Cabinet Planning
A wild iris in the meadow where my cousin’s wedding was held a couple weeks ago.
I want to try to get into the habit of blogging more often, because right now I feel like I’m rushing through a lot of the process. I want to slow down, get into some of the more technical details of the build, let you guys get to know me a bit better, and put out more content. So here I am, just a couple days after my last blog post, with a brand new one (shocker, I know).
No promises how long this will last. I think it’s both one of my biggest assets and greatest faults that I’m easily distracted and go through regular phases of serious over-achieving. My life can become very out of balance very quickly because I overcommit myself or try to do too many things at once. But I’m hoping I can learn to look at this as the one ‘no-pressure’ activity on my To Do List. A way to relax as much as a way to share this great experience with others.
On that note, let me tell you what I did today!
It was all really cabinet focused. My dad has been on cabinets for a while now, but I was so focused on just getting the walls and ceiling and floor into something resembling “finished” that I have hardly looked into them at all. So every night he was coming at me with questions about wood and pocket screws and framed versus frameless, and I really couldn’t do much more than shrug. And then yesterday he told me he wasn’t convinced we’d be able to fit everything I wanted into the cabinets.
Now, my Dad is amazing, and researches the bejeebers out of everything, and I would be completely lost without him. I think I’ve said as much in pretty much every blog post. But sometimes he’s less than optimistic, and I get stressed out over it and start to wonder if I’m actually completely in over my head and basically sitting in a tar pit slowly sinking into the earth and not even realizing it (I can be a bit of a drama queen).
So I decided that today, instead of finishing the ceiling, I was going to get all my ducks in a row with the cabinets, so we could all take a deep breath and not say things like, “I’m not convinced everything is going to fit.”
My oven may be a luxury item, but it cost more than $400 and the return policy has already run out, so I’m sure as heck not leaving it in the garage.
Luckily for me, I was able to prove (by mapping out the cabinets on the floor and walls of the van using really thick painter’s tape to overcompensate for the cabinet material) that my oven, fridge, 200Ah battery, sink, and six 3-gallon water containers will all fit in the cabinets, with room for storage.
Not a ton of room, but… room.
I think it’s all going to work out. I definitely might need to get rid of some more of my things, but I’m confident that I’ll be able to fit everything I really need inside the van. And I’m sure I’ll find some more ways to store things once I’ve been on the road awhile, too.
It didn’t occur to me until today that my leave-date is coming up really quickly. I know I’ve been a little mysterious about said leave-date, but I am a single female traveling in a van, so I figure it’s probably a good idea not to post my exact location or exact dates of travel until after the fact. It does help that a friend of mine will be traveling with me for the beginning of my trip this summer, but nevertheless. I was taught to be paranoid of the internet, and strange people on the internet who want to know all about me (really, it’s not like I’m over here trying to get strangers to invest in my personal life…. holy cannolis, it is like that. But my point still stands).
Anywho, I finally looked at the calendar today and realized that my leave date is coming up real quick, and since my dad’s birthday is the day before and we’re going to have my friend staying with us for a couple of days leading up to the trip, I’m not sure how much we’ll really get finished in those days. Plus, I have to leave time to pack for the trip. The van won’t be finished, so I won’t be completely moving in to it yet, but I’ll need to make sure I have everything necessary to live in it for a month and a half, drive to Alaska, and make it home in one piece. My passport is up-to-date, so that’s one thing I won’t have to worry about, thankfully.
Another side-note, making a To Do List for the build is basically a pointless endeavor. Because I have no idea what goes into each step of the build until I get to that step and start planning it. My To Do List back in January listed “Cabinets” as one step. Actually, my To Do List that I remade last month had “Cabinets” as one step. They aren’t one step, that’s for sure.
I’m going to keep remaking To Do Lists anyway, though, because I’ve got a major thing for lists.
I’m planning on going up to a wood store (lumberyard? Specialty lumberyard?) tomorrow, and I’m going to ask the advice of the staff there, so hopefully they’ll be able to give me some good insight into what’s going to work best in a moving vehicle.
Hopefully they tell me it’s going to be super easy.
They probably won’t.
At any rate, that’s the update. I’m trying to find time to plan the upcoming trip at night, but it seems like even after dark there’s still more to do on the van build. And unfortunately, all the relaxing parts are the parts my mom is willing to help do. Which is great and all, but part of me is disappointed. I was kind of looking forward to the painting.
I’ll probably still end up doing a lot of it, so it probably doesn’t matter, it’s just become a bit of a regular occurrence for me to think, “Oh, I can’t wait to do that part…. but if I were smart, I’d delegate that to mom and move on to the more difficult stuff.”
My mom has been helping out a lot lately, she’s been incredibly supportive in all regards: playing cheerleader, being my soundboard, offering herself up as manual labor, reminding me that it doesn’t have to be perfect, reminding me that it’s my project and what I say rules. Between her and my dad, a part of me thinks we could finish this thing by my leave-date.
It’s probably just wishful thinking, but maybe….
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.