What I did was to unbolt the rear seats and put them in storage and then I bought 2 by 4's and 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch plywood and first made a frame about 2 feet high out of the 2 by 4s. then I put the plywood on top of this and then I went out and bought a queen size 6 inch foam for my wife and I and family to sleep on then (as we had just returned from living in Hawaii on Maui then. IT was helpful because the government had messed us up financially by telling me to come to UC SANTA Cruz to get my student loans for college and grants but the only gave me tuition and books which was a disaster for us at the time then in 1990 because we had already moved out of our Mt. Shasta house and put everything in storage trying to make this move to Santa Cruz, California to return to UCSC. However, since that didn't work out financially for us we moved first to Mt. Shasta and stayed in our Window van with our then 2 year old daughter until the water in the pan outside for washing dishes froze over. At this point we got into a house that was old on an acre of land with fruit trees but the house wasn't insulated in walls or ceiling except for some sawdust near the kitchen still in the ceiling about 18 inches deep which was a fire hazard. Then I looked at the roof rafters and there had been a fire in the past at some point where the rafters were burnt too which was quite something to realize too. So, wind would blow through the white slats of the outside of the house if it was cold.
So, I wrapped the house in greenhouse plastic so my kids could survive the winter there in Mt. Shasta and then I didn't like the carpet there because it was a really old orange carpet so one day I just put it out in the snow in anger of how bad this carpet was. So, my wife went to a garage sale and bought a beautiful white carpet for the living room that was thick and warm which helped the living room be warmer in the winter.
Then I realized I could ask the landlord if I could buy 8 inch fiberglass insulation and install it with my 15 year old son in lieu of the rent and they agreed to this deal.
So, within a week of that I and my son had installed 8 inch Fiberglass insulation throughout the house up in the attic. The winter was much warmer there after that. I recently went by there now 36 years later and unbelievably this house is still standing even though the garage likely all built in the 1920s has been torn down where I built Sleigh bell sets we sold on line to people with carriages that work in the snow all over the U.S. and world for awhile. My friend who is a musician still has some of my sleigh bell sets for recording purposes as he has a recording music studio in Mt. Shasta too all these years later.
OH> also, in the window van my wife and I bought long springs mounted above the windows to put curtains on for privacy in the window van too. Though I liked that old 6 cylinder van it wasn't any good in the snow for going skiing up mt. Shasta because not enough weight over the drive wheels. So, I bought a friends old 1962 Volvo that had snow tires and was good in the snow so I could more easily drive through the snow up the mountain to go skiing then too.
It's amazing all the things that can happen in a single lifetime. It's amazing all the adventures we all can survive and still keep going and adapting and moving on.
And now I'm 78 and living on the coast 1 mile from the ocean with my present wife while my children live all over the U.S. and Europe now too. Luckily I can afford to visit them often so this is good too.
by God's Grace
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