What colour to paint rims?

[Skunky Bus]

Originally Posted by MikeyBskunk

I use to have a 1977 vw van and that had white rims stock. After that i always thought the white contrasting the black of the tires looks super cool and retro soooo my vote is WHITE baby!

Mikey (like your username BTW)
My rig will be called the Skunky Bus (a/k/a Skoolibago)...
Skunks are black and white (except certain domestic-bred ones)
I just looked at your photos to see the rims. The handholes in the rims look black too.
My rims will just have to be white, too! (with the bolts and hubs painted black).

[lornaschinske]

Shower works great. Got the heat tape on the plumbing yesterday so no more frozen pipes. Bought a roll of R-30 unfaced attic insulation to insulate the pipes with. We've decided to do under the whole floor with the same stuff. We need to put a road barrier between the insulation & road anyway so this will work. I've still got to spray foam in all the open spaces the batt insulation/road cover have with canned foam. Spray foamed the holes in the floor the pipes go thru. Keeps them from moving. I used pieces of scrap Fomular to hold the PEX in the middle of the holes before foaming.

Batt insulation for the floor is much cheaper and easier to install than foam board. We really don't care for the white bead crap we have available to us in Roswell. We'll put it on the walls inside but we aren't that fond of it and it does not seem to be a self supporting as the Owens Corning (pink) or Dow (blue) foam sheathings.

8" of Foamular (which we can't get here) is about R-40 and the 9.5" Attic insulation is R-30. With the batt, we can slide corrugated roofing panels between the two I beams and let the panels sit on the legs of the beams. With rigid sheathing, we would not be able to fill up the entire space between the lower leg & the bottom of the floor. The batts give. Rigid foam does not. I will foam in between the undulations in the roofing material with the Great Foam in the blue can for doors & windows. The blue can stuff goes not expand like the red can stuff does (what I used for the pipe holes) and will not push the corrugated roofing out of place s the foam expands.

Now we gotta go get my countertop material! I hope to get the sink up and plumbed to use in a couple of days... after the stain/poly dries.

[lornaschinske]

Spent this weekend putting up more of that crappy Polyshield. Got little white beads all over that escaped the vacuum cleaner. Got the bedroom walls covered. Tomorrow David is supposed to fur out the living room walls. We've used almost all the freebie furring strips and picked up some more 1X3 culls. It's currently 34°F outside. Inside is nice. Not overly warm but okay. Tonight's overnight low is supposed to be 19°F (overnight meaning when I go to work) and we are supposed to get snow tomorrow. I'm hoping to get all the insulation we bought (3 sheets) put up and start covering the the laminate flooring we bought to use as paneling in the next couple of days. Overnight temps are forecast to be around freezing all week. Realized yesterday that the flooring matches the oak toilet seat perfectly. I guess I will end up putting the flooring on the wall in the toilet area too. The galley countertops are on hold. I picked up a 4X4 piece of 3/4 oak plywood for $4.01 out of the cull bin. It's enough to do the countertops on the range side of the galley. I still need a sheet of plywood to build the rest of the cabinets, the 3/4" oak plywood for the sink side countertop, the plumbing to hook up the sink drains, the full extension drawer slides for the rollout shelving, insulation for behind the range side cabinets, two 28" doors to use as the pantry sides plus one 28" to use as the galley end wall..... and the list goes on and on! So much money...

I sold a big appliance order (over $9K) and I get a day off paid. Thinking of using it later in the Spring to go visit the kids for a weekend in Socorro and pick up the rest of our stuff that's in the sheds there. It's a bit of incentive to get the galley built and the rollout shelves installed as well as the clothes closets & laundry area finished up. We've got a lot of stuff to go thru and thin out.

[ol trunt]

Lorna, I feel your pain--sooo much money! Congrats on the day/pay. All this cheap a-- city would give for being employee of the month (usually meant you had busted up a meth lab or got shot) was a $20 gift card for Starbucks--lets see, thats about 3 1/2 cups of coffee.

[lornaschinske]

Got most of the flooring installed on the walls. We think it looks prety good. Nice thing is it has no grooves for dust to settle into like paneling does. This will be more durable than the painted plywood that I had originally planned on putting up. I don't think I would be happy with this stuff on the floor. The butt seams would drive me crazy since I can easily find them. But that is a common complaint I have with laminate flooring.

Still need to do the trim around the windows and along the top where the wall covering meets the metal above the windows. We are going to use white PVC moldings.

[Skunky Bus]

Originally Posted by lornaschinske

Got most of the flooring installed on the walls. We think it looks prety good.... The butt seams would drive me crazy since I can easily find them. But that is a common complaint I have with laminate flooring.

Still need to do the trim around the windows and along the top where the wall covering meets the metal above the windows. We are going to use white PVC moldings.

I doubt anybody would look askance at it and ask, "You put flooring on the walls?" That looks really good. And if you have a partial box left over you'll have spare pieces lest any of it gets damaged. EZ-er to fix than that water-damaged spot under the window in my Winnie.

The flooring area is one of my assigned departments at Home Depot...I know what I'm going to be thinking about come Monday morning.

[lornaschinske]

I think we may have a full box leftover. I want to keep the pegboard in the "laundry" area since we will be using it for storage until I get a washer & dryer to put in there. We were wanting to put cedar in the closet but may end up just using the extra flooring. The HD that I work at has a few pallets of the Ainsley Oak flooring in stock if we need to buy more which I don't think we will. A full length 7.5" wide board will cover floor to ceiling in a single piece with about a 3 to 4" gap at the bottom that will be covered with the over sized baseboard (I like a tall baseboard). 1/2 board fits perfectly under the windows. There are 10 pieces in a box. Means 1 box will cover 76 lineal inches on the wall when going floor to ceiling. More than the closet area. Cedar would sure be nice but pricey. I do love the smell of aromatic cedar.

Freaky thing is the flooring matches the oak toilet seat almost perfectly. I bought them months apart (toilet seat was a discontinued display).

[crazycal]

Why is the snow melting like that? Is that the thermal bridge from inside?











.

[lornaschinske]

Yes it is! We had a small space heater going in there to keep it warm enough to pack our stuff and to keep the liquid stuff from freezing up overnight. I didn't want to find frozen shampoo or ketchup all over the place. Each "melted" part is a rib in the roof. Enlightening isn't it? Works in reverse too. While we have two/three thin coats of Solarflex on the roof and it does limit the heat transfer. The roof around the ribs isn't terribly hot in the summer nor terribly cold. But there is a noticeable difference. Our goal is to eventually move to an area without snow. The reflective properties of the Solarflex does work very well at keeping the heat gain down in the NM summers. The only insulation in our ceiling is the original BB stuff from the factory.

[lornaschinske]

Got an electric bill this past week. Seems we blew past our 30 amp electric allotment of $60 by $95.65. This was for 12/11 - 1/14. We can't decide if it's because we've had two electric heaters going almost non-stop at times, the new 10 gallon electric water heater (seems to heat all the time... I can hear it) or from running the saws so much. Then there's the combination of it all. At any rate, we've used 1965 KW Hours in 34 days. That's too much. We started unplugging the electric water heater (only takes 20 - 30 minutes to heat the water) and turned down the electric heaters. David has taken to baking again. The heat from baking in the LP oven warms up the bus.

The electric water heater has no power usage rating on it. Since we got the notice on the excessive power use, we have been unplugging the water heater. Since it takes so little time to heat the water, we will wire an on/off switch into the line. There is no good reason why we should leave the water heater on all day or all night.

FYI:
$156.65 total (including all fees)
1956 kilowatt hours used
34 days of service

That working out to about $4.61 per day, 57.80 KWH per day and $0.08 per KWH used. This is too high considering we have paid $0.14/kw for metered electric before and our bill wasn't anywhere near this high. Granted that was in the Class C but we used the electric side of the 6 gallon water heater with 3 adults taking showers PLUS David used several gallons of hot water from the Class C to start his steam table pans off with almost daily. Stacey & I took showers until the water heater ran out of hot water. Water pump was the same size I believe. We also heated almost completely with an electric heater (smaller space though and in Corpus Christi). So the electric water heater seems to be the culprit. We are making some changes so I will post how things go. I did go out and check the electric meter when we unplugged the water heater. I will keep checking to see how things go. By checking and noting down the reading, I know that we have used 550 KWH of electric from 1/14 thru 1/25 (11 days). This was "carrying on as normal". After 11 days are up, I will check the meter again to see what's going on. We've got to get our electric down to around 20 - 25 KWH per day to stay within our electric allowance. And we had been, until this one bill.

I think I need to buy a Kilowatt meter at work on Monday.

[lornaschinske]

Haven't gotten a new electric bill but have watched and checked the meter right after the meter reader did. We are still a little high but feel that is because we were still running the water heater 24/7 for two weeks into the billing period. We THINK we will have to pay a whopping $13 over and above our $60 allotment. We have been turning the water heater on 20 minutes before we need it and then turning it right off after we use it. Not a big deal. Also have both electric heaters on the timers. These timers allow us to override the timer itself so that we can set them to stay on. But using the timers means we have the front living room turn off around 11PM and it doesn't turn back on until around 7AM or so, a little before David gets up. The heater in the bedroom has spent a few nights on all night since we had some very cold nights for this month. When the timer is set, it turns on around 2 AM so it's warm when I get up at 3AM. then it turns off again. We open the "curtains" (heavy bath sheets/towels) on the "sunny side" of the bus and the passive solar heats the back section of the bus up very nicely. It's toasty warm on the sunny days when I get off work at 8AM.

I also bought two more timers to put the TV and something else on. Haven't decided what else yet.


Today is our wedding anniversary. We are splurging... for us. Today I will bake a small Pineapple Upside Down Skillet Cake (big enough for the two of us with no leftovers). Got the butter melted and waiting to have the milk liquids drawn off. Because later tonight, we will have a Snow Crab & Shrimp Boil. Since we have the snow crab legs to go with the shrimp, I didn't get any smoked sausage to put in the boil. I already had a package of corn on the cob in the freezer. So for about $35 we bought 2 lbs of frozen Snow Crab legs, 2 lbs of frozen P&D raw shrimp and a small package of little red taters. We are gonna eat good tonight....

I want to hold a couple of the taters out so I can use them as seed taters to plant a barrel (or rather a brand new rolling trash can) of tater's for harvest at the end of summer. We used to grow our taters on barrels all the time. We would get about 50 lbs of Kennebec taters from 4 "eyes" in a 50 gallon food grade drum. Harvests were just sooo easy. Got my strawberries planted into a long narrow planter. Need to buy a few more for the runners I will get this summer. Last time I did this, I started out with 6 plants and ended up with 30 plants. I also need to buy a few Brussels sprouts plants and planters for them. Plus grape tomatoes (regular big tomatoes take too long to grow in a container also, based on our last planting of tomatoes, I think the wind out here blows the pollen too much interfering with the pollination). They've just started getting plants in for spring planting. I'm putting a container garden in this summer.

Got the "laundry area" insulated and peg board up. Still need to paint the peg board. Only side walls we got left are in the galley behind the range and the 28" wide space next to the fireplace mantle. We will do the "back wall" across the emergency door end later this summer. I've got to buy more insulation. Also need to work on the entry door. I want to change the door knob to a lever type. I also want to put plexiglass storm windows over the four glass panels in the door. David is thinking on how best to finish up the entrance. We need to get it finished up and really secure since we plan on a road trip at the end of summer. So much to still do!

[lornaschinske]

The "ghost" is the new electric water heater with it's 2000kw heating element. I can hear the thing heating up. Only thing that has been added. Turning it off except for when we need it has dropped our daily power usage in dramatically.

I know that we have used 550 KWH of electric from 1/14 thru 1/25 (11 days). This was "carrying on as normal".

7027 KWH 1/14/2013 Ending meter reading
7577 KWH 1/25/2013 Last day the water heater was left on 24 hours (dif is 550 KWH)
7928 KWH 2/12/2013 Most recent day the meter was read
----------
7928
- 7027
901
- 550 for the 2/05 reading of 11 days (50 KWH per day)
351 KWH used in the remaining 18 days (19.5 KWH per day)

We estimate that we are allotted roughly 750 KWH per month.

[lornaschinske]

Busy day today...
Ordered what we hope will increase our income a little.
Garrett Ace 350 Metal Detector with Option 2 which meant I could get another metal detector for a low price. So I got Bounty Hunter Gold Digger Metal Detector. I will use the "gold Digger" one and David gets the Garrett. Because I signed up to their website first, I got a $10 off "coupon" via the e-mail. So I got both detectors for $377.07. Did I just waste $377? I really don't know. We are not interested in relics or antiques. We are interested in lost jewelry and coins. Coins will be turned into Coinstar at the end of the year. The people in Roswell wear a lot of gold jewelry. This will also get us outside and David some exercise. I will let you know how this works out (or how it doesn't).

Something to remember... These places that buy the gold & silver off of you, they pay CASH. They do not turn it into the IRS because it is classified as "pre-owned" jewelry. So you are responsible for paying income taxes on it.

I bought a few more plants to add to my container garden. I've lost three strawberry plants (they got too cold next to the front windshield) so I am down to seven. Not a problem. I bought two more of the 24" window boxes at WalMart. I planted flat parsley, sage, "boxwood" basil (a tiny leafed compact plant) and chives (seed) in one planter. This is my herb collection for snipping. Fresh herbs are horrible here. Also bought a rosemary plant. I love the smell of rosemary. I bought a 4 pack of Brussels Sprouts for the other planter. I still need to buy a cherry tomato plant or two. And I need to buy a container to plant the potatoes in. We have planted potatoes like this for many years. We only planted potatoes in the ground one time. Once was enough.

Yesterday I was a bad girl again. As of today I am banned from Escapees forum. All because I posted on a "political" thread. I did not start it I just posted about creating a micro-homestead. What I posted wasn't political (unless talking about homesteading books is political). But I got warned... again.

Hello,
Your warning level on http://www.rvnetwork.com has increased due to political posting/participating in the political topic “Ca-lapse of the US Dollar” These types of post are strictly prohibited on the Escapees Discussion Forum and are against the forum rules you agreed to upon joining.

Rule #2: Absolutely no discussions regarding religion or politics. Posts that are political or religious in nature will be removed and all participants will be warned.

Rule#6: No Trolling! Do not start topics or discussions in order to cause conflict on the forum.
Thanks,
name removed

And then I got angry because the weekend moderator did not get warned and he posted about guns in the thread!

So I posted what I really thought about the whole mess in a thread called "Warn" (I did not start the thread). I also kinda chewed out the weekend moderator in an email.
[quote:1ajsc1y1]That's because some folks are not spanked while others are. The "teacher's pets" don't ever get slapped down like other. This is bull. This post will result in my third warning and I will be banned. In the words of Rhett Butler "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn". I got warned for complaining about images in a post being deleted with out any warning. This is the ONLY forum I'm on that either does not resize automatically or allows large images. I no longer care. I'm not RV PC enough for this bunch. I see some like Barbaraok , Kirk & LindaH insult others and say things that the rest of us would get warned off about, yet the powers that be do NOTHING to them. I think they play favourites excessively. And now not only I, but many others get warned yet they do NOTHING to their weekend moderator? I don't want to post on a forum like that. As far as I'm concerned Escapees... that is strike three and you are gone!

[/quote:1ajsc1y1]

Today I found this in my Spam folder...
[quote]Hello,

Your warning level has been increased on http://www.rvnetwork.com due to going public with your grievances. This has maxed out your warning level causing you to be banned from http://www.rvnetwork.com.

These types of posts are not allowed on the Escapees Discussion Forum and are against the rules you agreed to upon joining.

Rule #3: If you have any concerns, questions, or problems contact an Admin. Going public with your grievances is automatic grounds to be banned, regardless of your warn status.

Thanks,
name removed

So no more putting up with Escapees putting down skoolies and people who do not RV like "they" do!

[bansil]

Originally Posted by lornaschinske

Busy day today...
Ordered what we hope will increase our income a little.
Garrett Ace 350 Metal Detector with Option 2 which meant I could get another metal detector for a low price. So I got Bounty Hunter Gold Digger Metal Detector. I will use the "gold Digger" one and David gets the Garrett. Because I signed up to their website first, I got a $10 off "coupon" via the e-mail. So I got both detectors for $377.07. Did I just waste $377? I really don't know. We are not interested in relics or antiques. We are interested in lost jewelry and coins. Coins will be turned into Coinstar at the end of the year. The people in Roswell wear a lot of gold jewelry. This will also get us outside and David some exercise. I will let you know how this works out (or how it doesn't).

Something to remember... These places that buy the gold & silver off of you, they pay CASH. They do not turn it into the IRS because it is classified as "pre-owned" jewelry. So you are responsible for paying income taxes on it.

I bought a few more plants to add to my container garden. I've lost three strawberry plants (they got too cold next to the front windshield) so I am down to seven. Not a problem. I bought two more of the 24" window boxes at WalMart. I planted flat parsley, sage, "boxwood" basil (a tiny leafed compact plant) and chives (seed) in one planter. This is my herb collection for snipping. Fresh herbs are horrible here. Also bought a rosemary plant. I love the smell of rosemary. I bought a 4 pack of Brussels Sprouts for the other planter. I still need to buy a cherry tomato plant or two. And I need to buy a container to plant the potatoes in. We have planted potatoes like this for many years. We only planted potatoes in the ground one time. Once was enough.

Yesterday I was a bad girl again. As of today I am banned from Escapees forum. All because I posted on a "political" thread. I did not start it I just posted about creating a micro-homestead. What I posted wasn't political (unless talking about homesteading books is political). But I got warned... again.

Today I found this in my Spam folder...
[quote:9eueyeh6]Hello,

Your warning level has been increased on http://www.rvnetwork.com due to going public with your grievances. This has maxed out your warning level causing you to be banned from http://www.rvnetwork.com.

These types of posts are not allowed on the Escapees Discussion Forum and are against the rules you agreed to upon joining.

Rule #3: If you have any concerns, questions, or problems contact an Admin. Going public with your grievances is automatic grounds to be banned, regardless of your warn status.

Thanks,
name removed

So no more putting up with Escapees putting down skoolies and people who do not RV like "they" do!

[/quote:9eueyeh6][/quote:9eueyeh6]

Good for you!!

And apparently I have ruffled feathers at a site or two...I just notice my posts have been "edited by moderators" no reasoning...peewhooee!

and it's not just escapees that don't like skoolies several S&S sites are way to snob-ish for me

I mean heck, getting your grammar corrected while trying to help some one out....get for real

[lornaschinske]

I've been kicked off three forums:
www.apachepopups.com (I called a major contributor a luddite because he got warped at me because we weren't "restoring" our popup back to factory original)

www.irv2.com (they kept editing my posts along with the posts of some friends. They said we used language that was against the forum rules. Only they would not tell us what the words were. I post no different here.... So what are the "bad" words I use?)

www.rvnetwork.com (Escapees) I don't think Escapees should count. I quit them before they booted me.


Forgot to add....

We bought a 1100 watt microwave/grill oven from Walmart yesterday. Only $100 regular price. Sure beats the $250 - $300 for a 900 watt Sharp Grill 2 Go. Our old microwave simply wasn't cooking anymore unless it felt like it. And it felt like it less and less. We have only microwaved in it. Haven't used the grill (browning element in the top) yet. The documentation for using the grill is pretty poor. I've got to look up some more info on it via the internet.

[91 Bus Guy]

Sorry to hear about that. I try not to upset others for any thing they say, it's not my business.
Hang in there,

Keith

[gbstewart]

Just wont be the same with out you on the other forums

gbstewart

[bus-bro]

I guess that Escapees and those other RV forums just aren't used to the rough and tumble crowd that is Skoolies. It does seem that the git 'er done inventiveness here rocks the RV world.

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by wmkbailey

I don't know Lorna. The moderators on this forum must be very forgiving. When you start posting stuff like this about your anniversary...

What you and your husband do is your business.

And we're gonna have to melt that butter again this month!

I bought another bag of Snow Crab Legs and a bag of Shrimp tonight. That's enough for two "stuffed too full" Crab & Shrimp Boil meals!

[thommassey]

Originally Posted by bus-bro

I guess that Escapees and those other RV forums just aren't used to the rough and tumble crowd that is Skoolies. It does seem that the git 'er done inventiveness here rocks the RV world.

Here, here