Third Time’s a Charm!

Plumbing is apparently not one of my fortes.   After installing the PEX pipe and then replacing the faucet with a brand new “vintage style” faucet, my fitting was still leaking!  If you want to laugh at my many failed attempts, you can watch the video below.  I just about gave up on this endeavor and thought I might have to call a plumber.

New vintage-style faucet.

PEX pipe fitting attached to the new faucet under the counter.

New attachment for the city water connection. This makes it a lot easier to attach the water hose!

After my disastrous plumbing attempts, I decided I would switch gears and start building the bed and benches.  I figured this could be done in one day, right?  No problem…

Adding rails along the side walls and back wall for support. You can’t see it here, but I screwed these into wood on the outside of the paneling as well.

Starting to add cross beams..

I decided to use the existing foam for the benches that I had from the previous layout. They are a little short and only 48″ wide, so I shortened the width of the bed to 48″. I had originally intended to make the bed the same as a full size (54″) but decided that took up too much space.

Bench building in progress..

I will cover the faces of the benches with the 1/8″ birch leftover from the ceiling. I thought about using a more solid birch but decided that would be too heavy.

Gives you an idea of the size of the benches..

I decided that the benches were too boring with just a plain wood face.  I wanted to add something special. 🙂

I found a starburst pattern online and traced it onto the birch.

I used a leftover strip of birch and wrapped some sandpaper around it to sand the edges of the cutout. I used my oscillating tool to make the cutout. My elbow hurt a bit the next day from all of the vibration. haha

This is how I framed the bench so that the mirror would stay in place behind the cutout.

Viola! Not finished yet, but you get the idea. The mirror is actually going to be glued to the face so that it’s flush with the wood, but I wanted to see how it would look.

Here’s an idea of what it will look like in the camper. Once I finish this and shellac the wood, I think it will look really nice!

So the benches and bed framing are taking longer than I thought.   What a surprise!  Today (Sunday) I was planning to spend the entire day getting my backyard ready for my pool party for the 4th of July.  I went to Lowe’s to pick up some things for the yard, and while I was there, I asked a friendly Lowe’s employee what he thought I should do about the leaky PEX pipe fitting.  I figured I would buy the tool to remove the push in fitting (only $2, way less than what I originally thought) and be on my way.  He recommended I try a dishwasher hose instead.  It wasn’t that expensive, although I did have to buy two since one of them wasn’t quite long enough.  I was really hoping this would solve my leaky fitting problem.

Dishwasher hoses connected with a coupling fitting (1/2″ to 1/2″).

Connected to the faucet (fingers crossed!)

Connected to the water supply..

AND…  it worked!!!  Oh joy, this just made my day!!  I’m so glad I took some time away from my yard work to try out this new tactic.  Finally, a leak-free fresh water supply.  [sigh]

I also measured the entire camper in preparation for ordering all new skin from Hemet Valley RV.  I will email Steve tomorrow with all of the measurements.

And finally, I got around to my yard work for the weekend.  My backyard is all ready for my 4th of July pool party!  I probably won’t write again until after the holiday, so I hope that you all have a fun-filled Independence Day!