It was a day of frustration in the van build, but at least it was a short day! While doing my morning meditation, the thought popped in my head that I had forgot to install the condensate drain in the bottom of the refrigerator yesterday before I installed it in the galley. So, the morning started with me removing the refrigerator from the galley. I located the hose that I had purchased for the condensate drain and the drain fitting that came with the refrigerator. Then I noodled for a little while on how I wanted to route the drain tube. I settled on drilling two 1/2″ holes into the panels of the galley and routing the condensate drain hose out the sliding door. So, I drilled those holes. Then, I lost the two small screws that attached the fitting to the refrigerator. Couldn’t find them anywhere. They are very small and I checked everywhere. Then I was lucky to find one sitting on the driveway just outside the back of the van. I thought that at least with one screw, I could go to Ace Hardware and buy a second one (I needed two to install the fitting). I thought about Murphy’s Law and decided to check the cracks in the cement in the driveway, and there that second screw was in the bottom of a crack in the driveway. After about five minutes with two of my smallest screwdrivers, I was able to rescue it.
I quickly mounted the fitting to the bottom of the refrigerator. Then routed the condensate hose through the two holes I had drilled as I stepped the refrigerator back in it’s cabinet position. I re-attached the refrigerator and re-connected the power. Then, I routed the condensate hose to outside the van. It took a hour and a half to rework this, but it beats condensate leaking on the floor of my van. Here is the result, a small, clear, hose sticking out of the galley.
I was glad to move on to making forward progress with the van build. So, I began work installing the sink in the counter of the galley. This also was a very frustrating process. I applied the silicone sealant around the base of the sink and set it in the hole in the counter top. You don’t have a lot of time to work with the silicone sealant before it sets up. So, the quicker you work the better. The sink has eight clamps to connect to the sink and screw into the counter from underneath the sink. They were a real pain to install – they were hard to connect into their brackets on the sink, and they liked to pop out when I tried to tighten them. I was also in an uncomfortable position the whole time under the sink.
It was about this time that my wife and mother-in-law decided to pay a visit. I explained that I couldn’t take any time to visit because my sealant was setting. I don’t think they understood, but they accepted my excuse. Maybe the swearing they heard coming from me as they approached the van helped?
Eventually, I got all eight clamps secured. Then I cleaned up the extra silicone seealant that had oozed out from the sink. It was partially cured, but I was still able to remove it. At the end of the day, I did get the sink installed, and I think it looked pretty good.
The sealant needed some time to fully cure before I could work on the sink some more. So, I took some time to noodle about the plumbing connections. Plumbing is hard, at least for me. Nothing in this van setup is standard. Lots of different hoses and fittings that have to connect together. I called my friend, Pat, who has a campervan and asked to look at how his sink was set up (our sink designs are similar).
As I was waitng for Pat to come over, I installed the switch for the floor lighting into the side wall of the galley. It was one small thing that I could do while I was waiting.
I looked at Pat’s setup and got some good ideas for how to set up mine. Unfortunately, I was then out of time for the day as I had meetings after lunch that I needed to attend. So, tomorrow I’m off to Ace Hardware to see if I can purchase the plumbing fittings I need to connect up the sink.