Working out the bugs, AKA, projects are my sanity

We've now been on several outings in The Van, and the "bugs" are rising to the surface.  But other than the latest bug, which is the need to add a second drain in the shower pan (which falls under the jurisdiction of Husband) ... I see them as opportunities.  Another project!  For a few more hours, or days, I have a purpose and a mission!

The shower drain issue first became evident when we were in Utah, boondocking* on a dirt road somewhere near the town of Toquerville.  We were parked on a bit of a slant and the shower pan overflowed during my shower.  A recessed shower pan in a van floor is a challenge because the total depth of the floor, including vinyl flooring, subfloor, and insulation, is about 1.75 inches thick.  This translates to a very shallow shower pan, so level parking and efficient drainage are key.  

Sometimes level parking, as much as we try, isn't always possible, so then fast and free-flowing drainage becomes even more important and our one little drain isn't quite up to the task.  So Lucky Husband has a job.  Yay ....?  (Note:  2nd drain has since been added.)

I, on the other hand, LOVE projects (not to be confused with chores, which I dislike).  I love designing, planning, executing, and admiring the results afterwards.  Let me show you a few I've done since my last blog update, on my own, ofttimes using power tools.  

Sun shades.  No power tools this time ..... unless you count a sewing machine.  I follow a YouTube video called "From She to Me", by Debbie who also travels in a van with her husband.  Debbie is always doing little mods (modifications) to her van and is not the least bit intimidated by tools, mechanics, or pulling things apart and then putting them back together.  Add to that, she cooks and sews.  (I'm not sure what her husband does, other than hold the camera.)  She made sun shades for her van so I made sun shades for my van.  If Debbie can do it, I can too.  

Held on by magnets

I ordered the screening from sailrite.com (like Debbie did) and found the edging tape on Amazon.  We had shades like these for our motorhome which kept some of the sunlight and heat from coming though the cab windows, which are not tinted like the other windows.  

I also installed clips to hold our broom under the sofa, clips to hold the long-handled squeegee, and more clips to hold the wand that unfurls our ....... (drumroll) ...... awning!  Yes!  Here's the story ..... 

Months ago, Husband researched awnings and decided on a Thule model.  We found it on Amazon and ordered it.  A few days later, Amazon informed us it had shipped and gave a delivery date, but the shipping details were suspiciously vague.    A few weeks later when that date arrived, Amazon emailed saying that it had NOT shipped and do we still want it?  

Yes, we did.  

Repeat the several-weeks-long process of vague shipment details, stated delivery date, and same inquiring email.  

Finally we said No.  Cancel order.  

Husband contacted a dealer about 150 miles away who said they were getting the same runaround from Thule, so they had stopped selling that brand.  (Note: I blame Covid.  Thule, a Swedish company, has a good reputation for quality products.)  This dealer did have Fiamma brand awnings which are very nice.  Husband called them back and left a phone message saying we'd like one of their Fiammas.  

A few hours after that phone call, a long box showed up on our driveway.  Inside was a Thule awning.  From Amazon.

We opened the box to discover it was a different Thule model, which comes with brackets that do not fit our van .... in fact, this particular model is not even sold in this hemisphere!  I contacted Amazon to tell them that we did not order this awning.  Their answer:  We can keep it or dispose of it.  No charge.  (This is a $1200 awning.)

Now this would be a dilemma for anyone who doesn't have the resources to make custom mounting brackets.  (Insert Brilliant Machinist Husband here.  Ha!)  So the end result is we have a beautiful awning that fits our van and the total cost was about $15.   (score, score, SCORE!)

Back to my own little mods, which now pale after that last story.

I sleep on the side of the bed (in the van) that is against the back doors and needed a place to stick my phone, earbuds, and other necessities.  So I designed and made a wooden, felt-lined box attached to a board that slides under the mattress.  I call it my nightstand.

I pull it out when I change the bedding, then stick it back in.  

Also, I made another wooden box/shelf for holding small items .... along with key hooks, which I attached to one of our cabinets.  

Mind you, these involved: 

    1. a table saw 

    2. a power sander 

    3. clamps, and 

    4. a power drill  

No help from Husband.  In fact, he wasn't even home.  (Probably golfing.)   "I am woman, hear me roar ..."

I hung more hooks because we can never have enough.  And husband completed the trim pieces inside.  

All that's left before the van is deemed FINISHED are three outside lights.  (Mods, by the way, do not count.  May they live on forevermore.)

So back to those "bugs" .....

It would be an understatement to say the weather has been hot.  As you may recall, we installed an evaporative cooler in the van ceiling.  But apparently it requires not being parked in the blazing afternoon sun.  A few days ago we had to park in an unfortunate shadeless position, with the rear of the van getting the full brunt.  Husband, using one of those temperature-measuring laser gun thingies, (you point it at something and it tells you how hot it is.) measured the temp of the metal on the inside of our rear doors. 120 degrees!  (Hmmm.  I personally insulated those doors.)  Anyway, too much for our little ceiling cooler.  Soooooo, I'm now trying to design a way to shield portions of the van exterior (where the awning isn't) that may be exposed to a solar onslaught.  (Note:  We since purchased a second detachable and movable awning to cover in-the-hot-sun areas where the main awning doesn't reach.)

Another project!  My sanity will happily endure yet another day.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Boondocking -- RV camping without plugging into electricity or hooking up to water.  Being completely off-grid and self-contained.  

 

It's Done (for the most part)

 So, do I wait until it's 100% ... down-to-the-last-detail .... finished?  Or just go ahead and show the 99% complete version?  Since the vast majority of friends and fam have already seen it, I guess it doesn't really matter.  And this blog is due for another post.

So here goes ...... The Almost Finished Van!  (Note:  See this post for the finishing touches.)

But first.  

In our defense, the outside stuff (namely, the exterior lights, of which there will be three) must wait for the awning, which is on backorder.  

That said .....

The newest addition is the bug screen at the door.  You just push through at the center and the sewn-in magnets cause it to close on its own ..... sort of ...... with a little help.  Atop the van are solar panels totaling 630 watts.

Under the lower cabinet on the left, we keep the trash, kitchen storage, and next to the bed is our closet.  That same cabinet also contains our 30 gallon fresh water tank, fillable from the back of the cabinet, just inside the slider door.  Under the bed is a small sliding door to access the garage.

That table moves in multiple directions.  Its top is from the same butcher block used for our countertop.  The sofa includes seat belts for two, and the driver and passenger seats up front (not in view) swivel to face backwards to create our "living room".  The dog sleeps under the sofa.

The mirrors are acrylic.  The tile backsplash is very realistic peel n' stick tiles.  (Light weight is important.)  In the ceiling above the bed is an evaporative cooler, which requires much less power than a regular air conditioner.  Hopefully it'll do the trick.  Under the passenger seat in the cab is our heater that is fueled by the diesel from the van's tank.  It keeps us plenty warm in cold weather.

The walls are covered either with shiplap or vinyl-upholstered panels.  The ceiling is tongue-and-groove cedar.

The "garage".  It includes an outdoor shower.  Lots of electrical and plumbing guts behind those panels, including 560 amp hour lithium batteries (that Husband built himself, saving $$$), a 3000 watt inverter, and a 2.5 gallon water heater.  We can plug into an outside power source, but probably will never need to.  

The grandkids named it Eddie VAN Halen ...... which likely won't stick because nicknames don't last long around here (sad to say, because I come from a family with a rich history of embarrassing/endearing nicknames).  To us, it's just The Van.

As I said in a previous post, there are a bazillion ideas and how-tos for building a DIY camper van on YouTube, so a lot of what we did was copied from other vans.  But the one feature that is original (thought up by moi) is our shower.  (And it works perfectly ..... except for once when we were parked on a slant and the shower pan overflowed a little.  A lesson learned about being level.)  Vans like ours, if they have a bathroom at all, have what's called a "wet bath".  This means the toilet resides in the shower and will get wet along with you.  This is a necessity since there's only 84 square feet of space and a separate shower would mean giving up something rather important, like the kitchen ....  You just have to remember to remove the TP roll first, obviously.  Afterwards, a little squeegee-ing and you're good to go ..... figuratively and (I suppose) literally .....    

What you see when you first open the bathroom doors.  The shower walls are formica.  The curtain pulls out for privacy and/or showers.  And that toilet flushes into a 14 gallon black tank.  (No composting or porta-potties here.)

For showers, we fold back the rug and insert these plastic strips which hold the curtain in place.  Husband hand-crafted that teak grate with neither nails or screws.  (He's rather proud of it.)  Below that is a fiberglass shower pan (also handmade by Husband) with a drain that sends all water to an 18 gallon tank under the van.  (Note:  A second drain hole has since been added to the shower to prevent any overflowing if we're on a slight slant.)

The shower curtain holds together with magnets.  It's quite roomy in there.

The van has become my new Happy Place.  It'll be where I mentally go when sitting in the dentist's chair, or in any other place of potential dread.  When I disappear at home, Husband knows where to find me.  A few days ago, I even took it out BY MYSELF and camped in the woods for one night ...... ALONE.  I don't have to hitch or tow anything and it's easy to park ..... in other words, no man needed.  I can do this whenever I want .....  (No need to worry about the Husband being left behind.  At the time, he was hours away, happily standing in a river, holding a fishing pole.) 

Surrounded by the Stupids

Don't get me wrong.  There are great people where we live.  We have some of the best neighbors we've ever had .... and I mean The Best.  If we aren't here to haul our empty trashcan back up our driveway after the garbage collector has come by, there is no stopping Best Neighbors from doing it for us.  Last week we were planning to be out of town so I asked if they'd just move it up by our trailer, only a few steps from the road ..... but no .... they took it all the way up to our house.  And there's no talking them out of it.  If we need help with anything, they're here in a flash.  And we try to reciprocate.  

Other neighbors come by unannounced to help clear our driveway after a deep snowfall.  Another neighbor stopped by after it had snowed to check on us because they hadn't seen our car tracks in a couple of days.  Wonderful, caring people.

But unfortunately there are also the Stupids, meaning random brain-dead idiots who either live here or drive in to spread their *joy*.  Public land, where there aren't enough eyes per square mile to keep watch over things, seems to attract them and they take full advantage.  

The Stupids dump or leave their trash, without a thought as to who will have to clean it up.  And I'm not just talking about average litter, but major dumping ..... furniture, cars, used paraphernalia, and the remains of lustful, drunken nights.  Either they're narcissistic, or lazy, or simply scum ..... or all three.  

I have one neighbor whose trash enjoys entangling itself across my property whenever it's windy and the prevailing wind seems to always come from their direction.  I have to go out every few weeks and gather it up, except for the plastic shopping bags stuck in the trees that I cannot reach.  No, I haven't spoken to them yet and yes, I need to.  They also let their dogs roam freely which usually isn't a problem, but it freaks out our dog.  They're somewhat new and needless to say, I dearly miss the sweet neighbor who used to live there who managed to keep her trash and dogs contained.

The Stupids also drive crazily.  Now maybe it's my imagination that it's particularly bad out here, but I am literally more fearful to drive on local highways here than where I used to live where there were more cars!  The accidents here where the roads are less crowded are frequent and inexplicable.  Pulling out in front of a truck in broad daylight in light traffic ..... how do you explain that?  And many of the accidents are fatal. 

I just read on Facebook that the Stupids were out target shooting on local public land and a woman, who was out walking her dog, noticed bullets flying past her and she had to hit the ground and shout that she was there!!  This will probably lead to all shooting on public land being prohibited which means the responsible gun owners will go elsewhere, leaving only the Stupids who don't care about rules or anything else.  Hence, they will win ... again.  

There are rants aplenty in local Facebook groups, but I doubt the Stupids read it, so it's all preaching to the choir.  Sad to say, my opinion of people has declined in the last few years.  I never saw this amount of trash when we lived in the burbs.  I never had to walk along my road to pick up garbage, including multiple whiskey bottles tossed out of cars.  I don't remember seeing so many paint marks on the roads, marking the pattern of the latest crash.  In town, there are too many eyes ready to report anything amiss, so it's not as easy to flaunt stupidity.  

I like living in the country.  I like the privacy and space.  I like the clean air.  I'm grateful I'm not in the city, and the hideous mess that many of them have become.  (Particularly Portland, Oregon, my childhood home.  We recently drove through there on the freeway, and it's a jaw-dropping heartbreak to see what that once beautiful city has become.   That, in my opinion, is the result of the Government Stupids in league with the Street Stupids, while ignoring the good people footing the bill.)  The Stupids ruin it for everyone.  

So I try, between trash cleanups, to not get too angry and focus on the good people.  Like most of our neighbors ..... the people who help keep public land and roads clean and safe.  The people who basically care about others.  ..... the people who aren't stupid.