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Old 08-06-2011, 10:58 AM   #81
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Re: Best Home Yet

It's easier to see the lip here.



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Old 08-06-2011, 11:03 AM   #82
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Re: Best Home Yet

Here are two shots of the platform in place.




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Old 08-06-2011, 11:05 AM   #83
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Re: Best Home Yet

Good looking bus, really nice conversion.....
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Old 08-06-2011, 11:06 AM   #84
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Re: Best Home Yet

Did I forget to tell you that this platform also becomes a dog bed with the putting of the cushion on it?

I have two of these cushions. I also put one on the engine cover. Emma likes that one during the day as it affords her a view out the driver's window.

Also I don't put the platform down during the day as I could not open the front door. The outside handle on the back door is broken so I can't use that as egress.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:08 AM   #85
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Re: Best Home Yet

Grey Eagle,

Thanks for the compliment. What part of Tennessee are you living?
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Old 08-06-2011, 11:11 AM   #86
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Re: Best Home Yet

So, come on in. I'll show you around. Let's start with the dog bed/hamper.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:15 AM   #87
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Re: Best Home Yet

It's such a pretty piece, let's look at it some more.

Oh yeah, It's time to talk about the staining process. For the light color, I used Minwax Polyshades. It is a stain and polyurethane all in one can. It is called Pecan Satin. A quart is about $13.

I used foam brushes and let the first coat dry for a few hours and then did a second coat. That REALLY brought out the grain.

On the cabinet doors, I used Minwax English Chestnut. They didn't have that color with the built in polyurethane. The lady at Home Depot was an ace at matching wood samples of the bus that I had brought in.

I brought her some light stained stuff that we had removed, as well as a section of flooring. She has been matching paints and stains for 15 years. I actually "painted" the dark stain on the cabinet doors to emulate the finish in the flooring. Then in order to get the satin finish, I used the light stain as the second coat.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:19 AM   #88
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Re: Best Home Yet

As we venture into the bus we turn around and look at it once again.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:20 AM   #89
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Re: Best Home Yet

In between the dog bed and the couch, I made a little wall out of the flooring boards and put a little ledge on top made of plywood and stained it the light color.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:22 AM   #90
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Re: Best Home Yet

Here are some more views of that little wall.




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Old 08-06-2011, 11:24 AM   #91
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Re: Best Home Yet

As long as we are headed towards the couch, we might as well have a look at it as well as the walnut wall. Under the couch and between the booth bottoms, I made a face frame and door. The door opens downward. Inside that compartment, I have 16 one gallon water jugs. HEY, do you see that ghost in here again? I think it is trying to give me the peace sign.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:26 AM   #92
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Re: Best Home Yet

Here is the walnut wall. It is made from solid walnut cabinet doors.

They were given to me and I was determined to use them in a creative way.

The first three days after I put them up, I did not want to look at this ostentatious presence in my bus. What is this, a lawyer's office? It just is not my style.

Perfect teeth are never pretty, and this wall is one damn set of perfect teeth.

Coupled with the leather couch, I feel as though I should charge a hundred dollars an hour just for you to look at it. It is still scary. Perhaps , after time, I will get used to that area of my bus.

Maybe I could become a psychiatrist and charge you lots of money to lay on my couch and babble. HA HA.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:28 AM   #93
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Re: Best Home Yet

Upper cabinet above couch


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:29 AM   #94
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Re: Best Home Yet

I woke up this morning and realized that I was still alive. Cool! Now I can continue these postings.

Here is another view of the couch area.

To the right of the clock, on that small shelf, there is a transistor radio that my dad gave me when I was nine years old. It works off a nine volt battery and is AM frequency only. That makes that radio at least 47 years old. Vintage, I would say.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:30 AM   #95
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Re: Best Home Yet

Here's a view of the passenger side upper cabinets.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:34 AM   #96
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Re: Best Home Yet

We will move to the driver's side now. I used some of the curtain material to hide the underneath of the driver's seat.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:36 AM   #97
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Re: Best Home Yet

Let's move on. Here is a photo of the instrument storage closet.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:37 AM   #98
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Re: Best Home Yet

The bottom of the instrument closet. We are now getting close to the desk area. I will have a lot to tell you when we get closer to that area.

You can see Emma's legs as one of her sleeping places is under the desk area.

Notice the wall extension under the right hand side of the desk. It is three feet wide and the depth of the desk (two feet).

Behind there I store two oil filled electric radiator heaters. I like them. They don't make noise like those old Quartz heaters did.

ALSO, I store the steps platform and the two dog cushions. On the front of this wall, I will install one of the three propane catalytic heaters.


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Old 08-06-2011, 11:40 AM   #99
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Re: Best Home Yet

Well, let's talk about them heaters for a bit, shall we?

Propane catalytic heaters are made up of a fibrous pad that is platinum strands. It looks similar to a steel wood pad.

Now, somehow magically, when the platinum fiber strands mix with a fuel source (propane) and oxygen, it produces a "glow heat".

The heaters are 97% fuel efficient and they do not have to be vented. You must, however allow for some oxygen intake from one of your windows.

The reason that they are 97% fuel efficient is because the fuel never combusts. In all combustion systems, whether it be automobiles or heating systems, there will be a carbon monoxide output.

On regular furnace type heating units, 30% of the heat value goes up the chimney (or, vent in the case of motorhomes). Those are the carbon monoxide exhausts from the combustion process.

With propane catalytic heaters, the only exhaust is carbon DIOXIDE, which is what we humans exhale, and water vapor.

Carbon dioxide is a non poisonous gas. When someone tells you to talk to your plants, it is because all plants strive on the breath you exhale while talking to them. The water vapor is also welcomed by the plants.

You may turn on many types of heaters in your abode, and you may notice how long it takes to warm the place up. That time frame is different with each type of heating mechanism.

I had a wood stove in my 64 International. I was living in Connecticut and doing carpentry. When I got home from work on a cold winter's day and the wood stove had died perhaps around noon that day, my bus was almost refridgerator temperature.

So I would load it up and keep my winter clothes on for an hour watching the flame and anticipating when it would be warm enough to play guitar. An hour later, I could remove some of my garb, but it was not for another hour that it would be warm enough to move my fingers on the guitar.

I love wood stoves, but for them to be a primary source of heat, they need a tender.

The great thing about a propane catalytic heater is that it is a radiant heater. It heats the mass of objects as opposed to heating the air. So start it up, sit in front of it, and instantaneously, it is like you are sitting in front of a fireplace. Those heat rays seek you out.

These types of heaters were developed in 1929 by the French. They wanted to develop a heater that they could use while working around airplane engines. It needed to safe as to not ignite the engine fuel.

Being that the catalytic action works at a significantly lower temperature, there is not enough temperature to ignite a combustion.
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Old 08-06-2011, 11:42 AM   #100
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Re: Best Home Yet

Inside the instrument closet. First of all, we did not stain the inside of the closet doors. (lazy?). Here you see a top shelf. It houses my Romanian mandolin in its case. I really think is a Cittern and not a mandolin. Here is a pic.




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