Click here to see what the kitchen looked like when we bought our road-beast!
If you’ve been following along, you know that when we bought our new-to-us RV, she looked fairly solid, but underneath, was a mold-riddled wet-ruined mess. In this post, we’ll look at the demolition process that became necessary when we realized just how deep the water damage went.
Overall, the kitchen was a nearly-perfect set-up. It was rear-RV-set, which meant it was the most spacious of all fifth wheel kitchens. It offered a decent amount of countertop space plus had a 3/4-sized fridge, both of which are important to Danny and I who really enjoy cooking together. There was adequate cabinet space, though I am certain that I won’t feel that way once we start filling it with all our kitchen stuff (hint: we have TONS and have been agonizing over how to pare down even further than we already have).
The one thing the kitchen didn’t have was a tall pantry, which really bummed me out. I really appreciate the storage a tall pantry provides, for food and general household supplies. But, only the larger RVs have such luxuries, so I was content to live with what was installed (little did I know …).
In the picture above, you can see what we originally saw of the water damage – in the top and bottom of the slide where it comes into the kitchen. It didn’t look like much, but turned out to be an absolute nightmare that is necessitating repair of the roof, a portion of the kitchen/sitting room ceiling, a third of the kitchen itself, and the entire slide. You can see how bad it is here.
Let’s look at the process we went through, well … Danny mostly went through (as our demolition engineer) … in deconstructing the parts of the kitchen that need repair. We began by removing all the cabinet doors, since we’ll be painting them in our new color scheme (green/tan) and repainting all the hardware (from gold to hammered black). We also decided to turn the cabinet doors around because the backside had a more Mission-style contemporary look to them than the original fronts. But we’ll talk more about that later.
We also removed the standard-RV (can you say ugly???) window valances. The matchingly-hideous border paper will also be removed, but we haven’t gotten to that point yet, so again, we’ll get to that later. The stove appeared in good working order (thankfully), but the built-in microwave had gotten damp enough to have caused rust to form inside. It will need to be replaced (even though it appears to be nearly impossible to remove the damn thing).
Once the water-damaged parts of the walls, ceiling, and floor were uncovered, we realized that the damage went all the way through the cabinets to the back and side walls of the RV. We also realized that the countertop in that section was warped and had clearly gotten/stayed wet over the course of the damage-period. We knew we’d be replacing the kitchen countertop, as well as the one in the bathroom. Luckily, the dual sink was in perfect shape, though we’d need to replace the broken kitchen faucet.
After removing the upper cabinets, we could clearly see just how fucked the walls were. We knew the whole thing would have to be removed – top and bottom plus countertop in that section.
The lower cabinets were built so that the water pump sat on the bottom and the electric attachment cable took up the middle shelf. So much wasted space! Every time I run across seriously-wasted space like this (which has been happening fairly frequently on this RV-update bender we’ve been on), I feel like RV architects need to take some lessons from tiny house builders who have mastered the use of every square inch of possibly-usable space.
- Me taking a break from my own construction projects to help Danny with clean-up after his demolition. You can see how nasty the floor is underneath the cabinet and linoleum.
Once all this was done, Danny was free to remove the rest of the countertop (he had cut out the bad section, but we intended to replace the whole thing, so it needed to come out). This was harder than expected (which we should actually expect these days from this project!) since the countertop was another one of those built-in features. What that means is that it was installed with screws coming in from the outside underneath the siding (UGH), so pulling it away from the wall was quite the bitch. Additionally, he had to pull the sink out without damaging it (which he did. Go Danny!), and pull the stove partially out (because it couldn’t be fully pulled out as it was hooked into the gas line). The countertop around the stove was especially tough since he was working with small pieces in a tight space and had to remove it without damaging the stove (again, he nailed it!).
With everything finally removed, it was now time to start the rebuilding (yayyy! finally!!). Since the roof, ceiling, walls, and floor all had to be replaced, I was a little stuck on where to start or what to do first. So, I called in reinforcements and my dear brother-from-another-mother Matt showed up to help us get the project going. It was really good he did, too, because once we started talking about the plan, I realized my own plan was completely opposite of the best-possible way to address the repairs. (Anyone who knows me knows my sense of direction is flawed to the point of being 180-degrees-off most of the time, so this was not surprising.)
I must give a HUGE SHOUT-OUT to Matt. He drove the 2.5 hours to our place on Christmas Eve, spent 6 hours helping us work, then drove back home for family festivities, and turned around and came back at 10 am Christmas morning to help us continue our labors. He worked for 11 hours, then, he traveled back home, worked a day at his real job, and came back – having taken a day off work to help us finish the repairs. A serious hero by anyone’s standards, I’ll say!!
So, whereas I thought we should work from the top down, Matt corrected my thinking and started in the bottom back corner – and began working his way up. He first removed the excess rotten wood from the bottom corner. Danny had pulled out most of it, but there were other rotted areas that would need to be cut away. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a proper tool for making those cuts, but fortunately, our awesome neighbor (and framily member) Michael had the perfect tool and lent it to us for the duration of the project (yay!!).
Once the removal was finished, he began inserting new wood to shore up the floor. He carefully fitted each piece to create a new foundation for the floor and cabinets. It was difficult to work around the pieces that were still in (and would be staying in), as well as the water pump and electric box/cable.
So, we’ve started on this piece – and will continue to work quickly on getting the rest of the repairs done so we can move in as soon as possible. Our time-clock is ticking way too fast, but we’re blessed to have such amazing people in our lives to help out just when help is needed.
As for plans for that section of the kitchen, I will be getting the pantry I desired after all! My framily members all make fun of the schematics I draw for everything. For the wedding, I had six pages of how everything was to be set up – and although they all mocked me, they kept referring to it to make sure everything was right for the set-up. For this RV conversion, I’ve also created an idea-schematic – so I’ll share with you the changes in store for our newest cabinet additions.
Isn’t that gonna be fabulous?! I’m so excited, but need to be patient – and focus on the repairs before we get moving on the rebuild. Keep checking back and we’ll keep updating you on our progress!
Namaste, my friends, and happy travels!
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Gypsy Rangers 
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