23 Years

Happy Anniversary to us! This year was a lowkey celebration. Daddy-o and Peanut were on a campout the night before, so I planned a hike with a friend for a big chunk of the day, but then we went to dinner at a newer Spanish restaurant, L Campo, which was delicious, and it was a gorgeous night to eat outside and walk around downtown.

That weekend, we also spent a little while working on the van. We haven't done any projects for months, but we want to get the roof-top deck built as well as a couple things inside before we head out on a couple of trips this spring and summer. 

We only got 3 of the 9 boards done up top, but now that we've figured out how it all goes together, the rest should be faster. 

And it will look good when it's done!

Stop #2: Reset Time

We made it on the road, but the first few days were definitely a trial by fire, and an ease-in period. We didn't really cook much in the van those first few days--Day 2 involved a pretty long day of driving to get us up to Utah, already a couple days late, so we opted for drive-thru lunch to speed things up.

And why were we in hurry? Because we'd already missed Rara's birthday and wanted to get up there to celebrate with her! Leaving in November seemed like it would be the perfect time to also get to spend the special day with her which we almost never get to do. Too bad delays kept us there for the day of, but one day late isn't too bad. We took her out to dinner and then had dessert at home.

And we also got to see our youngest cousin open her birthday gift. Her birthday is also at the beginning of the month. She was too tired the first night we were there, but the next night, she was pretty happy with her ability to make music.

Her siblings were kind of excited about it, too. Although to be fair, they're always pretty excited about HER, so she tends to have a crowd around her no matter what is going on.

Peanut is a fan, too. It's always fun getting to see him in the role of big kid. I probably need to reminder that even though he's my baby, he really isn't a baby anymore.

We loved getting in some good family time.

And then spent the rest of our time there working on the van. 

We went up there with plans to install our drawers which we had delivered straight to UT for timing reasons, but it turned out that we had a few other things that we realized needed tweaking. Our fridge didn't seem to be staying as cold as it should have and our sink plumbing was leaking, and the electrical needed a little adjusting. 

All in all, poor Daddy-o spent hours and hours out in the cold (and it was COLD) working on things.

 I helped out with the drawers (still need drawer fronts, but I love them!) and sink, but I'm not the electrical expert. We had planned to be there Thursday and Friday nights, but when we needed Saturday as another workday, it didn't make sense to leave that evening and have our first really cold night in the van not too far from the option for warm beds, so we stayed one more night and enjoyed the fact that there was heat, haha. We also loved the extra night with family.

And then we had to cross our fingers that we'd fixed things enough to get by for the next few weeks!

It's Done (Enough)!

It's amazing how fast things come together in the end, and when you are working 12 hours a day, haha. The crunch has been on. We're already 3 days late according to the revised schedule (which was about 6 weeks late), but here we go. Got this wall all closed in,

Installed a swivel table and closed in the wall behind it,

Got the driver's side wall closed up (enough) with the electrical switches and the cabinet.

Then it was time for the bed. It's hard that the thing most necessary to make this van usable is the last step, but it didn't make sense to take up so much space early on while we needed it for working, so we've patiently been waiting for the day we can sleep in it.

Our metal IKEA crossbeams are adjustable so we could maximize the width of the bed to go wall to wall and resting on 2x4 runners that are screwed to the wall/furring strips and then also resting on 2x4 vertical supports, this bed can hold a LOT of weight. Someday it's going to be a slideout so we can regain a couple feet in the van during the day, but for now, it's just covered in plywood,

and then we had to carve our mattress to fit. It's a few inches wider than a queen, and then notched out at the head to utilize the space by the doors which is narrower. adn then we got our fridge, microwave/air fryer and stovetop in, sink and water tanks installed in the passenger side cabinet, Peanut's bed underneath, and it was time to move in!

It's crazy that we were able to take this,

And even just a couple of months ago, this. . .

And get this ready for the road! And we really did hit the road as soon as we got everything cleaned up and loaded up. We had a couple finishing touches to do in the morning, spent a few hours cleaning up the tools, the house, and any last minute tasks, and then packing, which actually took a while. This inaugural trip is going to be full of learning as we go!

But by late afternoon, we were in the van and on the road. . .to Manteca, haha. We had to stop by the storage facility for a couple of last minute tasks, and then ran to Costco to get our first dinner on the road. We'll figure out cooking in the van soon, but we were dead tired and in complete survival mode at this point. We only made it to Folsom for the night, but we were just happy to not be in our house anymore! Let the adventure begin!

Serious Progress!

It's still so stressful, and there is so much left to do, but we're starting to see some actual progress. Part of the ceiling is up.

Cabinets are being built, and the walls are coming together.

We got the box in that I built which gives us spice shelves and some extra room next to the bed.

It's looking good as it all comes together (and I'm trying to ignore all the issues with it that are all too apparent when trying to get everything to square up.)

Still have the other side to finish up, and it's giving me heart palpitations--we'll see what we can do before next week!

How Did Three Weeks Go By?!

We've been so crazy busy this month. Not all with "work", but there has been a LOT of that.

Luckily, spending a few hours on the Bay falls under my homeschool work, haha. We still had such hot weather at the beginning of October that our park days were moved to water--either the pool, or one day, we met up at Crown Memorial Beach on Alameda to paddle board and play in the water.

These kids loved it and stayed so busy.

It's hard to see in the background, but there's a nice view of SF from that beach.

And I even got to steal the paddleboard for a few minutes. It's the first time we've actually gotten it in the water since we bought it, I think 2 years ago.

One of the best park days of the summer (and not-so-summer).

I also got up early one Sunday morning and went up to Springtown to check on the bird situation up there. Not too many of the winter ducks are back yet, but it was a beautiful morning and I did see a few birds besides the dozens of mallards that live there.

I'm so glad we have this spot so close to home.

And then there's all the work. . . I got to learn how to wire lights this month!

It looks like a mess right now, but someday soon, all the wires will be behind walls and the ceiling,

and we'll just see the working lights! It's kind of exciting to try something new and have it work. We'll ignore the fact that I've had to rewire two times because we realized I didn't cut them long enough to actually come out of the ceiling holes, which makes it a million times easier to actually hook them up when installing the ceiling. Oops.

And, Daddy-o cut another hole in the van. I think he secretly likes making holes all over this thing, but that should be the last one, at least for awhile.

He installed our fan and it works great. 

We snuck in one last day over at the property to empty the last of the buildings we want to tear down for now. We got a ridiculous amount of metal out of this last one--about 20 motors, so many large cables, and so much more.

Peanut and his metal recycling friend worked together on this one, and then met up at the recycling place during the week to cash it in.

This load set a new record--over $1100--not bad pay when you're 13!

Peanut has also been so great being one of the older kids at our homeschool park days. We've had a pretty small group the last 3 months or so. Not sure if we'll get more people out as the weather finally cools off, but he's really taken some of the younger kids under his wing and been so sweet with them.

Mixed in with all the evenings spent working on the van, Peanut and I went to the 4-H Trunk-or-Treat. We went with a simple, but fun trunk, with a bean bag toss that the kids seemed to really like.

And Peanut's Where's Waldo costume was a hit!

And Daddy-o and I made countless trips to hardware stores. Ace is my favorite, but Home Depot is where we go for wood. And some many days, we make 3 trips, sometimes to all three different ones (Lowe's isn't the favorite, but there are times that we just don't feel like going back to the same store, haha.)

I really haven't taken enough pictures of the van progress. This box is much farther along, but this represents the first of the walls for us. And for this particular stage of the van, the only semi-complicated wall structure. I was supposed to build a second one for the other side once we knew how this fit in, but it's still not in the van and we're down to crunch time, so for now, the other side will just be closed up and we'll finish this in the winter. Still crossing fingers and working long days to get on the road before it's too late for a long trip!