almost done! woot! he told them to change the oil while they were at it and that we would be back in a little while.



we went to walmart again to get a little ice chest, some gatorade/water and a bandana for neck cooling for steven because the bus doesn't have a/c. i needed some ziploc bags for noah's diapers too. because for some reason, i thought one would be enough. i don't know what i was thinking haha

by the time we got back to the shop they were all done and we were set to go. it was only like 10am! awesome! the total was $250. i was expecting it to be way more so that was good.

about an hour later, steven calls me on the walkie talking "uh... i think i'm out of gas." so he coasted for a while and juuuust made it to an off ramp and to an empty gravel lot. luckily, there was a 5 gallon gas can in the shower of the bus so we grabbed that and headed to the next exit because that one didn't have any gas stations.

while we were there, i thought i'd fill up too but didn't notice that it was almost 20 cents more than any of the other gas stations we'd seen. oi. ($2.89 vs. $2.69)

we went back to the bus and had to rig up a funnel with a water bottle and a fast food cup because the gas station didn't have any. what a mess haha. i had to change my clothes because i got gas all over myself.

we put $140 in the bus and went on our way.


like an hour and a half later, i thought i heard the van squeaking. we pulled over but it turned out my door just wasn't shut all the way. ahem.

we wanted to stop at this bbq place for lunch that we had seen before but when we got there it was closed for business so we ended up at carl's jr. eh.

not 5 minutes before we got into town, noah poop explosioned. ev.er.y.where.

we got to steven's grandparents (where we are storing the bus because we live in a nazi-style hoa.) at 4pm.

on the way home, noah sat in nicolas' carseat and nicholas sat in the regular seat. i was nervous the whole way.

we had to pull the carseats out and put the covers in the wash as soon as we got home. they were filthy and/or poop covered.

we got the whole car unpacked and almost everything put away. steven took stuff out and i put it right away. team work! unpacking it always the worse part.

i'm exhausted.