The bulkhead plywood got attached. With all the work I put into the floor to ceiling shelf uprights it was almost anti-climatic to actually attach them. I told myself I was only tacking them in place. But it has been a few days since I put them in and I haven’t had any reason to remove them yet. They might just be there for good.
I attached the back upright by running some drywalls through and into the base of the bed. I used a framing square to get it vertically square to the floor. Then at the top I used a hunk of plywood about four inches wide that I attached to one of the top ribs. Sitting here tonight, looking at the photos I am going to post with this, I decided I am going to add a secondary hunk back by the wall. This will be the only attachment points so having this secondary attachment seems like a really good idea.
The front upright was designed to attach to the side rib so it was a matter of drilling some holes in the plywood and then running in some inch and a quarter self taping metal screws into the strut. It will pretty much determine it’s own square-age, at least vertically, when you attach it there on the rib. I set the placement of the front of the shelf by measuring the separation distance at the back and transferring that number to the front back when I cut that hunk of plywood attached to the ceiling rib. I hope that it is all square to the van but frankly I don’t really care. At this point I only care that it is as wide at the front as it is in the back. That will make it easier to build the shelves. It is attached at the top with a drywall screw into the plywood hunk. Down at the bottom I used some aluminum angle drilled slightly oversized to some more drywall screws going down into the subfloor and the upright. This baby is solid as a rock at this point.
With this upright in place I measured from the floor to the top of the countertop support up at the bulkhead. I transferred that measurement to the back upright. I applied some construction adhesive (PL-200) and attached it with drywalls through the 1x4 pine and into the upright. I did some measuring at this point and checked my particle board scrap left over from the subfloor install. Whadd-ya know, there is a piece that is the perfect jogged width. Twenty two inches at the back, twenty four inches up by the bulkhead. All I had to do was cut it to length. Sweet. Every once in a while things just work out.
The reason for this jog is the stovetop requires 24 inches of width in the countertop it is placed in. Back at the floor to ceiling shelf, because I was cheap and only wanted to use one sheet of plywood to cut it out, so it ended up being only twenty two inches.
I put the particle board in place and ran one drywall screw into the support at each end. Naturally, given it’s thin-ness and weight it sagged considerably in the middle. Running my tape measure from the top of the furnace enclosure, pushing up on the particle board enough to take the sag out, I recorded the distance. I cut a bit of scrap out and screwed it in place top and bottom. Of course I had to move it the next day. I hadn’t accounted for the width of the toilet. But sitting there that night with the uprights in place and looking in the side door, my thoughts were really that of “holy shit, this thing is really starting to look like something.”
I’m sitting in another bar tonight. The Wife, in her Ms Scoutmaster roll, is conducting a board of directors meeting across in the dinner section. It is the strangest thing, looking over there at that table. In this hard drinking state there is scarely a beverage at the table. I have never seen such a serious group. The bartender and I just had a brief exchange. I ordered a new pint and when she delivered it the still developing head overpoured the edges. She made a comment about “trying out for the commercials.” When I asked for clarification, she said, “You know, when you see a beer commercial on TV, it always overpours.” She went and got the bar rag and came back to wipe it all up. Then she went on to say, “I don’t think that part of the advertising works on me. I just see that beer pouring over and think, Oh god, somebody’s gotta clean that up… Sticky smelly mess if you leave it”. I had never thought of it from a bartender’s perspective before.
Since that time when I installed the particle board countertop it has been a couple of days. I have been trying to think about how this will all be used and doing some play acting. The first thing I concluded is the power outlet I had planned for the bulkhead area was totally in the wrong place. I don’t remember if I already explained this or not. I am too lazy to go back and read through my postings to see if I did. I had planned on having two 110 volt outlets plus a light switch up in the corner above the countertop. That idea looked great on a computer screen. When it actually came to building it though, that was another thing. Due to the way the van wall slopes and a reinforcement corner of the bulkhead, I could only just barely fit one box. I will have to cut an outlet cover plate pretty significantly just to get one to fit. In that box I thought I would have the 110v outlets.
But then “using” it and thinking about it I have changed my mind. I was giving up the optimal position for the switch to have an outlet. That outlet would require the cord of any device plugged into it to semi-drape over the back burner of the cookstove. No. That wasn’t going to do. That outlet is going to have to instead become the light switch for the kitchen lights. What I have decided in the meantime is I will have to have a center pillar on the counter. There I will have a dual 110v, a 12 volt and double USB.
The Kitchen lights will be three of the LED puck lights. Evenly spaced over the countertop they will be over the stove, the center of the counter top and the sink. I want to really light this area up and I continue to be amazed how much light these little fixtures put out.
To make this change I have to do a little wire re-routing. But I think it is totally worth it. That outlet it the corner would have been a total pain to use.
One final detail, while I was at my local big box lumberyard tonight I picked up a nice magnetic LED light. Very cool to have a magnetic flashlight when you live in a steel house. The magnet on the back allows it to stick places where it could be handy. Because they are LED, I might never have to place the batteries. I think I will try to pickup a couple of these just to have some emergency lighting. This one I am going to attach to the bulkhead wall on the engine side, so I can grab it for a little light up in the cabin.
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