Let's Go, Jane!

Another week, another hole in the van. You know the expression in woodworking, “Measure twice, cut once”? With metal, it’s measure 100 times, cut once. I literally spent five hours measuring before cutting a large rectangular opening for a skylight. The cutting itself actually went really smoothly!

I wanted a skylight in the front for two reasons. One, I want the fan in the back to be able to draw in fresh air at night but don’t like sleeping with the front windows cracked at street level. My “roof window” is perfect for that. And two, I am not planning on adding any side windows to the van so having natural light come in through the ceiling is great. I have privacy and I have sunlight. I say all this from sunny Florida where on most days I can leave the sliding door propped open. If I end up spending a lot of time somewhere where that isn’t the case, I can always add a window to the sliding door.

The location I first selected for the skylight looked great on the outside. I made a template, traced it with Sharpie, and got ready to cut. Then I realized that while there was room on the inside for the hole itself, the internal frame of the skylight extended 2” beyond the hole in every direction and there wouldn’t be enough room between the ceiling ribs for it to fit. Luckily, fresh Sharpie comes off a white van with nail polish remover. Who knew?

I moved the skylight back between the next set of ribs, but that meant that I had limited room for the two solar panels I was planning to install. Ninety nine measurements later, I was ready to cut. I am still having fun, but some days are a little intense.

The next day, I installed the solar panels. This is not a one-person job. I am ridiculously stubborn. I managed to get the two 24 pound panels onto the roof with some creativity and a little luck, and screwed them into place. I plugged them in and charged my phone with electricity captured from the sun. How incredibly gratifying.

I had installed an insulated subfloor weeks ago, and while I was happy with how it turned out, the floor was squeaky in a few places where the rigid foam insulation rubbed against the plywood. I was hoping to get away with not gluing it down, since that feels very permanent and I still need to cut some holes in the floor for drainage, but I didn’t want to kick myself later every time I stepped on a squeaky spot. So, out came the plywood and the insulation, down went the industrial strength glue. The floor is both permanent and silent now. I even spray foamed around the perimeter. 

This week I also spent an entire morning watching YouTube videos and designing a rudimentary water system. I ordered a 30 gallon fresh water tank for inside the van and a 26 gallon gray water tank that gets mounted to the underside, along with a pump and an accumulator and lots of other parts I’d never heard of before. One day I learned how to use my pocket hole jig and made a wooden frame for around the skylight and some vertical supports for the upper cabinets that will go over the bed. And I learned how to use a combination square, a nifty understated little tool.

I mentioned last week that this project is very start-stop. This week there were three days that felt super productive, with the subfloor, the skylight, and the solar panels. The rest of the week was a mix of research and skill building and a little bit of doing, but very little visible change at the end of the day. I need to find a way for those days to feel as productive as the ones where I have something to show. I’m making steady progress, even if most days it only looks like a van with a few more holes in it.