Post 8: New Floor Plan

We were really happy with the first floor plan. It included everything on my wish list, including a sliding barn door and a large sink! We went to the bus to lay it out in blue tape to make sure everything would work how we planned. We ran into several major issues that had us back to the drawing board on the design.

What didn't work?

The Pull Out Couch
We got a free full size futon mattress from my neighbor and designed the couch around the idea that it would pull out into a second full size bed for visitors. I really want my friends to join  me for adventures, so it is important to me to have a space they can sleep. I know that they can always bring a tent, but it would be nice to have a space in the bus just in case. 

With the old design, if we were to pull out the bed, it would not be able to fully extend because it would hit the bathroom wall and there would be no room between the bed and the kitchen cabinets so it would be hard to pull out.

The Bedroom -- TOO BIG
Craig pointed out that the bedroom was far too big. He was right. I put the barn door as a divider to leave space for somebody to be able to pull out drawers under the bed. It was too much space that at other times would become totally useless. We had to find another solution to narrow the space and make it more actively used. 

With these two major issues in mind, we asked my architect genius lovely friend to take a look at our plans (THANKS VARYA). It literally took her 2 minutes to re-arrange everything and fix all our problems and we are THRILLED with the new design. When we got back to the bus we laid it out and couldn't believe how the little changes doubled our space for seating and kitchen! YAHOO! LET THE BUILDING COMMENCE. 

Old design

New Design

What's different?

I kinda want to make this a guessing game like Highlights magazine to make you guys point out the differences between the photos... but... maybe I should just tell you:

1. Bathroom moved back flush to the bed and moved to other side -  The back side of the bathroom wall will be shelving for the bedroom. The front side of the bathroom wall will be an armrest/support for the couch.
2. Barn door replaced with curtain - I was really hooked to the idea of having a sliding barn door in the bus, but in reality it isn't practical and way to difficult and expensive to build. We'll be hanging a nice curtain instead that can easily be pushed back to open up the space. 
3. Counter space longer but narrower -  We originally planned to do counters with a 30" depth. We decided that we are going to custom build counters at 24" to make space for the pull out bed. The counters in the original designs didn't look that small in the drawing, but in reality, the kitchen space was feeling really cramped. Removing the barn door gave us a ton more room for counter space. 
4. Passenger seat added - When we shifted everything back there was a enough room to build in a passenger seat in the front. We think having somebody buckled in here will be safer when driving and it will also be additional seating when needed. 
5. Stair to bed changed to head board - We had storage stairs that would lead up to the bed in the original drawing. When we got in the bus and saw how high we wanted the bed, we realized we really did not need stairs. We used the space instead to build a headboard/laundry shoot. Basically, we'll be able to throw our dirty clothes down under the bed to a basket that will accessible from one of the emergency exits. GENIUS (i think..)
6. Added desk space - This may be above and beyond our building expertise, but we want to build a table/desk that will roll out from the end of the bed to give us a desk space that will double as more counter space as needed

I'm a little worried about having the toilet and our dirty laundry near our heads... we'll have to wait and see if the smell is unbearable... 

My attempt at a video tour through the bus to show you some of the moveable elements!