I worked all day on the dinette again.

I was thrown for a loop when our plans changed and we weren’t able to start taking the bus down to the bare hat channels back in New York.  With the timing of the Bus Fair and camping plans in Oregon, we were not going to have enough time or labor here in Montana to take anything apart before leaving again.

Kyle is going to come to Montana with Zack at the end of June and his whole family will be here.  He and I hope to get the roof painted with reflective elastometric paint and the solar panels installed on the front half of the roof while he is here for two weeks at his sister’s place.

Yesterday, on the back pieces, I had spent time gluing and wood filling the screw holes. But today I didn’t bother with gluing the tongue and groove sheathing or filling the holes to cover over the screws.

Instead, when I decide how I’m going to finish the wood- with paint or stain and what colors- that’s when I will fill the screw holes and do the sanding.  Wood will take surface applications better after being freshly sanded, and we will have to remove the dinette again back out of the bus in Alaska when we actually do the interior demolition.

I’m glad the temporary build has held up so well for the 5000 miles we have gone so far in the bus.  In Rochester, we needed to repair the front part of the sofa where Mel has been sleeping.  The wood holding it up onto the chair rails shattered and came loose.  I used some long bolts to put it back in place and added a small foot to the corner.  It’s been holding up pretty well so far.

We also realized that the dinette area was going to be one of the most used places needed for the build. Every time I take a break from driving, I wanted to sit away from the driving area and sit with something to drink or read.  Whenever we want to eat something, we want to sit together.  When we want to work on something, we need a place with a table to do it.

Also, having a place to store stuff is critical.  Right now we have lots of little bins With things we need… Snacks, medications, cases of soda, larger cookware, art supplies, etc.  we have to move this stuff around a lot and secure it when we travel.  We have mostly been doing this by placing things on the floor or in totes.  I think with the large storage areas under the benches, most of this will be contained neatly and effectively. 

We are still going to have to solve the problem of stripping the interior of the bus and building it up from the outer sheet metal, insulating it, and finalizing the inside build elements. 

But moving forward in an imperfect situation, I’m just thinking of making each element of the build modular enough to be able to use it until it needs to be removed, with a plan to reinstall each item as the interior base structures are able to be completed. 

The bus is ALREADY serving the ultimate purpose we had in mind for it- taking us where we want to go in more comfort and convenience than travelling in the meeny van or having to set up a tent site every night.

Each task we are able to complete on the bus build only modifies the functioning and comfort of that purpose- it doesn’t actually CHANGE my goals for using the bus.

Even though the things I wanted to accomplish on this trip probably won’t all happen, Mel and I are having a fun summer and working however we can toward transforming the bus.