Back to Work after a Hot Summer

So the hot days of summer are finally giving way to more tolerable temperatures. Work on the camper came to a halt when the temps rose upwards of 80 degrees. The camper sits in full sun and with most of the insulation out of it, it is like an oven in there. The two of us get grouchy when it gets hot and sweaty so we put this project on the back burner whilst we seeked refuge in the air conditioning.

I've been dying to get my hands dirty again so I figured while Alex was at work there's stuff I could be doing in there. After searching 2 hours for a quart of primer I had I got to town starting to prime the closet by the front door. Which is where I started to notice a bit of warping on the wall dividing the bathroom from the closet. My ADHD dragged me into the bathroom where I checked inside the oddly shaped cabinet. Sure enough the wall paper and first layer of plywood was peeling back from water damage. The toilet's vent pipe is located against the bathroom wall in the closet. The pipe looks fairly new. And the hole where it goes through the roof is filled with the expandable foam or as Alex calls it; Cheeze Wiz. The old pipe must have been larger, and leaking.

I went back and finished with my first coat of primer in the closet, that was my goal for the day, and after spending 2 hours looking for that quart of primer, by golly I was going to prime it. ...With the ever growing temptation to rip out that strangely shaped, and pretty useless cabinet in the bathroom. 

My energy level, which has been pretty low for the past week, ran out. I finished up the primer and called it a day.

So that was yesterday. Today fresh with new bit of energy, I grabbed Alex's new cordless Sawzall and marched on back to the camper and got to work tearing out the bathroom cabinet.  What a Fun tool. I've been working with wood for a while now, since I was a wee kiddo,but always found the corded Sawzall heavy and intimidating. Not this lil baby! Dewalt is now my new friend with their light weight lithium ion batteries. It didn't take long for the cabinet to give in. I then decided to take a gentler approach to pulling down just the water damaged area. Using the knife I scored, and scored, and scored the 1/8" luan board they used for walls in this camper. The worst area in the corner gave way first, revealing to my dismay a horribly black patch of mold. Just great. Well it looks more than a simple patch now.

^ First look at the black mold & water damaged wall.

My first thought was to spray it with bleach, seal it up and forget it. My health cautious OCD side screamed that it HAD to come out. I'm already dealing with medical issues, and the camper is supposed to be a retreat for me, leaving the toxic black mold was not an option. So now I'm removing a good size piece of this wall, and the wall on the inside of the closet. If I'm going to do something, I might as well do it the right way the first time.

^ This is the whole panel removed.

^ From the bathroom looking into the closet

^ From the closet looking into the bathroom. You can see the vent pipe to the left, and the "cheeze wiz" at the ceiling.  Good thing is that the back wall was not damaged at all.