I am a new member on this forum, but I have to say that it has given me a crash course in all of the things that could go wrong. I have been punching the to do list so that in six weeks when we hit the road full time we are more prepared. For that I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to share your experiences.
This is my first major modification of my TT and I did not find anything on the web of others who have done anything similar. I know that my wife had to have the outdoor kitchen, and then after the first week she declared it "An unbelievable waste of space", and that was music to my ears. Why? Because after trolling this site I knew that we did not have any where near enough space to store the tools one needs on the road. Not to mention the sports equipment. From the ashes of the Outdoor Kitchen has risen our Garage. Here is a pictorial of the process.
Before:
Day One:
I started by removing the frame and door so that I could get access to the ceiling panel. It was a little surprising that there was no insulation considering the big deal the "Thermal Package" is made out to be. The ceiling is the bottom of the top bunk and would have been mighty cold if we did some winter stops. So I put in 1.5" Styrofoam which has a R value of 6, but more importantly won't leak air.
The next day I started on the walls. As you all probably know the wall material is lunan with wall paper stuck to it, so pulling it out was easy. Once again there was empty cavities so they also got the 1.5" inch Styrofoam. The only place that it didn't fit is where the Plywood was for the interior TV mount. Here I put 1/2" Extruded PolyStyrene. All edges were sealed with caulk to keep everything from leaking air.
Another issue was the plumbing for the outdoor sink. I could not believe that they cut two four inch holes for the pipes. I was also shocked at the amount of space in the bunk house that they boxed in for the same pipes. I cut the drain line flush with the interior surface and put a rubber cap on it. The PEX supply lines I just cut and plugged. In the near future we are going to be working on the bunk house and recapturing all of the wasted space I keep uncovering.
When it came time to replace the walls I used some PVC slat wall that was hanging in my garage. We sold our house and it wasn't included in the sale. This worked out perfectly since I only had about 18" that didn't get re-used.
I left the exterior wall of the kitchen intact. We have some heavy duty sleds that we were bringing with us and the little bump area was a perfect fit. The shelf is the original counter from the outdoor kitchen, but I cut the sink portion off. I cut it down to 20" so that I could get a good angle on the tool boxes for easy stowage. I also used the piece of plywood from the TV support and part of the cabinet to make the shelf support on the left end.
Here is a picture of the finished project.
Before and after side by side:
I am sure that we will have to make some changes as we roam the country, but for now it looks great in my driveway. I do know for sure that I will have to install some bungee cords or similar to keep some of the items from shifting/ flying all over the place when we are going down the road.
All in all the project spanned five days, but only about 15 hours of actual work. I only had to purchase the Styrofoam and caulk. Everything else was re-purposed from the outdoor kitchen or items we were removing from our current home.
That looks like a storage area for TOYS!! Not a bad thing. Looks like a super job and it gives you additional room to take "whatever". Great job and thanks for sharing....now, fill it up and go have fun!!
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