From Sofa-Bed to Sofa-Storage

Monday, 1 September 2014
Gulf Waters RV Resort  — Port Aransas, Texas
Temps: Hi 89F (32C) / LO 81F (27C)

A day that celebrates the American labor movement is as good a time as any to write about one of Mui’s labors Phaeton mods.

But first, a quick update on what we’ve been up to since my last post.  Busy with a variety of projects — as usual; the days have been flying by.  The good news is that the frame of our New Zealand trip has been established.  All but one of the many accommodations we need for the six-week trip are booked; the procurement specialist [read Mui] will take care of the last one tomorrow — fingers crossed … it turns out the Cricket World Cup Semi Final is being held in the city on our last day in Auckland and that means prices have skyrocketed!

On the weather front — hot and steamy continues to rule our days.  With one change.  We got some much needed rain this week.  And it looks like more is on the way for next week.  Yay!

Now for the project mentioned in the title of this post.

When we bought the Phaeton in May 2010, it came with two sofa-beds.  By September 2011 — in preparation for fulltiming — one sofa was out to make room for a full-size desk (post here).  Don’t know what I would have done without that desk these past few years!

From this …	… to this.

Fast forward three years — give or take a few days — and the set up is still the same.  The desk on one side; the sofa on the other.  But the sleeper mechanism in the sofa is no more.  Mui removed it and built a storage unit in its place!  What will we use this storage for?  Oh, a lot of things that are now stuffed here and there around the coach — including gear we use on our polar travels ;-)

First step; unscrew the bolts …	… to get the sleeper mechanism out.

Between the two of us, it was easy to get the whole kit-and-caboodle out of the Phaeton.
And a GWRVR work-camper was happy to take it off our hands to use for his guests!

This is the space Mui has to work with.  The gap between the end of the slide
and the inner edge of the sofa necessitates the building of a box with a base.

The back of the box will go up against the side of the fan register (right edge),
leaving a gap between the window / wall and the back of the sofa.  This design provides
space to store things like exercise mats on the far left without hindering air circulation.

Having the bottom, side (2), back, and top (2) pieces of wood cut-to-size at Home Depot, Mui used
his jig saw for the additional cuts needed to customize the pieces to the space under the sofa.

With a hole-saw, Mui cut an opening so that the slide roller adjustment bolt remains
accessible through the bottom of the box.  How did we make sure he cut the hole in
the right place?  We painted the top of the bolt with nail polish (top right inset),
gently dropped the bottom of the storage box over it, gently pressed down to
make a mark — et voilà; perfect placement!  Lipstick would have worked, too.
In any event, I made sure to wipe off the bolt before the nail polish dried.

Hmmmm!  Could fit a body in there, couldn’t I?

A few strategically placed L-brackets and screws, and all but the top of the
storage box is done.  Mui makes himself less-than-comfortable inside to …

… screw in place A brace along the top back edge to lend support to the lid.

A center-beam that spans the back (stationary) and front (hinged) pieces
of the lid, provides support against sagging in the middle.

And we have hidden storage!  Mui considered putting a couple of finger-pulls to aid
in raising the lid, but there’s enough of a lip on the lid that it wasn’t necessary.

With the cushions back in place, no one’s the wiser that the sofa-bed is now sofa-storage.

Mui was going to add batting or foam to the lid for cushioning, but I like a firm sofa; it’s better for my back.  We’ll revisit that option at a later date if I change my mind.

Personally, I think this was a genius idea.  You can never have too much ‘useable’ storage in a motorhome.  And it’s not like we’re adding more stuff to the Phaeton — we’re just re-purposing existing space to better organize what’s already in the coach.

So, you ask what will happen if we get overnight visitors?  The same thing that would have happened had the sofa-bed been intact — we’ll put them up at a campground cabin (if available) or a nearby hotel!

Over a Big Hurdle

Monday, 5 November

This past weekend saw us put a big hurdle behind us — several large pieces of furniture slated for donation were picked up and almost everything we plan to store while we’re on the road was moved to the unit we rented in early August (post here).

Mui picked up the U-Haul truck Thursday afternoon.  It was a day earlier than we planned, but finding convenient street parking for a 26-foot (8 m) truck (plus the loading ramp) isn’t easy in our subdivision.  So, when we saw that the space near the front entrance was empty, we decided to take advantage of it.

Thursday, the truck and driver report for duty!
The 26-footer is more than we need, but this way we won’t have to stack things high.

On Friday, we moved some of the things that were on the first floor of the duplex down to the truck ourselves.  In particular, Mui wanted to have the donation items in the truck so that he could put them curbside first thing Saturday morning for pick up by the Salvation Army.

Bundled up against cold temps, we move some of the stuff to the truck on Friday.

Having majorly downsized when we sold the townhouse last year, we had a lot less to sort through for the move to the storage unit.  But we still had some heavy pieces that needed to be brought down from the second floor of the condo.  Neither one of us wanted to deal with maneuvering those things down the narrow staircase, so we hired a couple of professional movers to deal with this phase of the move on Saturday.  Between the two of them, the guys had everything in the truck by 2:00p.  Salvation Army showed up at about the same time to pick up the donation pile.  By 2:30p we were done for the day.

the movers load the truck with storage stuff and the donations get picked up on Saturday.

A chilly Sunday morning found us on the road at 6:30a.  There was hardly any traffic en route — most people were probably taking advantage of the extra hour of sleep from the overnight fallback from daylight saving time to standard time.  With our speed averaging 45-55 mph, we made the 96 mile (154 km) drive to Winchester in two hours.  As expected, there was no one else at the storage facility, so we pulled right up to the hangar door and started unloading the truck.

That our ground-floor unit is the first one down the hallway made our job that much easier.  Keeping track of what went where on a quick and dirty site plan, we made sure that the things we don’t anticipate needing until we get off the road were placed in the back. A couple of breaks to replenish our energy with healthy snacks, and by 12:30p the truck was empty.  Wow!  Only four hours to do something that I thought was going to take us all day!  I guess Mui and I make a good moving team after all ;-)

Moving stuff into the storage unit goes much faster than I anticipate.

For those who commented on my footwear when I was carrying some small items into
the storage unit back in August (post here; scroll down for picture), I’ll have you
know that when there’s serious work to be done, I do dress appropriately ;-)

Tailgating in the sunshine is fine for a short break, but for our longer lunch break,
we move into the truck’s cab where it’s warmer.

A job well done!
We’re keeping clothes that we will need for non-Phaeton travels in the white cabinets.
There’s still plenty of room in the unit for anything else that needs to be put into
storage before we get on the road in December — like our TV!

We were back on the road by 12:45p.  Without our stuff to weigh down the truck, the ride home was a little less smooth, but we did gain speed and made it back in 1½ hours instead of the two hours it took us to get to Winchester.

With the storage move completed, Mui’s a happy camper.

Just as we were parking the truck where we’d been told to leave it, the manager of the U-Haul store drove by.  Seeing us, he stopped to collect the keys and accompany Mui to the office to complete the paperwork.  Since we were only an hour past the Sunday drop off deadline, not only did he not charge us the additional day’s rental, but he gave us a hefty discount on the per mile rate.  Why?  Out of the goodness of his heart, I guess.  It’s what Mui calls the brotherhood discount … treat people right and with respect regardless of their race or religion, and you will receive the rewards ten fold.

Mr Dinosaur wants to know: “Where will U go Next?”
Isn’t that the eternal question of all fulltime RV’ers?

The condo sure feels desolate now that all the stuff that made it a home has been taken to storage.  But we don’t mind — not only has the place always been a temporary residence for us, the nearly blank slate is a sign that we’re on track for our early December departure from the area.

Next up is the Phaeton.  The plan is to take advantage of the upcoming long weekend to organize/inventory what we have in the coach.  That done, we will transfer anything else from the condo that we want to take on the road with us.

Continue to wish us luck; it’s working!