Hi all - finished my first few mods to new (to me) 179. The first thing that I did was to resize the drawers to maximum depth; plenty of other posts about that mod, so no photos here unless anyone want to see them. Used 3/8" plywood for sides and 3/16" underlay plywood for drawer bottoms. Reused all original hardware and drawer faces.
First up is a replacement for the sink insert. It's a cutting board made from a 1/2" hdpe cutting board I purchased at the local restaurant supply store for $12. I used the formica insert as a template, using double-sided tape to hold the two together, than a router template bit w/bearing to cut out the shape. Used a rounding-over bit to profile the edge on both sides, and shes done!
Second mod was a small shelf above the sink. Used similar material but 3/8" thick. Cut to size on table saw (3 1/4" width), secured the edge to a small mounting board of the same material using Loctite Plastic Bonding Glue; attached to wall with an anchor on one side and into a 1x2 next to the sink on the other side. Sorry for the bad photo; light coming in through the skylight makes it tough to manage.
Last one was the biggest, and one that I'm most excited about. I built a shelf above the bed, and partitioned it to hold plastic storage bind that we purchased from Kohls. They look like this:
They're 11x13x8" high, and the shelf unit holds 6 of them. We use them to hold our clothes. Its a simple but effective system; take the baskets in the house, load them up, stack them and carry them out to the trailer.
I built the shelf using 3/16" lauan underlayment plywood and 1/2" hemlock lumber, both from Lowes. Plywood is inset into grooves in the hemlock, glued and pin-nailed. The unit is attached to the walls on each end with 3 - 1" molly bolts. I removed the valances and mounted them just above the mini blinds. Finished with a coat of shellac and 3 coats of satin finish polyurethane. Thought about trying to match the trim stain but decide to go with natural wood look.
I'll try to take better photos when the light is better. On to the next project!