February 04, 2015

everything but the kitchen sink...oh, and that too!

February 04, 2015/ Chelsea Tuttle

Two nights before the big Gore Canyon Race (a race down a Class IV-V stretch of whitewater on the upper Colorado River), Christian was planning his lines with his R2 buddy Shawn (you'll also recall he was the one that convinced us to rip up the subflooring) and then to distract from his fear, helping me install the new Rocket Pump we'd bought for our almost finished kitchen.

Shawn and Christian getting to know their race boat and talking about their lines.

Christian wanted to make sure that I mentioned that he and Shawn won gold in the R2 division. They're unsure of their time, but they were definitely first (...because they were the only boat in their division to finish).

This is Shawn and Christian about to huck a 12-foot waterfall rapid called Tunnel Falls. (I was lucky enough to get taken into a the canyon by a railroad truck to photograph this spot for the race.)

Kitchen counter in the foreground, Campbulance in the background.

Prior to ordering the Rocket Pump, Christian had done some Googling to see what kind of instructions, etc he could find on the subject. There were none. Turns out, it's because you don't need any. The pump is literally installed with two screws (included) and you simply jam the water hose up onto the bottom and boom, installation complete.

Installing a Rocket Pump = drilling a hole and screwing in the two screws it comes with.

Getting ready to test the pump for the first time.

I think I was a teeny bit annoyed that the one photo taken of me during this project was of me vacuuming up the aftermath. I promise I did more than just take photos! (I think...it's been a few months...I could be wrong.)

February 03, 2015

bed building and [as always] getting distracted.

February 03, 2015/ Chelsea Tuttle

It's time to finally start updating again. Sadly, these updates are going to be 4-5 months old as we slowly catch you up on our progress and post photos from our glorious fall road trip.

One of the biggest and most important projects we needed to finish before hitting the road last fall was the bed. As fun as it was to sleep on the floor and/or hang from the grab bars in a hammock, we wanted to have a proper sleeping area for what was soon to be a month+ on the road.

We'd already done a preliminary dark stain on the wood, but still had some cuts to make to allow room for it to open and fold out once hinged into place.

Christian restaining the edges of the newly cut pieces.

Not surprisingly, while escaping the heat to take some measurements, draw some diagrams and let the newest coat of sealant dry on the bed, Christian spotted another element of the interior that he decided needing some adjustment.

It's amazing what happens when you're just sitting in the Campbulance looking around. Every tiny little project seems to bare its ugly face and convince you of its immediate need for attention. In no way did the electric panel need to be addressed at this time, but alas, that's just how things go, so attend to the electric panel we did.

It turned out to be more than just a little hassle to remove it.

Meanwhile, I was measuring the back interior wall that butts up to the cab to prep for installing the peg board we had in mind.

A new cubby created and a reinstalled electric panel! (Only took a few hours.)

Our bed wasn't fully installed on this day, which probably isn't surprising given our lack of attention spans, but at least we got the bulk of the work done in prep for it.

Coming up...kitchen, counter, sink install and running water!

June 09, 2014

subflooring in.

June 09, 2014/ Chelsea Tuttle

As our summer jobs finally start to pick up (Christian guides rafts and I photograph them), we're finding ourselves with less and less time to dedicate to Campbulance. We knew this would happen, but it's made progress slow.

We were finally able to finish cutting and installing the new subflooring during our last afternoon off together.

We decided we'd lay down glue AND screws into the new flooring as to give ourselves ample reason to never again remove the flooring. If some poor schmucks decide that 22 years from now, it needs removal, well, good luck, because we didn't make it easy on them.

Given the less than regular cuts we had to make to remove the old flooring, we had some gaps and cracks to fill before calling it good. We'll probably do a once-over with a hand sander before laying down the laminate flooring, but for now, we're calling it good.

June 08, 2014

cutting the subflooring.

June 08, 2014/ Christian Tuttle

After we tore the flooring out, and got to the steel box at the end of the rainbow (so to speak), it was time to lay some new plywood. A Home Depot run supplied us with two sheets of 3/4 inch CDX plywood. We prepped the floor by grinding away broken screws, mopping and bleaching the steel box, and filling holes left from hardware with simple silicone caulk.

Roughly 4 continuous feet of measurements that varied by a 1/2 inch. — Roughly 4 continuous feet of measurements that varied by a 1/2 inch.

The sub-flooring under the bench seat and the counters had to stay, but getting a close cut to the structure was very difficult and producing a straight cut ended up being impossible for us, given the tools and skills at our disposal. Measurements through this area were many, but we ended up needing to cut multiple times anyways.

Chelsea, Shawn, and I tried really hard to get all our cuts right, but in the end it didn't make much of a difference. Right angles and straight edges didn't play nice with the hacked up remnants of sub-flooring.

Right angles, drawn with the best intentions.

Getting the pieces to fit tight and right was laborious, and accomplished through trial and error. Eventually, our carpentry resembled sculpting as we traded measuring tapes for sharpies and made blade-width cuts to fit around weird ridges.

June 07, 2014

subflooring out.

June 07, 2014/ Christian Tuttle

Chelsea and I have been attacking this project with a motto:

Where we can do nothing, do nothing.
Where we do something, do it right.

If we don't need to fix or change a piece of the Campbulance, we won't. An example of this would be the bench seat structure and the majority of the sliding cabinets. We can't improve upon the existing structure without an unreasonable amount of effort, so we're leaving them as is.

We planned on leaving the majority of the flooring by simply peeling off the original laminate, and sanding down the 3/4 inch plywood that made up the subfloor. We spent hours on this "save-the-sub-floor" project. I suppose, in the back of our minds, we knew that the right thing to do was tear the old plywood out, but we had a variety of excuses to keep us from this.

Then Shawn showed up.

Shawn's my R2 buddy. We were rookies at Vail together on Mountain Safety, and rookies at Timberline as well. He's the only one with whom I'll paddle many stretches of advanced rivers. When we're in a boat, he's the confident/overconfident one, and I'm the chickenshit. It works great.

He was the one that pushed us to pull the floor. I'd heard arguments against it; I need to hear his for it.

Shawn is performing last rites on the sub-flooring. It went quietly.

Shawn did a tricky thing. He talked us into cutting out the flooring most affected by the dry rot. After the first, the first, move towards removing any peice of the sub-flooring, I was hooked. It was coming out of the Campbulance, and it was coming out now.

Neither or us could figure out how the magical cutting wheel worked. We used it anyways.

We didn't know it, but we're fighting a screw.

We used a circular saw, many pry bars, even more hammer, a ball joint separator, and sweat to pull the floor out. We thought that it was only held down by adhesive, because we couldn't see any screws, but lo and behold it was the exact opposite. No (useful) glue, and hidden screws everywhere.