I spent more time in the rig this evening, cleaning the study and getting ready for the next round of paint. I had a lot of vacuuming to do. So I plugged my shop vac into my new 120V outlet pleased that I could plug it directly into the wall and not have to run an extension cord from the bottom of the upper cabinet. Well, so much for my triumph over electricity. The shop vac wouldn’t start.

That was pretty much the proverbial straw for me regarding the work I’m trying to get done in the study. I’m just fed up with simple projects that take much longer than they should. I just about stormed out of the room when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

It was the lid for the electrical panel. It was open. And one of my breakers was off. Then I remembered. After I did my final tests yesterday, I turned the breaker off to get everything secured and the face plates on. I’d forgotten to turn it back on. I flipped it up and went back to the shop vac.

Vroom! I vacuumed for a good 10 minutes and there were no sparks. I think my outlet is working just fine. 😀

Here’s the new undercabinet 120V outlet that I installed the replace the original one.

I had to put in a new one since the RV-type outlet would not allow me to directly power an outlet from it. Croft said that my options were to pigtail or to install a house-type outlet that would let me add on. He recommended going with the second option since it involved fewer connections, so I did as he said. No, I would not jump off a bridge if Croft told me to, but in electrical matters I am happy to defer to him. 🙂

Here’s the new outlet that I installed behind my desk (paint looks blotchy because it’s still wet!):

Yes, the box is meant to be painted. It’s not invisible, but having the wiring hidden in a raceway painted to match the wall makes the whole thing look much better.

Next up is what looks like a terrible painting job. In my defense, this is an area that you can’t see unless you crouch directly underneath the window, so I didn’t feel that it was worth the effort to get in there with a small brush. Here’s the new 12V outlet:

As you can sort of see, I brought both the 12V and the 120 wiring through a hole in the cabinet behind the valance. The 12V outlet is wired to a nearby light. I selected this location because a) I already had a hole there, b) I had 12V wiring I could tie into, and c) this location allows me to plug in my 12V blanket it and use it both while sitting at the desk or lying on the bunk.

This afternoon, I also moved the former bar, now cabinet, for the third and last time!!! I have finally found its rightful place and I am sure I will be using it a lot more now:

It’s now on the wall to the right of the entrance, opposite the vanity in the dressing room and fits perfectly. Locating it there was a real DOH moment for me!

Moving the cabinet freed up the wall space at the foot of the bed and so I finally put up the final piece of artwork that I have been lugging around for almost four years wrapped in a towel and unwilling to give up even though I seemingly had no space for it:

It is a picture of the Egyptian goddesses Isis (winged) and Hathor (head dress) on payprus. I bought this print at the Luxor in Las Vegas and somehow got it back undamaged to Gatineau, where I had it framed.

Finally, I don’t have any good paint comparison shots, but this should give you an idea of how superior the new paint is over the old paint:

The new paint is a bit lighter and has an eggshell finish rather than the super glossy finish of the old paint. I like both colours equally, but the lighter green is wonderfully fresh, and this paint job isn’t full of mistakes since I bought a gallon and was able to do four coats (with half a gallon left!) instead of squeezing in a single coat out of a quart!

Tomorrow, I will get started on a bit of carpentry and priming and may even do some more painting.

Since Miranda has essentially been in storage for the last six months, I have a few things to do that weren’t necessary the last time I spent six months in one location (Campbell River). When I take her out next week, probably Wednesday, I’ll have to add these things to the departure checklist:

-dewinterize the plumbing and check for leaks

-start up the fridge and make sure it runs on both 120V and propane

-fill up the water heater and make sure it fires up

This is in addition to:

-checking tire pressure

-having the front passenger wheel retorqued

-getting fuel and propane

-taking on water

-topping up the distilled water in the batteries

It’s incredible that I am counting down to departure in days now, and that two weeks from now will find me back in North Dakota.

I thought I would feel anxious about getting back out on the road, but nope, I am only excited!

I can’t believe it’s been about two months, but I finally got my two 120V outlets installed in the study!!!

What a learning curve this was… Every time I thought I was done, my electrical tester would tell me there was a loose connection. I rewired the outlets a number of times and finally got the test to show two orange lights meaning that all was good with both outlets. I closed everything up and retested one more time to make sure. The undercabinet one was fine, but the bottom one suddenly showed one orange light, meaning ‘open neutral.’

electrical tester, open neutral is the second one down from the top

I did some research and all of it told me to look at the outlet powering the one showing a fault. The wiring on it was nice and tight. Voltage on both outlets was the same, varying from day to day between 114 and 118, but steady at the same number. Nothing seemed loose and I didn’t have enough wire left to be able to rewire again.

This day next week, I aim to be running around with Miranda getting her prepped for departure. So I’m on a time crunch for painting. I decided that I would take one more look today, then close up the electrical project and admit defeat on it.

I decided that the undercabinet outlet was fine so I turned my attention back to the lower one. I poked the wires a tad and then, oops, the white wire jiggled! Bingo! I used needle nose pliers to keep the wire tight against the screw as I tightened the connection. I put the tester back in the outlet, flipped on the power, and voila! I closed everything up (looks nice, I’ll have pictures once the painting’s done), and tested again. Perfect!

As for the new 12V outlet, I learned a lot from my disastrous first attempt to install a 12V outlet, and this installation was a cinch. I’ll have pictures of that one, too, once the painting’s done as I am very pleased with the neat installation of it.

I cannot believe how accomplished I feel. Now, I need to go get a coat of green paint on so that I can finish the green in the morning and then get a coat of primer of the stuff that’s going to be golden brown!

This afternoon, I decided to continue procrastinating on getting the study done and instead cleaned up the cab. I sat down in the driver’s seat and decided to check if Miranda would start since the battery didn’t appear to be too low. But I knew that she’s been sitting for six months, so I expected a few hiccups.

HA HA HA HA

I turned the key and Miranda started immediately, smooth as can be. I let her run for a bit, enjoying the purr of her V-10 engine.

Two weeks from now at about this time, I should be pulling into the Moose Jaw Walmart.