Together we have it all

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Our quest for seats

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

Today we went to the junkyard (I mean salvage yard). I forgot my camera. Actually, I didn't forget, I never even thought of it until we were on our way home. I was really upset because I want you to all be involved in this whole process as much as we are.

This was the third time I had been INTO any salvage yard. I've been TO them lots, but not often IN them. The first time was in 1989 when Matt took me to see his car, his first baby, his first love. Or maybe it was his second. What I'm saying is Matt + cars = tru love 4 ever. I knew this when I met him. In High School I used to sit in his parents garage with him as he worked on his car or his snowmoblie. He'd take me out on dates too, but if it meant spending time with him, I was THERE. It didn't matter that it was too cold or too hot, or if my hair was going to get frizzy...this was true love.

Anyway, 1989, he took me to see his car that was totaled by a drunk driver in a crash 2 years earlier. He happened upon it by accident. I wanted to see it, to get my things out of the glove compartment, to remember to not ever take him for granted again. You can do that at the salvage yard you know. It wasn't pretty. I did get my sparkly heart keychain back though.

The second time was not as memorable. Many years and a couple of kids later. It was cold. There was snow. I had to wear a hat, causing my hair get messy. It was for parts for "Her", the "other woman" who lived in our garage. The one who would steal my husband away from me on weekends. I guess it was memorable.

This time was different. There were no ghosts. This was for our project. Our mission was to find seats for our Errabundus Bus. More specifically, captains chairs, in great shape, from a Chevy Astro van. He and our oldest son had been there the earlier to nab two, but there was one more to be taken. Also, during the earlier visit he had come upon a Volkswagon camper-van that had a cook-top/fridge unit he wanted to check out. We decided against the kitchen setup and headed over to the van and successfully removed the seat.

We were also on the hunt for a front seat for us. Preferably a 60/40 split no more than 4 feet long with a "console" armrest and possibly an extra seat belt. No luck there but we did find an old conversion van with three swivel seats. Our plan is to have the middle 3 captains chairs swivel (only when parked) to face the back row and in between them have some sort of removable table thereby combining our travel seating with our indoor dining room. Matt had never had any reason to research these before this project so he was curious as to how the swivel mechanism worked. Upon examination, he concluded that he didn't have the right tools to remove them. I innocently suggested he ask the guys in the office if he could borrow something, it was getting dark and we had traveled 30+ miles...blah blah blah. You know, female reasoning. After a few tense moments he explained to me quite seriously that it would be a major faux pas to borrow tools. "But, what if they crush the van before we're able to get back?" I said sort of desperately, thinking more of me than salvage yard etiquette. He laid on the ground and shoved his arms under the wheel-less van to try with the tools he did have. He really loves me. It couldn't be done. I closed all the doors of the van to try to conceal our prize find. You can do that at the salvage yard you know. We made our way out of the bone-yard to pay for our seat.

I'm not going to tell you where we were because Matt can't get back there for a week or so and I don't want anyone to snag them up before we can get them! Cuz I know you're all looking for swivel mechanisms. They'll be $10 a piece if he removes them himself. What a deal! I must say, I can't believe I let him go alone all these years. I don't ever want to be left home during a junk run again. It was almost as fun as the used book sale at the library!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Day Four

Today we were welcomed back on the bus. The boys banged on the floor with hammers to loosen the rust and blew it out with the leaf blower. Matt sprayed rubberized undercoating on the bottom of his patches. I then swept while Hailey shoveled the residue from the driveway. The loose rust so far has filled a whole garbage can!

While painting the floor I used up the full gallon in only 192 square feet. Since it's now fall and the temperatures are falling Matt put the kerosene heater inside to help with the drying time. This week we should be able to scrub the walls and ceiling and start with the interior paint job...

...And more haircuts.

Banned from the bus

What did we, the Banished, do yesterday while Matt had all the fun?

Gave goofy haircuts.

After I saw 3 of the 4 boys primping in the bathroom I decided it was time to cut their surfer boy hair.

We thought it would be fun for them to run around like weirdos for the day.

They're normal shaved headed boys today. I promise.

Slow but necessary project

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Today Matt spent the entire day sanding, cutting and welding the rusty bottom floor. Today, he wore a mask. Last weekend's escapades left him with bronchitis from inhaling all that mold and gunk. No one was allowed on the bus except me, his photographer and special friend. He didn't really like me standing around though, he made me leave, told me I was a distraction. Imagine that....Me? a distraction?

Here are before and after photos of the rust spots.

And two more just for good measure

Don't call ME a distraction.

Friday, November 2, 2007

You're doing WHAT?

I've had a few people ask some very good questions on the WHY of this adventure. I'll try to address them here.

If you "google" School bus conversion you will find a myriad of websites featuring this sort of thing. That's how it started for us. Well, that and the fact that Matt doesn't want to sleep on the ground anymore when tent camping, pop-ups are too small for our family, a school bus (even with conversion costs) is thousands less than a purchased trailer of any size and I can't forget this one, "Why not?". Then there is the safety factor. According to Lyle, the 92 year old founder of Lamers Bus Lines, from whom we bought the bus, "You could roll one of these and if you could get it upright, you could probably drive it away." Matt's a huge safety nut when it comes to transportation.

Our interior plan is to have enough comfortable "seatbelted seating" and sleeping for our family. This will include a queen size bed (with possible bunk on top of that) and at least 2 sets of twin bunks. In order to get RV insurance, we need to have a working toilet and/or sink. So, we'll fit that in where we can. I've done a "walk through" and it looks like we'll have plenty of room for everything, but we won't know for sure until we purchase our seats and get them where we want them.

The laws on seatbelts are so vague and varied from state to state that we felt it important to have a good seating plan in place that will accomodate both our wants and satisfy safety requirements.

As for Lynn's specific questions... I don't think we'll be needing your old couch (but, thanks for the offer - wait, is it a hide-a-bed?), I suppose one of the kids could move out there is they promise to keep it clean, our other modes of transportation are still operational and we will continue to use them on a daily basis, I'm pretty sure it gets about 10 mpg (thereabouts) and I'm thinking that if those little old ladies can drive kids to school in it, I should not have a problem learning!

More to come.........the weekend is almost here!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Day Two

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Day 2 begins with a trip to Fleet Farm to buy more cutting wheels, plastic sheeting and paint for the floor. Matt’s optimistic that they’ll get all the flooring up and painted today.

The plywood was soggy and heavy and gross. I’m glad we decided to pull it up. I’m using “we” in the very loose sense.

The heaters and the cockpit area caused a bit of trouble.

But in the end, she cleaned up nice. There were a few rusted through spots, but there’s plenty of patching material (all those seats) to take care of them. The job of taking up the floor was much more involved than “we” thought but it was good to get that much done, and done well. The painting will have to wait.

Day One

Saturday, October 27, 2007

When our 2nd youngest woke up on Saturday morning he asked if we could do read alouds on the bus. I told him it was the weekend and there would be no school today, but if he wanted, he could take his blanket and books to the bus.

Soon the whole family, plus a friend who had stayed over night, was aboard. I sat in the cockpit and figured out what all the buttons were for, turned on the radio, played with the strobe light on top, learned to swing out the stop sign and blink the lights. Our neighbors on the driveway side momentarily opened their bedroom shades. I’ll have to make it a point to meet them one of these days. But definitely NOT at 7a.m. on a Saturday.

Then the boys went to work. They stripped off the padding and vinyl off the seats.

And piled it on the curb.

Then came the labor intensive job of cutting all the heads off the corroded bolts and removing the metal frames.

Which they piled in the garage.

They found wonderful things hidden inside and underneath those seats. A Gameboy game owned by A.M.W. , an owl charm (which I think we’ll keep), various wrappers, some empty, some not, a few ziplocks with leftovers still inside, and to date - $.38!