Magnetic Spice Jars
Here’s a view of our cute, tiny kitchen. Also, we finally found the perfect little jars to hold our spices! The lids stick to a magnetic bar and don’t move around while we are driving.
Storage Bench Seat
It’s funny to add a new furniture piece when we have such a small space, but the addition of this bench was so worthwhile! You may remember a while back we built a fold out table on the side of our bed. It expands our kitchen counter space and gives us a place to work and eat, but then folds out of the way when we don’t need it. But normal sized chairs are too tall to use to sit at the table. We needed something shorter. This ottoman style bench seat is portable and folds away to put under the bed, but is crazy sturdy and plush, you wouldn’t even know it is collapsible. And the inside is super spacious for storage. So now we have the perfect seat to work at our table, or we can fold the table away and sit on the bench leaning against the bed, cuddle together in front of the fire… all of that good stuff. I’ll be working from home starting next week, so this is where I’ll be for most of the day. 🙂 It’s the little things that make all the difference.
Bedside Shelf
I finally built a little shelf for my corner of the bed! Now I have a proper place to put my phone that’s not under the pillow. Let’s see how many times I can bonk my head on this.
Organizing
We are organizing. Sometimes you’ve got to make a big mess before you can get things tidy!
Ikea Elastic Cords
We needed something to keep our bowls and pots on the shelf where they belong. We’ve been driving some pretty rough washboard roads lately, and it rattles and shakes everything with mad furiosity! Yes, I made that word up. So we came up with a simple solution using IKEA elastic cords from their Skadis pegboard series. Just enough to keep things on the shelf, but you can still reach in and pull things out. Sometimes simple is best.
Kitchen Cabinets
I just need to build one more little door for the middle, and then cabinets are officially done! It’s so nice to not have to take everything off the shelves to drive now. Everything stays in place.
Custom Cup Holder
Look at this cute cup holder that Brad made. Also, there’s space for snacks. Snacks are very important.
Painting Cabinets
We decided that there were too many mismatched wood tones and colors in the bus, so are painting the cabinets this muted blue-grey color. It’s strange at first when you’ve gotten used to seeing something a certain way and then change it up, but I’ll confess, I love the new color! We are starting to settle into this blue, grey, brown, and yellow scheme. It pulls colors from the walls, tile, and flooring to bring it all together…
Shoe Storage
I built an oddly shaped shoe cabinet to fit the oddly shaped space next to the dog house (the engine compartment). Plus, we’ll need a place to dump keys, pocket change, and mail when we come in the door, so the cabinet has a tabletop that stretches over the dash. This is somewhat temporary because we decided that long term it would be great to rip out the dog house and built a normal (square) cabinet that stretches across the entire front of the cab, with cabinet style doors to access the engine. That will be so much easier for maintenance than having to take the dog house cover off.
Garage (View From the Back)
I love our garage! This is the view from the back door. You can see our water heater and propane setup.
The Garage Is Done!
The garage is done (and everything has a place)! This is the view from the hobbit door over the bed, looking into the garage. We maximized storage space by adding racks to the back of the door for climbing rope and miscellaneous, and the telescoping ladder actually fits perfectly against the lower shelves. It’s great that our gear doesn’t have to take up our living space, and it’s all out of sight.
Hydraulic Bed Lift
We finally installed the hydraulic lift system under the bed! The instructions were daunting, but once we understood the terminology it was actually pretty straightforward. It works great, and now we have easy access to the storage space below.
Garage Shelving
Brad went out of town today, but before he did we put up the shelves in the garage. We have room to store *almost* all of our gear. We still need room for some tools, helmets, rope, and our telescoping ladder. I think we can get creative with wall space and the inside of the garage door, using tracks and hooks for storage. It’s so great to see our house garage emptying into our bus garage!
Narrow Walkway Revisions
Building the narrow walkway to the shower continues! We’ve created space for storage beneath in the front for kindling and pressed wood pucks (every little bit of space counts). We decided not to have a lift hatch because it would make the walkway too unstable. Access will be from the front where you can reach in and grab wood. I lined the compartment with leftover rubber from the bus floor to be able to handle the abuse from firewood.
We have Polyiso insulating the wheel well, with QuietWalk over the top. There was a bit of a gap that we filled with a layer of foam from our solar packaging, which filled the gap perfectly and gives more cushion to the walkway.
The storage space near the back is the perfect size for extra toilet paper rolls and miscellany, but we weren’t sure it would work the way it was planned before. Not ready to give up on that unused space, we upgraded to a thicker plywood board and bolstered the support underneath. It feels so much sturdier to walk on now, and we have a hatch! There will be a simple finger hole to lift the hatch… Now we need to figure out what kind of finished floor we want for the walkway….
(Do you see our toilet?)
Narrow Walkway + Storage
The narrow walkway to our combo shower / bath is in progress! We are building an angled step up to compensate for the wheel well. The empty space in front of the wheel well will have a lift up hatch to store kindling and pressed wood pucks. Behind the wheel well in front of the shower will be a space to store extra toilet paper rolls and shower things. We are trying to maximize as much storage space as possible. We’ll need it!
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