Post-launch van photos

Howdy kids! I've been in a deep hole of van calamity for the past couple weeks. Sliced thumbs and back spasms notwithstanding, I've clawed my way back out on sheer will, sweat, blood and an extreme amount of patience from my saintly girlfriend. And as you know by now, we've hit the road, which means the van build was a success...right...? There are definitely improvements to be made, and I've already come up with a few new ideas for getting things to function more smoothly, but all in all, I'm proud of the outcome. At the Richard Stockton service plaza in Jersey I did my best to photograph the interior, but it's a much trickier thing to do than it seems. I think to do this beast justice would require some professional lenses and a guy with hose (pretty sure there's a hose guy on most car commercial sets 'cause wet asphalt looks way better than dry). Blah blah blah, here are the photos.

This is the view from the side doors. Freddie has mostly passed on the bed Michelle made for him and instead claimed the fold-out as his own.

An action shot showing how the doors on the cabinets open. Michelle is looking for Velcro, I believe. You can also see out little one burner stove, our herb garden, and one of our solar lamps.

Panning up a bit to show the surfboards strapped in.

This is the view from the driver seat. A view I see more often than I should while I'm driving because I'm curious to see what Fred's doing. This is usually what he's doing. You can see the wood paneling on the side door.

Sitting on the fold-out looking out the side door. The secretly talented Michelle Kiang made all the pillows and curtains. And a quilt!

The opposite view from the fold-out. I'm still super excited about this water jug. The sink is a stainless steel bowl from Target. I drilled a hole, installed a drain, and ran a hose to an empty gas can for the gray water. It was pretty exciting to brush our teeth here last night and this morning. Twice a day, ya jerks!

Aaaaaand back over my left shoulder showing the rack holding up the surfboard.

Back to the front seat to show the bed folded out. There's still lots of room between the end of the bed and the back doors.

This is the view from outside of the van looking through the back doors. That's the backside of the fold-out which becomes the foot of the bed. A closet to the left, Michelle's quilt to the right.

Open closet!

Wood door panel with rope pull!

Soooo, I hope that gives an idea of how things are looking. Ask questions if you wanna know what something is made out of or how it's attached or what possessed me to do such a horrible thing to myself by starting this project.