Time for a HUGE interior upgrade

[chuckster]

I did end up taping the wire nuts to the wires with electrical tape and then taping the whole bundle together tightly with 1/4 roll of electrical tape. They aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. There was no access to do anything else. It was originally wired up in that spot as they were framing the coach.

[M&MJ1s]

Very nice. We recently purchased our 2003 Zanzibar 3913. We will be renovating the interior as well (once the mechanical issues are resolved). We have affectionately called it our project. Like yours, we believe the bones are good and we hope to revive it and update it. We will also be pulling up old ceramic tiles. Once you removed yours, what type of subfloor work did you have to do to have a smooth surface for the LVT? Also, do you happen to know a good source for furniture? I also appreciate the new outlets with the LED’s. Is there any chance you can provide links to the new lights and outlets?

[chuckster]

Thank you.

When the ceramic tile was removed, a standard "backer-board" for ceramic tile was underneath. This had to be removed as well in order to get to the plywood floor that runs throughout the floor of the coach. We ended up with a lower floor throughout where the backer board was (~ .5") so we installed a very short trim where we needed to which is white now, but will be painted to match the cabinets (or walls where it meets wall) eventually.

For the built-in light in the outlet, it is Amazon ASIN B09323SYS6 so just pop that into the Amazon search bar. There are TWO to a pack.

Regards,

[chuckster]

Hello Safari friends.

I hope you are all healthy and well, had joyous holidays with family and friends and are not too focused on all the crap that is going on in this country and the world today. Well, it’s been 2.5 months since the last post. This project has really slowed down due to the holidays, my work schedule, my college football passion and just overall available time.

I decided to go with a custom cabinet with a Furrion 34” electric fireplace in front of a Samsung 55” QLED Neo television on a motorized lift on the slide out side of the coach and theater seats on the side that had the dinette. We’ll have a cabinet to the left of the TV/fireplace to house the electronics which will include Dish satellite, Apple TV 4K, Sony UHD 4K Blu-ray and an 8” Polk subwoofer connected wirelessly to the Polk sound bar.

We went with theater seating and at first we wanted theater chairs with massage, heating, electric lift and such and then decided too much could go wrong with them and cost was getting up near $2K and would require me to remove a window to get them in so we decided to go with a $1,100 solution that had good reviews on Amazon and would fit through my angled side entry door. I sent questions to the Amazon users who had purchased them and received a good number of responses and all were very positive on comfort and material. I ordered them and received them within a week, got them inside the coach easily and I must say that I am very impressed with the comfort, workmanship and material from these Chinese theater seats. The man made material is smooth and soft without being slick or slippery like some very cheap vinyls. I was concerned while shopping furniture (which I did shop a LOT) of reviews of upholstery that tore easily, had seams come apart and plain wore out within two years of fairly light use on non-full timing. I took them back out of the coach after I did some fitting and measuring for other modifications we’ll be doing in the living room area.

THE HEADBANGER. Took out all the cabinets above the driver and passenger side and will be cutting them back into smaller storage areas. While they were removed I started to clean up the rats nest of wires from the TV amplifier, satellite control panel, CB radio cable, TV cables, antenna amplifier and power outlets. While up there, noticed windshield defroster was just laying unmounted and only one vent on drivers side and the other was capped off so mounted it and rerouted the hoses and installed another vent on drivers window. More on the headbanger area to follow in future posts after I have that sorted.

We’re going to need to figure out our table situation. Many options for that and will likely go with a boat style aluminum pole in a recessed floor mount that will get stored behind the theater seats. Really dreading all the sanding, priming and painting of the wood over the next couple of months…

[chuckster]

We decided to paint the cabinetry a light tan color and the walls an almost white that has a tan tint to it….kinda like a very light cream. I am making some dual LED puck light (Acegoo) 12v ceiling fixtures to replace the dual fluorescent light fixtures all over the coach. I’ll shoot some pics after I have the wood cut and holes drilled.

[chuckster]

So, the project has slowed due to having to work at my job instead of this project. The sanding of the cabinetry has been a chore even with my circular and mouse sanders doing the hard work. I did get my “headbanger” shortened in length and depth so we now have an unobstructed panoramic view out the windshield. What a difference!

Also got the fluorescent 12v fixtures all over the coach replaced with some warm 12v LED “pucks” with dual pucks and a switch that I constructed. See the ‘Interior’ forum here if you want to look at additional pictures of those.

[chuckster]

I am really torn between going with Apple’s new HomePod speakers versus the Polk sound bar/woofer setup for the new entertainment center. If I go with a soundbar/subwoof I will be able to watch movies on the Blu-ray and have great sound at the cost of having to have the soundbar exposed and the sub in an open cabinet. If I listen to everything on a pair of the Apple HomePods, no wires but have to stream movies through Apple TV box…no bueno if we’re booning and no or low internet bandwidth! What to do, what to do….any ideas you sound engineers and techies? The TV is a new Samsung and we cannot “Bluetooth” wirelessly to the Homepod speakers if we go that route.