mason jars.

I've been thinking a lot about what kinds of things I want to keep in my kitchen in the bus. It (obviously) won't be much room so I want to keep things simple and practical while still being pretty. Everything should have the chance to look pretty. :) 

Last time I was back in Oregon I went through my dishes and kept only 4 of each kind (plate, bowl, mug, etc) and all in pastel or floral designs that go together, but that is for another time.

Today I wanted to talk about mason jars! 

When I arrived in Berkeley I found there weren't many (and by many I mean there was 1) drinking glasses in the apartment I'm living in. Around that time I also decided to try out pickling so the conclusion I came to was I needed mason jars. I've also been reminded lately of what awesome lunch packing containers mason jars make, no leaking! So for the bus I've decided to do away with drinking glasses and tupperware and only use mason jars. They will also be my storage containers for dry goods such as flour. 

Here is some bus/tiny house inspiration using jars in their kitchens. 

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days 8 and 9

Today's bus work didn't go quite as I'd planned but was pretty successful none the less. I'd planned for this weekend to be the big roof raise but between having trouble tracking down some materials and schedules not meshing I decided to push it back another week. Hopefully next weekend the roof will be one foot taller.

Day 8 was a short bit of bus work. I ordered the 1" box steel I need for the roof raise a few days ago but unfortunately the steel store is only open 7:30 am to 4:30 pm on weekdays and it was a crazy busy week at work so the silent partner wasn't able to go during his lunch break (he has an hour break, I have a half hour) like we hoped. Instead I got up bright and early and went before work. Luckily the silent partner has a pickup I could borrow so I didn't have to drive the bus.

Today (day 9) I just ran a few errands for bus stuff. First stop was Urban Ore, an awesome salvage store here in Berkeley. I've been going there every few weeks to browse their sinks and there have been two sinks jumping out at me each week, both pretty small, both around 1'-6" square. One was cast iron with a pink enamel on it and the other was a stainless steel. I really like them both but decided they were probably a tad too small. Also at Urban Ore I checked out skylights and sheet metal. Nothing perfect but it was good to check.

Next the silent partner and I went over to a restaurant supply store to look for food grade water tanks. No luck with the water tanks but we did discover some stainless steel pans that I realized I could totally turn into a sink! The pan I got is around 1'-6" x 2' which I think will be a great size for the sink.

Next stop was Home Depot! We got all kinds of goodies there (well, mostly the silent partner. The tool isles are dangerous.) First stop was sheet metal. I'd found some 1' wide steel flashing that came in 25' rolls, sounded perfect but I was worried it may be too thin of a gauge. Turns out it was perfect! I picked up two rolls to cover the 1' gap I'll be making when I raise the roof.

Next I checked out the insulation. Before hand I looked online at what Home Depot has in the ways of 1" ridged insulation. I want to use 1" because the framing of the bus is made of 1" steel so the insulation will be sitting in between the framing. The 1" ridged insulation at Home Depot comes in two flavors, a cheaper bead foam that has around a 4 insulation rating and the nicer foam has insulation rating of 6. The cheaper foam costs $10.50 a sheet and the nice foam is $20 a sheet. I need to do a little more research about what those ratings mean. Since the space is so small I'm hoping maybe I can get away with the thinner insulation. 

After that we wandered over to sink hardware and picked up a drain for the new sink pan. We took a peek at faucets as well but decided that would be better purchased at a salvage store. 

My last stop was pop rivets. My dad pointed out that it would probably be best to use steel rivets. No flimsy aluminum. At Home Depot they only had steel rivets available in a variety pack that had various lengths of both steel and aluminium rivets. Rather than buy a bunch of stuff I don't want I'm going to wait and order some steel rivets from a hardware supply company that we order from at work. 

Tomorrow the silent partner and I are going to pop over and do a little more bus work and drop off the materials I've collected in the past few days. 

♥

mer.

day 7 - ceiling removal.

At long last a bus update. I'm even posting the update on the day I did the work- amazing. Work has been a bit busy the past few weeks and so I've been less than motivated to go in on the weekend or stay late and work on the bus.

The objective right now is to get the bus ready for the roof raise. To accomplish this I need to remove the interior roof sheet metal, roof insulation, buy steel and then I'm ready to go! I'm planning on roping a friend or two and the silent partner in to help with the process so we can knock it out in one afternoon of work.

Today I got some of that pre roof raising process done! I started off by drilling out a bunch of rivits holding the interior roof sheet metal on. I was able to remove one half (its got a seem down the center) pretty easily and pulled all the nasty insulation out.

Off comes the metal. 

Half the insulation scraped off. 

The latest in insulation removal fashion.

Perfect for nasty fiberglass. Also my double gloves, latex and framing gloves. 

One half removed! 

I went to move onto the second half but discovered some bolts that were reluctant to be removed blocking my way. They are from the ladder on the side and I either needed a second person to hold one end of the bolt outside while I took off the inside or I could have just cut them off. Last time I encountered this problem I ended up cutting them off but since I was hot and tired (fleece lined shop coat is not good for sunny days, good at keeping the fiberglass out though) I decided to call it a day and wait until I could convince the silent partner to come help me, hopefully next weekend.

While I didn't accomplish my goal of getting all of the ceiling out I was able to get a good look at the framing of the roof which was necessary for moving on in my planning for the roof raise!

Check out that framing. 

This is the joint I'll be cutting at, see the break that is already there below the joint? I'll re-cut there.

For some perspective, I'll be cutting where that big shadow is running across.

The cut will get a bit funky when I get to the back. 

With the ceiling removed I saw exactly where I wanted to do my cutting. I did a few measurements to see how much steel I will need to buy. I'll be cutting a 1' piece for each of the vertical supports (16 total) and then I will add a horizontal piece between each vertical piece so for my steel buying purposes I measured the perimeter of the bus for that length. The sides are about 14'-8" and the front/back is about 6'3 at the top. I may not need to add a horizontal piece at the front/back because there isn't one currently, but it would certainly add strength. Including the front/back that makes my steel total 57'-10". The steel I will buy comes in 20' sticks so I will buy 60'. I believe the price for a stick is around $25 so I'm looking at around $75 for my framing steel.

The other thing I will need to find is some sheet metal to fill the raise. When I was pulling off the roof interior I was tempted to re purpose it as the exterior sheet metal for the raise, but it has a kind of ribbed texture to it so I think not. I had originally wanted to salvage the ceiling sheet metal and put it back up when I was done with the raise however it was pretty full of holes and also re installing a big floppy piece of insulation covered sheet metal above my head didn't sound fun. Instead I may rip down plywood into strips and make a paneled ceiling. More research into how other skoolie folks did their ceilings is needed.

Lets hope next weekend will be the roof raise!

♥
Mer.

commercial composing toilets.

A bit ago I did a post about the diy options for composting toilets and then got distracted by the bus and didn't follow up with the commercially available options.

The big difference between a diy toilet and a commercially made toilet is what you dump out of it when it's getting full. Unlike a diy toilet where you're dumping poop that has yet to be composted, a commercial composting toilet does the composting for you and you're just dumping dirt! This makes things not only less gross but way simpler when it comes to where you can dump. While poop that has yet to be composted needs to be dumped in a compost bin the already composted poop, or 'humanure' can be dumped wherever. Looking realistically at my composting options I know I won't always live somewhere where I can have my own compost heap meaning a toilet like this is probably a good option for me.

There are a few main brands of composting toilets you can purchase. I've put together a pro/con list for each one.


Envirolet

Pros: Can be used with no electricity (using wind for ventilation), regular electricity or with a solar setup that they sell. 

Cons: Its huge. It costs over $2000.

 Nature's Head 

Pros: The lowest commercial price I've found - around $950. Compact. Easy to empty. Built for RV use.

Cons: Needs electricity to run a fan full time. Its not the pretties thing- you can see the urine when the tank is getting full.

 Sun Mar

 Pros: Not super huge like the Envirolet and is slightly less ugly than the Nauture's Head. Built for RV use.

 Cons: Still not the best price, over $1000 and requires an overflow tank? ew. 

 Biolet

Pros: It looks pretty?

Cons: I don't think any of Biolet's products are suitable for RV use.   

 Air Head

Pros: Compact. Easy to empty. Can't see the urine.

Cons: Cost a tiny bit more than the Nature's Head (like $100 more making it around $1050). You have to use liners (basically coffee filters) when you poop. 

Comparing this collection of toilets the two that really jump out are the Nature's Head and the Air Head. On the Air Head website they compare their toilet directly to the Nature's Head and show how it solves two problems of the Nature's Head, the fact you can see the urine in its container and how you need to open the solid's container when you want to empty the liquid. It is likely that the liquids will need to be emptied more often than the solids so it could be an annoying detail to have to open the solids more often than necessary. While the Nature's Head is slightly less expensive I think those two details would make it worth it to buy the Air head instead.

I've still got a bit more research to do but at the moment its looking like the Air Head may be the toilet for me!

♥
Mer.

Day 6 - a little tidying.

Today was a quick bus day. I got to work early and did a little puttering. I pulled off a few more of the funny vinyl pads that were around the doors and dash. I also pulled off the pink and white fur above he dash and the fringe came with it. I like the fringe though and may put it back up. Another bit of tidying I did was pickin. Up a bunch of the screws, nuts, bolts and washers that have littered the floor. I doubt I'll re use many of them but they are all in a big yogurt cup should I need to grab something.

It was kind of a grey and cold day today- not the usual sunny California. Had it been nice and sunny I may have been more motivated to stay out working after work. Maybe another day this week will be better. 

Goals for the rest of this week include removing the rest of the interior metal and insulation (the front and back walls and the celing) and to replace the rotted out floor bits. It would also be nice to get rid of the rust I found in the walls and floor. Maybe next Saturday will be the day. 

A side project I'm thinking of is taking part of the bus's back wall that was covered in stickers and cutting around each sticker so I could turn them into something. I'm thinking of turning them into magnets. 

♥ 

Mer. 

Day 5- ripping out walls.

Saturday I had a lazy day but Sunday I was determined to get some good bus work done. I had a goal of getting off the metal on the interior of the walls and celing. Once I got those off I would be able to see more about the state of the insulation and framing of the bus. The framing info is particularly useful so ican start planning how to raise the roof.

The walls and roof are attached with pop rivits. To remove them I just started drilling in the center until the metal ring popped off. I went around and did all the rivits on the walls and was able to rip the metal right off. Underneath was a bunch of pink, fiberglass insulation. I debated a moment or two keeping the insulation. It wasn't too beat up. Maybe it's something I could have researched more about what other skoolie folks have done, but just went with the decision that this insulation was 24 years old and ready for the trash. 

When I went to start drilling out the roof's rivits I realized the bolts from the roof railing were going all the way through the roof, so I would need to remove it to remove the interior roof. I got most of the nuts off with an impact driver and went up to the roof to get the old bolts out. A few just spun when I tried to get the nuts off. It would have been helpful to have a second person on the roof to hold those bolts still, but after working on another project for a bit I realized I could just cut the nuts off with a grinder. The railing needed a few good wacks to come off the roof once the bolts were out. There was calking around the bolts to keep them waterproof which also kept it pretty well glued to the roof.

So I didn't get to the interior roof, but with the detour of taking off the railing I think I had a pretty productive day. Maybe sometime this week/end if I can wrangle my silent partner into helping I'll get that roof off. 

Hey look I'm caught up on blogging!

♥ 

Mer. 

day 4-introductions and planning

Day four is a short one in bus land. I showed off the bus to a few friends from work and told then about my plans. And then after work sat in the bus and made a list of the tasks I hope to get done in the next week or so. I was waiting for my silent partner to get off work and it was hot in the bus so I slipped way to gets beer and write some blog stuff (where I am now!) and now I think of it I left the windows open in the bus cause of how hot it was... When my silent partner gets off work I'll be giving him a tour of the bus. Let's hope he isn't scared off by how small it is. In hoping he and I can talk over the list of work I want to do and make a plan.

Here is the list I made. 

-remove the interior walls and ceilings. Once removed I'll be able to remove the old insulation and take a peek at how it is framed so I can plan how to raise the roof. 

-remove a few other interior things leftover from it's life as a real bus and/or as a burner bus. 

-replace the sections of rotten plywood on the floor. 

-deal with the rust on the floor under the rotten plywood. This could involve wire-wheeling off the rust then painting the metal or removing the metal compleatly. 

I'm hoping some/most of these things can happen this weekend. We shall see how it goes. 

♥ 

Mer.