Measure twice.... or maybe 20 times.

It's time to start to figure out what we can fit in this WonderVan! We have watched a lot of YouTube videos, been reading other people's blogs on their van conversions and have seen some really cool companies that make conversion kits. There is a lot out there... thank goodness. Some good, some not us and some really helpful tutorials! That said I'm a freak about everything having a place. Many of the designs look really cool but I keep wondering where all their dry food, clothes and camping chairs are going. There are so many possibilities and yet we trying to keep our 3 main goals at the forefront: self-contained, street parking friendly and good mattress. We nailed the street parking issue so we can let that go to the side now.

The mattress need to be tackled first so we would know how high we can set the mattress while allowing my very tall hubby a little headroom. He would be very unhappy and claustrophobic if we only had a little space to squirm into bed. Once we know the maximum height the matress can be, we will know how high it can be off the floor and then we can tackle the kitchen and storage. So how did we figure out a comfy mattress height? By putting a bed in it.

We have a bunch or IKEA futon couches left from our wedding, so we dragged one inside the van. We added blocks of wood under the legs until Dennis said it was good. That has set the maximum height of the mattress can be off of the floor. Speaking of the floor, it slopes... on purpose...downward towards the driver's seat. At some point we will likely get out the laser level to figure out the difference from the back to the front. For now we are just getting an estimate.

The other thing to note about the van are these deep large storage areas under 3 different hatches. We are trying not to cover these completely because our batteries will for sure need to go in one! I took a ton of measurements, including these hatched areas. Next I'll create a digital layout to be able to plan our build! But that's for another day.

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Gualala Point Campground

Armed with warm clothing and our new Carsule, Dennis and I were ready for another adventure. Dennis’s coworker, Cheryl, recommended Gualala Point Campground (part of Sonoma County Regional Parks). Dennis found a spot available for Friday and Saturday night. Gualala Point is next to Sea Ranch on the Pacific Coast off of Hwy 1. Figuring it will be about a 3.5 hour drive, we scooted out the driveway about 1pm. Sunset is about 4:30pm and we are trying not to setup in complete darkness. We stopped at a bakery on the way up for some cookies and then continued to our spot. The campground is located right before you cross the bridge into Gualala. It is tucked back in the redwoods next to the Gualala River. The sites are close together but situated in a way that you don’t feel you are on top of your neighbor. A ranger came over shortly after our arrival to give us the lowdown on the facilities...the host is on vacay, firewood is self serve and our campground pass gives us free ...

Final design and the packages start to arrive....

We finalized the design. Our original plan was to install a built in fridge drawer but we found an electric cooler the will just fit in our tight space. We ordered a 36L KUPPET portable cooler. Because we need the mattress to be as long as possible, the cooler can’t be too deep. This model doesn’t have handles that extend from the sides and that makes it fit in a tighter space. It is capable of freezing temperatures but does not have zones so ice cubes are likely not in our future. The cooler will be run off of an battery power bank/generator called the Eco Flow Delta 1300 Portable Power Station. Because of the size of our van and the fact that the main accessory we are running is the cooler, we felt we did not need a larger more complicated power system. The size is small but it packs a lot of power. Living in Northern California, rolling power outages during fire season has become common. It’s nice to know we could use it in a pinch ...

Let’s build an internal structure

So it is time to start building. There as been a lot of discussing and planning and at some point you just got to build and problem solve along the way. This is our official pandemic project and Dennis definitely needs a project. He has pretty much finished every home improvement project we had. Dennis is a really good woodworker and with a a chop saw, our neighbor’s table saw and a pocket hole jig we are ready to start. We started with the outside structure. Each framing side has to take into account the 4.5 degree angle of the floor. The two sides are braced together near the front seats. With these three sides in place it is time to scrape off all of the contact paper. Now we have a very shiny floor! Next the framing for the pull out elements needed to be built. There are two pullouts. The first pullout is on a 48” full extension. This is part serves two purposes. The first it is a hatch to access the storage area below. The second will...

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