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Kitchen & Lounge
[Taken from the original 'The Alice Project' bus conversion and motorhome website 2002-2003]
The original plan for our kitchen was to find one of those kitchens someone was throwing out and stick it together in the bus…. Somewhere along the line, things changed - possibly buoyed by the success of Keiran’s homegrown carpentry in the bedroom and study area, or moved by the lack of ‘cheap’ kitchens being advertised in the trading post. We ended up building the entire kitchen (from the ground up) ourselves, with our enthusiasm for carpentry flowing on into the lounge area too!!
We wanted a large kitchen area…. as we enjoy cooking and eating at home…. and we wanted something that didn’t look like it was squashed into a bus. Our design made for plenty of benchtop space, room for a full size 240v fridge and gas stove, and plenty of room to move around. The kitchen cabinet frames were constructed using 35×35mm pine (our favourite timber size) and the frames were lined with thin plywood cut to size.
The ‘centrepiece’ of the kitchen are the raw slabs of camphor laurel that we shaped to make the benchtops. Being experts in carpentry by this point (!?), we decided that such a project was definitely achievable by ourselves. And so, following a week or two of endless sanding, and a coat or three of CFP, we had ourselves some amazing benchtops! Sure, it may be extra weight, but we’ve taken a lot out of Alice…. and it’s not really an issue for us anyway.
When insulating and fitting the interior walls, we were careful to leave the wall area behind the stove and fridge uncovered. This area contains a number of vents and other external access points. The rangehood is ducted out through the side wall to a small weatherproof vent. A larger vent is also fitted at the rear of the gas stove/oven, for safe ventilation purposes. Behind the household sized fridge another vent is fitted, ensuring adequate ventilation to the rear of the fridge and allowing any heat to escape out of the bus. The area above the fridge was also earmarked as the position for several components of the 240V wiring, including the circuit breaker/RCD unit. [see electrical section]
The lounge room is the first room you walk into. With the front wheel arches taking up a great deal of the floor on either side of the aisle, we needed to construct our furniture to go around these great obstacles! On the nearside, we built an entertainment unit with room for the full sized tv, video and stereo. There is also limited cupboard space under the unit. The ‘Lounge for Tall People’ was constructed on the offside, with plenty of room under for storage around the wheel arch. Like the rest of the house, the windows were lined with routed pine and curtain pelmets also made. Contrary to what many people advise, we have also carpeted the lounge and entry area…. It seems to be fairing well, so far.
(Keiran Lusk 2003)
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