The Bedroom Reeks!
Jon and I wanted a project, and we got one—more than
we bargained for! When we bought our 2005 Minnie Winnie, we had no idea how
many issues had been disguised. We keep reminding ourselves that we purchased
it for a reasonable price.
October 1, 2023: Soon after we brought the RV home to Little Rigs RV Park in La Peñita de Jaltemba, Nayarit, we realized the cat urine smell was overwhelming. I spot-cleaned the carpet and treated it with an entire bottle of Nature's Miracle Spot and Odor Remover, an enzymatic neutralizer. A month later, I repeated the entire process. It wasn't going to work!
November 9, 2023: So, we tore most of the carpet and padding out. I cut out and removed the bulk of the stinky mess, and Jon used a razor blade to trim under the bed and closet.
Luckily, the bathroom vinyl had been run under part of the carpet, preventing the urine from soaking into too much of the plywood floor. I cleaned the vinyl and wood floor with a Fabuloso solution—that works for disinfecting everything in Mexico, right? It helped get the filth out.
After it dried, I threw two area rugs on the bare plywood floor. That would work until we could finish the prep work and install new
vinyl planks that look like wood—Dream Wood by DuraPiso from Home Depot. Whew,
the odor is 95% gone! FOR THE MOMENT…
December 5, 2023: The
smell was back! We decided to paint the floor with the Behr paint from Home
Depot to seal in the odor. It took me three days to mask-tape the edges and then paint and seal the
bedroom floor in the motorhome. No more cat urine smell😄. It is ready for
Jonathan to install the vinyl plank flooring! OR SO WE THOUGHT…
January
5, 2024: Well, cr*p! Another lesson learned. That paint sure looked good on
the motorhome floor. But then, Jon discovered the adhesive we had purchased to
apply the vinyl plank flooring wouldn’t stick to the paint.
So, we started sanding it off. After one day of using sanding blocks, we walked to the hardware store and bought an orbital sander. Getting enough of that paint/primer off for good adhesion would take a lot of work. Why do we always have to buy the best paint Home Depot carries?!😩
Jon took another walk
to the hardware store to purchase 40-grit sandpaper, the roughest he could find. Oh well, our projects keep us busy and provide exercise.
January
18, 2024: Yeah! We’ve finished sanding and filling holes in the motorhome’s
bedroom plywood floor! It’s all vacuumed, mopped, and drying. Time for us to
rest for a few weeks at our condo in Puerto Vallarta before we lay the new
vinyl plank flooring. That was a bear of a job🥵!
February
8, 2024: We finally got the correct adhesive for our RV vinyl flooring
delivered from Amazon Mexico. It took a call to the Roberts company to learn that the
first two adhesives Home Depot sold us were wrong.
February
17, 2024: Retirement for us means choosing our projects. Jonathan was happy
working on his yesterday while it rained. He cut about half of the pieces of
vinyl plank flooring for the RV bedroom. He’s doing a great job!
Jon
has Parkinson’s disease, which has caused his muscles to weaken, including those in his eyes. He works
hard to keep in shape, but one frustration for him is that his eyesight has
deteriorated. He has to use a flashlight to see the fine measurements.
February
21, 2024: 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗶𝗲𝗰𝗲
𝗼𝗳
𝘁𝗵𝗲
𝗣𝘂𝘇𝘇𝗹𝗲!
Jon cut and placed the last piece of the vinyl plank flooring on the motorhome floor. Then, we numbered each of the eighteen sections with a piece of blue tape in the order that he would glue them in. I took photos of the numbered pieces so we could piece together the puzzle when it was time to adhesive. We removed each of the sections and stacked them in reverse order. Bare wood again, ready to adhesive it and lay the vinyl—mañana!
We
needed a day off to play. Dinner and rock ‘n’ roll music at El Amigo Vargas
on the beach in Rincon de Guyabitos was a nice change of pace.
February
22, 2024: Jon started gluing the vinyl plank siding to the bare plywood. He
did it in three sections, dividing the job between several days. After spreading the adhesive in the space marked for five pieces, he waited the recommended twenty minutes and started installing the numbered sections according to the placement shown in the photos.
February
24, 2024: After a hard morning of gluing the second section of vinyl plank
flooring in the motorhome bedroom, we decided to take a day off and rest. We went
to play in the pool, now a comfortable 85°F. Jon loves pool volleyball with the
gang at the RV park! Then we walked to town for groceries and on to Avanti Restaurant for a
delicious salmon dinner.
February 25, 2024: Finished! Jon applied the last pieces of vinyl flooring, and we stripped the masking tape. All we have to do is clean the dried adhesive off the floor using mineral spirits and then mop it clean. It looks great! And it smells good, too—no more cat urine smell.
Installing
vinyl plank flooring in the motorhome bedroom was a good project for mental and physical well-being, though difficult. I told
Jon that I hope the next one he chooses is a lot easier. His Parkinson’s
disease slows his progress, but he doesn’t let it stop him! He reminded
me that I chose that project when I hacked the first hunk out of the carpet. We
agree it was worth the work, though we learned a lot of lessons.
To read about More Lessons Learned, check out the latest in my Healthy Living and Traveling in Mexico book series, available in all Amazon markets. In Canada, see it HERE.
Thanks for reading my books and blog articles. I hope you'll leave comments here and book reviews or ratings on Amazon.
