Keeping Warm

Winters here in California can get very cold which is why I have been using a combination of electric and gas heating.  I did a bunch of research on the Internet and came to the conclusion that the Mr. Heater brand MH18-B Big Buddy propane heater that has three settings for 4000 BTU, 9000 BTU, and 18,000 BTU would be the best heater for my purposes.

The MH18-B Big Buddy propane heater goes for around $180 on the Internet.  I didn't want to spend $180 so I looked around for a refurbished unit from the manufacturer.  Lucky for me they had the exact heater for around $85.00 but they wouldn't ship it to me in California.

I got a hold of a friend of mine who has a buddy who lives in Oregon.  His buddy agreed to have the company ship the heater to him, and then he would ship it to me.  The shipping fiasco took about three weeks but in the end I only paid $115 for a perfectly good working unit from the manufacturer with a full length warranty. Here are some pictures of my brand new refurbished Mr. Heater brand MH18-B Big Buddy propane heater.

These types of heaters are considered to be ventless.  California has a law in place that forbids companies to ship ventless heaters to residents because no heater is really ventless.  There are severe safety issues regarding these types of heaters and their use.  I rarely use mine on the 9000 or 18,000 BTU settings.

I never leave the heater on while I sleep. The safety features built in are fantastic but I went ahead and bought a battery operated carbon monoxide sensor as an additional safety precaution. These types of heaters burn propane but they also consume the oxygen in the room which can lead to insufficient air to breathe.  I also use an electric ceramic heater and I alternate the use of both.

Two Closet Design's

The first closet design was to be the last, but that didn't really work out because of space constraints. Here are some pictures of my first closet design. 

 

 The Closet bar is nice and level but I was a bit concerned about the fact that the closet rod sits parallel to the side of the trailer which means that when clothes are hung up on the rod and I'm driving down the road with the trailer in tow, the clothes are going to get all bunched up near the shelving every time I hit the brakes.

My fix for this dilemma was to change the orientation of the closet rod and make two of them instead of one. Here are some pictures of the re-designed closet.

I believe that this new orientation of the closet rods will help with the low space requirements and still provide efficient area for hanging my shirts.

The Kitchenette area

Here is a picture of the kitchenette area shortly after I built the upper shelf over the workspace. I created some pegs to hang pots and pans over the burner area. My intention is to add a forced air vent above the cooking area but I want to wait a bit and get other things done before delving into that project.

I added some plastic water resist material to the floor and sides of the wash basin area to allow easier cleanup of spills. At some point in the future I am going to put in a real sink in this area with a pump style faucet from a freshwater tank.

Bathroom / Shower area & Kitchen Shelving

Here are some pictures of the bathroom shower area when I first framed it. I connected the right side 2x2 frame to the over bed storage shelving. The left frame had to be joined to the wall and floor. I used the super thin Luann board for the walls.

In the top left picture you can see a small part of my futon bed on the right under the overhead shelves. The bottom right picture shows the almost completed shower area. Each area requires certain processes to be finalized before moving on to the next phase.

Directly across from the shower area is the recessed battery area where I have decided to put more shelving that will accommodate my RV fridge [someday when I have the funds to buy one] and a bunch more tote containers to store tools, food and clothing.

You can see the two AGM batteries poking up a bit from their partially recessed location. I built shelving directly above those batteries for my future fridge, food storage area, and totes with additional items in them.

The shelves in this area will be removable because if I should need to change out the AGM batteries or make changes to the wiring of them, I'm going to need a lot of space to work.

I Guess I Was Wrong

Well, I guess I was wrong, I have done lots of additional things to my stealth cargo trailer. I guess I didn't think much was done because I've been primarily busy with college. I just looked in the pictures folder and to my surprise, there are tons of potential posts to make based all of the small projects I have accomplished over the past year.

Here are some additional pics of the console right after I built it. The finished surface is 3/8 plywood on the 2 x 2 skeleton frame.

I ordered green marble stick on flooring to use as the counter top surface and for the studio area floor.

I wired a lot of LED rope light to the underside of the console. Being a former motion picture studios electrician, I have spent many days contorted into small spaces with inadequate lighting to do my work. I wanted lots of light to be available if I should need to spend any kind of time under the console in the future.

This console area is going to become the main area that I spend most of my time when inside my home, so I want to engineer it to fulfill many different uses.

Basically, this spot is my office and studio rolled into one. My intent is to fit the office equipment and the studio computer and equipment into this area in a very workable configuration.