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[realbtl]

I've been taking advantage of a beautiful Fall to get my Cougar shell, if not finished, at least comfortable. I'm heading out the end of Oct for San Diego then up north to my daughter in Berkeley, pick up my wife and head for Albion and on home. I knew I wanted the "backwards" sofa so it's done. I can live with the other side for now and decide what I really want to do with this space. Pix are:

1. I found this perfect canvas tool roll for my utensils, flat ware, etc that rolls and stores in one of the totes for travel. You can also see a corner of the 18"x36" piece of plywood I finished for a table.

2. I split the back of the sofa so I could access this area easily, it's good for storing coats, extra blankets etc. My friend Chad the upholstery guy scored a huge roll of raw 1/2" bungee material that is great to work with and I used it here to hold the seats back. There is a hook on the seat back so it is easy to unhook. I also had him make me some velcro curtains for those hopefully rare times I have close neighbors.

3. I prefer sheets/blankets to sleeping bags. For cold weather I found online a couple of 5 lb. Czech wool army blankets for $30 each. They smelled slightly (ha!) of moth balls but after washing them at the laundromat and hanging them in the garage for 3 days most of it is gone. In case you are wondering the piece of equipment in the upper right is my portable CPAP machine.

4. Here's the sofa and the under seat storage, again using the bungee material. I chose Sunbrella canvas as the best mix of durability and keeping clean. It's actually a darker blue than the flash pic shows. The 2 cushions snap together to make a very comfortable bed for an extra person in a tent. I can just sit upright with the top down and at 6' x 24" makes a nice place for a nap when traveling. Chad does excellent work for a good price. If you are interested PM me and I'll put you in touch with him.

5. For now I've just the small table and the storage on the first step of the camper. It turns out this was just the right width for my Coleman fuel plus room for zip-locs, foil and some food items.

All in all I couldn't be happier with what I have so far. I want to thank Marty and the crew for working with me on building things "backwards" and I want to thank all of you on this board for all of your postings of great ideas for ATC/FWC camper designs. I may not have used many of them but they got me to thinking about possibilities.

I'm sure I'll be running into more of you along the road. Barney

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[Mark W. Ingalls]

Barney, curtains are also good to keep prying eyes away from your stuff.

I get the couch idea-- Sometimes we make the couch into a bed just so we can look out the window.