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!

cubby hole

i wasn't sure what i was going to do in the front under the dash behind the door. i knew i wanted some kind of storage. i was thinking shelves with a door and a door but, eh, i didn't really want to actually do it. a storage bin is way easier. so that's what i did! :P

we are planning on having it be for sweatshirts/coats so they will be close to the door.

it's the same color as the walls. i got an opps quart for $4 at lowes last week. i actually really like it. with the greenish and purple, it gives a beachy feel. at least i think it does. steven either doesn't think so... or doesn't care... i can't tell. :P

blog neglect

we've been going to the bus everyday lately. we've barely been home. so busy!

- i finished painting the windows with the elastomeric roof coating.
- i finished painting the step
- steven finished the first coat of roof paint
- we hung walls! (except for behind the bathtub)
- we painted the living room area walls
- i cut out some sheet metal panels and glued them down in the front floorboard area
- steven cut out/reconnected the heater hoses in the engine.
- i washed/painted the metal pieces that were in between the windows but ended up not using them. i glued strips of wood on instead.

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. :)

roof/window painting

yes, that is my 4 year old wearing dress pants, an oxford shirt and sweater vest pressure washing the roof of a school bus.

we got a can of elastomeric roof coating (compliments of my sister and her $50 lowes gift card christmas present. thank you, catie!) steven painted (most of) the roof today, while i did the windows. i'm going to paint the inside of the windows too for extra heat protection. steven needs to do the second roof coat next weekend.

steven also got the heater hoses capped off. finally. :P

exterior painting

we finished one side today. the other side has the sun shining on it in the afternoon so it gives me an instant headache to look at. we're going to have to go first thing in the morning to finish the driver's side.



nicholas REALLY wanted to use the sander. so steven gave it to him. he held it literally long enough for me to take the picture. haha

all taped off.
the reveal!

we love it! the white it rustoleum spray paint. the purple is exterior house paint with unsanded grout mixed in. chalkboard!

we popped the used up spray paint cans to get the marbles out. noah felt totally gypped that he only got one marble and nicholas got two. until he forgot about the marbles entirely when he got distracted by a box of raisins. :P

bathtub in! (kind of)

i painted more of the floor and siliconed in some of the seat holes.

we also built the frame for the bathtub.

as it turns out, we are not as skilled a pair of carpenters as we though. i hope the learning curve is a short one.

we set up video games in the back of the van for nicholas. he loved it.

floor painting

on saturday, i painted the cabinet that's going to hold the kitchen sink. (it's purple. the picture is crappy.) steven covered the ice box with blue foam board (i forgot to take a pic.)


this morning we rode our bikes to the beach. first bike ride since the heat broke!

all the tires needed air after sitting in the garage all summer.



after the beach, noah and i went to the bus by ourselves. on the way, (read: before we pulled out of the driveway) noah fell asleep. he slept the whole time we were in the store buying paint and for like 45 minutes while i was painting. tired boy.

i got most of it done before he woke up and got WAY messy. like, head to toe. literally.



i pushed everything to the back 2 panels and painted forward. i got almost to the front before we had to go.

painting tip: butter gets rustoleum off babies.

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. :)