Weekly Project #3 (Part One): Rewire the Beaver.

For this week's project I'm going to begin rewiring the Beaver! The Beaver is my 1973 Dodge RV. It is my mobile hovel away from the hovel. I have never done anything like this before and I'm looking forward to whacking on this thing.

The wiring is old and needs an upgrade.  I'm going to do this in two parts because I will be removing some major appliances I can't use, which will require renovations I can better do when it's warmer, i.e. springtime. That will be the second part of the rewire. First I'm going to take a good look at what is there and make a plan including drawing up a wiring diagram. I have already ordered most of the parts I think I'll need, and I bought a couple of 12 volt books that I've been perusing.

Monday:
I spent some time looking around at the main parts of the wiring system trying to understand what was going on. I thought about relocating the house battery to a different place.  I did some more reading in the 12 volt book. Then I took a whack at a wiring diagram:

First shot at a wiring diagram

Tuesday:
Problems. After going online to an RV forum I realized I can't relocate the battery without other problems (like poisonous gas and explosions). I took more things apart and crawled underneath the Beaver to trace wires. I also received the new converter/charger and I'm trying to figure out how it will fit into the system.  Things are getting more complicated and I'm a little worried about having enough time to do what I wanted this week, especially since it's Winter and cold!

Wednesday:
Came up with a plan after looking closer at everything. It will require more work than I thought including some carpentry and three battery switches and running much thicker gauge wire from the battery bay to the power center on the other side of the coach. I wired up the USB socket panel and tested it with a 9 volt battery. Looks like it works!

Battery bay will contain 2 batteries 

New electrical components 

Wired up socket panel

Thursday:
I refined the design and got out my saw to do some carpentry. I built a plywood partition in the battery bay to separate the batteries from the charger. A spark from the charger could ignite battery gases so they should be in different compartments. I'm also going to mount one or two of the switches on the partition.

Friday:
I have three batteries I want to accommodate in the Beaver (it came with one). One of them is the chassis or starting battery. The other two are house batteries meaning they are used for 12 volt lights and appliances in the coach. Normally the two house batteries would be wired together in parallel but that requires they be of the same type, age and model. Mine are are not the same so I am going to wire them so that I can use them separately with a switch. When one is low I can just switch over to the other. The same thing works in charging -- one at a time. On top of that there is an existing wire running from the alternator to the battery bay allowing the house battery to be charged by the alternator when the motor is running. The problem is that with new battery types, this is no longer a good thing without some more hardware to manage the charging process. I don't want to add that hardware, but I am going to keep that wire in place and put a manual switch on it, which complicates things a bit.  So I have three batteries and three manual switches to wire up. I think it should look like this:

Saturday:
I bought some more electrical components (wire) online after looking at my diagrams, then went to several local hardware stores for smaller hardware. I think I have everything now I need but am out of time. Weather has been a factor. It's been too cold to get the work done that was needed. Or, I'm just a wimp. Also, I've never done anything like this so I've been moving slowly trying to figure what I need to do to get to where I want. I don't know how much I can get done tomorrow but either way it's a good start.

WP#2 Wrap-up

For this week's project I read 3 books and enjoyed them all.

When Breath Becomes Air is an emotional and moving memoir by a highly recognized Stanford neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi, who becomes sick with lung cancer and struggles with meaning in his last days of life. It was a beautiful, haunting, indispensable and compelling read. I say indispensable because I think we could all benefit from asking this question of ourselves: what is truly meaningful and worth living for? This book takes that on and more, and made me think a lot about this. I'm sure I will keep pondering the central message of this book, and for that I'm very grateful.

The Happiness Of Pursuit is a fun read by Chris Guillebeau about his quest to travel to every country in the world and great stories from scores of other people who had big, difficult quests in their lives. It is a book about big dreams and motivations to overcome hurdles. It also contains a lot of practical advice for folks of his ilk. It made me think about big lifetime goals and the value of commitment.

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool, is about smashing the myths surrounding high achievers and the research behind all the conclusions. I think this work is a critically important for anyone interested in education, skill development and the realized aspiration of high achievement. It is absolutely going to inform my learning and development goals from here going forward.

Weekly Project #2: Read three books.

Weekly projects. This is a new effort. Must needs I focus on my activities or I am likely to go off and scatter.  Here is my plan. On weeks when I choose to commit to a project, I'll announce what I am going to do and what I want to achieve. I'll start on Monday of that week, work some amount on  it daily, then finish up Friday or Saturday, and write up my thoughts on Sunday.

Projects will be multi varied and include research, learning, making things, etc.

This week I'm going to read 3 books start to finish. There are:

1)

2)

3)

Driveway Resurrection

I've had this 35 ft 5th wheel trailer in my driveway for 14 years!



I bought it about a year after I bought the house so that my parents could come to stay without having to deal with coming into a ... filthy hovel.

It worked. They stayed for a week or two at a time. But they are gone and I have been wanting to get rid of it for a very long time. Finally a few weeks ago I made it happen.

Now for some painting and trim work.



Done.

What I've Been Up To

Long time no post, eh? But I've been busy, trust me. Here's a little bit of what I've been up to:

Siding and painting,


landscaping, planting and gardening,


hanging out with friends,


making a deck,


rebuilding the front gate,


miscellaneous interior stuff,


and wandering around looking.

My Living Room Was My Bedroom

I set up my living room to be my bedroom. Because it was warmer, more convenient and I just felt like doing it that way.

Time to change.

A Music Room Of One's Own

When I first moved in late 2002, it seemed the obvious choice for a bedroom. Now it is the obvious choice for a music room.


I set it up this way temporarily. It was like this for years. But I want more. More functionality, more color, more comfort.


Finally, I started taking it apart and putting it back together again.



And chose a color. This time I decided to paint the one wall a nice, saturated color leaving the other walls bright white.

I still don't have it set up the way I'd like but I'm getting there.

Goings on in and around ...

Hanging out with the pups



Rehearsal with the band

Last Room In The Hovel

As Summer winds down, I want to reflect on where I am with this house of mine. It's been a busy 6-8 weeks of work, starting with mudding, texturing, then painting the walls of the living room where I sleep. Next came the decision to pull out the carpet and lay down flooring that matched the kitchen.  Then I built a bed (more on that later).

Next came work on the kitchen in the form of building in the pantry and the smaller under-the-counter fridge, as well as installing drawers.

But most of the time was spent on getting the far end of the house to near move-in condition. Sheetrock, taping, mudding, texturing and painting. We're still working on that space, but it's substantially done.

But the very last room to deal with just finished up yesterday - the second bathroom. It's not finished finished yet, but the toilet and sink are in, plumbed and working, while the shower needs plumbing and tile, etc.

I decided to have some fun and save some water by installing a small sink I was given above the toilet so that it drains into the tank which then gets flushed. It works great!  The rest of the materials are also recycled - old wood and corrugated iron.

Does this now mean the end of the Filthy Hovel?  After all this time and work it has finally been transformed into something else.  It's not exactly a hovel and it's not filthy, really. It's messy and disorganized as a result of living in a space while under construction, and trying to figure out where to put stuff.

I want to continue writing about the experience of creating a space for oneself and all that entails, but should I call it something else? Barky's Excellent Mancave?  I don't know. What do you think?

The Move.

Found in the side yard rubble.

Unimaginable as it may seem, I finally moved into my own house, a place I have referred to as a filthy hovel for years.  Over an 8 week period - April through May, I made a concentrated push to get the most important tasks done that would allow for a minimal, man-cave-ish existence.

As it started coming together I began contemplating what living in a space really means to me.  These were a new category of thoughts. In the past I was usually in survival land. What did I need to do to keep the place from blowing up or falling down? These new thoughts - and decisions, are not any easier. And, I'm continually processing and thinking about this.  But I realized that I wanted to re-think everything.  What do I really need and want, and how do I realize it in physical form that roughly balances aesthetics, function, value and quality?

Some realizations:

1. Aesthetics matter. I want to look at things that appeal to me somehow - everywhere.
2. Color is fun.  I like it.
3. I don't need a bedroom. 
4. I want to be delighted and surprised.
5. I want the right combination of clutter and un-clutter, simplicity and complexity.
6. I love things that grow.
7. I'm grateful for what I have.

My new bathroom with guitar towel racks.