Wednesday, November 28, 2012

CAMEO HOME IMPROVEMENTS

Wednesday, November 28 – Saturday we went to Pub Fiction with Carrie and the gang to watch Ohio State (12-0) beat Michigan and Virginia Tech beat Virginia. Too bad OSU is ineligible to go to a bowl this year. Who knows, they may have been selected to play in the BCS National Championship game.

OSU game

On Tuesday, Paul took on one of his planned 5th wheel “up-grades."   We have been unable to use our Direct TV DVR recorder because it needs 2-wires running in from the satellite dish. Our Cameo is only pre-wired with one TV jack.

Paul's been researching the best way to add a second line and decided the simplest approach was to just add a dual TV jack on the outside of the 5th wheel, drill through the wall into the entertainment area and add an entirely new 2-wire TV outlet.

After careful planning and measuring, Paul was faced with the most difficult part of this project, getting the nerve to drill through the 5th wheel's exterior wall. He first drilled a small pilot hole figuring if he did screw-up it would be easier to patch.

Here goes nothing.
getting ready to drill

Whew! That went well.
drilling hole

With a 1/2” drill bit now in his drill, he preceded to drill two side-by-side holes through the exterior wall of the trailer. He was then able to fish the TV coax cable through the wall from the weather-proof outlet to the Direct TV DVR Receiver.

drilling outside

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He caulked the outlet and holes with silicone caulk to prevent leaks and screwed the outlet to the exterior wall of the 5th wheel.

He had to remove the TV to get to the rear of the entertainment center. With Marsha's help, that was pretty easy. We did carefully mark the wires so we could easily get them back in the proper position when finished.

no TV

The wire was then fished up through the holes already drilled in the entertainment center to the shelf where the DVR was located.

wire through hole

With that job out of the way and since we had the TV off the wall, this was a good time to add a 110-volt receptacle to the mantle like area under the TV. This gives Marsha a nice area for displaying her electronic picture frames and holiday decorations.

This required cutting a hole in the front panel, adding an electrical box, wiring in a receptacle, and finishing it off with a cover plate. A pretty straight forward receptacle installation especially since 110 wiring was already present in the entertainment center.

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Now to connect all those wires back to the TV.  DONE! No sweat!

TV

With that completed, another project was to add a 110-volt receptacle in the bathroom. We have one on the rear splash area of the sink, but Paul wanted a second receptacle on the side of the sink cabinet.

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Adding a second receptacle meant fishing a wire from the existing receptacle down through the wall to a new electrical box under the sink cabinet. Then a wire was ran over to the side of the cabinet where a new outlet was installed in a hole cut in the cabinet side.

This was a little tougher installation requiring “stiff-old” Paul to once again practice his contortionist positions under a tiny bathroom vanity in a small RV bathroom surrounded with hundreds of tools.

With a minor amount of swearing, he pulled it off with a limited amount of frustration. That's enough for one day!

new receptacle

Marsha was pretty smart choosing to go to the nearby laundry mat (called Washateria here in Texas) while Paul struggled in the bathroom. Smart girl!

Wait, Marsha found one more job. Because the bed is in front of the mirrored closet doors, Marsha can't see what her entire ensemble looks like before she heads out the door.

mirrored door

So we looked around and found the perfect spot for her new mirror. We put it on the back of the bathroom door. All she has to do is remove the two towels when she wants to see herself and…wala…full length mirror.

mirror on door

That's not the end of Paul's projects, so stop back and see what's next :-)

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

19 comments:

  1. These projects are definitely keeping Paul out of trouble. Somehow none of my projects are getting done this year.

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  2. That Paul is a pretty smart guy to have around.

    I see now how he gets to sit in a bar and get his picture taken with the pretty girls :)

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  3. Very nicely done, Paul! Isn't fun to make the Cameo your own....well after the work is done, that is! Great picture of the three of you enjoying time together and cheering VA Tech on.

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  4. Once again, wonderful home improvements completed under the astute direction of Marsha. It's fortunate Paul has Marsha or he might be the most bored guy in town.

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  5. Paul is certainly lucky to have you to help with things like moving the TV. I don't know how you could not supervise the bathroom fix, though. Oh, wait, that must have been Paul's bathroom. :)

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  6. Another couple of jobs well done. Luckily we ordered our Cameo new we had two wires run to both the living room and bedroom TV areas.

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  7. Nice job Paul! I would be nervous drilling holes in outside walls!

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  8. If Paul runs out of projects, send him this way. We'll keep him busy with some of ours.

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  9. I'm thinking of removing the mirrored closet doors in the Phaeton ... so putting up a full length mirror may be on Mui's task list, too :-)))

    Good job on the electrical mods ... it was a bit nerve wracking when Mui drilled through the roof of the Phaeton for the Wilson antenna install, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

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  10. That Paul sure is a handy fellow. We need to spend some time in the same campground, I have a few projects I could have him work on...lol

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  11. Paul is a lot more braver than Leonard who has resisted drilling any holes to the outside.

    Funny - when I met Len he talked about going to the washateria. Cracked me up. We call it a Laundramat. But then again, to him it's "over yonder" and not over there.

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  12. Yep, always a scary thing when you have to drill/cut a hole in the outer wall. Good thing Paul knows what his doing. Looks like a job well done!

    Kevin and Ruth
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  13. Paul has done it again--great jobs!

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  14. Great job, Paul, well done.

    I'm chicken when it comes to drilling holes in the outside walls. We have a DVR and I use the old '2 wires through a window trick'!!

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  15. We need to borrow Paul for a day as we are replacing both of our TVs.

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  16. I would have had to have an RV tech do all those electrical jobs. :( You saved a bundle, Paul.

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  17. Good ideas and great follow through. Nice to have a handyman around!!

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  18. There is just no end to Paul's talent. I don't think I could have stayed around to watch the drill going through the outside of the RV. Glad everything worked out.

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  19. Wise move to leave your handyman to it. . .just so you know. . .in Texan, you must say Washer-teria. . .LOL!

    Fabulous job Paul!

    Janice
    ReadyToGoFullTimeRVing Blog
    FaceBook.com/ReadyToGoFullTimeRVing

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