Laverne - Cabover "Bedroom Renovation" Complete

Two weekends ago I finished up the bedroom renovation I started quite some time ago, two and a half years ago actually.  My mind is reeling with how quickly that amount of time as passed.  When I purchased my motorhome I mentioned at that time I had five years until my youngest graduates high school and six years until I plan to retire.  We are already about half way there!  Unreal!

 

I haven't had much of a budget for motorhome updates and renovations lately so this project stalled, but where there is a will, there is a way and I am ever so grateful for Facebook Marketplace where  I was able to acquire a very nice Sealy Perfect Sleeper mattress for the upper cabover bunk area for the bargain basement price of FREE.  

No stains, no odors, above all no pee, so it cleaned up beautifully

Now honestly, a free mattress is usually something I would run from in terror, however this one was in amazingly good condition.  The owner had replaced it with something else and stuck it in a shed until she could do something with it.  Where it sat for quite some time, collecting dust.  Because it was so dusty she didn't feel right about asking money for it so she offered it for FREE.

 

My daughter no longer needs the mattress cover for her dorm
room so I confiscated it.  It is a top quality, thickly padded cover.

My oldest and I went and picked it up and after a good vacuuming I used my Little Green Machine to clean it.  There weren't any stains or odors it just needed a little TLC.  Once I'd cleaned it, twice, I set a box fan up to blow on it and left it overnight.  The next morning it looked great, smelled wonderful and was nearly dry.  I left the fan on it all day and it was good to go.

 

That was a fun one to wrangle up there!

Now that I had a mattress all that remained was to build the support to span the gap where you enter the cockpit.  Fortunately I had plenty of wood, trim and some leftover spray paint in my garage.  All I needed was some heavy duty metal brackets which I found at Home Depot when we picked up supplies for our new pergola.  In fact, I actually worked on this project in tandem with the deck project that weekend.

 

I made this with a wide pine shelf board and a piece of leftover trim
I already had in my garage.  A little leftover construction adhesive
and  some finish nails and a few screws to put it all together.

Even the paint was something I already had in the garage.
Total spent $1.63 for two metal brackets.

Once constructed and painted I left the support to dry and cure throughout the week and after completing the pergola I was back in bedroom mode.  I set the support in place, wrangled the mattress into the bunk and got busy washing up a new set of sheets and getting the bed made.  I was very lucky to have my inspector there to critique my work (pictured below).  Thankfully, I passed the test.

 

Ta Da!!

It is pretty cozy and comfortable.  I will sleep quite well up here.

With the bedroom area complete and knowing I now have a comfy place to sleep I am super excited and motivated.  I still need to make the window coverings as well as decide on some storage up there, but the space is fully functional and ready for some sleeping.  I'm excited to test it out.

 

The inspector

"It will do," said Jack.  "I'll have to conduct a nap test."

With that project done and checked off the list I moved on to the next one and finished it that same day.  Then I moved on to another one and then another one.  So stay tuned.  There are a few more Laverne posts in your future.  And I am super excited to share them with you too.