Let's Go, Jane!

I impulse bought some Swedish lumber the other day (words I never thought I’d say). It was this beautiful 1”x3” whitewood (spruce, pine, or fir) plank with crisp sharp edges. I’m sure I’ll use it for something. Plus, I’m a sucker for Swedish marketing. I’ve written about that before.

This is what my life has become now. All day every day I work on the van. I live in overalls. I’ve started to feel naked without a pencil and a tape measure. The other day I reached for my reading glasses only to find my hand arriving at my tape measure. I officially reach for a tape measure more habitually than my reading glasses. And that’s saying a lot, because I can’t actually read the measuring tape without the glasses.

I spend a lot of time alone. I actually really enjoy being by myself. I spend so much time alone that sometimes I catch myself talking to my power tools. Don’t worry, little drill, I’m just borrowing this battery for a minute. You’ll have it back in no time. You’re doing great. I went to Lowe’s the other day to buy breakers. While I was there I also looked at the outlets and almost bought one, but then the other outlet’s little faces started pleading with me to buy them instead, so I walked away. Once you see the faces, you can’t unsee them.

This week involved a lot of carpentry as I started building out the cabinets. Carpentry is just pure math. Angles, fractions, geometry. My fourth grade self who asked “when am I ever going to use this?” in math class is noticeably quiet. When I reach into my pockets at the end of the day I find that they are full of sawdust. My phone wouldn’t charge, and I peered into the charging port and saw that the bottom was a light tan color. Yup, lightly packed sawdust. It’s everywhere.

After three straight days of carpentry, my body had something to say about it. I woke up yesterday with sore, tired wrists, and fingertips with pins and needles. Even after resting them all day yesterday I still have spagetti hands today. Too much vibration and death gripping of tools. I know now that I need to mix up the days better. There is plenty of electrical and plumbing work left to do. Building out a van is physically demanding work, and yet, I wouldn’t trade it.

The great thing about this project is that it’s like every day is a new puzzle to solve, and some of the puzzles even build on each other. I love puzzles. New skills this week included wiring my first switch and using a heat gun to apply heat-shrink electrical connectors. I made my first “plunge cut” with the circular saw, where you lower it onto a piece of wood while it is running. This was great practice for when it comes time to cut a hole in the butcher block counter for the sink.

I literally spent an entire day making a drawer. Granted, it is an amazing drawer. But an entire day? I even dream about the van. I wake up in the morning with ideas for how to solve a design issue or tackle a difficult task. I live and breathe the van right now, and I’m loving it. I set out excited about living in the van, but it turns out the building—the learning, problem-solving, and creating—has been the part I didn’t know I needed.