The old jacknife couch

This was an ultraleather jacknife couch that folded out into a bed and was probably the most uncomfortable bed ever designed and made - next to useless. It did have a wide but shallow drawer in the base that DW used for her scrapbooking materials.

The dinette is a tremendous waste of space and as DW and I spend a lot of time using computers it was uncomfortable and cluttered.

As you can see, storage space was at a premium and the motorhome never looked neat and tidy.

There must be a better solution - we had sleeping for 8 people and seating for 8 - we have never had more than 4 people onboard and for most of the time it's just DW and I.

Whilst the dark rug doesn't help the decor it will be replaced when we get the new flooring - it was just such a bargain at the time marked down from $700 to just $50.

Removing the couch was fairly easy - just 4 screws held it in and then we removed the seat belts and their bolts pushed through underneath. Sealed the old bolt holes with mastic. The couch was then disassembled to get it through the door and donated to the Elkhart Campground owners for one of their cabins.

Removing the dinnette simply required that the base be unscrewed - lots of screws but a power screwdriver made light work of it. Again it was donated to the campground as it was in excellent condition.

Well you can see that we had a storage problem! We ended up piling the bedroom high with 'stuff' as we cleared the decks for the new furniture to be installed.

This is the first piece of furniture being installed. It's a combination of solid oak and some plywood interior panels to keep weight down and it's very well made. That's what you come to expect from Amish workmen - what I didn't expect was the incredible value for money - just $1350 including the extending table. And that included the installation.

You can start to see how much more space we ended up with and the extra storage.

Part way through the install - note that the Amish use power tools - albeit battery powered wherever possible.

This is the second piece - a 'sideways' computer desk with long drawers and a thin storage cabinet down the side. Note the overhang over the edge of the slide - more of this later.

Same picture without the flash to try and get the correct color of the wood - it's actually too dark in this image but he made it an absolute match with the existing furniture - same color, same routing patterns on the doors, same knobs and same hinges - it helps being in Nappanee I'm sure.

It's starting to take shape now and you can see how much extra storage we now have. The only problem we had was that the top of the table had to be notched to fit the slide and it couldn't be fitted flush to the sidewall due to the window - but the gap was ideal for routing the cables for the computer.

Just another view showing how well the new units matched with the old. It's almost looks factory.

The flash brightens it up a touch too much but we just love the new furniture and space.

Likewise the new table matches so well

With the extending leaf (the leaf is stored in the center of the table) we now have a dining table suitable for 4 people. There is a slight rise into the slideout on this side which means that the outside people need to be well to the outside otherwise their chairs are on the slant but it works well.

Here's the table partially extended with the leaf - wood grain matches perfectly and it's all made so well that I want to hug it :)

This design has the table permantly fixed on a slider inside the sideboard - the advantage is the extra storage space available underneath.

The second piece has a pull out drawer for a keyboard that locks into place on full extension. I also used the opportunity to install extra power sockets, something that we had complained about from the beginning - there were none where we actually needed them.

Because of the depth of the cabinet, the drawers are wonderful and deep - this is a great drawer for DW's long scrapbooking printer which you will see later.

More than enough room for all the filing system - this takes standard hanging files and pulls out to it's full depth.

The sideboard/dining table piece has a sliding laptop/keyboard tray and a sliding printer tray underneath. We installed our HP all-in-one printer/scanner in here and as it has a WiFi interface we can use it from either computer.

Three drawers on this side and the lower one is a filing cabinet size drawer for hanging files.

The finished work - a facia piece was also installed on the top rear edge to finish it off and to cover up old screw holes left over from removing the dinette.

This is the finished computer desk - note the floor expansion box that was built during installation to bring the floor of the slide out to the edge of the cabinet leaving more than enough room for the chair. This is a loose box that can be lifted into the slide during travel and is stained and varnished to match the rest of the furniture.

We added the swivel recliner to increase the available seating having lost the couch.

A closer look at the box floor extension. The kitchen slide on the Beaver does not have a floor level with the rest of the MH but is 3" higher. The box adds 8" of depth - the same as the old couch did. In the future I may have the floor of the slide relaid with tile and the box could be then hinged to the front edge to make it easy to store/deploy.

All set up for DW with her desktop computer and the large format printer. The chairs came from RV Surplus and Salvage in Elkhart for $40 each - another great bargain.

And finally the finished dining table.