Let's Go, Jane!

Not my van—but an accurate representation of my progress this week.

Whose idea was it to start the van build in January in New England? I’m making incremental progress here, but this cold weather is really getting in the way. It’s 22 degrees this morning, and won’t get above freezing. The two things I want to finish before the end of the month are installing the roof fan and installing the subfloor. No way I’m cutting a hole in the roof with frozen hands and a looming snow storm. And the floor project involves paint and adhesive, both of which need higher temperatures to adhere properly.

I had to get creative to be able to do any vanning this week (yes, I’m using “van” as a verb now). Yesterday was the warmest day of the week. By 11 am, the temperature had reached a whopping 39 degrees. I drove to the nearest Home Depot–I actually have three Home Depots within a 15 minute drive of my Airbnb–and bought a caulk gun and some marine adhesive. Marine adhesive remains flexible when it dries, and I need things to be able to flex as I’m driving over bumps.

This whole project is a massive learning experience. The first caulk gun I bought was too big for the tube of adhesive. My thought process in the store was that there are two tube sizes, I should get the bigger gun because it will fit both sizes. This, as it turns out, was a faulty assumption. Luckily, I was working from the Home Depot parking lot, so I was able to head back inside to get the smaller caulk gun.

With the engine running and heat blasting, I went in the back and set up one of those indoor/outdoor propane space heaters meant for garages and sheds. I made sure to crack the front windows for ventilation and also set up a carbon monoxide detector. About 10 minutes later, a quick scan with the temperature gun told me that most of the internal surfaces were reading at 50 or 60 degrees, so I was good to go.

Making the smallest hole I could make, so the glue wouldn’t come rushing out, I cut off the tip of the adhesive tube. I placed the tube in the caulk gun and squeezed the handle a few times, compressing the tube. Even though there was a hole in the tip, the adhesive wasn’t coming out. A few more squeezes, and it actually started to come out the back of the tube. Pressure 101, Jane. So now I had a brand new caulk gun covered in marine adhesive. I cleaned it up the best I could, poked through the tip until I reached glue, and then I was in business. The main thing I wanted to caulk was the metal window panels on the sliding door, which rattle when I drive.

With one issue addressed, I moved on to the bigger project of the floor. I didn’t want to open the doors and let out all that precious heat, so I hoisted the heavy rubber floor mat up on one side of the cargo area with bungee cords. I was delighted to find that there was very little rust on the floor. There were a lot of scuffs and scrapes, and a few tiny rust freckles. I sanded, vacuumed, wiped down, and primed them. I only got about ⅔ of the way through before I had to stop for the day. Plus, there was nowhere to stand to do the last part, since I couldn’t open the sliding door and work from outside. As the forecast doesn’t go above freezing for the next ten days, I may be out of luck until I reach sunny Florida, where today’s high is 79 degrees.

For now, the work looks like thinking and researching instead of building. I don’t love that, but I trust it. Soon enough, the weather will cooperate, the doors will be open, and this empty shell will start to feel like a home. Until then, patience is part of the build.