Fondue and beer après ski. That’s the vision. Some random pictures from the last couple of months.

Some observations:

• As with most things that are well-done and look effortless – this is really fucking hard.
• Setting rivnuts with a pneumatic rivnut gun is very stressful. More stressful than glueing up a big piece of furniture. Definitely more stressful.
• A lot of effort gives very little satisfaction, e.g. the initial work: sound deadening mat, insulation, rivnuts, l-track, rough-in electrical… A ton of work that doesn’t bring the van anywhere near the end vision.
• It’s a massive project that needs to be project managed. Everything has to be done in the correct sequence (I’m skipping some steps because… yolo). I’ll deal with them in the spring/summer.
• Every step forward is a massive design and engineering challenge. Example: I can’t drill into the ceiling supports surrounding the pop up roof, so the front panel is help in place with NASA grade velcro and an overlapping panel that pins it up. I have 100’s of other examples. Nothing is plumb or square in a van.
• As with most things that seem at first daunting, you gotta break it down into little steps. As someone wiser than me once said, “work ain’t hard, you just gotta do it”.
• There have been many occasions when I just went for it – and it turned out A O K.

What’s been rewarding:

• I used Duramax fabric and upholstered the walls with 1/4 birch, 1/8 foam and then fabric. Super rewarding and it looks decent. (I know how to upholster now).
• The ceiling is 1/4 shop ply, 1/8 foam and marine perforated vinyl. It looks great.
• The rear cabinets/desk/folding bed is coming together.
• The next few weekends should be big gains.. then I tackle the power system.

Next up:

• finish the bed cabinets
• laminate the upper cabinets (already built)
• build the power system (200ah of lithium with DC to DC charging to start.
• go skiing and make some cheese fondue – https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/classic-swiss-cheese-fondue