Serenity gets a new paint job

Here is Serenity in 2013, looking a little ragged. Her lipstick is definitely in need of a touch up!

Also there has been a leak that has tormented Nigel for about 5 years. We came across this great roof paint called EPM6. It forms one continuous seal. Just what we need!

The first step is to tarp the bus. One, because we started this project in December and the sun is HOT. And two, because when we take the paint off the seams, rain will pour in! Tarping the bus took a good half day!

Nigel under the tarp scraping and sanding away. I did help with this part. So therapeutic, but also a horrible job for a perfectionist. There is always another piece of paint waiting to be scrapped! 

Did I mention this project took about 5 months to complete? The weather was against us. Too hot to paint, too wet to paint, too windy to be on the roof. This is Nigel tying the tarps down so we can sleep. Flapping tarps are noisy!

Finally we get the five coats of paint on the roof, that's right FIVE coats!
And then it is time to start sanding the sides. I helped a bit, but when Nigel kept going over the areas I had sanded, I decided to find other jobs to do. Ha!

We are pretty thrifty people. So instead of forking out for paint we decided to see what we could do with what was in the shed. It had to be exterior paint and we had a few options.

Mixing....hmmmm

Testing, testing, testing.

All finished! Nigel even found the old chrome for the grill. 

The lips and eye are gone. Kinda sad.

But we are pretty pleased with the new look.

Home Sweet Home.

A table

We put a table into the bus. Everytime we sit down to play a game or eat a meal one of us says, "Why didn't we think of this earlier?!"
Who knew having a table was so great!
We scrounged the table from our old caravan. It folds out and we can fit 6 for dinner.

Nigel made some bench seats that are multi purpose of course.

Storage for shoes under both. Plus a great little nook to store my "by the door" basket.

So the table is in but the fold out double bed is out. Sorry to anyone who wanted a sleepover. Bring a tent😉

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An office makeover in the big green bus

Our big green bus is lofted in the back. The bed is up on the loft and the "office" is underneath. The office doubles as storage when we travel. Sometimes the whole back is packed full, depending on where we are going. When we had our nifty-fifty scooters, they would ride back there. The office was in need of a coat of paint.

We started with white, green, and blue paint. After some combing, this is what we ended up with.

We have not spent a winter in the big green bus for a while and realized that we needed a place to hang our winter coats. So, some hooks got put above the dehumidifier.

The back door is a bit drafty, so we found this cool curtain to cover it. Thanks Sallys!

It's amazing how nice a new coat of paint can feel!

The kitchen is finished...just about

All the doors are on! Nigel is great!

The bookshelf is the almost done. Our primer dried up and we need to buy more to finish the job.

I just wanted to show off my cute tea towel.

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Changing a piston, headsgasket, sleeves and rings

Serenity is still not running from when it broke down in October. It turns out the problem is that a ring broke off inside of the engine and messed up a lot of things. Because our bus is on air suspension and it is not running, Nigel had to dig a 2 foot hole under the bus so he could work on it!

This is where Nigel spent quite a few hours. I dont actually know what he is doing. But the bus is slowly getting better!

Some wonderful friends come alongside for support and ideas.

If you can prove how big a job is by the number of rags used...

Serenity is currently in Alabama. And still not quite fixed. We ran outta time and money. But we will be back soon to give it another try! I will keep you updated.

Fixing leaks in the big green bus

There were a few leaks in our New Zealand bus while we were away. It didn't rain till the end of our time in NZ. So it was a bit last minute finding out where the leaks were. Here is Nigel painting the seams with thick roof paint.

Nigel fixing a chimney leak. He has to get inventive when we don't have a ladder!

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The kitchen that Nigel built.

We tried to find a photo of the original Kitchen. But, no luck. Imagine if you will a kitchen made of chip board, covered with fake wood sticky paper, no windows, no water tanks, and broken drawers. That picture in your mind, is what we started with. The first step towards a new kitchen is, rip out everything! We found the window behind the wall. Installation was put into the walls. Plumping and electrical got sorted out.

Next step is to put up the new walls. You can see our old drawers here too.

We covered everything with enamel paint on. Nigel reused the old frame to make the new frame.

New Drawers! The paint can says to wait ten days for paint to properly cure. Rachel intends to follow the rules....

The oven is back and the new drawers are in. The drawer hardware is from IKEA.

The doors are installed. We still want to make a new counter top. Nigel has plexiglas and mosaic ideas in mind, with some lighting of course. The window has a brand new seal around it. The old one almost fell out when Nigel took the wall off!

Everything is usable. We are still going to add doors under the stove and a cupboard above the stove.

NZ serenity makeover

NZ Serenity when Nigel was still a bachelor.

Starting a new project...a month before the wedding

Chopping the back half off.

little help from my friends

lot of help from my friends

Nigel is still living in the bus at this stage...at all stages actually.

always rains in the middle of a project

Mason the welding master

the back wall was rusty and fell off, guess we will replace that.

This is how it looked when the bride moved in. Nice sun roof!

Water tight! And we have a double decker.

We had some complaints about the paint job. Dont know why!

filling in the few holes

our neighbor called it a visual symphony

You cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear

on with the paint, bumps and all.

Camouflaged, no one will ever notice the bus now!

the inside got a makeover too

new floors

home sweet home

the end