RB Above stove cabinet November 10, 2011, 09:33:09 am Yahoo Message Number: 126520For those with a Rear Bath model what have you done to improve the usefulness of the cabinet above the stove. I need some ideas as every time the wife reaches up to get something out of it, it hurts my hearing, if you know what I mean. We put a sliding drawer under the forward facing cabinet seat. We put two sliding shelves under the sink. We put a sliding shelf under the drawer under the refrigerator. I can think of nothing to improve the utility of the cabinet over the stove. Counter space and shelf space on the RB is terrible. "Must have been designed by a man" is the echo when my hearing returns. Harry 2006 RB 26ft.
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #1 – November 10, 2011, 11:11:43 am Yahoo Message Number: 126521Quote "...Counter space and shelf space on the RB is terrible. "Must have been designed by a man" is the echo when my hearing returns. Harry 2006 RB 26ft." Remember the RB was originally marketed as the "party plan" - I guess because of it's open layout and seating capacity. It would follow that something had to give space-wise to accommodate the seating capacity and counter/shelf space appears to have been what suffered. Actually, there is a lot of everyday living functionality designed into the RB.Chris
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #2 – November 10, 2011, 11:21:25 am Yahoo Message Number: 126523"Counter space and shelf space on the RB is terrible. "Must have been designed by a man" is the echo when my hearing returns."Harry Well, your wife is right (as always), it was designed by a man, Steve. The RB uses the dinette table as part of the preparation area and that's just the way it is. Every floorplan has it advantages and disadvantages. As for the overhead storage, what is the problem, lack of shelves or is it too high up for your wife to reach. My wife is very short and uses a folding step stool to access the high shelves. http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/product/e-z-foldz-folding-step-stool/3807> You could reconfigure the shelves, if that is the problem.Larry
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #3 – November 11, 2011, 07:59:08 am Yahoo Message Number: 126539Our biggest issue with the over-stove cabinet
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #4 – November 11, 2011, 09:52:09 am Yahoo Message Number: 126542Harry, if you have pictures of your modifications and what kind of drawers you used, I'd love to see them. I have a RB.Andrea
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #5 – November 11, 2011, 05:51:12 pm Yahoo Message Number: 126546A custom cabinet maker did them as a favor to a friend, me. I paid him $300 and was grateful to get it done. I'll work on the pictures. Send me an email address. hbn7hj at aol dot com. No more bitchin' about the other inconvenient storage spaces but the one over the stove is a challenge. Try and store plates and glasses up there and at best you have to move something to get something. At worst you are wearing it when you open the door.
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #6 – November 11, 2011, 07:38:14 pm Yahoo Message Number: 126549"Try and store plates and glasses up there and at best you have to move something to get something." I solved that problem by using spring-type doorstops as separators. They keep dishes from moving around, but easily bend out of the way when you want to remove something from the cupboard. Here's a photo: http://www.andybaird.com/travels/gertie/doorstops.jpgAndy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels/
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #7 – November 11, 2011, 10:28:40 pm Yahoo Message Number: 126551Quote from: Harry Bawcom"For those with a Rear Bath model what have you done to improve the usefulness of the cabinet above the stove? Hi Harry, Mine is a 2003 RB, and I use the above-the-stove-cabinet for all dry food; the small, perpendicular cabinet between the dinette and the couch is equipped with doubling wire racks that store all my table ware. The cabinet above the stove is organized thusly: little-used staples (flour, sugar, season packets) in containers on the narrow, upper shelf; tall stuff (olive oil, coffee, spaghetti in tall plastic containers with snap lids) in the left hand "submerged" section; and the main shelf is equipped with a circulating platter and a small wire shelf that doubles the space. If you were the same person wondering about RB counter space, some of my solutions over the years are: removing the metal stove lid and replacing it with a wooden (Camping World) "cutting board" (that I use for prep only, not cutting!); keeping the left hand sink covered with whatever came with the rig; lifting the left-hand counter extension so it's level with the main counter; and I make constant use of the dinette table -- very handy, very large. Behind the 7.5" area between the wall and sink/stove is where I keep a compact, narrow (IKEA) dish drainer, a container of tableware and a container of large cooking implements, a small fruit bowl, and of course, the requisite dish next to the door for keys and other "detritus" we all seem to collect! Have fun figuring it out -- try moving stuff around and see what works best. Besides its fabulous layout, I think the RB model has plenty of efficient, usable space.Lorna in Coarsegold http://uppity-woman.blogspot.com/
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #8 – November 12, 2011, 08:40:13 pm Yahoo Message Number: 126578Upon first glance at the [lack of] obvious counter space in our RB, I was appalled, but after a few trips, I have come to terms with the space available, enlarging it ad hoc as my needs dictate. Mostly I use two separate glass cutting boards that are about 20" in width by 12" deep. Sometimes I have them both out, using one of the stove top, and one on the sink(s), or just one or the other. They have provided all the space I need to cook full dinners just like I do at home. They serve as cutting/prep areas, with the added feature of being impervious to heat, so I can set any hot pot down on them without worry.I can't imagine cooking in that kitchen without these helpers. As for the cabinet above the stove, I don't put any foodstuffs in there (except coffee and cocoa mix on the left-hand side) because of the heat from the stove. I use the right-hand part of this space for my eating, baking, and serving dishes, cups, glasses. For these dishes, I keep them all in a dishpan, and am able, by feel mostly, to easily retrieve the most commonly-used items in a fraction of a second. The less-frequently-used ones are at the bottom of the stack, so I just pull the whole thing down to root for whatever I need. It is fairly light because I use Corelle, and they are much lighter than say, stoneware, but not as light as Melamine. Still, this is not a problem. If I need extra counter space, I pull out one of the drawers and plop a smaller cutting board on it, but this is a last resort, and works well ONLY if there is no one else in the coach at the time, if you get my drift! I seldom use the dinette table for meal prep as that is where my computer lives - and where we eat. So when the computer goes away, it is replaced by place settings and diners! All in all, it isn't as bad as I'd first feared, and after the first couple of days in the rig, I can almost always remember where I put things!Virtual hugs,Judie (2005 RB) Not quite so grounded in Sierra Vista, Arizona
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #9 – November 13, 2011, 02:04:19 pm Yahoo Message Number: 126587I just posted this link on another thread, but thought I'd put it here also. One of the things we've done in the over the stove cabinet is put a paper plate holder on the door. This makes them very handy to access and uses an otherwise dead space.Pictures can be seen here (scroll down) http://cholulared.com/AboutCholulaRed/Kitchen.htmlThis idea came from Mimi and Jonna originally.Kate http://cholulared.blogspot.com http://www.cholulared.comLiving somewhere near the corner of no and where
Re: RB Above stove cabinet Reply #10 – November 14, 2011, 11:51:36 am Yahoo Message Number: 126607The paper plate holder idea, one of many ideas "adopted" from Kate's blog, worked like a charm for the first four years or so after we put it up. This past trip, I couldn't get the bottom piece to stop falling and donking me in the head every time I opened that cabinet, so it is currently held in place with electrical tape and a piece of toothpick (spouse has never been concerned with elegance, but he gets the job done). It makes replacing the plates a dite tedious, but that only happens every couple of weeks. Another idea I tried to adopt is the tension curtain rod in the shower, which I wanted to use to hang towels to dry. Our LD is the 30 foot island bed, so one of its shower walls is at right angles to the outside wall and the other is slanted, so where the shower wall meets the outside wall is an acute angle. Kate, how do you make the curtain rod stay up? I tried a silicone wedge, and some earthquake putty, but couldn't get the curtain rod to stay in place. Suggestions? And while I'm posting, we just returned from an almost four month trip (CA to ME and back), and had a few mechanical problems along the way. The Life with a Lazy Daze archives and the LD Companion were both extremely helpful in our travails. Many thanks to the folks who created both of them. (How many calls do you think Coach Net lets you have before they cancel your coverage?) It feels really strange after that long a trip to roam around in our stationary home--everything is too far away!Pat B., 30' LD IB, Piscataqua River[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: Curtain rod in shower of 30' Reply #11 – November 14, 2011, 08:52:21 pm Yahoo Message Number: 126615Quote Another idea I tried to adopt is the tension curtain rod in the shower, which I wanted to use to hang towels to dry. Our LD is the 30 foot island bed, so one of its shower walls is at right angles to the outside wall and the other is slanted, so where the shower wall meets the outside wall is an acute angle. Kate, how do you make the curtain rod stay up? I tried a silicone wedge, and some earthquake putty, but couldn't get the curtain rod to stay in place. Suggestions?Pat B., 30' LD IB, Piscataqua River Pat, in our 30' we use a small accordion clothes drying rack that folds up when not in use and stays in the shower. It's lightweight and holds much more than one tension curtain rod. Something similar to this: With the shower window open, things dry quickly. I also installed a short closet rod from one side of the skylight frame to the other on which we hang coats when we travel or wet items on hangers when necessary.Chris
Re: Curtain rod in shower of 30' Reply #12 – November 15, 2011, 03:34:27 am Yahoo Message Number: 126627Chris, I appreciate the suggestion, but our shower serves as broom closet, laundry hamper, repository for the baseball bat, and the big dowel which holds the quilt that insulates the cab from the house, and four gazillion Walmart baggies which we reuse as trash bags, and a myriad of other things. We boondock only when desperate and use our shower as such only when the park's is seriously bad. There's so much stuff in there, a clothes dryer would probably sink us amidship.But thank you.Pat B.[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: Curtain rod in shower of 30' Reply #13 – November 15, 2011, 11:37:08 am Yahoo Message Number: 126637Quote Chris, "...and the big dowel which holds the quilt that insulates the cab from the house..." Pat B. Pat, I can imagine, but can you tell me where you place the dowel, how you make it stay up, etc.Chris
Re: Curtain rod in shower of 30' Reply #14 – November 15, 2011, 03:24:07 pm Yahoo Message Number: 126639The frame for the shower skylight is wood. I asked Todd to cut me a piece of the same rod they use in production, with brackets, and screwed it into the wood skylight frame. Everything looks original and it is a great rod for hanging stuff on. You could probably get the same type of rod at Home Depot, or a similar store. Gale 2002 IB[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: Curtain rod in shower of 30' Reply #15 – November 16, 2011, 09:02:48 pm Yahoo Message Number: 126680Hi, Chris, This is a whole lot more complicated sounding than it really is, but freshly back from a four month RV trip, my brains are kind of addled. You know that the front of the 30' has an entertainment center rather than a bed over the cab, and there's about a one inch carpeted ledge that runs around three sides, about an inch below the tv and the four doors in the entertainment ctr. (Ed Newton was fond of using this ledge to demonstrate how easy it is to get up out of the passenger seat and back into the house. Yes, I said, if you have extraordinarily strong fingers, are probably male, and are underweight by 25 pounds.) Anyway, the previous owner of our coach had a one inch wooden dowel cut about 1/4" less than the length between the two short ends of this ledge. It's about 53.5 " long. You put it in cockeyed and pull it down to level. There's a vertical rim between the entertainment ctr and the house. The pole sits nicely on the ledge between the cabinet doors and the rim. Then we drape a quilt over the pole obtaining both privacy and insulation from the cold (or hot) cab. I don't have a clue how to post a picture here, but I just went out and took one and will try to send it to your email address.Pat B.[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]