Furnishings

In a flash, our progress:

Kitchen 

-kitchen counter top & 13" leaf

-sink mounting hole & cutting board plug
-sound-dampening coated stainless steel sink
-(2) 6gal carry-in plastic H20 tanks
-water filtration unit
-faucet
-foot pump
-35 quart Engel performance cooler
-(1) 20 lb. propane tank split to
-Coleman 2-burner stove (stove locked to the table) and a
-Mr. Heater "Buddy" heater

Cabin

-a cabin closet with drawers and tall storage
-accessory cabinets

-2 couches
-seat cushions with custom upholstery
-under-couch drawers with locking hardware

Battery bank

-secured (4) 6volt gel marine batteries to the floor behind closet

Driving

-installed passenger swivel adapter; now both seats rotate. (Thank you Sprinter-source.com/forum for connecting us with a second-hand swivel as the U.S. distributer had them on back order for many months!)

Sleeping

-(6) removable/flexible under bed storage wells

I am especially impressed with Daniel's  3" tall foot rest that doubles as a storage box, able to slide under the couch and out of the way.  With absolutely no research or intention to research -- I confidently report this footrest to be the shortest coffee table in the world.

Things left to do

-throw up the walls
-stain all wood
-window sill
-make privacy shades/window covers
-build overhead compartment that will run the length of the drivers side
-cut/cover memory foam to fit bed at "short setting".  (Couch seat backs and butts can be put in place to extend bed to 88". . .that's 7' 4". . .basketballers welcome.)
-install carpeted ceiling panels
-install lights
-rig electric and inverter
-install flip up "utility/garage table" on back door
-install shelving in the trunk storage compartment
-build roof rack
-adjust ABS sensors
-fortify rear bumper (rusting damage)
-dremel away "black death" crystallized diesel exhaust from engine cover & place new gasket
-pack! shove off!  -delilah

Divorcing a double sink.

Using double bar clamps to make stripwood counter top.

13-inch pop-up leaf.

It's a Box!

Thanks for joining us in this edition of Avuncular Activities.

"Avuncular" (a·vun·cu·lar adjective 1.of or relating to an uncle) has, overnight, become our favorite word and thusly radically altered our lives.  We are both wearing collared sweaters, donning spectacles (even if they are 3D movie glasses with the lenses popped out), growing mustaches (Delilah's is looking promising), and writing with mechanical pencils.

In our transition to becoming uncles we have naturally begun to make boxes.  Big boxes, small boxes, locked boxes, fox boxes, penalty boxes, jack-in-the-boxes.  And in our box-making frenzy the question popped into our heads. . .Who invented The Box?  This edition of Avuncular Activities is dedicated to the history of the box.

It all started years ago with four dudes: Rafael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo. These dudes were some upstanding dudes and always helped out in the community.  From teaching skateboarding to the town toddlers, to rescuing

Timmy out of the well, they were always helping out where they could.  One day, on their way to help a promising young pupil learn how to kick-flip, they passed by Dave the Pizza-er (one who makes Pizza).
"Kowabunga, Dave!"  They yelled.
But when Dave did not respond with the customary "What's good my green friends?"  they knew something was very wrong.
     "What's up, Dave? You look like a skateboard's run you down."
     "Oh, well, I made all these pizzas for the Timmy's-no-longer-down-in-a-well party because he's no longer down in that well."
    "Right on, Amigo!" said Donatello.
    "Totally radical, man," said Rafael.
    "Super," said Michaelangelo.  And Leonardo, always the cool one,  just gave Dave a slight nod and a half-wink, as he crossed his legs and lounged against the wall.
     Dave was not reassured by the Dudes' encouragement or even Leonardo's half-wink.
    "Yes it's all great guys but I have no way of bringing all those pizzas to the party!" He sunk down onto a stack of pizza cardboard.

The Dudes were baffled by this conundrum and scrunched up their faces into their best thinking poses.  They scratched their heads and stroked their smooth turtley chins. Finally, Donatello bursted out.
    "I got it!"
    "You figured out how to bring the pizzas to the party?"
    "No, I finally found the M&M I lost last week. It was in my back pocket this whole time." He  munched on the M&M.
He was thoroughly congratulated with a few exclamations of "Awesome dude", "Mega cool bro" and the customary "Kowabunga du..."  But Rafael could not finish his exclamation.  The others stared at him but he was already bounding across the room to the stack of cardboard. He went to work in a fury of measuring, folding, and cutting.  In no time at all he stood back.
     "Viola!"
     The others went through the list: "Radical!" "Kowabunga!" "Right on!" and "Killer!".
     "What is it?" asked Dave.
     "I call it: a box."
     Rafael grabbed a pizza pie and slid it in.

The Dudes were astounded. Minutes later with the pizzas nestled into boxes (though there were considerably fewer slices than when they started), the Dudes rolled towards town on their skateboards, pizza stacked high above their heads.

Thanks for joining us on this educational edition of Avuncular Activities.

Here's a picture of one such box we constructed using 1/4" luan plywood, wood glue, and a whole lot of clamps. It will fit 2 small and 4 personal pizzas.

-Dan

Everything is the "Living Room"

When you live in a van everything is the living room. You don't get to refer to the "living room closet" or the "table in the living room" anymore. The eating, the reading, even the driving happens in the living room. It's all just one, big. . .small, cozy, organized place where everything mentionable and unmentionable happens.  Like a yurt on wheels.

This kind of reality must be attractive these days, though--the Tinyhouse industry is booming.  I think everyone I've ever met in every state I've ever been in is talking about wanting to move into a tinyhouse. People who drive large cars and have mortgages and stuff, everyone has contracted a mania to move into the livingroom.  Even me.

Makes sense.  I mean, during this design process we seem to ask ourselves two basic questions: 1. What do I need from a living space? and 2. What layout will maximize ease-of-use?  In order to commit to living out of a van at all Danimal and I must have quietly asked ourselves these same questions. The answer seems to have been: I need to chuck all my stuff out the window and move into the living room.  

The living room of any home is where both the action and relaxation happens. It's where entertainment happens, both the screen-based (movies) and discourse or conversation-based (friends come over for dinner/small children play here). Because it is often the room with the largest table, the living room is where projects happen. The living room is where it's at.  As long as the refrigerator and food prep moves in, it's the only room you really need. All the tinyhouse droolers were right after all.

This obvious and powerful truth, however much I am stoked for it and have invested in it--that all I really need can be built into an 11'x5' space--still frightens me about the future. My privileged upbringing afforded me large domestic spaces to dwell in, houses with rooms upon rooms, places where you could do your homework on one side of the house and not know for hours if someone was choking on a chicken wing or practicing for the opera on the other. The apartments and homes I've rented for the past 12 years were clearly scaled down quite a bit, but for the sake of this argument they were more or less the same. I have been so tied up in the layout process of the Sprinter-build, in the inches and folds, the angles, the if-you-sit-there-what-does-it-feel-like-when's that I hadn't given much thought to what everyone else in my life seems to have been wondering: How are you going to live in there?

Well. . .what's the big deal? Snails do it.  -Delilah

#greatmeasuringsnailrace

Stanley 25 out in front but still anyone's race.

Tune in next time to find out what happens in the Great Measuring Snail Race!