Introducing Red

I've been busy painting recently and decided that I really didn't like the red paint that I had, it was more an orange colour and didn't really fit in with my plans, so I had to come up with another way of introducing red into the colour scheme.  After thinking about it for a while, I decided the best way to do this was to buy red accessories.  This I thought was a great idea, because it allowed me to do something I really love.  SHOP.  I was going to take my time with this, because I have no where to put things once I buy them.  I had started loading things into the bus, but then thought, well, I am going to have to take everything out again once it's all finished, because the bus needs to be weighed as close to empty as possible, so why make extra work for myself.  But I really can't help myself, and if I see something I like, I just have to have it, so I have justified myself by saying, well, it's only little and it wont take much to move it again.  Problem is, I now have about 50 "only little" things on the bus already, and I still have things throughout the house that need to go on there.  See, I told you, I just cant help myself.

I think its going to look good though.  I have bought red silicone oven mitts, egg poachers, tongs, spatulas, and other bits and pieces.  I have even seen red and white bowls and plates at K Mart which Terry and I both like, so I think I will get those too.  I think this will work better, because really we only have limited wall we can hang things on.  Speaking of wall, Terry is plodding along nicely with cutting the walls.  He has been following a book, which he bought online, but I came across a blog by someone else who was converting a bus, and showed him.  He was impressed and decided he would try it their way, and it has turned out to be easier.  He even contacted this couple and thanked them for the information.  

Terry working on the wall

I can't wait till the walls are up, it will make it look more like home.  Once the first walls are up, we can bring in the vanity and toilet, then the rest of the bathroom walls can go up.  I have started making the curtains, and I will be able to put them up soon, and measure them properly, before I cut the length and then a friend is going to sew them for me.  I just cut and tack, I have no idea how to use a sewing machine.  Then we should be able to start sleeping in there.  To start of, we will just spend week ends in there.  Just to get used to it.  Then, once the plumbing is finished, we will start to drive it away for the week end.  I really can't wait to do that.  It will mean we are one step closer to leaving.  Hopefully, by Christmas we will be living in Number 3 full time.

A close up of Terry measuring up the wall

I bought a new (second hand) kids sofa bed the other week end for Horatio, and at first he hated it, but yesterday he used it for the first time.  I'm really pleased because the one he has is really old and I really didn't want to take it with us.  I'm still not sure where it will go on the bus, but thats ok, he needs his bed and we will find somewhere for it.  I also bought him one of those pet toilets for times when we have to leave him all day.  He hasn't used it yet, however I do put it out for him when ever we go away and I leave him locked in the house.  He is pretty good and never really leaves a mess for us to clean up, but as he gets older, he might not be able to hold on as long.  He is quite happy to sit in it, so hopefully he will not have a problem using it if he has to.

Horatio on his toilet

Horatio is adapting well to being on the bus with us.  He joins us most of the time when we go in there to work.  At first he was struggling with the floating floor, it was so funny watching him trying to jump on the bed then he figured out how to get up there using the side bit at the head of the bed, where the back seat used to be.  Now he just runs up the bus and jumps.  Once the walls are up, it could be a different story though.  We will see what happens.

 Our cat Grezette spends most of the day curled up sleeping on the bed.  It's nice and warm in there and she hangs around near the door in the morning waiting for one of us to unlock it.  As soon as its unlocked, she runs in there and we don't usually see her again for hours.  We are going to miss Grezette when we leave.  We have entrusted her care to my sister, and I think she will be much happier here than travelling in a bus with us.

Horatio on his bed

But for now, number 3 will be a warm safe haven for Grezette, and when we move into it later this year, she will no doubt, share the bed with us like she does in the house.  It will seem strange not having her with us when we leave, but we have decided its for the best if she stays behind.  

As work continues

It's funny I think that as the work continues on number 3, I start to think back to the beginning.  In a way, number 3 looks exactly how I pictured it in my minds eye before we even bought it, but at the same time it looks nothing like it either.  Let me explain.  Before we bought number 3, we made cardboard cutouts, as close to scale as we could, of everything, the floor plan, bed, vanity, shower, toilet, lounge, kitchen dining and everything else we wanted to put in it.   We would sit there like children doing a jig saw puzzle, placing things where we thought we wanted them, moving them around because they didn't fit, or this would be better here or whatever.  To this day, the floor plan had pretty much stayed the way it was, apart from some final adjustments once the furniture was put in there.  So in that sense, it's exactly how I pictured it, but what makes it so different is the colour scheme.  For some reason, I never pictured the finished bus in colour, or if I did, I can't remember.  I really believe that when we first started, we had no idea of what colours we were going to use, and in all honesty, I believe the colour scheme has only just fallen into place in the last couple of weeks.  We started out painting it with paint we had left over from when we painted our unit last year.  We thought we would save money and use what we already had.  Well that really didn't save us anything, because we didn't have anywhere near enough paint, and ended up buying more, heaps more.  We could have just bought a new colour and it wouldn't have made any difference.  Then we decided the green we were using on the walls, needed brightening up, so we bought the brighter green. We needed something that "popped"  adding the brighter green really worked, I loved the lift that the second colour gave it.
Then I got thinking about the bed head.  I decided I wanted to make my own, and had some nice sheer material I wanted to use, so I got some black material to put underneath it, and the sheer one over it.  It's going to look great.

This is what the bed head will look like

Working from there, I thought I wanted to keep going with the black and have the bedding black and silver.  So I spent hours on the internet looking for some doona covers I liked, and couldn't really find anything.  All of a sudden, one day I discovered the colour wheel again, and bang, out of the blue, all these ideas started coming to me.  So now I have a colour scheme in mind.  And I think I like it.  I found a cushion in K mart I really liked, it had all the colours in it that I wanted to use, except it didn't have the green that we already had.  Never mind, I bought the cushion and got my needle and thread out, and started sewing some green around the leaves and put green beads up the stems of the flowers.  

Now I have all the colours in one item.  Green, purple and red.  Perfect.  Terry was still trying to get used to these colours I think, and bang, all of a sudden I add another colour into the design.  A few weeks ago I fell in love with some coffee mugs in Woolworths, (yes I know, sounds silly doesn' it) so while I was shopping the other day, I gave in and I bought two.  They are white mugs, with green, red purple and blue spots on them.

The mug

 So really, I'm only adding blue to the whole thing.  This morning I went shopping for paint.  I took my trusty mug with me, and colour matched the blue and purple.  Terry asked me what I had in mind and I said, I have no idea yet, but something will happen.  The girl at the paint shop got a bit of a surprise when I gave her the mug and ask her for a cup of coffee.  Good thing she had a sense of humour.  I told her what we were doing and she said, sounds great, a bus with personality.  I never really thought of it like that.
A few years ago I bought a small mirror for a couple of dollars because the frame was falling apart.  It really only needed gluing together, so I took it home and fixed it.  It's a sun on a square back ground,   The sun was yellow and the background was a dull purple colour.  I never really liked the colour much, but I liked the mirror, so I just hung it in the hall way. Now the background is green, that nice bright green, and the sun is going to be purple, and it will hang in the lounge room in number 3.  Well, when I say lounge room, I mean on the side wall of the pantry, which the couch is up against.  I had 3 frames which I was going to sell, one was green, one was blue and the other was orange, so I have undercoated the orange one, and that will be painted purple too.  Terry decided he wanted his computer desk painted blue.  I was going to start on that today, but then decided it was too big.  I only bought sample pots, because I didn't want that much colour.  I thought it would be overkill.  So I asked him how he would feel if I painted the desk in gloss white, to match the kitchen cupboards, and added some interest by adding the blue somewhere, somehow.  He liked the idea, so now I have to decide what I am going to do.  I guess inspiration will come to me.  All of a sudden, number 3 is starting to take shape, and the more I think about it, the more I do agree with the girl at the paint shop.  Number 3 IS going to have  personality.
Now I'm thinking doona cover again.  I'm so glad I didn't go with black and silver.  I'm now thinking purple, or even red, but I think I'll wait a while.  Terry is still working on the walls, so theres no point putting the bedroom together yet, everything will be covered in saw dust.  I know, because I have made the bed and it has a black Faux fur blanket on it, which is covered in saw dust and tools, good thing it wasn't a new one, and it's easy to wash.  My mind is in overdrive with ideas, and I can't wait to see what the finished product will really look like.  All of a sudden my vision has gone from black and white, to full colour, and yes I think I like it.