Creating more space in the R-178

This past winter I was standing in our 178 and got curious about how much space the microwave actually took up in the cabinet.  So on a lark I took it out figuring I could always put it back in if necessary.  Holy smokes I couldn’t believe the amount of additional storage space that was available if we took out the microwave completely.  We don’t use the microwave that much and it weighs nearly 50 pounds.  That’s just too much unnecessary weight to heat up a cup of coffee and make popcorn.  So we decided to re-purpose the cabinet for storage and purchase an inexpensive light weight toaster oven to replace it.

I lined the inside of the cabinet with 1/8 thick hardboard and made a removable box around the exposed electrical wires and outlets.

Then I finished off the inside with a small shelf and a slide out tray for our food and cooking supplies.

We had a rather warm spell this past winter and with entirely too much time on my hands I finished of the cabinet with a tambour door.

Last summer I built a cabinet above the kitchen area and fastened it to the molding at the top of the slide out.  Great idea for additional space but a really lousy design.  It just wasn’t deep enough to be of any use.

So I took it out and built another one the full 75” length of the upper molding and 13” deep.  The height at 7 ¾” is enough to give clearance with the AC unit and the curvature of the ceiling in the rear of the 178 when the slide out moves in and out.

Lastly, one design feature about the 178 we find irritating is the placement of radio.  It’s up near the ceiling and it’s impossible to see the LCD display clearly in any level of light without something to stand on. 

So I removed the radio and the entire cabinet and built a new deeper cabinet using the original as a model. 

Rerouted the rat’s nest of wires through new lower openings in the wall.  Mounting the radio at eye level and the switches and tank level indicators closer together created another nice sized storage area above.

I covered the original hole in the wall with the drawer bottoms I saved after making new deeper and taller drawers.