Appliances are installed!

Hello,

My post last month showed you pics of my demolition project on my parts RV. Since the RV is trashed I thought I'd take a moment to show you pictures of what my MPD, Foxy, looks like today. See below...

Foxy's side view, door side.

The back. The back stage wall is held up by a ratchet strap until the door hinge is re-installed.

Roxy's front. Notice the window's eyelashes.

Today I completed the window waterproofing project that has gone on since last summer. I added rubber window corners, seen below. I also caulked the newly installed corners with Sikoflex. This final step couldn't happen until it stopped raining so the sealant has a chance to cure. I took my chance and caulked it today.

The Sikoflex caulking happened today, but the appliance installation occurred over the last few weeks. I got word from my property host that I had until the end of January before I had to move my stuff. So the bf and I cancelled our vacation to Santa Barbara, and I had a full three weeks of free time to get busy. (Don't worry, vacation has been rescheduled.) Being the dead of Winter in Seattle, I admit the cold is temperate compared to most places. Nevertheless, it was c-c-c-cold. Thankfully, it wasn't very rainy.

I began by installing the fridge/freezer. That 3-way fridge/freezer is worth more than the entire RV. I thought about finding a smaller fridge, until I remembered a summer without ice. Here it is, the fridge camouflaged amidst the Roxy's interior plywood. You can see the dance room through the threshold, and the future bathroom, which I am leaving until a later date, is between the door and the fridge.



Next, the stove, sink, and water tank. This is not standard cabinet construction; I used 2 x 4s to secure the structure due to one problem, the tank. In order to allow tank removal, I had to keep the corner column off of the ground. Other than that, the construction went one - cut - at - a - time. Result, a very square support. The sink and stove fit!



Then I roughed out the bench seat. To my delight, it turns out to be long enough to sleep on comfortably! The supports pictured below were made with a biscuit joiner and glue. They are not installed, just there to show two voluminous storage compartments. During the wood construction phase I discovered myself hopping out of Foxy and literally running to the mitre saw. I loved cabinet making! Next, the water heater. I cut a hole in the exterior, then slipped the heater in. It is in the center compartment, below.

 Appliance installation is not complete until the appliances are usable. Above you can see a bunch of hoses on the ground. The hoses are part of the fresh water system that I installed with the help of a borrowed crimping tool and some new copper crimp rings. Below is the exterior locker that connects the fresh water system. From left to right, you can see an exterior shower unit, the pressurized external water hook up (as in a garden hose), and the tank intake.

Next, the propane. Using iron pipe for beneath the trailer frame, and copper pipe for inside, I retrofit the RV system to Foxy's needs. Randy, the fabricator who built Foxy's metalwork showed me how to use his pipe threader.

The threader with my pipe inside of it.

Me, with the iron pipe work complete!

Voila, the propane system is installed. OK, it took two days of molding fragile copper pipe into subtle turns and twists to fit it through the floor holes I drilled and into the pipe under the trailer frame. 

Bad news, my beloved DIY door failed me. The plexi glass is very thin and thus very brittle. I suspect it broke after repeatedly closing the door. To add insult to injury, the exterior shingles started falling off. Result of all this DIYwork: I will probably buy a new door anyway.

Hallie's Summer, Fall, and Winter 2013

Hello from Hallie on Vashon Island,

It is winter here, freezing cold and sometimes sunny. Since the summer's last post I've accomplished quite a bit. My last post showed how most of the exterior was complete. 

This pic shows the unfinished exterior before we moved out of the O Space warehouse.

This is the stage layed out in the new summer location... 

...where I added the legs and leg frames.

This is a picture from inside of the dance room, looking out.

Dancer friends admiring the staging options! The side walls are open, the back is not.

Since then, the rains proved to me that I was NOT finished with the exterior.  Last summer I installed the plexiglass windows but the aluminum window frame seemed to leak. After moving Foxy (a fourth time), most of the fall was spent trouble shooting, sealing, then removing sealing and re-sealing the window frame. I resolved this leakage with rubber/aluminum flashing strips. I am waiting for the next heavy rain to see what happens... so far, so good.

The front windows, before plexiglass is installed.

After plexi was installed. Even with all this caulking above above the frame...

...there was lots of water leakage. Notice the discoloration above the frame.

The fix with eyebrow rubber strips above the window frame. (sorry about fuzzy lens)

Other leaking collected in a few spots near the hinges inside the dance room. Sarah warned me to super-weather-proof every crack and crevice. After all the flashing was installed last summer, the only leaky gaps were in the top corners of the stage walls and, well, every inch of the lower stage wall edgesI designed and ordered aluminum flashing for these areas, fashioned to be removable by using latches and gaskets. As with most problems on this project, each section's gap is unique. This means I have to custom order gasket/tubing for each one. Gaskets are expensive, so I have to wait until I can afford it. So the gasket project is temporarily on hold.

Flashing duct taped in place until I intall gaskets.

The duct taped flashing for one of four upper corners.

You fans of DIY will love to hate the story of my beloved door.  In my last post I showed how I removed the RV door and put it into Foxy the MPD. The next step was just as fun: tiling the door exterior with PBR cans. I've wanted to do something with recycled cans since EcoDance started three winters ago!

 

The door's final 2 steps: to cover both sides with plexiglass. The door needs some sheer strength, so the plexi provides it. But, alas, a brisk windstorm blew the door off Roxy's hinges before I could pick up my plexi order. I am glad to see this happen with Roxy safely parked, rather than by watchibg it fly away from the rearview mirror on the highway. And then salt to the wound: I picked up the plexi but it was too wide. Arg! I must go back to Tacoma (everything is two hours away when you live on an island, thus the Arg!).

The flashing project and the door project are on hold. So, I started demolishing the parts RV. I have no experience with propane appliances and DC electrics; I avoided the demo project up to this point. EcoDance continually teaches that there is nothing like action to teach you what you need to know. As it turns out, removing a stove, electrics, a breaker box, a sink, a water heater, a water pump, a water tank, and plumbing is doable. I still need help moving the fridge/freezer (which wont seem to budge) but everything else has been removed! This project makes me value my decision to buy a parts rv and cart it around with me for a year. The propane/DC/AC fridge-freezer alone is worth more than than I paid for the RV. All those parts add up, and I'd say I saved at least $1000 by transferring the old (but in good condition) stuff to Roxy. Eventually I can sell the RVas a flatbed frame, and maybe fund the cabinets, appliance, plumbing and electric installation project that is coming up. Guess what that means? After three years, I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 Over and out from my current location! -Hallie

Update from Sarah

It's been a while since I've posted info. and pics about my building process, so here it is - a little update before I head off and begin touring again.

It was cold in Ludington much of my stay and I wasn't able to live in Rosie through the winter but in May I happily moved back in and began working again. One of the first things I did was to attach a ladder to the outside of the structure so I could climb up to the roof with ease.

One of the difficulties with building on the road is that you are generally in a hurry and fighting the elements. When I left Champaign Sept. 2011 there was a gap between all three stage panels and the roof, which meant there were waterproofing issues with one side area and the back of Rosie. 

In Texas I used some reclaimed flashing to cover the gap to help with the rain. It was not a pretty sight, but it worked for a while.

Now I finally had some time and a little more money to build out and to install some weatherstripping between the tiny space that was left. It felt great to tear off all that old flashing!

The next project was the roof - again! I was warned that flat roofs were not a good idea, but I tend to be really stubborn. I did NOT want a pitched roof - meaning I have paid the price for not listening... yup - puddling and leaking. I should add that there was a 2" incline on one side but the plywood got rained on and some of it expanded and contracted before I had time to attach the galvanized steel - and because I needed to move there wasn't enough time to tear it off and start over. So a year and a half later I'm having problems with the roof. I am grateful to Mark Fisher for coming out and helping me install a corrugated roof over the flat roof. So far so good:)

After adding the flashing around the edges for the roof more water than usual began streaming off and hitting the windows and door. I used some of the old flashing to create thin metal awnings to give the door and both windows a little more protection from the rain. It doesn't look like much but it helps and the metal is thick enough for high impact winds i.e. driving down the highway.

After that I began working on one of the most important components of my MPD - the stages! I built them like you would build a floor - with studs only 12" apart because I wanted to make sure they were strong. They are incredibly strong and incredibly heavy. In the past I have needed help bringing the stages up and down and I would like it to be a one person operation. The first thing I did was take 1 stage apart, tear off the OSB and replace it with a thin, lightweight plywood. That almost made it light enough... but not quite. So I began building a box frame on the inside.

And I bought a pulley and some rope...

and actually brought one of the stages up and down by myself! That was an exciting moment. I laughed and cried and ran inside to kiss my sister and brother-in-law. Sometimes it's the simple things.

Soon I'll be leaving Ludington to continue the tour I began September 2011. For more information about my traveling journey take a peek at my blog: http://raw-art-tour.blogspot.com/. I'll be posting information about the journey in the next week or so.

Thanks for reading:)

Hello EcoDancer peeps,

Since I last posted, a lot has been accomplished. We built aluminum frames for the dwelling room and dance room windows.

WINDOWS:

We installed container door locks on the hinged walls.
 HINGED WALL DOOR LOCKS

I installed a door from the parts RV.

RV DOOR INSTALL

Lastly, we riveted aluminum to the SIP seams, the roof and the roof/wall corners. This part was a wonderful goopy mess, thanks to 7 sausages of Sikoflex, an industrial waterproofing glue. WATERPROOFING THE EXTERIOR

Our final step last week was to move out. Our time is up at the Open Space's warehouse. So we packed up the tools, the remaining SIP panels (that are the unattached stage corners), and exited through the only ground level garage door. This was a 6 hour process because we had to see-saw Foxy out of the warehouse in order to turn her to face the truck. See-sawing was done in parts by hand, fork lift, and truck. But, phew! We made it out. Thank you Open Space! We are safely relocated to our third build location, yet another backyard. 

Now I am on to finishing the back end. This part is tricky because it is where stage legs, door locks, waterproofing materials and holding devices for the extra stage panels converge. I'll spare you the details until I have images to illustrate all this nonsense clearly. Over and out for now.  -Hallie