Furniture Complete (I hope!)
There's not enough room in the bus for me to take a shot with my camera that shows the entire setup. So here are three pictures of the various pieces. Compare this to the floorplan below.
Here's the bed. As shown in the previous pictures, it can be tilted up against the wall. Since I installed the rest of the furniture, the bed is harder to get at, so this is a bit of a struggle now. Still manageable though. On the other side of the curtain is the driver's seat. On the other side of the stained wood is a light and shelf for my glasses at night.
On the left, we have the "kitchen". There will be a microwave on the top shelf, and a 2-burner electric cooktop on the counter, next to the tile. Everything I use to cook has to fit in the cabinet below, along with any food not in the fridge. Fortunately, I live on soup, sandwiches and frozen dinners.
At the other end of the bus on this wall is the desk. It's 48" long by about 24" deep. The cabinets are 13" tall, which gives me a fair amount of storage above the desk. This has to hold all my DVD collection, all my computer stuff, and any books.
This photo was a bit tilted, so I've rotated it back, which accounts for the white space around the edges.
The fridge and electrical system (batteries, inverter, etc.) will go between the desk and "kitchen".
On the other wall, we have the "bathroom." On the left is a shower stall. It's covered in clear plastic, which is hopefully watertight. There will be a shower curtain covering the front, and I would sit cross-legged on the seat you see in the middle. Water will be from a small hand shower, and will be heated by an Eemax on-demand electric water heater, which I still have from my attempt to convert my van to an RV. We'll have to do something on the floor for any water that leaks out of the shower.
The seat will flip up and reveal a toilet below. I'll be using this Sealand marine toilet, which has an attached black water tank.
On the right is a sink with medicine cabinet. I'll probably lower the back panel a bit, since I can just barely reach the light switch. The light is at the extreme top-right corner. To the right of this is the wheelchair lift.
The van conversion people still think I should put fresh and grey tanks underneath the bus, and I may have to for lack of space. I'd rather have everything inside and easily accessible for maintenance. There's still a couple of feet of empty space to the left of the shower, which is also the foot of the bed. I'm thinking that the water pump and two small (10 gallon) tanks could fit there.
Here's the floorplan, which should help you make
sense of the pictures.
As for budget, here are my current totals:
| 2,000 | bus | |
| 13,000 | new engine and transmission (done at Ford dealer) | |
| 350 | remove transit company decals | |
| 350 | insurance/dmv | |
| 3,150 | handicap accessibility | |
| 2,700 | interior | |
| 1,200 | misc van conversion | |
| 22,750 | total | |
For handicapped accessibility, there was the following:
- hand controls for gas and brake
- backup camera and monitor
- raised seat
- raised floor around the drivers seat
- barrier at the top of the steps to make sure chair didn't roll into stairwell (front right side door)
- barrier around lower dash to keep wheelchair from hitting wiring
- modification to lift to allow side entry
- lowered outside door handles on lift door
- various attempts at inside access to the lift door, until we came up with the simple latch
The interior includes:
- new CD player to replace Ford stock radio
- cooktop, microwave, fridge
- tools (jigsaw, drill, circular saw, sander, biscuit joiner)
- paint, stain, screws, glue, wooden biscuits, sand paper
- sink, faucets, curtains, curtain rods, shower curtain rod, shower curtain, shower head, soap dish, toilet paper dispenser, towel rack
- door hinges and handles
- wood. I made a mistake in buying high quality, "furniture grade" pine at first, which was very expensive. Wood really adds up. You always use a lot more than you expect.
Misc van conversion includes:
- furniture installation
- curtain track on ceiling for curtains
- curtain rod installation for side windows
- ? There's at least a check or two I can't account for!
Still to come:
- charger/inverter for battery
- toilet
- water tanks
- pump
- plumbing work
- eletrical wiring (may try to do this myself)
- I already have a 112 AH battery, otherwise that would be required.
- I already have Eemax on-demand water heater, or I'd need something there too.
November 9, 2007
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