shelves

September 14, 2021 by Brooke Black

Doug says: It was interesting to watch other videos and see what other people’s priorities were, y’know? There’s people that need their surfboards in their vans, there’s people that need — I saw a van with two people living out of it and they had two desktop monitors. If you’re a social media person, you need drones. Stuff like that. All throughout your build, you have a list of priorities. For my van — and then our van — the priories went like this:

have our own style
natural wood feel
bicycle storage underneath the bed

From there, it gets practical. I wanted us to have as much headspace and not feel like everything was closed in, ’cause I’ve seen a lot of builds where they have all the overhead cabinets, but they’re working with a foot and a half of actual headspace from the bed to the seats. I wanted it to feel like a comfy, open home as much as possible. And especially when we started dating, I was like, fuck how can I maximize movable room?

Brooke says: Ah, the joys of dating an amazon. I was apprehensive about the shelves at first. I wasn’t sure what we were gonna fit on them. But we found ways to fit the items to the space. Trying to measure commonly used items or whathaveyou would have driven us both insane.

We didn’t measure, but everything we need found a place.

Brooke writes: Same deal with our garage area. Before Doug built it out, I gathered all our outdoor adventure gear and spread it out on the floor and tried to visualize the ideal storage solution. Turns out, there really isn’t one. Once again, we didn’t measure, but everything we need found a place. The last and in my opinion most beautiful shelf is this one right here:

Doug explains: I just wanted you to have a little spot to put your stuff next to you while you were sleeping. I wanted to use part of that back void for a purpose. It’s good enough for a book or a cup of coffee. So there’s no insulation behind that shelf.

Brooke concludes: Admittedly there’s not a whole lot of coffee drinking going on in bed, and anything I put on this shelf would fall off as soon as we get moving, but part of a successful van build is staying open to possibilities for the space. Who knows, maybe in Season 3 we’ll figure out a function for this shelf that’s totally integral and we’ll wonder how we ever got along without it. Or maybe it’ll always just be a beautiful place to put my Nalgene. That’s good enough for me.

planning vs. improvisation

September 05, 2020 by Brooke Black in van build

Brooke asks: Did you have a plan for the van layout?

Doug says: I made a very early layout sketch…

Doug continues: … and changed it around. I never went with concrete plans for the van because ever since the beginning, it was just like a puzzle. If had a concrete plan, when stuff didn’t jive with it, it would have been frustrating. Instead, I got to express myself artistically with the van. It’s like, how can we work with the constraints of the materials at hand?

So rather than strictly adhering to a plan, he built around what he knew was necessary: bikes.

Doug says: Right from the jump, the bed needed to be high because it allows us to have the bikes inside.

Plans courtesy of the always amazing Far Out Ride.

Doug again: From there it was like, how do I build the bed? And then that REI piece fell into place.

He’s referring, of course, to an old display from REI that they were just going to throw away — until Doug’s boss joked that he could use it in the van. Doug figured he could at least use it as a workbench in his garage.

Doug says: But one night I was laying in bed, and I was thinking, what it I turned it on its side?”

Sure enough, it ended up being the exact right height, and now it’s home to our water system and a ton of storage.

Doug says: It was just a really nice coincidence that it happened to be the right dimensions I needed.

That’s the great thing about keeping things flexible with your build plan. Sure, it’s easy to work on stuff when you have raw materials and can shape them however you want. But it’s also more expensive and time-consuming, and you might miss out on the tremendous potential of trash-picked treasures or stuff that’s gathering dust in the attic. Why let good wood go to the landfill? And finding something that fits so perfectly in your home that it seems almost like it was meant to be… I mean, when you’re chasing a dream as crazy as van life, it’s nice to feel like the universe is on your side.

on potential

May 19, 2020 by Brooke Black in van build

Doug: By nature I kinda hold onto things.

Brooke: I’m more of a Marie Kondo, all-of-my-earthly-possessions-must-fit-into-a-sedan kinda gal.

Doug: The van is a big puzzle that you’re putting together, so you never know what could be useful until later stages.

Brooke: This build has definitely taught me to look for potential in stuff I might otherwise have given to Goodwill.

Doug: It’s also important not to have too much clutter, especially when you’re using a garage and driveway. If you don’t have a lot of space, be organized and do it in stages. Ask any mechanic: It’s really important to have a clean, organized space. Well… maybe not any mechanic.

You don’t need a giant workshop to do a van build; you just have to work in stages.

Doug: I try not to waste any wood.

Brooke: Does it make you feel guilty?

Doug: Yeah. That’s the cool thing about trash picking, because a lot less of it is trash because of us. As far as new pieces go, I haven’t wasted anything besides little bits of plywood. Any scrap we’ve gotten rid of, we were sure we weren’t going to use.

What’s cool about this philosophy is how respectful it is. How long does it take for a tree to grow to the point where it can be harvested? And how much time and effort went into making that desk on the curb? So much in our culture is treated like it’s disposable when it could still be useful. And what good is it going to do moldering in a landfill?

So before you go to throw something away, take a second and consider its potential. You might be able to do something cool with it later. A few examples...

This bass string, which Doug used to dry out the inside of a broken taillight.

This leftover red plastic from a taillight repair kit that he used to mute the aggressively bright LED temperature reading on our ARB fridge.

This wall made out of the slats from an old bed frame that had been in the attic for at least 12 years.

We made this shelf out of two rickety paint shelves we found on the sidewalk. The lips that look like a pair of eagles or semi trucks were the leftover bits of a desk we trash-picked and turned into a kitchenette.

This back light switch ended up being better than the original setup.

And finally, this round slice of wood that he mounted our toilet on was originally a mounting base he used for a Dremel stand to trim his bird’s talons.

This is Alice Cooper, a handsome and well-rounded green-cheeked conure.