Tuesday - installing a floor mat

Gracie has hard surface flooring throughout the majority of the coach. We have had a small mat at the top of the steps for wiping our feet when we come in from outside, but it wasn't good about staying in place and didn't look great.

On a Facebook group for Newmar Dutch Star owners, we had seen that other owners had purchased a floor mat from the manufacturer to install in the front of their coaches (it appears that they are rather proud of these floor mats given the price: https://www.amazon.com/Newmar-Cockpit-Grey-MoutainAire-LondonAire/dp/B07TJ1WQJ8?th=1). We had also seen that other owners had purchased a floor mat from Lowe's for $43 (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Mohawk-Home-Basketweave-4-ft-x-6-ft-Brown-Rectangular-Outdoor-Door-Mat/5001639009), created a template for the shape of the front of their coach, and cut it themselves. That seemed a more reasonable option to us...

We had acquired the materials a few weeks ago while we were still in Mesa. We had thought that it would be a good project to do when we had a campsite with a picnic table so we could do the cutting of the floor mat on the table. Here in the Kaibab National Forest, we have a picnic table, we have time, and Tuesday was the day to do it!

We had purchased craft paper and cut it to the size of the floor mat when we were in Mesa. But, with all the angles and weirdness of the front of our coach, we decided to start with printer/copy paper and make a starting template, and then use the craft paper to test it before cutting the mat.

We started with the curve by the front door... worked our way across the front....

... around the pedals, under the steering wheel, along the driver's seat. Sure would have been easier if that seat wasn't there!

First template -- copy paper -- completed -- with copious amounts of painters tape.

I didn't get pictures, but we laid that on the craft paper that had the same dimensions as the floor mat from Lowe's, and cut/created a craft-paper template with the copy-paper template. We could have probably cut the floor mat with the copy-paper template, but, we already had the craft paper, and this allowed us to test the template:

Craft-paper template in place -- we decided that the template was a little too close to the steps (with the previous small floor mat, sometimes one of us would catch a toe on the edge of the mat as we were coming up the steps -- with the lightweight mat, this was a little disconcerting, but with this heavier mat, it could cause a fall). We adjusted that edge and made another alteration under the steering wheel area. The craft paper template was completed and ready for us to cut the floor mat.

Carl starts the cutting -- you may notice that we are *not* using the picnic table as originally planned. The picnic table was not as big as the mat, the wind would come up at very inopportune times, so it was difficult to keep the template positioned correctly, and we have a large amount of floor space in the living room when both slides are out -- so the floor seemed a better option.

A utility knife and straight-edge made it easier.

There were a couple of places where the Newmar branded mat just had a "peninsula" design (big rectangles cut out of the mat), but we decided to cut a more custom fit (around the mount of the driver's seat and the steering column).

When we got to the curved edges, the utility knife didn't work as well, so we marked the curves on the back of the mat with liquid paint pens and cut the curves with heavy-duty shears.

Finished product -- with original edge of the mat at the living room and steps.

We are really pleased with how it turned out! Note that we did not finish the edges -- the mat has a rubbery backing and we don't think it will fray.

We celebrated with "happy hour" at the fire pit!

The guy who had written up about this on the Newmar Dutch Star group on Facebook estimated 1 hour to make the template, and 10 minutes to cut it. Our results:

• Checking in every Lowe's we visited for 6 months for the floor mat to be in stock: 10 minutes per store, approximately 1 hour total.
  
• Acquiring the floor mat at Lowe's in Mesa: 20-30 minutes (Patti had gone alone and didn't think to get a cart on the way into the store, let's just say that it is a *very* heavy floor mat!)
• Several weeks of moving the floor mat around in Gracie as we traveled and waited until we had the gumption to start the project.
• Unrolling the mat on the picnic table, and making sure that the craft paper was sized the same: 10 minutes
• Discussing and debating how in the world we were going to get the craft paper cut to the dimensions of the front of the coach: maybe an hour?
• After deciding to use copy paper, making the copy-paper template: 1 hour
• Cutting the craft-paper template from the copy-paper template: 15 minutes
• Checking the fit of the craft-paper template and having further discussions about moving the start of the mat at the top of the steps back 1/2": hard to estimate, but... there ended up being a nap within this part of the task.
• Using the craft-paper template to cut the mat: 45 minutes
• Installing the mat (it was actually easier than we anticipated -- installing the craft-paper template was challenging as we were trying to get it in place around all the obstacles -- and it had the potential of tearing -- the mat was heavy and awkward, but actually went into place pretty easily!): 5 minutes
  

So, 1 hour 10 minute job for the guy on the Newmar Dutch Star group.

Somewhere around 5-6 hours for us...

Sounds about on par: a job estimated to take time "x", will probably take us 4x to complete!