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The main area is located forward of the kitchen and aft of the cab (see the floorplan). It's the primary living space in the bus.
Efficiency and flexibility are the two keys to living in 240 ft2. The idea behind the main area was to have a large, open space that I could easily repurpose as needed. At 96 ft2, it's the largest single space in the bus and almost half of the (non-loft) floorspace. It is completely open from one wall to the other through most of its length. With the raised roof, it is essential for creating a feeling of space. The floor here is also raised by a foot. This room between the original floor and the new floor is used for water storage - a pair of 110 gallon polyethylene tanks, one for fresh water and one for waste water. I wanted these on the inside of the bus to add thermal mass and to eliminate any risk of freezing. The finish floor is oak laminate, with access hatches for cleaning the tanks.
When I raised the roof, I welded a series of nuts to the inside of the ribs. When my dad and I installed the ceiling, we left holes to screw eyelets into the nuts. I have hanging furniture that can be set up or stored as necessary. The ceiling was finished with white pickling stain. The light color helps maintain the feeling of openness and also helps diffuse the light from the four full-spectrum T5 fluorescent bulbs behind the ceiling molding.
At the very front of the main area is my desk, home to an ever-shifting collection of books, the hardware that runs the bus and its' network, a pair of 24" LCD monitors and my stereo. The monitors are bolted to a pair of 20mm sliders originally intended, I believe, for use on a precision milling machine. They came to me via eBay (at a steep discount, of course).
There are six computers at present. One is a low-power VIA Nano which acts as fileserver, router and host for software which monitors and controls the bus. The second is a diskless workstation which I use as my desktop and for visualization and CAD work. The final four are the diskless nodes of the minicluster. A PowerDsine 6012 802.3af midspan provides power to the touchscreen, wireless links and sensors.