Home Projects and Appointments

We aren't wandering anywhere this week in the motorhome. Instead, we decided to stay home because the weather looks really lousy all week long. We each have haircuts scheduled for today and a dentist appointment for me scheduled for tomorrow.

The venetian blind that we ordered for the smaller window on the side of the bedroom finally came in. So we were able to put that into place and install the brackets. Then I hung up one of my sets of Heritage Lace curtain swags. Not sure if I'm going to do a lower panel on a cafe rod or not.

We will see what it looks like once I get the other curtains up around the big window. Steve has started cutting up the trim wood and shellacking the knots. Then I will get all of the trim wood painted. We are adding the top crown molding and the egg and dart trim to the big window to make it match the same as the original window and doors.

Steve also reattached the rows of coat hooks that we keep behind the door. It's a handy place for bathrobes, jammies or things that we are going to wear again. Out of sight, out of mind.

It stopped drizzling for a while this morning, so we went outside and decided to tear down all of the tomato vines and remove all of the cages. I invested in heavier stronger cages for next year. So these I think we'll get put on Marketplace for someone else to buy in the spring. It was time to empty the rain barrel and put that away for the season. We will remove the rain chain and pick up some new downspout piping and route the water away from the house for the winter.

These are the last of the tomatoes picked off the vines. We will let them ripen and I will process the last of these up into a jar or two of salsa. I dread having to buy store bought tomatoes again for salads, but at least I have lots of jars of processed ones for making into chili, casserole, or sauce.

Steve decided that it was time to do a little rearranging in our yard. Two years ago we put in these two boxwood bushes on each side of the Korean lilac. The Korean lilac is doing well and getting larger each year. This is right in front of the 3 western windows of the She Shed. So he decided it was time to move the two boxwoods up to the front of the house. He got the one out on the right. Boy oh boy did that thing have a lot of roots!

We stuck it up in the front flower bed, to the right of the bird bath. We will do the second bush to the left of the birdbath, but we ran out of time. Steve had to leave and get his haircut.

We still have to clean out the rest of the flower beds of all the dead stalks and blossoms before the winter snows come. The window boxes are still full of geranium blooms, so we will leave those for a bit. Geesh, I feel like winter is coming up fast, so it will be good to get these things done. 

We dug up a bunch of the evening primrose plants to get that bush into place. That stuff grows like crazy and makes kind of a nice ground cover. It blooms almost all summer long, and the leaves turns a nice red in the fall. So we took clumps of it from the front and brought it out to the backyard for around the flagpole in that flower bed.

In the springtime, this bed is full of irises which are beautiful. But the rest of the summer is kind of blah. The rhizomes of the iris have woven into such a heavy mesh underground that it's hard to dig into.  Steve was able to get a bunch of the evening primrose clumps dug down just enough. Hopefully they will take root and take over. They can stay contained in this circle, and the weed eater will keep them at bay from spreading into the lawn.

He took a load of all the dead stuff off into the woods and dumped it. We've had a few things we brought back in the woods sprout up and grow there too. That's okay. I snapped this picture of him coming back with his wheelbarrow. I told him that I just love looking at a man who is working! LOL

Now it was my turn to get ready to leave to go for my haircut. I decided that I've had this long straight hair all throughout the whole covid pandemic. I did chop away at some of it myself one time last year. Also granddaughter Chelsea trimmed the ends for me last summer. But I decided I would go in and get it cut. I have been wearing it up in a bun almost all summer.

Here is my "before" photo:

And here is my "after":

I asked for about 6 inches taken off the bottom, and some nice layers that let my curls bounce back up again,  especially on the top. It's easy to just tousel it up with a little bit of styling product and a few curls on top with the curling iron. I was pleased with the result and Steve said VaVaVaVooom!!

Now you know what I look like! 

 

It's been drizzling all evening so we didn't get the other boxwood bush moved. Maybe tomorrow.  Before or after my dentist appointment. It's just a cleaning, so won't take long. I think we are done with outdoor chores for the day.

I tossed some frozen pasties from The Pasty Oven 

into the microwave to thaw. 

Next, they go into the oven on 400 to bake them 

with a flakey crust and steaming filling. 

I think tonight is going to be a lazy evening, with maybe watching some HGTV shows, maybe doing a little sewing or weaving. I think we are winding down from a couple whirlwind weeks of camping.

MOTORHOME MODIFICATION- Our new powered windshield shade

Last weekend, fellow Safari owners, Mel and Paula stopped to see us on their way north.  They had just bought and installed a nifty item, a powered windshield shade.   They had bought it on a special deal from King's Campers in Wausau as leftover overstock.  They said there was ONE more left, so we called and got it held for us.

They are made by :    MCD Innovations   You can get either the solo shade, or a dual shade with a day/night design of two layers.  We only wanted the solo shade in the heavy room darkening vinyl.

It has always bugged me to see rumpled curtains drawn across the front of lovely sleek stylish motorhome. See what I mean, in the windshield of our rig?  And that is after hanging there a while.  They are worse when first unstrapped from being pulled back while driving.

Our last motorhome, a Coachmen, had a nice pleated shade that held it's shape, and I had considered ordering one in the future for our Safari.  But the cost was about $300 to have one custom made and shipped.   The alternative like Mel and Paula's was being close-out priced at $85.

The first steps were to remove the old curtains and tracks.  Also we had to remove my slide out laptop desk, as it had to be relocated forward a few inches for the final drop area of the powered shade.

Next was to install the clips that hold the powered shade into place...  we had a great recessed area between the cabinets and the padded vinyl windshield surround on the inside.   When the shade is in it's fully UP position, you don't even see it. 

There... all snapped up into place.  

Next step is to drill out a hole in the dash and mount a DPDT toggle switch.  This is just a momentary switch to power the shade either up or down by pushing on it.  It is a center OFF and momentary in either direction for the up and down wires.  We chose to install this kind of switch, so it will not to be left on where it will burn out the motor.   I was nervous about Steve drilling into the plastic dash, but it went well and he fished the wires down, around and into place. 

After a test--- it worked GREAT! 

We repositioned the desk unit so the shade could drop fully down to the dash, by moving it about 2 inches forward and reinstalling it.  My seat is adjustable so it really didn't change the distance between my seat and the desk.  My laptop sits inside of here and it rolls out on a little tray when in use.

The shade can come down all of the way, or just part way as a long sun-visor instead of the two small ones that come standard on the rig.  How often does the sun go down between those small visors and you have to lean over to drive or see something till the sun either sets, or you turn a corner and drive in a different direction? LOL 

Soooo step one is done.  Now for the side windows----   

Mel and Paula had chosen to put up flexible fold up window blind units that can stow away when not in use.   But Steveio thought:  What about regular room darkening window shades on each side window?   Off we went to town and picked up two heavy room darkening Levelor window blinds, 46 inchs long. 

We mounted in the hardware and hung the rollers.  It was a tight fit, and we had to remove the two boxes on each side of the cockpit seats to install the rollers.  We had to reinstall those boxes because there were light fixtures mounted on them for the livingroom area.  Once that was done, I took a pic.  It's kinda showing a lot of light coming in the tiny gap between the side and front shades.  But it was a strange picture taking situation, with the dark interior the camera kept focusing on the light coming in the slits.  It really is very close, not a huge gap letting in light.  This was really dark inside, so I turned on the inside lights to snap the pic. 

The left side and right side

So the final result from the exterior is just what we were looking for:

My next blog will be the new power outlets Steveio is installing next to our kitchen table area.  (Mel and Paula did this too)   Steve is putting in a 120 Vac outlet for running items off the inverter.  He is also installing a 12volt outlet in that area, mid coach, for plugging in our tire pressure monitor base.  We are adding four more sensors for the toad (tow Tracker vehicle) and by moving the 12 volt base back further, we may eliminate the need for a repeater.   We will see.   Plus having the new outlets located there will allow us to use the computer at the table or in the recliner chair without stretching power cords all over. 

Does anyone wanna buy a set of windshield curtains?

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