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The SinkMonday, March 26. 2007
For my next trick, I wanted a sink. And I had to have running water. All this in a fully carpeted van, mind you.
 I tried not to do this myself. I did. I went to Home Depot and Lowes and looked at their sink/cabinet combos, and all were too big and wasted space, plus they were of course made of MDF and were heavy and not so strong. Adding to my list of gripes with pre-fab selections was the giant porcelain sink-tops which provided very little useful room to place objects onto or do anything but ... well, wash. And that's no good when you're tight on space. So I made my own. Constructing a wood box is not very hard. I chose to use 2x4's for the box frame, 3/4 pine for doors and front panel, and plywood for sides. The top is also 3/4 pine. Now I needed a sink, which I wanted to be small, and I certainly didn't want a $500 corian unit for my van. Lowes came through on this one - they carry a $40 kitchen mini-sink, 14" square I believe. I suspect it's meant as an add-on unit for something else.
So I cut the sink opening in the top, varnished the wood with polyurethane and found some fitting hinges. I also needed to get water to come out on top... and for that matter, I needed to have water in the first place. After much searching I found 7 gallon Reliance Aquatainers which I ordered online. JCWhitney sells 109978 ELECTRIC WATER PUMP & FAUCET RVfor $25, which is not much to look at, but does the job. So now I have two 7G tanks - one for drain, one for fresh water. The pump is situated at floor level and pulls in water through a clear line (you have to start the syphon manually, by sucking on faucet... ) ... I later added a check-valve to the line to prevent the water from draining back down, so the faucet is instant-on now.  Now for the kicker... in the water-saving situation of 7G capacity I didn't want to waste water, so I left the switch on the faucet in series with my own addition - a doorbell switch just below the sink doors.... Now I "enable" water with the switch, and lean on the door to make it flow. Works really well.  I've since added a plywood shelf above the water tanks (houses toiletries and stuff), and some magnet catches to keep the doors closed and tight against the doorbell switch, ready to be pressed. Of course, the cabinet is screwed into the floor and even into the wall behind it. That said, the situation is pretty tight - driver chair pushes up on the cabinet slightly. I could move it back a little, but I am limited on the space I have for the bed to open. There is also a pop-up shelf on the left side of the cabinet (visible in photos) - it's useful for the stove in winter, or a laptop. |
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The benchOK so this is pretty low-tech, but hey - why not? Kneeling benches are really unbeatable for meditation and prayer, but they are also great to just sit on - not only does it keep your back straight and prevents slouching, but it also places your
Tracked: Jan 13, 15:23