The Bus Capades: Week 7–8
Howdy, if you’ve been reading regularly, you are in for a treat! I’ve made some big upgrades to the bus.
- The bus is now secured with a deadbolt on the front door, and the backdoor has a ‘lock’ too — if you can call it that.
- We have begun the insulation process.
- Framing is almost complete for the whole bus.
- We have a subfloor.
In my previous update, I was working on getting the front door to function like a regular door, and I was successful with that. But it wasn't completely done just yet, we still needed a doorknob and some way to lock the bus. My dad had a spare handle laying around, so we just screwed that right into the middle section, and for now, that’s good enough for a handle.
As for a lock, I was torn between getting a regular deadbolt, and splurging on a fancy keypad lock. My biggest deterrent from getting a keypad lock was that most them are one-sided, with the keypad going on the outside and a basic latch on the inside. Because my lock was going to be surrounded by glass, I really wanted to find something that is secure from both sides. It would be way too easy for burglar to break the glass and turn the latch to get into my bus. So for now, I just have a double sided deadbolt.
For the most part, installing this was straightforward, and once you read through the instructions, you're good to go. We did have to make a few minor adjustments just because we were working with a rather uncommon door size. We first had to drill all the holes using a circle saw drill attachment (Which were like $20 each! That’s crazy!!) which is fairly nerve racking, because if they don't line up, then you’re screwed. But luckily they all lined up well. We tested out the deadbolt to see how it would fit in there, and it was quite loose because our door was just hardly an inch thick. To alleviate that, we attached in a small quarter inch piece of scrap wood between the door and the deadbolt, and afterward she fit snug like a bug. For some extra support, we also put a couple more scrap wood pieces inside the rubber to give the screws something to hold onto. Other than that, the rest of the install was just like any other door.
For the backdoor, I decided to lock that using a carabiner around the handle and door latch, so if you try to open it from the outside, the carabiner will stop it. Its not pretty, and its not the best lock by any means, but for now it gives me a little piece of mind.
For the insulation, we had a rather bold idea that we hadn't seen anyone else do online, and so we had to try it. Because I just didn't want to deal with removing the bolts from the ceiling, we were going to try to work around it. There was a small inch wide gap between the ceiling and the top of the bus, that just so happened to be the perfect size for my sheep's wool insulation. We were able to string through a wire puller, so we knew it was hollow up there. Our plan was to run some wire through the ceiling, attach one end to the insulation (We sewed it up so it would be the perfect size for the ceiling) and then just pull it through. It really should have worked, bit it didn't. While it was hollow, there were couple beams running vertically through it that only provided a quarter inch of clearance, and that wasn't enough for the insulation to pass through. Plan failed. All in all, we only wasted a few hours of time trying it out, at least now I wont stay up at night wondering if it would have worked. Even through I can’t get insulation all the way through the ceiling, I can get it up there part-ways, so that's just what I did. I do still plan on having a whole layer of insulation on the ceiling, I'm just not there yet.
That being said, the ceiling is ready to be insulated whenever I get around to it. I have the framing up on the ceiling, as well as the walls , and the floor. I am just missing a couple strips along the windows. The framing is important for two main reasons: To hold the insulation in place, and so I have places to anchor down whatever I build in the bus (counters, cabinets, walls, etc.) For the ceiling, I used 1x2 furring strips along each horizontal beam. My dad had a great idea to use a circle saw and cut little slits into the wood to make it more flexible so it’s able to bend to the curve of the bus. We did this for the middle of the bus. Along the edges where its too curved for the furring strips, we just cut them into squares, that were much easier to work with. I swear, my forearms are noticeable more toned after doing this. Screwing into the metal is hard as it is, but then doing it above your head, now that's a workout. For the walls we cut a furring strip along each window edge, and one spanning the length of the bus on both sides, about a foot above the floor.
For the floor, we did it sort of like a grid system. We made a bunch of squares out of 2x4s, but instead of drilling them into the floor, we just drilled them into each other. The logic is that if they're all connected together, and take up the whole floor, there's no way they will slide around. We connected them together using a Kreg pocket hole kit, that comes with the jig, and two long drill bits, one to make the hole, and one to drill in the screws. This little tool is ingenious, and whoever came up with it honestly deserves an award. It creates a sideways hole in the edge of the wood, so when your drill in a screw, it comes out the end and connects to another piece of wood. And you can adjust it to whatever size wood you are using, so you don't have to worry about buying multiple kits. We screwed all the wood together, which only took a couple of hours. Then we got the good part: the insulation. The sheep's wool is non- toxic, and you don't need any gear to install it. It is similar to cotton or polyfill, you can just pull apart what you need and place it. We stuffed insulation into each square in the floor.
Having a subfloor in the bus after 3 months of walking on the metal floor feels so good. Originally I was going to get the ceiling completed first, but I just couldn’t handle getting Kilmat gunk on the bottom of my shoes anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Kilmat and it does wonders, but if you step on a spot where the butyl adhesive is sticking out, you have to deal with your shoe sticking to the floor with every step, until it just gets so dirty it no longer sticks. Then you just have a glob of dirt stuck to the bottom of your shoe. After about a month of this I was over it, and decided to put down a subfloor ASAP. In hindsight, I could’ve just put down a tarp or sheet over the floor, but sometimes good ideas don’t dawn on us until it’s too late.
We drove the bus to Home Depot to pick up some plywood, which put me down about $160 for three sheets. I was quite surprised in my self confidence when it came to putting down the subfloor. It is a part that I did mostly by myself, and all of my cuts were accurate and precise. Granted, I didn’t have to do any curvy cuts or anything, just straight cuts, but I was able to get the subfloor in within a day.
This leg of the build has really tested my persistence, and my willingness to continue on when my body just wants to be done. I’m not someone who regularly goes to the gym, and ill be the first to tell you that my arms are like spaghetti noodles. But this far into the build, I have no choice but to change that. I’ve always been one to advocate that women can do anything men can, and now is the time to practice what I preach. Yeah, I could just sit back and let my boyfriend and my dad do all the heavy lifting, and they gladly would, but this is my bus, and being able to drill into metal over my head, and maneuver plywood in and out of the bus, that's my responsibility. These past couple weeks really showed me just what my body is capable of, and more. I am strong, and I am capable of getting things done. It might take me a bit longer, and I might struggle just a tad more, but I am doing the things I set out to do.
