Van Build Preparation + Our Layout | Van Build Series

Day one of the van build. Woo! And we're kicking it off with the first of many trips to Home Depot. We're at Home Depot today trying to get some of the initial supplies we need to start working on the van. So in this video we're gonna show you guys like the layout and we're gonna frame it with some tape but we're also gonna install the fan hopefully today and this weekend also do solar panels and the windows so we need like a jigsaw and some other stuff which we don't own so it's one of our first times actually shopping at Home Depot and we feel pretty feel pretty handy right now. I can be your depot baby. I found all the stuff we can't find. It's gray though. Oh you found that too? Oh I found a bunch of it. Oh. Aisle 19 is where it's at. Butyl tape, self-leveling sealant, Home Depot, Aisle 19 or at least at the four points Austin Home Depot. What would I be without you? He's smiling but he hated every minute of this experience. First run, frustrating but get her done. First Home Depot run done. A tad frustrating figuring out what we need. We got lots of help and we got it figured out for now. Alright first things first is we're gonna take out this partition. It's got all kinds of screws and all kinds of fun things to take out so it's gonna give us like a clear view into the back and that's our first order of business. And then we're gonna start tape framing to see what our little layout will look like. Yeah lay it out and see we'll kind of get a visual and feel out the space and the dynamics and the feng shui so here we go. Three, two, one. Oh no! Just kidding! Okay round two here we go. Three, two, one. Woo! Yay! Oh yeah look at those seats! Welcome to our van! So we just finished doing all the tape framing just so we can kind of feel out what the layout's gonna be. So when you first walk in straight ahead here will be a closet. So we're thinking we might put a crate for Kona down here. Mostly just so we can have a crate with us. We're not sure if we'd have somewhere else to store it so that's still TBD and then basically we'll use the rest of the height to store like our suitcase, our backpacking stuff, really anything we can fit in there. Right up here we plan on building out a big storage space right here so we can store like I said more backpacking stuff, Adam's golf clubs, just anything that's kind of longer than some other areas of the van. So we're gonna build that out and have that covered just so we want to make it this van as clean and neat as possible and I'll get a little stressed if you can like see stuff everywhere. So then you keep on walking and right here we will have our bathroom. This is another thing that we're not 100% sure this is the actual size. We need to see how big our compost toilet will be and just make sure we have enough room. But we are putting a bathroom in the van. It's very important to us. I have a really small bladder so it's just convenient for me. We're gonna do a composting toilet because we've heard that's the best bet. We're also gonna have a shower because let's be real we just want to be fancy. We just want to be clean. So we're not gonna shower every day. I work from home right now and I don't even shower every day. I know that's gross, don't judge me, but we'd like to have the option to shower if we want to and not have to find like an RV park or something else. Our goal is to basically live for free like on like BLM land and just any like free land. So we don't want to be reliant on something else. So we're gonna have a shower and a toilet in here. It's gonna be very very very tight but it'll work. And then right here we're gonna have a dresser. It'll probably be like this tall. It'll be where we store like all of our clothes. We'll probably have some stuff on the wall to kind of keep some stuff organized. Right here will be our kitchen. Another thing that we're not 100% sure how big it's going to be. We could probably go a little bit longer, we might go shorter. We're gonna have a fridge, a sink, that's pretty much it. We're likely, well definitely gonna have a stove that we store like underneath. We're not gonna have a stove on top because we just really want to keep that counter space. We do cook a ton, like we don't eat out very much. So we want to make sure that we have that counter space to like chop up vegetables and you know prep any meat. So we'll have a sink, a fridge, and then a bunch of storage. We're gonna do cabinets all up on this side to store some of like our electrical stuff as well as just like odds and ends. And then we're also gonna do cabinets I think from like right here all the way to the end too just to store more stuff. And then you are in our bedroom and our office. So this is something that when people build vans you have to kind of decide. Do you want like a permanent bed or do you want like a living, I guess a desk area that converts to a bed. And we went back and forth on this. But since we're both gonna be working full time in the van, we wanted to be really comfortable working. So we decided to do like a long couch on each side. We'll also have right here another like couch area. So it'll kind of be a U-shaped couch and they'll have a table right here. And then to sleep at night we'll basically take the table top off. Oh, take the stand out, sorry. Put the table top down. Move the side pillows down onto the table and we'll have a big mattress. And it's actually, I believe, a little bit wider than our current bed. It's not as long but it's wider and Kona's kind of a bed hog. She likes to curl up in a ball. So it'll be really nice for sleeping with Kona. Yeah, I think that's it on the van tour. We're really excited. It's really fun to see it in real life now. And yeah, we're not gonna be building out the inside for a while but we just want to get a good feel for it. And now is the time for us to decide like if we want to change anything or not. So yeah, I'm pretty pumped. Like we said, we're doing kind of the 40 hours of freedom layout. A little bit of Dynamo Ultima thrown in there. And it should work really, really well for our lifestyle. We should be as comfortable as you can be living in such a small space. All right, that's our wrap on day one. I personally don't feel like we accomplished very much. But hey, we got that partition down. We kind of mapped out the inside. Kind of got a feel of what's going on and what we're gonna do. It's been a solid two hours at Home Depot. Yeah, we're trying to figure that out. And just trying to fit all the pieces together. Grab stuff out of thin air. But tomorrow, we're gonna conquer some big stuff. Try to get that fan done. Started and done. Cut into the side over here. One window here. Same window on the other side. And then the one in the big sliding door. I'm really nervous and scared to do that. But it's got to get done. So that's the plan tomorrow. So big day. Lots of hours. But we're gonna tackle it.