Time for a long overdue and much needed update. Since the arrival of the bus we’ve been squirrelling away, the summer holidays happened and the seasons have shifted from nice warm days to the damp gloomy autumn days we have experienced recently. However it’s not all bad as work has progressed regardless. So where to start?
After the buses arrival we managed to find a scaffold platform which has been a god send for Mike Chris and Paul who have been sealing the bus. Lotus really kindly donated several boxes of sealant which has been amazing and allowed the boys to crack on. Again as the seasons have changed we are still having to keep an eye out for leaks and plug any gaps but the end is in sight.
The bus seats were also stripped out and removed which presented a couple of problems, one being that the seats downstairs were bolted to the underside of the bus. This did mean some crawling and shuffling around but the seats eventually came free. The second problem was the bolts upstairs had fused to the floor!! Although the seats themselves came away, it left the bracket on the floor exposed which I can tell you was painful to trip over…which I did…multiple times! Ouch! This was only resolved recently after an angle grinder was taken to them.
With the seats removed and the boys monkeying around on the scaffolding we started on stripping an old scratch proof coating from the windows. Because the bus is an ex London bus, the requirements at the time were for the windows to be scratch proof – meaning a plastic coating. This hadn’t aged well and had lifted in many places so needed to go which was an unpleasant job. As it was so old it was like dust when it came off of the windows and made quite a mess, however plenty of scrubbing and scraping we shifted it and the bus is looking so much better for it!
Just as the summer holidays started the electricians moved in and started on phase one to get electricity to the bus. This was a really big day and meant we could crack on without the need for the school to be open. The electricians stripped out the old circuit box in the bus which helpfully has a lockable door, this was a messy but necessary job to remove the redundant wiring and made way for the new fuse box and sockets. They then connected up an armoured cable to the schools fuse box and suspended it between the school and the bus.
Moving on in time, once school started, we decided it was time to seed the bank to re-instate the grass and a decision was also made to seed near the bus to try and slow down weed growth. We spent a weekend weeding the bank and prepping it and then a further weekend with a rotovator turning over and levelling the ground near the bus. This was a fun and tough activity and we can safely say Kate, Rachel and I crawled to bed that night. The summer house was also built the same day which was very exciting!
We have also had Lee on site (Miss Stedman’s partner) who is amazing with wood and has started on the internal of the bus. I’m keeping this under wraps for now as Lee has some amazing plans but check out the pics for some sneak previews.
