We had intended to renovate the bus prior to setting out on the road. That was nearly 2 years ago now. We finally acted on this long overdue intention when we recently parked up with the Grandparents in South Canterbury.
Having had 6 people trample over the small space, day in, day out, it was no wonder things were feeling a little tired and worn. "We will replace the carpet and curtains", we said to ourselves. Famous last words.
The next thing we knew; the carpets were removed, the internal wall coverings removed, the internal roof covering removed, the kitchen bench removed, the shelves removed, the office space removed, the vinyl removed, the steps coverings removed, and, the seating removed.
Serious project creep.
But amongst all our vigorous demolition we learnt a few helpful lessons that would have been good to know prior to setting out on the project.
We thought it was a small project, after all it was only approximately 10m2 that we were tackling. But it ended up being just as time consuming as renovating a room in our old house. Also, it was quite incredible how the small space created so much waste! When we began to deconstruct, it quickly became staggering how much material was used.
So Lesson No. 1. Don't be fooled by the size of the project, it can be deceiving. It can, and will, still take hours upon hours to complete. Especially if you throw in four kids to look after and a business to run. With the added responsibilities it took us 3 weeks of solid work to complete, and that was only to 80% completion. It wasn't so much the physical 'doing' of the work; although that took serious willpower, it was more the decisions on what type of product to use and how to navigate the many curves, holes, and angles that presented themselves in the vehicle turned home.
We were seasoned renovators so we assumed we knew how the job would go. For the past 8 years every new baby in our house had been a cause for celebration - with the timely gift of a major renovation. New baby - new kitchen and deck. New baby - new bedroom. New baby - well you get the idea. Gah! So it wasn't due to lack of experience with stress and renovating that this project was somewhat more difficult. It was due to this being a whole new realm of renovating.
The design brief was pretty simple. Updated, light, bright and cohesive. We were 'eco conscious' in theory but this didn't quite make it into the brief because we were short on time and research to pull it off well. It was previously covered in carpet and whilst nicely done, had dated and worn. (The previous photo tour here).
We stumbled upon tongue and groove plywood 2.4x1.2m sheets from Mitre10 Mega that we envisioned whitewashing. A jovial conversation with the sales assistant resulted in a great reduction in price and we trucked home to paint, and paint and paint. 3 coats, 24 hrs between each coat, 9 sheets.
Lesson No. 2. There is always a bargain waiting to be found so never pay retail. Have the cheek to ask for a discount, be nice, and you may just be pleasantly surprised. A great travel story goes a long way to building rapport!
An early brithday present for Hamish was purchased of an upgraded drill because drilling through steel for the roof was required. The roof also curved and had two large sunroofs in it so a second hand jigsaw was also required. With these two important tools now in our posession we were able to start some serious reconstructing.
The discovery of the extendable window wash broom sitting in the garage was a God send. We placed the roof sheet up, screwed up the extendable broom, and walked away. No standing around holding plywood sheets overhead for hours! Then it was climbing up on the roof to trace around the sunroof shape to cut out. In order to fit the sheets to the side channels we had to chisel out a groove along each. Luckily for us we have a young budding carver in the family keen to take on this tedious job.
With new roofing came new lighting. There have been great developments in the lighting world since the bus's previous furbishing. We sourced some LED strip lighting with some awesome diming switches - a little tech indulgence. Because we have sliders that cover the sunroofs we used the aluminium strips runners to incorporate and hide the strip lighting. We had problems with the 24v strip overheating (apparently the voltage was not consistent enough) so dropped to 12V but this wasn't bright enough). We are still mulling this one over.
The next mission was the lining of the sunroof edges. Previously the carpet had been shaped up to cover the multitude of angles underlying it. First attempt to recover it failed miserably. We tried a paintable wallpaper. All it did was show up the lumps and bumps. Ripping that off we realised the underlying surface was a veneer we could remove. We sourced a thin enough roofing steel from a local steel company which they cut to size for us. We could wrap it around the space and rivet it into place. Sound easy? It wasn't. We had the wrong size rivet gun. Tool number 3 needed, We then painted this with enamal white paint and finally 3 days later this problem was finally solved.
Lesson no. 3. The inevitability of spending money on things you don't end up using or changing is pretty high if you are novice bus renovators like ourselves. Don't fret - take it in your stride. You are generally working in pretty small quantities and you can cut costs but getting offcuts, end of lines etc.
Seatbelted seats had been fitted before we bought the bus and we had to remove these to remove the floor coverings. Easy right. "Yer nah". Bolted, heavy, nasty beasts. We reconfigured the seat arrangement on them to make them more comfortable also. The jigsaw and drill were earning their keep!
The next mission, vinyl.
Lesson no. 4. Lino is tricky. I never ever, ever, want to become a vinyl layer, What a job. Full respect to those who do this for a living! I gave myself a decent back strain ripping up the previous vinyl. We went through 3 different vinyls to get it right. It was like a scene from Goldilocks and the three bears. 1st one was too small, 2nd one too ugly, 3rd one just right.
We had glue up to our elbows, with a smell potent enough to send one into a high, and tricky angles to contend with. It wasn't helped by the fact that our engine was mid mounted and thus a great gaping hole existed in our kitchen floor with a removable cover. We removed the cover and found it was rotten so had to build a new one. It had a soundproofing heat resistent covering on the bottom. Filled with dust I took to it smacking it with a broom.
Lesson no. 5. Don't be an idiot like me, check if you are dealing with asbestos first. We think in the end it probably wasn't (unconfirmed) but I can tell you that that sinking feeling in the bottom of your stomach when you realise it could have been, isn't nice!
We had to find a replacement sound proofing cover. After scouring 4 shops we came across Repco which had a product that was a 'Self Adhesive Sound Deadening Material with Aluminium Foil Heat Shield'. It was reasonable enough at $65 a sheet but unfortuantely having just travelled again we have since discovered it isn't quite sound proof enough. We will have to apply a second coat, rethink this problem, or just put up with the noise.
Then it was onto the kitchen bench. We wanted timber and preferably NZ native. Having a best friends Dad as a joiner was the stroke of genius here. He took us to the workshop picked out the timber from bits lying around and worked his magic. What a thing of beauty he produced. We had to sand and marine varnish it. Only problem was it was too dang cold, the joy of winter renovations in the south. The varnish wasn't finishing nicely and thus we had to take to warming it, and the bench, in front of the heater to get it sorted. We sourced a new kitchen sink from a kitchen manufacturer down some dark alley.
Lesson no. 6. Don't skimp on the depth of your kitchen sink. Having such a small area to work in, the deep sink is surprisingly a huge benefit for space.
I took to painting the fridge because it was ugly. That was all fine until I spray varnished it.
Lesson no. 7. Don't bother spray varnishing inside near the smoke detector, even when it is turned off - it's likely to result in flames!!! Er-hem...
After putting that little exciting fire out we moved on to replacing the rubber on the steps with garage carpet, with more nasty glue, and ackward angles. Have you ever attempted to replace carpet around the drivers seat area? Don't. It's painful. So many holes, angles, and tricky bits.
Then it was time to lay the main carpet, relief! We arrived at this point of the project and realised that by not having the furniture in the 'lounge' there was so much "space". The new carpet was inviting us just to sit on the floor, nay correction, actually loll around and spread out like eagles on the floor, so much roooooommmm. Due to this we made the decision not to reinstall the couch or seatbench. We now just have the couch squab with cushions. The seatbelted seats were now comfortable so we didn't require the extra seating.
Finally things were starting to come together. Throughout, there was much rewiring and reconfiguration of the electricals, shelving reconfigs, extra painting, and fixing up of the twidly bits. When considering the storage of 'stuff' the project crept into the next room where the office area was. We repositioned the desk, added shelving, turned the wardrobe sideways and made it a much more user-friendly space.
It was time to hit the road again so we tidied up the massive mess that had enstrewed over the weeks, reclaimed the garage for cars instead of woodshavings, re-sorted the house storage, removed the rubbish pile and packed up and off.
The irony is, we now have new carpet but not new curtains. That part of the project is yet to be completed. So much for intentions.
Now we are back on the road, Banks Peninsula bound.
It has been a delight to settle in the newly decorated space, roll around on the new spacious carpet, and to enjoy the light, warmth, and the 'happy inducing' paint fumes.
So what does the final product look like? Well it has proven tricky to capture by photo of the magazine styled moments amongst the living reality. There is always somebody or something in the wrong spot. Funny that - in 10m2 of space with 6 people. But, as we complete the steps we'll attempt to provide the pics. They may just be splattered with; boys, bird cage, bird, board games, odd shoes, towels, ninja outfits, cushions, lego, star wars figurines, books, worn socks, foam swords...