The Ultimate Roving Home: Advancements in lighting, switches and hardware!

Last week's post was exciting, due to the fact that I actually found the right vehicle for my build. So now I can rest easy knowing that there exists a van with the perfect dimesions to set my sights on. Beyond that discovery, which nonetheless represents a large block in the Roving Home pyramid, I can't say I made major advancements in the infrastructure. However, this weekend I announce with pride that I, indeed, have earned extra credit.

My new 12 volt receptacles - of the correctly sized variety - arrived in the mail. Of course, the new ones took about 3 days, as opposed to the three weeks or more that my previously ordered, incorrectly sized ones took to get here. I'm still dealing with the paperwork necessary for a product return to Great Britain along with a credit to my account.

A word about the Net.

I have a peeve regarding internet vendors. If the vehicle by which you market your company stems entirely from the web, then wouldn't you ensure that descriptions and pictures of all items that you sell reflect every aspect of the inventory? I had one strange experience whereby the salesperson seemed to lose all interest in corresponding with me after I requested a telephone conversation, rather than to drag on our email exchange. I guess she felt that if I didn't get it in two tries then I wasn't worthy of purchasing her product. She ceased all further correspondence with me.

I obviously wasn't completely well versed on what I'd get for my $328.00 through pictures, alone. Luckily, beneath the salutations in her emails, I found the company phone number and requested another phone sales - I mean "customer care" representative who gladly walked me through all of the components that were a necessary part of my order. My new phone sales operator agreed that the pictures and descriptions were confusing and he happily answered all of my questions.

Onto the fun stuff.

This is a cabinet door knob. It comes in two pieces which I wasn't aware of, because the website photograph only showed the entire component, which looks like this...

What I didn't know was that the price only included the metal portion and not the remaining plastic pieces. Silly me. I thought that when you order a locking door knob you get the handle, the tumbler, the casing and the catch. But, what do I know?

When you push in that center circle, the whole thing pops out, unlatches the cabinet door and becomes a pull knob.

NEAT!

Yacht designers have included this hardware in their cabinetry for quite some time, but only as of late have I seen them in RVs. They're quite cool. So, I ordered up a batch, once I got briefed on all that I needed to make these work.

Here lies another example of poor internet sales product description. This 12 volt receptacle has three separate components to it, although you may not realize it from the picture, which looked like this...

What the picture fails to show is that the unit consists of the rubber cap, the cylinder and the rectangular mounting plate. I didn't want the mounting plate, so I jumped to my other bookmarked website and ordered the wrongly-sized 12 volt receptacle. After that debacle, I defaulted to the rectangular piece because it was the closest thing to what I want. I decided that I'd reluctantly "make it work."

Pleasantly surprised...

As it turnes out, the rectangular insert comes off! Now, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Jeeze, this guy is a nut job," but hear me out. Everything in a home, be it a motorhome or a brick and mortar home is designed and built to look appealing and interesting. Every element must be considered, especially with respect to small spaces. In a small space the lines must be minimal and the composition, flowing. I've looked at so many pictures and have realized this to be the case time and time again, whether it's a boat, rv, or even one of those cool modern minimalist homes featured in Dwell Magazine.

When considering how to attach a 12 volt cigarette lighter outlet on the wall, along with multiple 120 volt a.c. outlets and three switches, I wanted them to fit nicely together and to feel right.

Here's the outlet plate I started with. And, by the way, you can't just get these at Home Depot. This was a custom internet order, once again.

And, there's the finished outlet panel.

This will be the electrical-needs-layout in the bathroom and the galley...

I think that the12volt outlet on the right would have looked horrible with a bulky rectangle taking up a large portion of that plate. Correct me if I'm wrong. But then again, there's no accounting for taste.

My vanity light.

Last time I made a lighting instrument for The Roving Home interior I received a fair amount of comments. I'm pleased to announce the completion of my bathroom wall sconce, as converted from 120volts a.c. to 12volts d.c.

I think it's pretty elegant. As you can see, the scale is compact. Size is everything in the world of 106 square feet.

I had to start by cutting off the globe base - one of those funky G9 ceramic types. Why anyone thought that such a size would be a fabulous idea is beyond me. But, whatever.