January brought a devastating ice storm to Portland. I’m grateful we didn’t lose power. Our local park lost a huge number of big Doug Fir trees. Many people sustained damage from downed trees, power outages and frozen pipes. I prepped by getting fuel for the generator and picking up some more firewood for the stove. We all stayed warm and cozy when the city shut down for a few days.

Ski season has been a mixed bag. My brother was here visiting from Alaska in January (he sailed from Oahu in June and he and his wife have been living on their boat in Juneau for the winter). We skied Meadows in the evening, van camped and then skied Timberline the next day. Decent outing and it provided a good sampling of the Hood.

The girls and I have been skiing most weekends at Meadows. So far this season we’ve storm skied, skied in the rain, skied the fresh… and last weekend caught the goods.

We’re in that fine slice of winter where the days are starting to get a bit longer and the Crocuses are starting to pop in Portland. People forget about sliding on snow and the lift lines thin out.

We were able to get some sunshine turns in before the sun went down on Saturday, then a few hours of quiet turns with few crowds and zero wind. Super Bowl Sunday we snacked and watched the pre-game, then decided to roll back up the the mountain. We passed the hordes coming back to Portland for the game and had the mountain to ourselves.

We popped into the lodge to watch Usher before wrapping up the evening on some fresh snow before getting back home early (it was a school night). Only when we were nearly home did we learn that Taylor Swift won the Super Bowl.

I can’t think of another activity where I have my kids undivided attention, they’re trapped on a lift and we’re enjoying chasing each other on skis around the mountain. It’s THE BEST.

I’m not sure how many more ski days we’re going to get this El Niño year. Looking forward to Spring volcano skiing and Summer backpacking trips.

I’m taking a break from the van build, but I did manage to laminate the countertop. I ordered a 4×8 sheet of matte black Formica and replaced the pieced together plywood counter with a single piece of Baltic birch. I template routed the grooves for the bed supports and then laminated the entire countertop using contact cement. Using the bandsaw I cut inserts from the same Birch and laminated them to match. This way with the bed stowed up and away, I have a continuous 60in x 23 in countertop to cook on, do meal prep, or use as a standing desk. It works.

Starting to think about some bigger van projects for later in the year. Boring stuff like suspension upgrades and exterior lights.

I’m done. For now. I need a mental break from all the decisions. I’ve never heard anyone talk about the sheer number of decisions necessary in a project like this – I guess the same as building a house?

I wanted to get the electrical system finalized this weekend so that I could run the diesel heater. I don’t want to add up the hours I’ve spent on this project. While rewarding, it’s been relentless. If I don’t make a decision and take action… nothing happens. So many decisions.

This is the simple electrical cabinet with 100Ah of lithium. The system is designed to scale up to 400Ah in the same cabinet by adding more batteries. For now, this is sufficient (I think).

The control panel is installed in one of the upper cabinets. The left circle is the display for a Victron BMV-712 that I can connect to from inside the house via Bluetooth to monitor the battery. The top right rectangle is the controller for the Espar diesel heater. The bottom 2 left dials are dimmer switches for the front and rear ceiling puck LEDs, the leftmost switch in the set of 4 turns on the battery heating pad. I installed a battery heater on a separate circuit (with switch) so that I don’t inadvertently try to charge the battery below freezing. I can check the battery temp, flip the switch, warm up the battery, then start charging.

Currently no power coming into the system, only system out. I have an external AC-DC charger that I’ll use at home until I install at DC-DC charger and solar (later…). For now everything looks good, works well.

It’s been a productive few weeks in the shop. The upper cabinets are in, mattress is back in and stowed with the folding bed. Lights are now on separate circuits with dimmer switches on each.

I built a custom switch panel for the Espar heater controller and installed it in the upper cabinet along with some spare switches for future lights… LEDs in the garage or in the upper cabinets.

Next week I’ll install the first iteration of the electrical system. Just 100Ah of lithium ion and a few Victron parts. I’m trying to keep it simple as we don’t have a fridge or induction cooktop yet, power will be for the diesel heater and lights.

Oh. And I copied a design that I liked for a composting toilet. It’s a separating toilet (separator from Free Range Designs). I used 3/4 birch and kerf bent on the front radius. I changed some of the dimensions, but it’s a copy of a Trobolo. It’s made to fit on a shelf in the rear cabinets.

The intention is to laminate the cabinets, but things are moving quickly through the (very small) shop, that I just don’t have room to keep long running projects. And it’s winter here (rain) so I can’t work outside. Next spring I’ll pull all of the cabinets out and laminate and finish the interior. For now, it’s form follows function – with speed of completion. I’ve been trying to work really fast – it’s been really challenging making fast decisions. Definitely YOLO’ing some things. I often don’t have time to set up a tool for the slow way, so I improvise with another tool. Example: My Bosch router motor burned out – it used to be my plunge router… and I keep a Triton in the router table and use a hand held router for small jobs. It’s a pita to take the Triton out of the table, so I’ll just use the little trim router like a plunge router… results vary wildly.

We’re in a Pineapple Express weather pattern, warm and wet. So no skiable snow quite yet. Once the heater is hooked up to electrical – I’m calling it good for the year and will pick things up again in the spring. It’s time to go skiing.

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

I’ve been busy.

It’s really a life philosophy. And I’m well-suited to it. The bathroom is (mostly) finished. Remaining are the cabinet shelf, doors and countertop. There is a backlog of projects in the shop… and I need to move the van project along as ski season is upon us.

I’m pausing to post some pictures because I’m beginning to hear the finish line. It looks like this: Skiing all afternoon and then après ski in the van with some fondue and a beer with the heater warming up my toes. It’s my vision goal. And I’m going to make it happen. I digress. This is how the bathroom turned out. It’s been “done” for a couple of months. It took longer than anticipated as I ended up moving the shower wall after it was initially constructed (the boss made the call).

I like:

• The shower is curbless, you just walk around the corner
• tankless toilet, the tank is in the wall Euro style
• Massive tile wall

I need to move some projects through the shop and then I’ll wrap up the cabinet doors.

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