Woohoo! I finished installing the subfloor! I haven’t been able to get out and work in the bus for a few days now, so I was really itching to go make some progress. The plan was to get started early, and to give myself all day until dark. Turned out I only needed about six hours to finish it all up!

Definitely would have gone faster with a power saw. And it’s not that I don’t have one (two, actually), but I don’t have any power in the bus right now, so using power tools is kind of a hassle. I need to move the bus close enough to the apartment to reach the extension cord out, and the last time I did that my landlord got on me about parking on the property. So, hand-tools it is.

It’s the first major construction milestone, and I’m happy to have made it this far! It’s the first time in a long time that I didn’t know what the immediate next step should be. I have a few options, though, so I want to see where this moment takes me.

1. The option that’s calling to me the most right now is starting on the Attic expansion. Rather than a roof-raise, I’m planning to build a big box to enclose the top of the bus, and selectively cut away the metal bus roof to access this extra space. This requires lumber that I don’t have yet, so it’s not something I can start on right away.
2. Starting the interior walls and floorplan would also a good idea right now. i can at least begin framing the side walls and getting them ready for insulation. I can map out the floorplan on the subfloor, and paint the wood I just put down to try to help seal it against moisture – this is something I should have been doing from the start, but oh well.
3. One thing I’ve been telling myself I’d do once I had the subfloor done was going to be to bring in the set of solar panels I picked up last year and lay them down flat so I could clean them and seal the broken glass with epoxy. Not to improve the power flow or anything, just to seal the cells away from the elements. This will be time-consuming and possibly costly, but now really would be the best time, with so much open space inside.
4. An option I hadn’t really considered would be figuring out how to mount the water tanks underneath. This would get the water barrels out of the yard at least, get them roughly into position, and give me a better sense of how I’ll need to plumb the water lines under the bus.
5. Painting is also not the worst idea right now. There’s more prep work involved than actual painting, and I could absolutely get started getting the old labels off and sanding the whole bus to get it ready. I can’t finish though until I actually get some paint, and I honestly haven’t planned out a design for the exterior that I’m happy with yet.

Until I know which of these options is going to be best for my next step, I’m going to enjoy the big open floor of my housebus, and probably try moving the bus at least long enough to vacuum and finish cutting out the last of the metal wall panels. But hey! You can enjoy my new floor too, with these super-happy bus floor pictures!