1/18 Home Improvement, RV Style

Making changes to an RV can be tricky.  You can't nail anything to walls easily because there is nothing behind them.  Here is one thing I did recently to improve my standard of living. 
 
The front window in my Class C motorhome often lets in too much light for me, and I believe that to be a cause of my migraine headaches. It is especially bad if there is an almost-all-white RV across me reflecting the sun. My recliner faces the window in order to watch TV so I end up staring into the sun a lot. Here is what the front window looks like:

I do have a night curtain, but it completely blocks the view, and I am a very snoopy person so I like to know what is going on outside:

They do make vinyl covers that go on the outside of the RV, but have mesh for the front and side windows.  The only problem with those are is that they go on the outside and require snaps and magnets.  They are also heavy to fold and take up a lot of valuable storage space.

So I bought some polyester black speaker cover fabric from JoAnn Fabrics because it was washable and easy to see through. I do not have a sewing machine with me, so I used stitch witchery to iron on seams. I folded the top seam over several times and put in a couple of layers of the stitch witchery so it would be stiff and strong enough to hold the snaps. I left the outside edges unfinished. I also ironed and then hand stitched the bottom seam so it would NOT be stiff.

I also bought a kit to add snaps. You put the top of the snap through a hole in the fabric, and then put on the part that snaps, and smash the whole thing with a small rod, which makes the snap hook things bend and fasten everything together. I used a cement post I found on the edge of my campsite, but you are really supposed to use an anvil to pound the parts together.

The kit looks like this:

I started adding snaps in the middle and kept trying it on for size and for snap spacing. I tried not to make it too tight in case it shrank someday.

I put in a small pleat between the outside snaps and the ones next to them to give the fabric some room in case I decide to fasten it to the sides someday. Here is my finished project. I might still decide to screw in some snaps down the sides, but am waiting on that because it needs further thinking. Cost was about $45 total.

So now when I am parked facing the sun, I will put up the mesh panel instead of the solid one. 

Also, I have been wanting a small table next to my recliner to hold books, drinks, and miscellaneous stuff so I don't have to get up so often.  I have not been able to find exactly what I wanted, but I did find this shelf unit at a Camping World.  It originally came with a table that folded up, but that would stick out too much.  Last November, I ended up buying the shelf unit, removing the table leaf, and then screwing it into my wall, using the holes where the dinette had been removed.  I knew there was metal behind the wall at that point, so it would be secure.  Here is the result.

I saved the table and hardware, so I am hoping to get someone to cut it down to about a foot so I can replace it and it will cover the top and middle shelves.  It originally folded up all the way to the bottom and stuck out about 30".