I wanna be.....your Sledgehammer...

    Big day of progress this past Wednesday. Dad had given me the heads up that he had done some demolition on his own since my prior visit, and boy, he wasn't kidding.

At the rate we're going, we should buy stock in frigging contractor bags.

The mess of shit left behind from the countertop removal, as well as the previously shown breaker box. The hole in the wall is from the original water heater and retaining tank....the whopping five gallons it held is wholly inadequate.

    As you can see, he had completely removed the kitchen counter and cabinets. We had already discussed switching the entire kitchen setup to something that hugged the wall more (a straight counter top), with a deeper, single bowl sink, all while keeping the roller door cabinet above the original stove/oven combo. After our last session, we also decided to look into what a four-burner gas cook-top would cost, as neither of us plan on using an oven all that often (In fact, a good quality toaster oven will more than suffice.). We found just what we were looking for on-line for under a hundred dollars, and the decision was made. Out with the old stove, and (eventually) in with the new. This opens up more space in the kitchen area, and will give the option of additional storage beneath the cook-top. All in all, a great trade off.

   He had also removed the original hot water tank/heater, which he has decided will be swapped for an on-demand tankless water heater. Welcome to an actual hot shower when you want it, as well we being able to wash dishes without having to wait for additional hot water.

My electrician cousin, Jake, came by to inspect the turtle's wiring situation. I think he was shocked by just how poorly the electrical situation was. The numerous splices, random live wires, and general disarray left by previous owners got him to the point where he just said, “If it's in the way, cut it. We're going to rewire the whole thing from scratch anyway.”. It was great to have him stop by and lend his expertise, and I look forward to helping him in the near future when it comes time to reinstall the electrical system. It's going to be a great opportunity to hang out with him, as well as learn a few things about electrical work that I know precious little about, aside from installation of outlets and switches.

Perhaps not the best example of the shit-show of wires we've been finding, but the sheer number of random splices and wires to nowhere has to be some kind of record. I'm starting to think that whenever something got wet and shorted out they would just find a good point in the system, throw a splice on, and run the wires wherever they needed a new set.

With Dad having removed the kitchen counter, that left only the bathroom area to be demolished. After taking out the refrigerator, we knew that the tall corner cabinet in the rear passenger side could be safely removed without the ceiling collapsing on our heads. That was first to go. I'll spare the details of its removal, as there was no finesse involved. The sledgehammer, reciprocating saw, and crowbar made relatively short work. The only care that needed to be taken was in not damaging the exhaust pipe for the waste tank underneath the toilet. Luckily the shelves built around the pipe were basically falling apart, and didn't take much to come out.

I used a modicum of self-control when removing the cabinet. Some screws were removed, but aside from avoiding that black PVC pipe like the plague, I just had at the cabinet with a variety of different tools until I was tearing pieces out by hand.

   Cabinet gone, and now we have access to the box which contains the deep cycle marine battery. It obviously can be accessed from the outside, but we could tell however it was secured to the inside of the vehicle would need to be repaired.

Yeah....styrofoam wasn't going to save this bad boy from water rot.

Bad, bad, and more bad.....actually, this thing was soggy and downright gross to handle.

...and by 'repaired', I mean completely replaced. The plywood surrounding it was so water-damaged, I was able to vacuum most of it up. The steel casing inside the plywood is rather rusted, with almost no stability to the bottom of it. I think this is going to be my first attempt at welding, as the bottom of the box badly needs replacing.

   We also found this gem while mucking around with removing the battery box:

This....this is something special.

   Yeah....that's a fuel line...plugged with a drill bit....secured in place with a screw clamp...This is a great contender for the “There, I Fixed It” website. We're going to have to trace that fuel line back to its point of origin and see about removing or plugging it in a more....”professional” fashion.

   Okay, on to the bathroom sink, toilet, and tub. The plan is for the toilet to be replaced with a composting one of some kind (the specific type is escaping me at the moment), and the sink replaced (similar to the kitchen one) with a deeper one. Dad wanted to reuse the bathtub, but when we removed the bathroom sink, we found that someone had cut a pretty shitty hole in the outer wall of the bathtub. It makes me call into question the overall durability of the tub, and with how much work is going into the restoration of the interior, I'd hate to see it ruined by a leaky bathtub..

It's really tough to figure out how or why this hole was made through the under sink cabinet and into the tub. The unfortunate thing is that it's there, and the tub will most likely need to be replaced.

We wrapped up the afternoon by pulling down some of the faux brick on the wall in the kitchen area and finally having at the ceiling, which is completely down now, including the section surrounding the air conditioner. It's pretty obvious that rodents of some kind made a pretty comfortable home for themselves at some point over the years. The two rear corners above the cabinet and sink were stuffed so full of mouse bedding and waste that they were bulging. I'm glad that we'll have removed all the nasty shit that has built up over the years that will drive the old allergies crazy, and that we will know that there aren't furry little hitchhikers leaving turd surprises in dishes and other places.

Hmmmmm....looks like this section is pretty saturated and bloated....

OH COOL! Just what I've always wanted! A pile of urine and feces saturated stuffing!

More filth.....

....aaaand yet another swollen-with-mouse-shit section.

THE AFTERMATH...

   It pretty much looked like the interior of the RV had thrown up all over the driveway by the time we were done. I'm going to have to borrow a truck from someone to get all this shit to the dump. The less time it sits rotting alongside the garage, the easier it will be to pick it up and load it.

Despite the rusted floor, exposed piping/wiring, and the visible steel frame of the roof, it somehow looks....better than before. I think it's just a collective sigh of relief that the gutting portion of the project is basically done. We've still got a metric shit-ton of work to do, but it will be easier with a (relatively) clean slate to work with. We're going to have at the floor with an angle grinder and orbital sander to remove the loose rust, patch holes with the appropriate materials, and then give the whole floor a spray with rust-converting primer, then a coat or two of actual primer before we put the plywood down. That's all for this week...

...on a side note, to user:lets_be_friends on reddit, here is a photo of the gas hook-ups for the refrigerator. I don't know if this will help you with your current fridge issues, but if it does, I'm glad I could be of service. Keep in mind that the refrigerator is supplied electrically by a standard 110 volt plug, and that the gas line that feeds into it was attached to one of the two inlets in the picture. The other inlet fed the gas heater that was originally mounted underneath the refrigerator:

Here are the two gas inlets. The line just screws onto them, and then this section attaches to the propane tank mounted underneath the vehicle.