day 1 - mechanic

I typed out a lovely thing about bus day 1 and it decided to disappear from my phone. So here is take two.

When I arrived in Corvallis on Thursday the bus was off at the shop. We were hoping to pick it up that day but it needed to stay until Friday. When we found it had some problems I was initially hoping to pay around $300 to get it working again. Both the alternator and water pump were not happy but we hoped they could just replace a belt or a leaky tube or something and it would be cheaper. When it went into the shop we found they did need to replace both parts and it would be around $600-$800. Not great, but acceptable. On Friday we went to pick it up and the bill was $1012. Definitely not ideal, but it was a free bus and now it is a $1000 bus. Still way better than buying a bus for $2000 then finding out it needed $1000 worth of work. But now the bus has been paid for and its all ready to come down to Berkeley! I may be eating beans and rice for the rest of the month though...

After spendy adventures with the mechanic we brought the bus home and I did a little test drive round the block. I was a little worried about it being so big and how well I could drive it, but I've been driving the large van at work (which I think is actually the van version of the bus) and it drove about the same so I'm not too worried.

I started to sweep out the large amount of playa (burning man) dust from inside the bus but realized I was just going to be ripping up most of the floor so it was silly for me to clean it first. With a crowbar and vice grips I was able to tear out about half of the rubber flooring on Friday. Under the rubber I found pretty decent plywood. It appears to be that the adhesive used to attach the rubber to the ply made a good seal and not much water was able to get in because most of the ply looks brand new.  There were however two spots where it was rotted out (the back corners especially by the wheelchair lift) but I believe I can replace just those two spots. Under the rot the metal was a bit rusty but not so bad as I could knock a hole through it. I also learned that between the ply and the body of the bus there is a thicker steel plate atleast on the back section. Perhaps there is a bigger steel plate because that is where the wheelchair lift was. I am hoping I can clean up this plate and get rid of the rust. If it doesn't seem salvageable I will remove it and see about replacing it or not using it at all.

Beyond that my dad and I made a list of everything that we need to drive it down to Berkeley. Things we will accomplish the next day.

-Fix the turn signals. Only the back work right now.
-Add a hasp to the wheelchair door so it can lock from the inside.
-Rotate the steering wheel so it is straight.
-Remove extra stuff inside such as the furry walls and the rest of the rubber floor.

I'll let you know how that all goes in another post!

♥
Mer. 

diy composting toilets.

Last time I shared three basic types of toilets you could find in a tiny house; black water toilets, incinerating toilets and composting toilets. I've decided composting toilets are the way to go for me, but there are still quite a few options for me to think about, the main thing being commercially made toilets or diy toilets. First off let's talk about diy toilets!

The basic idea of any composting toilet is that poop, like other compostable stuff such as food and yard scraps will eventually  break down into soil. If done correctly composted poop is perfectly safe to handle and use in your garden. Most people still choose to not use humanure (poop dirt!) in their food growing garden just in case any bad stuff is still lingering. 

Everything you could ever want to know about humanure or as I am now calling it, poop magic, can be found in  Joseph Jenkin's The Humanure Handbook. I've only read a bit of it so far but there is lots of good info that will get you thinking not only about how you use the toilet but also what you throw in your garbage can. 

The main difference between diy toilets and the commercially made type is where the composting action takes place. In a commercially available one your toilet has a built in fan, heater and crank or rake to move about the composting matter. With a diy toilet you're really just collecting the poop to later dump it onto your outdoor compost pile. I'm still hunting around if I can find some more info on building my own more complicated system that would have the elements of a commercially available composting toilet. I'll let you know how thats going later. 

To build a simple diy composting toilet you don't need much at all! The basic toilet is a 5 gallon bucket with a seat on top. Most folks build a box around the bucket with a seat on top so it looks a little nicer. With these toilets you can use regular toilet paper and you also use a carbon rich dry material to layer in with the poop such as coco coir, peat moss or sawdust. 

If you're feeling fancy you can also add a urine diverter! The reason to separate liquids and solids goes along with another big concern many people have about composting toilets which is smell. Most of my research tells me that they don't actually smell that bad and if it does smell that is usually a clue that you don't have your balance of carbon rich substance to poop quite right. Some people also swear by the fact that separating liquids and solids makes all the difference (though some disagree) with making a less smelly toilet. A urine diverted is pretty much a funnel type device that attaches to the front of the seat so anything in that funnel goes to a different bucket. Another benefit of separating urine is that urine doesn't have to be composted! Being a sterile liquid already, urine can be disposed of the same as grey water such as just dumping it outside (away from anything/one that cares). 

This option of toilet wouldn't be horrible if I can find somewhere to live where I can have a poop compost pile. If I'm not living somewhere like that (such as a more urban space) this isn't such a great option and I'd probably have to get a more fancy, commercially made, composting toilet, which I'll tell you about next time!

corvallis bus.

The bus has made it to Corvallis! 

This weekend my dad and uncle took an adventurous trip over the pass to Bend where the bus has lived until now. They did a few repairs to it, spent the night in the previous owner's house then headed out in the morning! The repairs they did included cleaning the wires for the turn signals so they would make contact, covering the holes in the roof and replacing the windshield wipers.  Here is a list (compiled by my wonderful father) of what still needs some attention before I drive south next weekend. 

 * The temporary plexiglas cover we put on the roof broke off

 * A few other holes in the roof from some previously attached things do leak a bit of water in on the driver if it's raining (ask me how I know!)

 * Seat belt doesn't "catch" if you give it a sharp tug, so probably not so useful

 * Horn button gone (but you can short out the two connections for the horn with a piece of metal to make it honk!)

 * Alternator

 * It leaked radiator fluid out of around the water pump, so maybe new pump and gasket

 * Some kind of lock for the back door where the wheelchair lift used to be

Not knowing what quirks would show up on the road we were prepared to call the previous owner to use his AAA should trouble arise. The battery did die along the way, seems the alternator isn't keeping it charged so the precious owner met up with my dad to give it a jump and they were on their way!

I'll be making my way to Oregon on Thursday (by plane) to spend time wth my family and then the bus and I shall make our way to California! (My dad may come too) 

Hooray!

-Mer. 

poop magic.

If you know a thing or two about tiny houses, or you've hung out with me at all in the last few months, you knew this day was coming. Its time to talk about poop. Yes indeedy, one big part of living in my bus in the future is going to be having a toilet in the bus! For those who are wondering, the title comes from many a conversation about poop I've been having with one of my co conspirators lately. Our conclusion is that composting toilets are magic because they turn poop into dirt!

To start out let me tell you a smidge about the types of options one has for putting a toilet in their tiny houses.

The basic RV toilet is using a more or less normal toilet (I think they have less water than standard though) and the water and waste go into a black water tank. A black water tank differs from a grey water tank because black water is full of poop and really can only be dumped in sewage dump places. Grey water on the other hand has sink and shower stuff (food and dirt residue and soap) and can be dumped other places such as outside if you use biodegradable soap. Basically black water tanks are gross and I don't want one.

Another option for compact toilets are the incinerating toilet. These toilets are nice because they are pretty small and what once you've burned the poop all up you're left with ash! This ash is easy to dispose of and not super gross like black water. The down side of the incinerating toilet is it uses a lot of electricity so unless you're planning to hook your house up to the grid (not doing solar like I'm planning to) its not really an option. I've also heard that the burning of poop is smelly, who would have guessed.

And so we get to composting toilets! This is what I want by the way. Composting toilets are awesome. As I said above they're so awesome that they are magic, because they turn poop into dirt! Composting toilets basically work because poop is like most other organic material and can be put in the compost and it will decompose into dirt. This dirt can go in the compost bin and be used in the garden (only for non eatable things though, don't use poop compost on your veggies!) it can also just be spread about outside. I suppose in a pinch it can also go in the trash in a biodegradable bag. There are some legal thingys about throwing human waste in the trash, but this is dirt, so hmm.

There are a few types of composting toilets available and I'm still deciding what I want to do, but that is for another time.

Ta!
Mer. 

tiny art : tiny home

I think I mentioned a bit ago I was considering starting a new etsy shop to help earn a little money for bus expenses. Well here it is! TINY ART : TINY HOME is a etsy featuring hand made accessories and tiny home decor (that is both decor for tiny homes and home decor that is tiny.) I've only got a few things up right now but go check it out!

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♥ ♥

Mer.

would you look at that bus.

Hello bus following people,

I'm sorry as usual for not posting more. For someone who is into blogging I'm pretty bad at blogging.

My exciting news today is that my dad wen't out and took some pictures and measurements of the bus last weekend! He wasn't able to drive it away because of some insurance complications but soon he will drive it back to their house to be followed by driving it down to me!

But first, here are some things on my mind.

• Looking at the pictures and getting the measurements I'm realizing how tiny this bus is. Remember that layout I did a few months ago for a bus that was almost too small, its about that small. The bus is longer than that bus (13.5' interior as compared to a 10' interior) however it is skinnier (5'11" compared to 7'.) This will mean a few changes in layout and a nice cozy bus, but I'll make it work!

• I'm so excited to have the bus here! We're in a super busy point at work and I'm hoping it will all calm down by the time it (and my parents) get here so I can have time to spend with all of them. I've had such a wonderful response from the folks I work with (thanks work folks!) and it sounds like I'll have a few helping hands when it comes time for bus work. 

• The bus will be making its trip to Burning Man with its previous owner, so I will need to make it become a blank slate again come August. My plan with that is to go ahead and do the roof raise, new paint job and insulating the inside like usual and then begin to build the interior but make sure it is all easily removable. 

Anywho, picture time!

Pre bumper stickered, always a good thing. Plus lots of OCF parking passes!

Oh yes, the interior is furry. 

My wonderful father illustrating how low the head clearance is inside the bus.

The bus in all it's (short) glory!

Bus bus bus,

Mer.

downsize.

Hey y'all,
I'm sorry I'm such a lazy blogger. Life has kind of taken over, not that I'm up to much besides the same old working and hanging out in coffee shops. Apparently that is just taking up a lot of my time. Also other things/people that I'm not talking about.

I celebrated my birthday. That's being busy, right?

To the point, let me give you a bus work update. I'm still working out when the bus will actually be making it's way down to California, probably sometime at the end of this month. The bus will be momentarily be returning to its current owners so they can use it to transport some large things out to Burning Man, so I won't be doing any house-y modifications to it just yet, but there are plenty of structural things I can get going on in the mean time. Order of operations will most likely be to clean it up and deal with any rust that may be plaguing it. Next will be to cut the roof off! I've been told its a fairly low roof and a bit uncomfortable for those above medium height, so I'm pretty sure I'll be chopping the roof off and re attaching it a bit taller. Lucky for me I've got a nice big metal shop at my disposal down here in Berkeley. After that I'll be doing all the insulation, paneling and floor for the interior, leaving me a nice blank and ready to fill slate inside. Also on the agenda is a new and fancy paint job which hopefully wont be ruined by the playa.

In other bus related news, I've been trying really hard to start downsizing my stuff. I guess I've been trying since I left Ashland last year and realized that I had a lot of stuff to move across half a state. Then moving down to Berkeley I had to downsize even more! So while I've still got a lot of stuff, I'm not doing horribly. I picked up this book...

I'm only a bit into it, but I'm not sure I'll finish it so let me tell you what I think now. The strategy is solid. The book got me thinking about what I should get rid of and how to decide what isn't worth holding onto and what is. After sitting down and reading a chapter or two I was itching to get back home and start throwing stuff away. 

Downside, its badly written and wastes so much time telling irrelevant personal stories which I think is raaather silly. 

Now that I'm being more serious about getting rid of stuff I'm thinking about how to get rid of stuff. When I left college I regretted not having a garage sale. I got rid of so much and ended up putting most of it on the curb or giving to goodwill.

Segway. I love things for free on the curb. I've gotten so many great things on the curb and totally believe in putting things out for others to have. I totally think all those things I put out when I left college (they were some really nice things) earned me some great curb karma because I've been finding awesome things ever since. 

Ok, back to my debate. I got rid of so much cool stuff that I wish I had had a garage sale. I could have at least made a bit of money back from all my stuff. Conclusion, I should have a garage sale during my downsize to the bus. Hindrance of the conclusion, I don't want to wait and collect things, I want to get rid of them now! Solution. I'm not really sure. At the moment I'm just collecting what I can. Maybe the stuff I have in Berkeley that I want to get rid of will go to the curb/goodwill but I'll have a garage sale with stuff I've got in Oregon. 

Thanks for putting up with my rambling. 

♥ 

Mer.