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As we feared, the curves at the front of the ceiling made things extra challenging today. The van roof slopes from the center to the edges, but of course at the front it also slopes down. These compound curves caused some tough gaps in the planks as we tried to install toward the front today. Think of wrapping a flat board over the surface of a ball. As you move out from the very center of the ball the middle of the board has a gap relative to the two ends. So the tongue and groove fits nicely at the ends, but not so much in the middle.

This was … very frustrating. The hardware store was nearby so I ran out and bought a couple more clamps to pull the boards together. Unfortunately, even with the clamps the process is still quite difficult and we chipped a couple boards in the process. Nothing so bad that we pulled down the board to start over, but definitely things that will give the ceiling some “character” and will probably irk us every time we look at it. Perhaps we finish it all well now that we know what we are up against and those blemishes will just be a reminder of what we overcame!

Here are some boards at the front clamped together, propped up with supports, glued with construction adhesive, and held in place with tiny brad nails. Sheesh, that seems like a lot writing it down.

Me adding some nails. Again, we shoot the nails into the furring strip through a small piece of wood to act as a spacer and then clip off the head to leave a little spike to hold the boards in place while the glue sets.

A lot more challenging curved boards to go, but here is the view looking toward the front.

More of the back is done, including the first two boards where our ceiling lights will go.

We also both worked out with a personal trainer, I made two trips to the hardware store (one for the clamps and one because we kind of melted an extension cord running our electric heater), I made one stop shopping for more adhesive, and after dinner we went to The Last Jedi with my dad.

Sure beats a day at work!

…plank. Actually we put in four planks. As it was late anyway, we decided to let the glue set on those planks so that we have a well-set line on which to put in the rest of the ceiling. The ceiling is insulated with automotive Thinsulate and reflectix (glorified bubble wrap with foil on both sides). The Thinsulate is glued in and the reflectix is just held up under the furring strips, which are bolted to the roof ribs of the van. The wood planks are the final step of what is hopefully a beautiful and well-insulated ceiling.

A month ago we got a bunch of 1/4″ tongue-and-groove cedar planks from the Home Depot for our ceiling and walls. Around Thanksgiving there was some unseasonably warm weather so we sanded and polyurethaned them all so they would be ready. Here is a video of Sara hard at work applying polyurethane to all the boards.

So many nice planks all smooth and semi-glossy.

Today we were finally ready to start on the actual ceiling install. We finished gluing in pieces at the front and back of the van where the planks will end. We will butt the planks into those boards and then install a trim piece to hold them all in the same position and cover the ends. Some people use brass screws to install these types of planks. We decided to use a [hopefully] strong construction adhesive. We also shot small brad nails into the furring strips on the ceiling then clipped off the heads. This leaves a sharp exposed nail to hold the pieces place while the adhesive sets. We spent a lot of time thinking about how it was all going to line up and then measuring out the first boards so hopefully it goes reasonably well!

Installing end pieces.

The glue/nail combination.

Installing the first board.

The roof curves quite a bit in front and we wanted the first boards to be perfectly aligned so we jammed a couple 2x4s under them and will let them set over night.

The first two additional boards in back. In order to offset the joints these are only about half the length of the middle board. It doesn’t curve much there and everything was holding really well so we figured that we could get these installed tonight as well.

Looking forward.

With any luck we will be able to get most of the ceiling finished tomorrow. We have to install lights along the way and there are more curves to deal with. We will see how it goes!

Sure, we worked on the van today. We finished up our slider door trim. We finished off our bed brackets (essentially an hour to carefully measure and drill holes for two last bolts). We measured some wood. We cut some wood. We glued some wood. We kept drying out the ceiling.

See, nice looking step there.

Far more importantly, a friend took us out to visit a litter of five-week old Bernese Mountain Dog puppies. Mom had eleven puppies and of course they are adorable. Unfortunately, we did not get to take any home.

The puppies actually weren’t too social untill Mom came to visit. Like a typical Berner, Mom was actually quite demanding of us for attention. She didn’t care that we wanted to play with her puppies, she wanted us to play with her!

All covered in wood shavings.

Yep, they have teeth. Fortunately they don’t really know how to use them yet.

Sara was definitely ready to bring this one home.

Puppy pile! This is seven of the puppies once they got tired of playing with us.

Puppy video!

If I had been blogging regularly as promised, you would have heard this many times before. We measure twice and cut three times. We need more adhesive and it is not available in rural Oregon. I literally went to Ace one morning to exchange some bolts I bought the night before for a longer size, then went back a couple hours later to get them again because after counter-sinking my holes they actually were the right size. I just asked the clerk to retrieve them from under the counter where the other clerk had put them for restocking. Every little project is an adventure!

Today we hoped to start on our ceiling, but that didn’t happen. I spent the morning being a good son by cleaning up the driveway. Using my parents’ ancient snowblower is enough to motivate me to keep working on the van because I don’t want to be around the next time it snows! In the afternoon we went down to the garage where we moved the van, but because of yesterday’s snow our friend did not move out his RV, which meant we did not have any space to work. I also got concerned about how much moisture has accumulated under the ceiling insulation because of our use of the propane blaster to keep everything warm, and I want to work on drying it out before we put another layer up. So, I finished the floor trim (probably not a particularly good use of our time, but it will look cool) and then we brought the van back home. I’m going to leave it cooking with dry electric heat  and run the air conditioner at times to see if I can dry it out. This evening while the van cooked I started cutting pieces for our galley cabinet that will have the sink and stove.

Putting the trim around the floor. We will add a regular metal trim piece to cover the exposed edges.

A little lever action to hold the piece tight while the glue sets.

Galley cabinet plans. Plenty of pieces to cut!

Kenai was not happy he was left out of everything today so he took over Sara’s pillow and has no intention of moving.

Two days in a row!

Today was actually rather unproductive on the van. I worked out in the morning and then had a sports massage. Hey, I have to get the old body in shape for snowboarding, too!

In the afternoon it started snowing as expected so Sara and I moved the Hund – that’s what we are calling the van – along with a ton of tools and wood into a friend’s RV bay so we could do some ceiling work this weekend without having to deal with weather. The goal is to get started on the cedar panelling and we need to warm things up to use some adhesive. We have a propane blaster that we will fire up in the van to keep things toasty! We will also be doing some electrical for the ceiling lights and working on the walls so it felt like we moved most of our equipment to the new place – all in the midst of the snowstorm.

We did get one piece of floor trim glued in after we moved inside, but that’s it.

This is what we want to see, but it does make it more challenging to work on the van!

Sometimes we have to come up with creative ways to hold the pieces we are gluing. Here is the pin-the-packing-bubbles-between-the-door-and-the-trim method. Hopefully the bags are putting enough pressure on the trim piece to secure it well.

The pups don’t mind the snow!

I’m sorry we have not been blogging as regularly as we should (and promised many of you who want live vicariously through our mid-life adventure crisis). Van building has been a constant and busy adventure and it seems that is where all of our energy has been focused. A few times along the way I thought about just starting from where we are at now because the posting to get completely up-to-date would be rather long! Well, that is what I am going to do. Starting. NOW. At some point I will go back and catch up on everything, but in order to get in a rhythm, I’m just going to start with a daily “what did we do today” blog post. The posts may not be long, but I will get some entry and a picture up every day so keep checking back!

Alright, alright, alright, so what did we do today? My primary focus today was on building the framework for our 25-gallon fresh water tank. The tank came yesterday and it seemed like a fairly discrete project. Of course, there are still way too many decisions to be made on how to frame it in (25 gallons of water is a lot of force sloshing around) so it was not a super quick project. The tank sits on the passenger-side wheel well under the bed. I will still add a bit more bracing (I’d like to find some metal straps to work in), but it is mostly complete. On one of my three (3!) trips to Ace Hardware today I picked up the fittings and tubing for most of the plumbing.

Sara helped with some of the cutting, put polyurethane on one of our initial cabinets, kept working and sewing on our window coverings, and started some detailed planning for our galley cabinet.

And because no post would be complete without a picture of the actual powder hunds, here is a typical view of the van. Kenai taking up a position in the van and Tanzi lying guard outside!

Kenai: My people are too busy, so I am going to write about our first adventure in my new van. As soon as Mom put the foam bed in the back, I was all set. Seemed like a good place for me and a lot thicker than my bed. They loaded in some other boxes and off we went. Tanzi didn’t want to lie in our beds. Instead, she stood right between with two front seats with her nose on little screen up there. I don’t know if she was trying to see out or if she was nervous, but Dad wasn’t too happy about it when she rested her head on the shift lever.

Anyway, we drove for about an hour and the road got really bumpy. When we stopped, we were in the woods and I could run and run. We were in a place called West Eagle Meadows in the Wallowa Mountains. Even though it was late and getting dark, we went for a walk. They stayed on the trail, but I ran circles around them. In the meadow, up the hill, through the creek…wait, where did they go? There was so much woods to explore and it felt good to run!

When we got back from our walk, Tanzi and I had dinner, but when we got back in the van we had to stay on our beds. Ugh. Then Mom and Dad had a celebratory dinner inside – right in front of our noses!

Finally we all went to sleep. It got really cold. Tanzi and I only had a thin dog bed between us and the metal floor. We had to curl up tight with our tails on our noses while Mom and Dad were all warm under blankets. In the morning, I didn’t want to move, but as soon as Mom opened the van door and I saw what was outside, I dashed out!

SNOW! It had snowed during the night, nearly 6 inches in places. I ran and ran and rolled and rolled. I do love snow! I even had Green Fish with me, but Mom was all worried that I would drop it somewhere and not find it again. As if I ever do that. (He always does that. Ed.) Tanzi was super happy, too. She trotted all around making fresh tracks and getting a thick snowy coat.

We didn’t stay long, but I can’t wait to go on another vamping trip. (I just hope they make it warmer for us to sleep next time.)

(Michael had fun driving in the fresh snow even though he made me get out just for this vanity shot. Ed.)

In hindsight, the logical order of events for our midlife crisis, “sabbatical,” career escape, play-harder-than-you-work adventure would have been to buy a van and THEN quit our jobs. As it turns out, banks are not keen on financing a couple of vagabonds who have no proof of income, particularly if you are buying a Ford Transit van they think should be a commercial vehicle. A $100,000 tricked out F-150? No problem. Our credit scores would have let us walk out the door with anything else on the lot, but not an empty cargo van. Hence, despite having great credit and the savings to prove we are good for the loan, we initially walked out of the dealership without a van. After the guys at the dealership kept making calls and we talked with some more banks (we had talked with our banks in NH but not the local banks here in OR), we had some options so we only lost a couple days on our adventure.

We want to send a big shout out to Roger, Justin, and Joe at Legacy Ford in La Grande, Oregon for a) letting the van sit on the lot for six weeks while we got ourselves here, and b) working all their creativity and angles to find us the best offer they could. On October 18th, yup my birthday, we traded in our Tacoma and welcomed in a new era of #vanlife!

The HUND

Hund (pronounced hoond) comes from Sennenhunds, a group of dog breeds originating in the Swiss Alps, one of which is the Bernese Mountain Dog.

I told everyone I really hoped I could say that we had a midlife crisis and bought a Mercedes, but in the end, the gas Transit was a better match for our needs than the diesel Sprinter van. So we are now the proud owners of a 2017 Ford Transit van, AKA The Hund, ordered to our specs and manufactured in Kansas City. It looks like a big, white, empty bread truck, but we prefer to think of it as a blank canvas.

Kenai: The back of the truck was my favorite place to spend the day, mostly because I hope my people will take me somewhere fun to play. I was a little sad to think I wouldn’t have it anymore, but this van thing seems like it will be okay.

This is even bigger than the truck! Is it all mine?

Keep an eye on the #vanlife section of our site. It’s time to start documenting our build progress because now that we have the van, I guess it is time to figure out what to do with it!