Finishing up the steps...

I posted a couple of weeks ago that we had decided to get the entry steps sanded and re-painted while we were in Mexico.

We did not explicitly take pre-project pictures, but... this is a picture that we took while the guys in Mexico were doing the body work, and you can see that the steps were looking a bit worn...

This picture shows the rust at the corner of the top step -- it was also rusted on the corner of the bottom step.

Here is a link to the post about them sanding down the steps and re-painting them: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/02/more-painting-on-gracie.html

The steps were all painted and looking nice, but we no longer had the anti-skid material or edge-marking on the steps - so we hat that on our to-do list. Here is the start of the project with masking tape marking where the edges of the step tread material would go.

We thought that we would be able to get the step tread material at Camping World, but they did not have it in the store here in Mesa, and... though they offered to order it for us, they will only ship orders to "home" and there is a charge if you don't make a minimum order (they don't have "ship-to-store" for free). We talked to one of the folks in the store, pointing out that having only a "ship to home" option when at least some of your customers are not in a permanent location was not very helpful -- she gave us the name and number of their Chairman and CEO to contact. A side note: this is characteristic of what we've seen with Camping World -- it is not very well regarded by folks who have been RVing for any length of time. Since that didn't work out, we went to our go-to source for products, Amazon, and were able to use Amazon lockers near our RV park for delivery. 

We didn't take pictures at the Amazon lockers, but, in suburban or urban locations, they are really quite handy! When Carl went to pick up the order, it had come in 3 packages, and it turned out that the Amazon delivery driver had just delivered when Carl got there. I have always picked up the packages before, so Carl asked the driver if he could help, and the delivery driver said that he really didn't know how it worked for the customer pickup -- but he stayed on with Carl to help. Carl put in the 6-digit code that had been sent to us (they also send a barcode that is supposed to be able to be read off your phone but I've never had success with that and Carl didn't either). The locker control station recognized that there were 3 packages for this customer, and for whatever reason, they always seem to be put into separate lockers. Carl touched the touch-screen for the first package, and the screen showed with an arrow pointing to where the first locker door was now open. He retrieved that package, closed the door, and could now touch the touch-screen for the second package (find the open door, retrieve the package, close the door) and then get the third package. It was funny that both Carl and the delivery driver learned how it worked together! I think a lot of folks use the lockers now even if they live in houses because there is such a large incidence of packages being stolen from front porches. They are great for people like us who don't have a fixed address -- as long as there is a locker near where we're staying.

Back to the project:

Figuring out where the treads should be placed on each step and marking location with masking tape.

Putting first tread in place... we both worked on the project when we were pulling the backing material off and keeping it straight, so no pictures during that part!

The directions recommended using a metal roller to smooth the step tread down -- which we did not have -- so we used the roll of masking tape pressing down with fingers inside the roll. It was also challenging to smooth it down with your fingers as the material is like sandpaper and kinda wrecked your knuckles!

Lower step done.

Material placed on upper step and smoothing with masking tape roll.

Both steps finished -- hurrah!

I also wanted to show the modification that we have had to do because our main slide is stuck in (still - we have a service appointment for March 1 in Tucson to hopefully get it corrected). The main slide is not only deep and long, it also drops down when it is all the way out to make the slide floor even with the main floor of the rig. When it is in, the slide's floor is about 2.5" higher than the main floor -- which means our dining room chairs are at an angle unless all 4 of their feet are on the slide or on the main floor. This is particularly tough for Carl as he works at his computer which is located on the slide and has the chair's back legs on the main floor -- so he has been sitting canted backwards whenever he is on the computer for over a month now. I mentioned in a blog entry that he had "tweaked" his back a couple of weeks ago, and we think it may be related to poor posture at the computer caused by the chair being un-level... so, again, using our favorite shopping resource, Amazon, we ordered Furniture Risers to raise the legs that are not on the slide. In this picture, he has his chair facing so he can eat at the table and two side legs are on the risers; when he is using the computer, the chair is turned 90 degrees and he puts the back legs of the chair on the risers. It isn't perfect, but it is a lot better than it had been prior to this point! And... we figure that it does not hurt to have these risers with us as there are times that we use the rig with the big slide in (like when we're traveling from one place to another and stop for lunch, we don't put the slide out) and this will allow us to sit at the dining table more comfortably.

Later in the afternoon, we took a bike ride on the roads that make up the outermost part of the Mesa Spirit Resort. We knew that at Venture Out, where we have a lot (that is rented out this year), the outermost loop is about 2.2 miles -- and it is similar distance here, though we had to turn from one road to another a lot rather than there being one outer loop road.

We looked out after dark (it doesn't get very dark at this RV park, they have very bright outside lights on all night long) -- we wanted to see if the reflective stripes on our new step treads were lighting up -- they weren't, but Carl put the flashlight on the top stripe and afterwards it was shining nice and bright. Probably won't last long, but we think that even without the reflective strip activated by light, it will be visible if it is really dark to ensure that we don't miss the edge of the steps. There are not many times that we are out after dark anyway... so our need is probably low.

Also this afternoon, Carl put a water alarm in the bay where we have placed the water softener so if we get a water leak in that area, we'll hopefully hear the alarm and deal with it.

There's always things on the to-do list, and it makes us feel good when we got some moved to the "done" column!