Tuesday, May 31, 2016

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.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

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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Thursday, April 18, 2013

The outside bath

Technically, this is not a bus project. But, it is pretty darn cool. The tub was sitting in Nigel's mum's paddock. There are quite a few ol baths lounging in paddocks around NZ. After getting the bathtub into place, we bought some enamel tub-and-tile paint. My help with the effort was mixing the paint and Nigel did everything else. He's a good man! To heat the water, NIgel put a little gas stove under the tub. We have some wooden seats that we sit on so we don't burn our bums when the stove is on. Marigolds and Lavender from the garden to make the water smell nice.
Yes, it is private.
No, we don't use it during the day.

This is our first bath at Te Nikau in Paraparaumu. We never got around to painting this one! Our first attempt at an outside bath was with a wood fire under the tub. However, we realized that it was difficult to regulate the temperature and the smoke kept getting in our eyes. So, we switched to a propane camp stove. It's slightly smelly, but less fuss.
There is nothing like sitting in a hot bath at night, looking at the stars, and sipping on a glass of wine.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

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!


Saturday, August 27, 2011

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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Thursday, June 16, 2011

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.

Friday, February 11, 2011

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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