I have walls!

Using the pattern to cut out the
bulkhead plywood.  Ignoring the arc
at the bottom which is the wheel well
when I cut out the rear shelf upright.

When I was last productive I was telling you about forming a pattern and cutting out the upright walls of a floor to ceiling shelf.  Even using the template it was still a matter of some test fitting but eventually I got them set in place.   I had to cut some spots around where pipes and wire would pass through the area.   But eventually I had them fitting within the tolerances I thought would be good.   Not touching anywhere on the side walls, only the floor and frame members.

The next step is to build some “nailers” that the internal plywood is going to attach to.  A rule of carpentry is you can’t leave any loose ends of wood dangling.  Here what I needed to do was cut a ribbon of plywood that follows the profile of the uprights.   This ribbon is then attached onto the upright, screwed and glued in place.   With this in place, when it comes time to attach the final thin sheets of plywood to the wall, there will be something there to attach that plywood to.

The nailer attached to the shelf
upright.   It looks so simple but
hours of work were involved.

I used the template again for this to cut an oversized nailer.   I tacked it on to the upright and put the upright back in place.   Then, using a straight edge across (where possible) two of the struts, I traced a line about a quarter inside of of the size of the strut.   This quarter inch makes it so I will be able to apply quarter inch plywood inside the strut that will be holding the insulation in place.   Then, inside of that, someday in the future I will be attaching the final interior wall plywood and it will all line up. …At least in theory.

This was not at all an easy job.   Cutting four nailers, getting them marked at the quarter inch in point, cutting that.   Test fitting, tacking to the uprights, test fitting, trimming and finally gluing and attaching permanently to the uprights took all of a very long night of work.  The reason for this was due to a few reasons.  This would have been an excellent job with four hands.   As it was I was clamping and bracing things in place while I was trying to do the marking and edits.  I had a bucket with a saw inside it to add weight on one side.  Up at the top a couple of clips.  It was all pretty mickey mouse and would fall over, or slip out of position while I was marking it.   I had to take several breaks for profanity and repositioning.

Additionally, though I was trying to span across a couple of struts to assure my straight edge was square to the wall, often that wasn’t possible.   The rear-most nailer only has one strut behind it, so my straight edge was only balancing across one strut and therefor highly subjective in where the final mark was going to line up.   There was lots of guesswork involved and really I don’t get to find out if I did it right for a couple more weeks once all the insulation is in.  Short version, I am glad that job is over with.   Get a friend to help you.

That was the end of one night.   The following night, with the nailers for the uprights in position, I moved forward to the bulkhead.   For this wall I have some imitation beadboard.   Quarter inch plywood with a batton and bead pattern cut into the surface of it.   The Wife has decided the interior woodwork will have a whitewashed appearance over some color.   So, I think the wall, with it’s grooves will look great whitewashed.   Deeper colors will stay in the groove, where the watered down white will lighten the surface.   I used the same template that I used to cut the uprights.   Here though I changed it a little bit because I wanted tighter tolerances up near the ceiling.   It got a nailer as well, cut out the same way.   This one was actually easier to cut out because I had two struts to span across.

The top box is going to be a 110v
outlet, the bottom box the switch
for the toilet vent fan.

After a few test fits I determined it was ready.   The next step was to determine the height of the countertop.   This had to be decided now because the countertop will require a support to be attached to the bulkhead plywood.   But, since that plywood is only a quarter of an inch thick, it wouldn’t provide much tooth at all to attach to.  The better way to do this is to attach the support by screwing through the plywood from the back and into the support which is 3/4” pine.  Therefore it had to be done before the plywood is attached.

Basically what I did was kneel on the floor and imagine what distance I wanted to look down into a pan that is someday going to be on my cooktop.   With my imaginary spatula in hand I sautéed some vaporous onions and peppers and at the end of the exercise had a height.  This is where I attached the 1x4 pine board.   

The toilet vent fan switch located
under the countertop.

Another thing I wanted was a toilet vent master switch.  I have a long blog post about a third done that goes all through the process of purchasing a toilet for the van.   It isn’t exciting prose.   How can it be?   Toilets.   So just in case I never finish it, I am going to break the suspense.   I bought a composting toilet.   In a chamber at the back is an area you place peat moss.  That is where bowel movements end up.   It is devised to separate out the urine.   That goes into a tank that when full you can dump into a gas station toilet.   But it is that back area, if in use, needs to have an air circulation fan that runs 24x7.   Most people who buy these are doing so for a tiny house where it is their primary toilet.   There is no question the composting chamber is going to be in constant use.   But, in my situation, it is quite possible it won’t be.   Baring late night burrito mistakes, I can likely use the toilet in my office building and get by.   I don’t want that fan running, using up battery power for no reason.   I mounted a switch on the bulkhead at the back of the toilet to allow me to turn the fan off.   It isn’t the handiest place to reach, but I expect it might only be used a couple of times a year.

The lost battle with expanding foam.

So with all this work done I was ready to mount the bulkhead plywood.  The last thing I wanted to do was put some expanding foam insulation at the back, where the bulkhead wall meets the van body.   Of course, things had been going so well all night, I guess I am not surprised this job turned into a disaster.   Expanding foam is some handy stuff, but it is super messy to work with.   I have a fair amount of experience due to old home ownership.   It is amazing at filling those drafty cracks.  Here what I did was stack a bunch of the scrap pieces of Poly-ISO foam I had left over from insulating the floor, back in the corner and then foamed around them.

The completed shelf wall, bulkhead plywood
and a temporary countertop in place.

And really, things were going so well.   That is right up until the wire for the toilet switch snagged on the bottom of the bulkhead plywood as I was sliding it in place.  The stacked foam chunks started to slide apart.   I had to grab them and shove them back into place with my bare hands.   …Cuz who needs gloves, it is all going so well, right?   The foam is super sticky.   Impossible to get off anything it touches.   No way to wash it off, so the only thing I could do was rub my hands into the floor sweepings of the shop.  That bonded all that dirt into the foam and took away the stickiness.  My hands will probably clean up in a couple of weeks or so.

I attached the bulkhead plywood with some self tapping sheet metal screws into the steel of the bulkhead.   The expanding foam dried overnight and it all seems rock solid.   Interesting how much quieter it made the cab of the van.   Suddenly all the noise from the back of the van really went away.