exciting!

the bus is really starting to come together! i'm super excited about it.

nicholas and i painted the bottom of the walls blue with some oops paint.

we got a futon yesterday. it was $299 at big lots. not so bad. i don't think it really even looks like a futon. it doesn't have those wretched bars either. one really nice thing about this one is that you can lift up the seat and there is a big storage area underneath.


i also moved a bunch of cabinets from home:

~ the purple and green cabinet with the kitchen sink that i refinished from the cabinet that was in the bus when we got it
~ 2 tall shelves are going to be my and steven's desks.
~ 2 toy cabinets for the boys (there's another bigger cabinet to sit on top of these 2 but they need it at home for now.)
~ a shoe shelf for right next to the door
we have a couple more to bring over later too but they can wait.

they need to keep the couch box for their fort :P

up next is the ceiling! come on, tax return!

finished steps! woot!

i finished the step yesterday. i put a piece of plywood over the 3 2x4s. i needed to sand down the front corner so the door would close.

then i siliconed some short pieces of ply around the edges to close up any gaps.

then everything got a coat of purple. i'll have to go back and give it a couple more coats. but all the major stuff is finished.

nicholas cut out a light we didn't need.

it was a long day. noah fell asleep using his lunchbox as a pillow. haha

today, it was too cold and windy to go over. we went shopping instead. i wanted to check out some sticky carpet tile for the cockpit area. they wanted $3/sqft. yikes. they were like $8 per tile.

so i was looking at rubber floor tiles. they were even more expensive. like $9 a piece.

i kept going to foam floor tiles. they had grey ones for $19 for 16sqft. not so bad.

they had some kid's room alphabet ones $18 for 26sqft. winner! i got 2 packs.

i also got another gallon of elastomeric roof paint, a quart of low voc contact cement and another paint roller thingy because steven broke the last one.

we came home and set up the tiles on the living room floor. they love them. :)

bunks

we finally finished something! the boys bunk beds are done and ready for sleeping! (not like they will even sleep in them anyway. haha)

we raised up the bottom bunk about 5 inches. i didn't want it too close to the wheel well because i thought it need more insulation space than what there was before.

i build a little box for around the wheel well to hold some insulation. when the bunks are in their final position, it will be screwed to the floor. for right now, it's just sitting there.

i put some foil bubble wrap style insulation in the wheel well box. then i put 3 fleece blankets that were in our yard sale pile over top. i think there were 12 layers of fleece total.

i used a mattress we already had for nicholas' top bunk. i just cut it down to fit. i made noah a new one from a foam mattress topper ($36 for a king size)and the cut off from nicholas' mattress.

i wrapped it in an old sheet and tacked it with embroidery floss (left over from 7th grade bracelet making) so the layers won't shift.

we need to reinforce the legs where they stack but other than that, done!

bonus pic of the beach the other day :)

yard sale!

our friend julie and mike were having a yard sale today so noah and i went over this morning with a van-load of stuff to sell.

i sold one thing and made a whopping $3. lol

we are going to try again after we get home from pennsylvania on jan 19.

they did give us a set of bunk beds though that we are going to use for the boys bunk rooms. so that was a big plus for the day.

they also gave us a satellite dish. i didn't know if we needed one or not. steven said probably not, but we'll have it if we do.

happy halloween!

we didn't go to the bus this weekend but we did get some stuff.

gas stove and a rooftop air conditioner. (i'm not sure if we are going to use the a/c.)

3 -way fridge. i'm not sure if we are going to use this either. the doors are a little warped and there is exposed asbestos in the back (that we are going to replace if we do end up using it). i don't know if that means there is asbestos inside it or not... and if that is bad. i don't know.

and if there is asbestos in the fridge does that mean there is asbestos in the oven because they came out of the same camper? hmm...

corner medicine cabinet and a little florescent light.

and the pièce de résistance: a horizontal propane tank. woot!

and we got it all for $300! woohoo!

we went trick our treating in havasu on sunday. it was fun when we first got there but it got really crowded really fast and nicholas was exhausted so we left early.
where's wolf?

nicholas the purple bat
mummy and granny tootsie

when we were walking around a woman came up to me and said she liked noah's costume. then she told me that she had a baby that she dressed up in a mummy costume too and that he died of cancer a year later :( i gave her a hug and cried. she said she liked it because it reminded her of him. so bittersweet.

floor score!

we went to lowe's today to get flooring. when we first walked in we saw a pallet of laminate for 64 cents/sqft. we decided that that was what we were going to get but we were going to go take a look at foam insulation first.

we got 15 2'x8' 1" blue foam boards. we got more than we will need for the floor but we will be able to use it elsewhere.

then steven took the boys to get some razor blades and i went to look at bathroom flooring.

i walked down the flooring aisle and found real hardwood for $.24/sqft! <$5.50/box! unfortunately, there were only 4 boxes. but i wanted to get them anyway.

then!

i saw another one for $.32/sqft. not quite 24 cents but not $4/sqft like it was originally priced. there were 13 boxes of that one left so we got all of them.

$235 total. not too bad!

then we went to the park and played at the playground. the we played air baseball because we didn't have any stuff :P

i took pics but then i realized that it was saving to the internal memory because i forgot to put the sd card back in. naturally. take pics tomorrow!

ack! asbestos!

so that fridge turned out to just be an icebox. which is fine but it was completely wrapped in asbestos. ew.

steven got most of it off there. then scraped more off later. we are going to re-insulate it in that foil bubble wrap stuff.

we also taped off where we are going to paint purple chalkboard strip on the driver's side.


we also scrubbed out the bathtub. steven hammered out a couple dents in the bottom. i painted some rust converter in a few spots (that's why it looks dirty in the pic).


we started a little on the kitchen. we picked up a desk thingy from a dumpster a few weeks ago. we are going to use it for the kitchen counter and back splash. i didn't get a pic of it though. i should have.

we measured and cut out a hole for the sink, which cleaned up really nicely. i have to shave a little off the inside edges to get the sink to fit a little better.

score!

we went over to that cab-over camper to get the sink and fridge (we didn't get the fridge today) and outside it there was a 2'x4' bathtub! woohoo!


we were going to get a sit down shower like this. but this is great! i was really bummed at the thought of the boys not being able to take baths. now they can! and it was free!

we also got the little sink out. it's the exact size sink that i wanted so that worked out perfectly.
we also grabbed the drawers and cabinet faces. at the very least we can use the hardware.

we got the first coat of purple with unsanded grout on the chalkboard strip. we're going to wait until it's not so hot to pain anymore. i was painting and steven going behind me with the roller to smooth out the paint. but the paint is drying so fast that it's difficult to get it rolled out quickly enough.

i think we decided we're going to paint the bus blue. it's going to have the purple chalkboard strips and everywhere that's black we're going to paint green.

we're keeping the name even though we're changing the color ;)

chalkboard!

i stole an idea from the halldorson family at unschoolingliberty. the painted some of their bus with chalkboard paint. how exciting! what a great idea! we went the next day to get stuff to do it too.

we wanted it purple though so we got some purple paint and unsanded grout like in this tute. we only did 2 coats of plain paint so far. i painted with the paint brush and steven followed behind me with the foam roller to make it smooth.

we also pressure washed the ceiling.

we got a lead on a free cab-over camper. steven went over a couple days ago and was kind of disappointed. the boys and i went over this morning. they played on the playground on the property while i checked it out. it looks like the only things that are salvageable are the sink and fridge. i was hoping for a stove. we'll just have to keep looking. :)

trash can and more purging

the boys and i went thrift shopping this week. my big score was this trash can holder thingy for $10. 1 less plastic thing we will need in the bus!


i've had this stuff boxed up for one of steven's co-workers that had a baby a month ago for like 4 months. hopefully, he will actually give it to them now that the boxes are blocking him from opening the door.

here's our pile of stuff we are getting of so far. i think we are going to have a yard sale. i'm unsure. on one hand, we might get a little bus money. on the other, we have to keep this crap in the house until it's all collected.

laundry score!

i've been thinking about laundry.

i saw a picture somewhere of someone that had a james washer on a drawer on the side of their rv. genius!

but $650? no, thanks.

so i decided that i want to build a james-style washer. i've seen ones that other people have built, no reason i can't too.

but i can't build a wringer. $190? still more that i want to spend on the whole project. i could go the bucket wringer route for $35 but that seems like way more effort than i want to put into laundry.

so i checked craigslist and found one for $25! woot! i called the guy right away and picked it up this afternoon. there is a little rust on the handle but nothing i can't fix. the rollers are somewhat discolored but in good condition.

team work!

tools!

we didn't work on the bus yesterday but we did buy some new tools.

we got some wrenches, replacement ratchet pieces from the set we already have, hammer, googles, a screwdriver, sander, gloves, a bucket w/ toolbag thingy, a sander, extra sander pads and a grinder.
the grand total was $206. not too bad.

the grinder was 50% off because it was the display for last year's model. $50 instead of $100. awesome!
the sander is this guy. it should be good for all the grooves and bumps on the outside of the bus.
(remind me to buy tools on amazon from now on. the sander was half the price!)