One Month Check-in

Have you ever started a big project before? One that you know is going to take at least a month or two or three to finish but you are so full of excitement and enthusiasm all you can see at the start is the finish? We decided to renovate our second floor 5 years ago. It was a big master bedroom and tiny bathroom at the time and we thought that was a waste of space. We made plans to create two bedrooms for our kids on the second floor, and move us down to the first floor. We were so excited to give our kids new spaces and an entire floor to themselves. We cruised through demolition, built new walls, ran new electrical, put up drywall. At that point it all moved so fast I was sure we would be done in 3 weeks. But then we had to tape and mud the drywall. Do you know what comes after that? Sanding. So. Much. Sanding. It’s the actual worst part about renovating. We were knee deep in the second round of drywall sanding when I looked around, face white with drywall dust and arms throbbing, I was done. Over it. All I could see was the immense amount of work that we still needed to accomplish and I had zero energy to do any of it. This is an unfortunate point to get to in a project. Especially when the space is unlivable, you are sleeping in the dining room, and you have committed to hosting Christmas Eve at your house in 4 short weeks. But, this point is inevitable. Everything is in disarray, any free time is now taken up by the project, spending almost zero time with your kids, working all day just to come home and do your own construction nights and weekends. Add all of that together and it is easy to forget why the project was started to begin with. I didn’t have the luxury of looking back at pictures during that process, so to my eyes all I saw was an incomplete mess that was not progressing and a life that was just fine before we started but now is exhausting. In reality we were so close to installing doors and painting, then flooring, and before we knew it finishing the rooms. But in that moment the end is no longer in sight. No more excitement, no more vision of the finish. Just mess and “what have we gotten ourselves into.”

But this time! This time we are documenting the process here in our blog, on Instagram, and in a time-lapse that we have been filming every time we work on the van. (I should say most times. There have been several times we forgot to turn the camera on, didn’t charge it, or the memory card was full. We’re learning here.) It’s been really great having these markers to look back on when it feels like the list of things to do is so large that we will never finish. We haven’t hit the “what have we gotten ourselves into” point of the project yet, I imagine that will hit when we’re knee deep in electrical or plumbing. But it’s nice to know we can revisit pictures, videos, and thoughts to see how far we’ve come.

One month in! Where has the time gone and where are we on this build that we were so excited to start? The video below documents most of the process on the interior, even some of the planning at the front end. If only it actually took 1 minute and 40 seconds to complete all these things.

Interior:

Cleared out the interior of the existing panels and flooring

Installed cardboard test beds for the kids

Installed swivel seats (unfortunately out of view of the camera)

Insulated and built the floor base

Installed the flooring

Added some of the ceiling insulation

Ran electrical for the solar panels and backup camera

Started working through re-routing existing wires

Exterior:

Installed Roof Rack

Installed rear windows

Installed our Maxxair Vent

Installed running boards

Mounted 3 solar panels

Installed vinyl stripes

Painted the wheels black and had all-terrain tires installed

Modified and installed the ladder

Overall not bad for a month of work that takes place some nights and all weekends. The exterior is really taking shape, the only things we don’t have complete on the outside are installing the light bar (we started this last weekend and hope to finish this weekend), installing a deck on our roof rack so we can enjoy those views from 9’ up, add some black vinyl to the windshield to help block the sun, and install two large windows. If you follow along in our stories on Instagram you may already know we ordered the wrong windows for the middle of the van. We followed a link to the windows we wanted, checked the part number, and ordered. Unfortunately the company had two different sizes listed with the same part number and we didn’t check to be sure the correct size was selected. We had to pay an additional $70 to ship them back, but luckily the company waived the 25% re-stocking fee due to the fact we were purchasing new windows in the correct size from them, and because their website was not clear. It was all a bit frustrating because the new windows cost way more to ship them, it delays that portion of the build by 3 or 4 weeks, and if the windows we returned didn’t make it back in one piece we would not get the refund. So let this be a lesson to check your lists and orders twice my friends!

Another delay we have experienced has been obtaining the title and plates. Admittedly this doesn’t delay the build in any way but it has been a frustration. We attempted first several weeks ago when M/M Van was up on jacks and had no wheels. Upon reaching the counter they asked to see the vehicle to compare the VIN number with the paperwork. No vehicle to show them at that time meant no plates and title until we could get the wheels back on. Try number two! We have a vehicle this time, what could go wrong? On our second trip we were told we needed further documentation from the dealership that there were no liens on the vehicle, and that we needed to get an E-check because it was purchased out of state. (As you may know, we purchased our van in Michigan, and live in Ohio.) I’ll spare you all the back and forth and Bureau of Motor Vehicle jargon. Long story short – the dealership insisted we didn’t need further documentation and it was only after a return trip to the BMV where a kind employee called the dealership for us to explain to them that we do in fact need this paperwork that things started to move in a forward direction. We also had to pay for our E-check, these are normally at no cost, because the vehicle was overweight. (To be honest we still aren’t sure if we needed the E-check, but the $18 was worth it for us not to have to make a second trip.) So do we have a title and plates? No. We do not. We had to wait for that additional paperwork and Jeremy is trying again this week. Third time’s a charm? We’ll keep you posted. But here’s another heads up, sometimes what should be an easy task of vehicle ownership can turned into a bit of a fiasco.

Admittedly looking at the list of things we accomplished this past month it does not feel like much to me. I tend to be overzealous and set higher goals than what can be achieved. Maybe that’s healthy, maybe it’s setting me up for failure. Jeremy knows the plan, what comes next, and what can realistically be accomplished so we balance eachother out most times. I hope to have this done by April 1, Jeremy says by May 1. Truthfully either one is fine because our first race isn’t until the end of May, I just want our lives back sooner rather than later.