A Penny For Your Dreams....

After a night of thunderstorms and much rain, I entered the bus with some concern, as I had left the two vents open overnight, and the windows cracked. Would I find I had suddenly become a U-Boat Captain? The interior was certainly a tad wet, but nothing dramatic. Sleeping there wouldn't have been much fun, nor would I have liked to find it so wet were there fixtures within, but being emptied, all was hunky dorey.

I offered the bus seats for free on Craig's List, and was deluged with acceptance. They're scheduled to disappear Sunday morning, but if they don't there are a BUNCH of folks waiting in the wings to snag them. As usual, I'm worried (I worry, therefore I am.) no one will want them once they see there aren't two full sets of legs per seat, but rather one set - the other side being attached to the wall bar as it was.

The central task for the day was to get those miserable heaters disconnected and outta the bus so I could clean and mask without Peter's assist in preparation for painting.

Still not 100% certain of how to disconnect them without either screwing something up or making a world-class mess and enviro-hazard, we consulted a neighbor with a lot of automobile and mechanical experience to see if he concurred with Peter's plan. Peter's plan? 1. Close all forward valves (one in the cockpit and one in the engine). 2. Remove all the metal flashing covering the hoses and wiring inside the bus. 3. Terminate all 12 volt power up to the cockpit. 4. Open the hoses under the bus and drain the secondary (post-cockpit)lines of antifreeze. 5. Remove heaters, hosing, and wiring in the bus. 6. Clean up residual mess.

After a discussion with Ron in South Africa, we decided Peter's plan would work fine. Yep, I'm serious, I really was having an internet conversation with South Africa. We are using a GREAT piece of software to converse called "Skype" (skype.com) that allows actual voice communication between any two points in the world with internet access - for FREE! You can either use a headset or a computer with a microphone and speakers, the incoming voice comes through the speakers, outgoing via the mic. The delay was about 40 seconds from South Africa to Austin, Texas, USA and back, but we quickly figured out reverting to the old talk and release by saying "over" worked just fine. What a slick arrangement!

After a half dozen different people called to arrange showings of the house, we decided it would be easiest to just launch ourselves into Heater removal mode than to just work on the bus whenever people showed up to see the house. Back and forth doesn't really work well in terms of focused work. So we threw ourselves at the heaters, planning the have the job complete by end of day, or to quote Larry the Cable Guy, "Get 'er done!"

Peter took the drill and phillips head bit to the screws on the metal strips on the floor, I terminated the wires, as I have a good relationship with Mr. Electricity, and Peter doesn't speak that language. Peter then crawled BACK under the bus and began the process of opening the hoses in such a way that they wouldn't spew antifreeze all over him AND the driveway. Feeling pretty cruddy, I disappeared for awhile to a neighbor's house so people could wander my home freely and Peter could work without my constant "help."

Allow me to rathole for a minute here. I believe everyone has an inborn talent. Peter's talent is standing in the light. No matter where I am or what I'm working on, no matter how hard I have tried to assure nothing could come between the light and my work, Peter somehow manages to block the necessary light with his body. There can be only one TINY area out of 100 square feet that he would need to stand in to accomplish the task of blocking the light, and somehow he is drawn to that exact spot. It's his Talent. My talent is equally frustrating. When someone is working on something - it doesn't matter what it is - I have the talent of needing to work on something that is precisely in the way of what the other person is working on. I tell you, it's my inborn Talent.

So to get back to the tale of heater removal, I was exhibiting a tremendous amount of my talent, getting RIGHT in the way at every turn. Thus my disappearing act when Peter was struggling most. I just didn't want you thinking I was bailing on him...I wasn't, I was giving him the space to work without interference.

When I came back, Peter had a 5 gallon bucket half full of green antifreeze, and had removed one of the two heaters. Of course a little antifreeze was still in the heater itself, and that spilled on the bus floor.



All this took about four hours to accomplish, far longer than expected or hoped. I am so TIRED of everything taking longer than expected all the time! GRRRRRR!

One nice thing that happened was finding a penny next to one of the heaters. It's a 1979, the year I moved to Texas, and was minted in Denver, where I was born. Guess I'll frame it, a la "my first dollar made."

Peter and I sat and discussed the flooring options for awhile, since we had the metal joining strips up and thus could see what we had to work with. The black flooring is a rubber piece atop plywood substrate, with a ribbed piece of rubber down the center aisle.


Because this is a bus equipped for wheelchairs, there are a few anchor plates that need to be addressed, as they're in the way of future cabinetry AND/OR a lump that can't be comfortably covered by flooring.



The longer of the two can be removed in a similar fashion to that of the seat bolts, but the one of square silver jobs is attached directly above the gas tank, so there's no way to access it without dropping the tank. No thanks, d'ruther not.

I have long lived by the maxim "There're always more than two solutions to any problem," and that clearly applies here.

Our original plan was to lay a plywood substrate, then a layer of hard foam insulation, and then the final flooring - a float cork or laminate wood floor being my preference. Turns out we HAVE a plywood substrate already in place, plus a rubber layer that would act nicely as a layer of padding and insulation. A couple of things come into play here. First is the inside height of the bus, which is 6'2" at the apex of the roof arc, and 5'3" at the point above the window where the arc begins. I'm actually pretty thrilled with the 6'2", as that's 2" more than I expected. Peter can't stand up, of course, but he's too used to that as the world is not built for the very large or the very small. Anyway, every layer of flooring or ceiling installed is living and walking space gone, so I've grown profoundly conservative about what I am willing to put into the bus, top and bottom. The other issue Peter and I both have, in spades, is that of living with the 13 years of accumulated crud that IS an ingrained part of this bus.

Parameters outlined, we have tenatively decided to lay some type of pad with carpet atop. Peter had the brilliant idea of coating the current rubber flooring with the flexible sealer made for painting mobile home roofs, thus sealing the dreaded crud into the floor. I am going to investigate the cost and viability of installing the interlocking rubber tiles that are sold in bundles at Home Despot, etc. Seems like that would be a terrific pad AND insulator under carpet. NOW our big concern is in how much off-gassing these products produce. Sheesh...

7 o'clock Central Daylight Savings, and it was time for a shower, some dinner and Little People, Big World on the telly as brain relaxation.