While I haven't done much here, I've been working yet again behind the scenes. My wife was late stage pregnancy and a month ago she delivered our 2nd kid.
So neither of us have been sleeping and I've been doing as much to help with the kids as well as move steadily along with this project.
As I mentioned in the reply before, I got both mini splits installed, vacuumed, and wired, one temporarily because I need more rubber conduit, but I've actually been able to use them both and thankfully so because it's been near 100ºF here for a few weeks and I couldn't be more excited to say, they both run exceptionally well and I can run them both simultaneously and still put power back into the batteries.
Our victron battery shunt just always shows us ∞ time remaining during the day.
Don't mind the 24V system showing, that's from a 5th wheel I did a solar install on. It's parked near the bus, close enough to pick everything up from the front bay where the equipment is installed, but the install turned out awesome. The mess of wires above the equipment were installed in elkhart for the auto leveling jacks.
I've put the ACs through some pretty heavy tests as well, dropping both to 60ºF and in turbo mode, and still they perform flawlessly then before too long the bus ends up feeling like a meat locker. Truly, too chilly, but it's nice to know I can definitely do it if I want to.
I think these units are slightly less efficient than something like a pioneer, but they're still wildly efficient compared to other units and way more compared to RV units. Their SEER2 rating was 22, if I recall correctly.
All the more reason to load up on solar if you're considering otherwise.
As far as additional updates to the bus...
I'm close to finishing our interior walls. The main bedroom and the bathroom/into the kids room is close to complete. I've got to figure out 1 solution going by the bathroom and into their room.
I used the CNC to make a pretty perfect arch. I've still got to reinforce the middle where the two panels meet, but besides that it turned out great.
I don't remember if I ever mentioned it here, but I installed a residential door on the bus as well. It's a 36"x80" solid core steel door with a large double pane window so I don't lose what I had with the bifolds.
It's funny seeing the bus end up yet again another color. Our first bus, I painted pretty early on so I never realized how mismatched everything starts out.
I have been searching for the right sofa for our living room space, going so far as contacting several manufacturers in
China. To no avail.
Just before our son was born, I found one that is rather... perfect. Perfect for what my wife wanted and for the space. Win win.
We'll be modifying the legs a bit, I'm not a fan of the shiny gold, but that can be a project for another day. I also found a tamboured media console that, again, works perfect for the space. So I got it as well.
I started working back in our room after all of this. It was time to build the frame for our bed. We'll have storage at the front, but I needed to get the bed in first and foremost.
I utilized some old slats we had from another frame we got rid of about two years ago and I put our extra mattress in it (teaser, I got to sleep in the bus one night and it was amazing).
After getting our bed in, it was time to tackle the kids room with bunk beds. I've got to make an adjustment to the bottom. We changed our minds about the sleeping arrangement after starting, so I need to cut a new bottom side panel for the lower bunk and then make a ladder for the top, just so you know when you see that the bottom just doesn't quite make sense in the end.
It's always cool to see the skeleton of a cnc project.
My daughter approved of the first section of the bunk beds. She said in here 1y9mo little voice "wow nice guys"
I cut the stars in the bottom for mattress ventilation mostly because she loves "estrellitas."
Then I got to work on the top bunk and it turned out awesome. I had to make sure the kids mattresses would work in the space and thankfully it fits perfectly.
Last thing I've done is start a curved/tamboured changing table / cabinet for their room. The groove in the bottom that you can see is matched on the top and will have tambours that slide in the groove for us to access some shelving in that curved side section. More on that project later, but I cut the top and bottom and figured I might as well show it.
That's all for now. I'll be doing more this week and should be back in a consistent rhythm uploading here as well. I also noticed some of my hosted photos are showing server errors, so please forgive those while I figure out what's going on with the service.
Oh also, a few of my ceiling panels are showing cracks. It appears everything is really drying out over the summer heat, so I've got some more work to do in that department.
