Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Messing About A Motorhome Bath

I've been recuperating,  living, working,playing, rambling in my little old wheel estate  for well over two years. The motorhome is only 17 years old and 28 feet long from one end of the bumper to the other. The cab and engine take up a good chunk of that, so it leaves me about 20 by 7 feet of expansive living area.

Small wonder I refer to my bathroom as the broom closet. Which, um, I do keep my broom hanging in there because there is no where else to store it. 

So how does one keep from going insane in such a small space?  Add a rambunctious puppy to the mix!  

Oh yeah. That works.  What was I thinking?

At least the puppy drags me outside often, so that is one way to keep sanity in a compact home. Go outside frequently. 

Some of my close friends say nothing will make me sane. I am just hopelessly crazy. Having a clown for a dog just adds to the circus of my life. 

Another way is to make minor changes here and there.  Same old place, new look. 

Every month I earn  penny points at Amazon.  These can be spent like real money whenever I order something. They are earned by signing up for an  Amazon credit card  (Visa). I earn 1-3% on purchases, these are then credited in pennies to my Amazon account each month. At Amazon checkout I have the option to apply these points to my purchase. 

I use these pennies for food,  RV repairs and minor upgrades. This month I had accumulated nearly 2000 points (2000 pennies) or $20. Woo Hoo!

That's when my bathroom window shade decided to fall apart for the 3rd, 4th or 5th time in 2 years. It's 17 years old, thick enough to  be a black out shade, decorated with an embossed diamond pattern and trimmed on the bottom edge with brass. It  hides inside a valance that is decorated in the original upholstery fabrics and more brass. I still have many of the original shades throughout the motorhome. 

RV bath make over by Dear Miss Mermaid copyright by http://DearMissMermaid.com
This is how my bathroom looked when I bought the motorhome in 2009. 

Above the window is a valance and inside  is a pull down shade. 
The shower (not shown) is behind me as I take this picture. 

No where in my motorhome to hang a broom, so it hangs in the bathroom on the wall. The bottom panel of the window cranks open. The folding handle is the round plastic part in the lower part of the window.

RV remodeling by Dear Miss Mermaid copyright by http://DearMissMermaid.com
I love the window and sunshine, but for privacy, I have to pull the shade down for obvious reasons. The stain on the wall was removed with a magic eraser. I think my glue is melting, I find these stains in weird places, but no water leak. 


Life is strange. It was a good excuse to clean the entire wall, ceiling and floor.



The fabric vinyl coated shade is getting frayed on the edges. Awhile back I had  to reattached the shade to the roller.  Now the spring has sprung. I hate having a dark bathroom, I love the bright germ-killing mold-mutilating sunshine. 

Bathroom came with a built-in fake chrome soap dish that looked hideous.  I prefer the liquid soap.  There is a tiny set screw underneath the soap fish for removing it from the bracket. 


Valance and shade removed. 


Now the curvy corners are exposed, I like the rounded shape in a tiny room full of angles. 

Oops! My window is filthy!  That white stuff recently appeared in streaks on the outside of the RV windows. Sheesh. 

I have NO idea what it is, but I did wash the windows inside and out in the bathroom and removed the screen and crank-out knob for cleaning.
 Did I simply put up another shade?

Heavens no!  I am always thinking outside the box. In this case I bought Wisteria Window Film sized 24-by-36-Inch.  The window is 16 by 24 inches. This film is made by  Artscape . It clings to the window by static.  It's applied with soapy water and a small squeegee included with the film. It appears permanent once the water has dried. It can be removed without leaving any damages. 

Once it's up it looks absolutely awesome!  This picture does not do it justice at all. But the sun shines in brightly yet one has complete privacy in the bathroom. 



The effect  is stunning.

It looks like a real stained glass window until you get up close. 


The first time I used my "renovated" bathroom, I felt like I was peeing in  church! I say that because I grew up going to school in a church that had the most incredible stained glass windows. We met in the chapel once a day. I stared at the huge windows marveling at their exquisite beauty.


In the winter, sometimes the church would be far colder than the rest of the school due to it's huge cathedral ceilings.  We weren't supposed to interrupt our lesson with a bathroom request, so in the cold of winter, in that sometimes frigid  church, I was often waiting for the lesson to be over, so I could bolt for the rest room. 


At a used charity shop, I stumbled upon  a new brass soap dish for 20 cents. I didn't want it for soap, but as a mini-shelf to hold my  tiny ceramic heater.  This keeps it off the counter. A bungee cord retrains it.





The white cylindar laying in the floor is one of my fire extinguishers; I plan to properly install it one of these days.

I came home from the store with extra fire extinguishers about 2 years ago after my mini fire, and well um, one of them has  just sat in the bathroom floor ever since. 

Talk about serious procrastination!

My back scratcher hangs on the wall next to the broom. 

My throne is on a pedestal, this makes the toilet be a comfortable height for sitting down.  Thank goodness for small favors. 

The first day I installed this, I kept walking past the bathroom door, and opening it  up to stare at the window. 


I left a tiny gap at the top of the window. I can actually sneak a peek outside. From the outside, you need to be 10 feet tall with your nose pressed to the top of the window to be able to see inside. 

I had a hard time capturing the beauty of the window with my camera. 
It's not faded at all, but the picture gives it that look for some weird reason, probably due to the bright sunlight. 

RV remodeling by Dear Miss Mermaid copyright by http://DearMissMermaid.com
As a bonus, the window reflects in the mirror. The stained glass gives complete privacy but lets in the sunlight I crave. 

I think I will title this "Messing About..." for pun reasons!

6 comments:

  1. Nice job and taking out the corness makes the room look larger. I removed all of them when I had my motor home.
    I was looking at that window stuff for the doors on my new trailer. I love the look.

    I like your idea also for the mini heater.

    Its fun to come up with ideas for saving space. Thanks for sharing yours.

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  2. Is that really the bathroom of your motorhome? Well, I have to give it to you - you really did a great job renovating it! Thinking outside the box can give you some pretty spectacular results. Renovating the inside of the RV is a step towards the right direction, if you ask me. After all, you will be living in it for years, so why not make it the most comfortable it can be, right?

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  3. Yes, that is my bathroom in my 28 foot Class C Tioga Montara. As I write this, we have had some chilly weather and that tiny heater that is held in place on the soap dish really makes a huge difference in keeping the bathroom toasty warm. I still love the stained glass window effect. My visitors also marvel at it. By day the bathroom is cheerfully lit up with complete privacy. At night, when the inside light is on, outside neighbors can see the beautiful stained glass effect but can not see inside. What's so cool, is that the stained glass is removable in seconds should it wear out or if I get tired of the pattern, but I love it!




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Life is goof!