Friday, March 18, 2022

Getting Motorhome Ready, Count Down T-18 Days

 

Here is a picture I dug up from 2014 of our Motorhome Kitchen showing the microwave, that black box in the upper middle of the picture.

In June 2021 we were driving through Atlanta, hit a pothole as we pulled onto I-285 from I-85 and KABOOM, the Microwave was now sitting on top of the stove barely holding on to the plug which could not get through the hole where it was connected to an outlet.

Before we left the Sacramento area we had decided that another microwave was out of the question, we wanted to have a toaster oven.  I found a place to make some doors, and I made the rest of the frame, used a stairway piece for the bottom because it had a nice round edge to match the rest of the kitchen, and we had a new cabinet to hold the toaster oven (which we place on the stove when we want to use it), and the cabinet will hold other kitchen items too.  Arny's neighbor Eric is a painter, and he mixed up a stain to match the surrounding cabinets, and off we drove back home.  Well, this week I have been working on staining this new cabinet.

On Monday of last week I brought the doors home to the condo ... but forget to bring the stain which was safely in a box under the bed.  So the following Monday I brought the stain and on Wednesday and Thursday I worked on the doors, the back side (that no one sees) first.  😉

The process goes like this.  Sand it with a 220 sandpaper.  Brush and blow off all dust.  Apply a conditioner (Eric provided that too) and let it dry 15-30 minutes.  Brush on the stain.  About 15-30 minutes later rub the excess stain off, going in the direction of the wood grain.  Add second or third coat as needed directly on the last coat (no sanding or conditioner).


This morning I took the nearly finished doors to the motorhome, along with the stain and other items needed to do the job, and worked on the bottom and the frame, and pretty much finished it all up.  Tomorrow I will return and rub another light coat into the outside of the doors, and the light to the right will be moved to under the new cabinet.  On Monday, as Marcia is at Bible Study and I am at the motorhome with Indy charging the batteries, I will put a coat of polyurethane on it all.  Once we are connected to power I can drill holes for the handles, put them on, and we are done!

Above is the first leg of our 2022 trip.  First over to see Dean and Caryl in DeLand, then up through Arkansas and across I-40 to Barstow, make our way over to Bakersfield, and up to Sacramento.  Each of the white dots are either stops to visit someone, or Gas Stations...perhaps I should put some $$$ for those stops because it is going to cost us twice as much, if not more, than it normally has...or should we say, "As it did in the past before everything became the new normal."  Now I know what they mean when they say, "The Good Old Days".

On the 1st we move the motorhome into the RV Park next to the condos.  On April 5th we take off for DeLand...which is 18 days from today.  The goal is to be in my sister's backyard by April 20th.