Saved You A Seat!!

Big news! The bus can now have legal passengers! I've been jonesing to work on the bus, but my last adventure took me 1,200 miles away for the past month and so the bus was on hiatus. I didn't waste anytime busting on the drill when I got home though, and now I have a bench seat equipped with seat belts and a hinged top to access storage!

My brother built a similar bench for his kitchen not too long ago so I stole his plans and converted them to fit my size and structure needs. I'm getting really good at building boxes, so like the bed I started with just a simple frame made of 2x4s. The wheel well is underneath on one side, so I had to adjust the support on that side to cross over the top of the wheel, but it was easy enough, and I can't imagine it compromised the stability at all.

A metal chair rail runs along the walls on both sides and still has the holes from where the original bus seats were bolted in. I stole a couple seat belts from the old bus seats (thanks Taylor and Sons for the torque) and used the existing holes to secure them to the bus structure, for safety, of course. Dad had the great idea of cutting small slots (not sluts, Anne) in the back of the bench so the seat belts could be pulled through when needed or stored away when not.

As much as I love building boxes (I don't), my favorite part is watching each project come together as it looks more and more like the finished product. I especially enjoyed cutting and placing the sides and top of the bench and seeing the ugly wheel well disappear.

 A couple coats of stain and varnish and a pair of hinges and Rus looks less like a construction zone. I jumped the gun and picked up a 1 1/4" thick foam mattress topper and some spray adhesive. It took 15 minutes with a tape measure and utility knife before I had my seat cushion all together. Looking into colors and fabrics for seat covers, but check out the awesome pillow cases Nancy's making me! The little touches are starting to help me see the potential of calling Rus the Bus home one day.

(Like I mentioned I was away adventuring last month. I'm working on a blog or series of blogs to share my journey Thru hiking the Colorado Traill. Keep and eye out, I'll be posting to facebook and instagram when they're finished!)

The Rest of the Bed

As soon as I finished the bed frame/platform, I jetted off for a weekend in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains for a test run. Since then I've been on the road and prepping for my next long distance hike, but still itching to make some progress on the bus. I finally got my chance last week!

Just because the build has been idle, doesn't mean the planning has been. I've been drawing and redrawing layouts, designs, and color samples for weeks. I finally settled on a plan I love. I matched a stain the the basketball flooring I'm re-purposing, and it looks awesome with the color scheme I've pulled from my fabric choices.

I've decided that carpentry is all about being an expert at covering up and hiding mistakes, and I'm getting really good. Because of a mismeasurement on my bed frame, we had to patch in some spacers so the finished facing ended up flush with the top of the platform. Dumb mistake, easy fix. We also framed out the left wheel well since I'm leaving the space around it uncovered.

We cut pieces of plywood to cover the front of the bed on either side, leaving the middle open for access under the bed, and eventually a hinged table will hang there. A couple coats of stain and varnish on those and the pieces to box out the wheel well, and it was actually relatively easy to screw everything in place (I never expect anything to go that smoothly). Eventually, I'll be adding trim to cover the exposed screws and make everything look more uniform.

 With a little extra time on our hands, I borrowed dad for his saw skills and we measured and cut the section of flooring under the bed. I got too excited and went out to purchase my mattress. Full size 4" memory foam, which fists pretty well and is extremely comfy. I even laid out some fabric samples and pillows to snap a few photos. Just a couple touches have Rus feeling very much like home already. Who's ready for curtains!!!?

Made My Bed, Can't Wait to Lay in It!

For the record, carpentry is hard! "Measure twice, cut once," right got that part. How about the part where all I'm trying to do is build a box and it feels like I'm putting together a life sized jigsaw puzzle? After a lot of time spent measuring and discussing structure, and several very poorly drawn plans I got too antsy and convinced dad to say "screw it" and just go to Home Depot.

I'm no engineer or architect so I'm sure my method of just winging it is frowned upon, but we bought several 2x4s and a sheet of plywood and took it from there. The process was something like: I measure, dad starts to make a cut, I panic and stop him because I think my measurement is wrong, we remeasure. Once I became more confident in my tape measure usage, things went pretty smoothly and I started to piece things together as dad finished cutting our lengths of 2x4s for the frame. I learned quickly that building is essentially a continuous practice in problem solving, so I went to my old fall back of trial and error; after more errors than success we figured it all out.

What we ended up with is a 4'x6 1/2' box frame with 2 length wise supports and 4 horizontal supports and a piece of 3/4" plywood across the top to create a platform. It's a rough start, but has a large area for gear storage and will eventually have a shelf beneath. Right now, function is king and, voila! I have a bed, I can sleep anywhere!