Post #4
The next issue we wanted to address was to provide more sleeping accomodations. The couch does make a pretty nice size bed when open, but we have older kids both married, and one of them gave us one of our greatest joys three years ago...our sweet granddaughter Hannah. Sometimes they get to travel with us, not all at once, but still, we wanted to make them comfortable when they are with us. We also were not happy with the table and two chairs (as seen in an earlier picture). It just wasn't practical. So we did some searching and actually got a pretty neat idea from a bus family who were traveling full time for a few years. They had an idea for converting a dinette into a sleeper. So we took the basic idea to Creative Coach in Lakeland, FL and together we came up with this dinette/sleeper/storage and it works GREAT!!! It wasn't cheap, but they did an excellent job and we are SO pleased with it. It was one of the things we kind of splurged on, but it was important to us. By the way, Creative Coach has probably one of the finest paint and body shops in the country for big rigs. It's really their specialty. We have seen their work and it is awesome.
This first two pictures show the dinette. The bench cushions were made at a local upholstery shop.
The table top comes off and you'll see the tall removable polls underneath. When the table is off we lay it up against the inside wall of our bus behind our leather chairs.
Once those taller polls are removed it is replaced with a shorter poll support. We keep this stored in a closet inside the bus when it's not being used.
Now you are ready to flip part of the bench lid over to rest on the shorter support. Notice the back bench lid has piano hinges. This will be the foundation for the mattress. By the way, there is plenty of storage available under the "L" shaped benches. We keep our sheets, blankets, towels, and pillows stored there.
Here is the mattress. We had this made at the same local upholstery shop that made the bench cushions. We had them also make a vinyl envelope style cover that the mattress slips into so we can store it in one of our bays when not being used.
![Image](http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q52/locktech005/Mattress.jpg)