Many of the older Barth's (and SOB's I look at for that matter) have twin beds in the rear bedroom. I would much rather have a full or queen for my wife and I, and am wondering about the practicality and difficulty of converting from one to the other. Any of you remodelers ever done this kind of project? Any tips or warnings are appreciated.

quote:

Originally posted by scottydl:
I would much rather have a full or queen for my wife and I, and am wondering about the practicality and difficulty of converting from one to the other. Any of you remodelers ever done this kind of project? Any tips or warnings are appreciated.

Yup. Did ours. No big deal. Just took out the wonderful Van's cabinet work and put in my amateur stuff.

Every Barth seems to be different, but here are a few things re mine. Both the water tank and the furnace were under the side beds. Removing the furnace was a no brainer, as we don't trust them, and can sleep into the 20's inside. (The cat has a heating pad) The water tank was partially under the pass side bed and partially under the fridge, so it had to be relocated. The whole bedroom had to be re plumbed, but I didn't like that noisy pump and gray pipe, anyway.

As for the bed, the bedroom was pretty short. A full size bed left little room for my size 12 feet in my bunny slippers on the floor at the foot. I made the pedestal maybe a foot shorter, and the plywood top of the bed a little short, too, maybe 4 or 6 inches. So now when we walk around the bed, our shins rub against a soft foam mattress instead of our feet getting caught. The fact that the foot of the mattress is unsupported is unnoticed when sleeping, as the stiffness of the mattress provides adequate support for our feet. While I was at it, instead of building a rectangular bed platform, I built it U shaped to allow a very large ice chest to be slid rearward into the cavity where it hides under the bed skirt. The U shape design also provides a lot of support in the middle for us. The plywood platform is Baltic Birch for strength, and hinges up aided by air springs for access to ice chest, storage and plumbing valves.

There is a side storage bin on each side at the rear that had to be rebuilt and now makes a support for a couple of drawer units. I plan on building really nice cherry wood night stands to match the other cabinetry, but just haven't got to it yet. I can do decent cabinet work, but I am intimidated by it and way too slow. One panel of the U shaped platform is held in with stove bolts and tee nuts so I can roll our spare tire out instead of lifting it over the sides of the platform.

Aside from the limited ankle and foot room on the floor at the foot of the bed, the other drawback of my kluge is the gas filler neck. It intrudes a little, going down on an angle from the outside wall. I just bent up an aluminum guard, rather like the original, but taking up less space. I may re engineer it some day, but it really isn't a problem, except perhaps visually.

My city water inlet stuck a little farther into the bedroom than I liked, so I replaced it with a shorter one that has no check valve. Check valves are unreliable, anyway, and are not needed if there is a tight cap. An added benefit of no check valve is that I can hook up a hand shower out there for sandy feet or dirty dogs or cleanup after dumping.

It's been a few years, and I may have left out a few things, so ask away.

...Bill usually posts pictures of his craftsmanship..?