Van Life Before the Build

As I mentioned earlier, I had weeks until I was headed west as a seasonal employee for the Forest Service in Oregon. Staying in and using the van for about a year gave me time to get a feel for how I wanted to build the van, but at the same time limited me on my ability to build it all at once. I would be returning home in the winter months without a garage to build in and would be traveling in it the rest of the time, so I would not have the tools or ability to work on it long enough to complete it in one push. All in all this led me to have a build that was more for an extended weekend type as opposed to the full house like builds you see all over the internet. This actually ended up working in my favor and fitting my lifestyle a little better, since I didn’t have a second vehicle with me while working out west and I used my van to run shuttle for whitewater (ww) kayaking. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, ww kayaking normally involves two vehicles. You drop one vehicle off at point B, the takeout, where you finish and use the second vehicle to drive back to point A, the put, where you start. So, having the room to jam at least one kayak inside greatly improves my functionality at the loss of a built in shower, computer stand, sink, solar panel, battery and TV which I am okay with. I would have liked to have had the solar and battery, but it wasn’t worth it to me to lose the roof space. I am, however, still looking into a suitcase solar panel. If you do not participate in multiple adventure sports that are gear intensive I could see the draw of these other comforts, but to me the van is just a place to store for gear and often times a very cramped bedroom.

I got the chance to experience the van wide open without the build and I must admit I miss the functionality, but not the condensation build up dripping on my head in the mornings or at 1 pm on winter days when the van finally warms up enough for all the frozen moisture to begin dripping down from the ceiling. Or the coldness felt from accidentally touching the bare metal everywhere when I would roll over to protect my head from the drips with my sleeping bag. The area carpet I added and the meal boxes I slept on added some buffer but not as much shielding as an insulated van.

On my return trip home to WV from working in OR, I first went to White Salmon, WA for Thanksgiving with friends before driving south to San Diego to visit my family and to avoid as much snow as possible as I worked my way back across the US for about a month.

When I arrived at my brothers in late November 2017 I added the first thing to the van, a bed frame! I placed the frame to look out the sliding door just behind the front seats. I really liked being able to lay in the bed with the sliding side door open peering out as I had been accustom to without the van build. I didn’t think this would be super functional, but wanted to give it a try. I spent hours laying there for about a year envisioning how I wanted my van to function then trying to make the build around it. March 10, 2018 8 days shy of a full year from when I purchased it the actual build begins! Unfortunately the bed couldn’t stay behind the front seats, even though I loved the view from here, it just wasn’t accommodating anything else.