Van Conversion Finishes + Walls | Van Build Series

I took Adam to the airport this morning and now it's just me here in Austin for the next six days hoping to get a lot done while he's gone cuz he'll be back just a few days after I leave here and then that's our final van billed trip until we actually drive our few belongings down to move into the van I use air quotes because we'll still have to be finishing the van we're not gonna move into it right away we'll have about a month where we're working on it and also doing some traveling abroad and then when we get back from that we're gonna hopefully move into an end of July anyway so today was my first day by myself again and I had to work all day I had to work my day job so my dad was awesome and worked most of the day on the van for us so thanks again dad I don't I don't my dad had like a dollar for every time we said thank you could be very rich by now so while I was working today my dad did our wheel well covers so the wheel wells are completely boxed in now and one cool thing that we decided to do last minute was add this like a lip and this shelf so we can actually store stuff and make this space more usable because before it would have just been flat and things could have moved around while you're driving so now we can throw some stuff in there it'll be when it's closed it'll be enclosed by the top of this and it'll be like a little box and as you can see the water tanks fit in perfectly on the side of it against the side of the bench the one thing that you don't see is that we did put Havelock wool all over the wheel wall covers before we put the covers on so there's wool underneath and we're hoping that will reduce some sound which the sounds not bad to be honest but reduce some sound and insulate the van better so that is all that we are getting done today my dad's pretty pooped I'm really tired from taking out over the airport super early so we're gonna call it a night usually when we're done working on the van like physically like actually putting things together we spend some time researching things and you know finding vendors to help us with certain stuff so for example I'm trying to find someone that can make all of our cushions for us for a decent price which is hard so I'm gonna spend some time tonight reaching out to more people also you know buying a few more things we need so the work doesn't end when we're actually not out in the van working we still have a lot of stuff we do at night editing vlogs all that stuff so I'm gonna work on that tonight so we can have a good day tomorrow and a good rest of the week so it's been a few days since I last vlog about the van the past few days we haven't really done anything my dad's been really busy working on some other stuff so I've just been doing a lot of researching and trying to pen supplies we need to get and all that fun stuff just trying to keep us organized and on task so that stuff's important too but obviously our goal is like actually build stuff as well so what we did is this morning was in the lumber the lumber shop and got a ton of wood we're hoping that's our last trip to the lumberyard because man it was a most extensive trip yet we got a lot of stuff though and we basically we spent some time this week mapping out everything we have left to build with wood and how much we need so we're hopeful that we got the right amount and we're able to just make this stuff last the rest of our time working on the van and so our goal for this weekend cause it's Saturday now we have all day today and then all day tomorrow is just to build all the things cut all the things and hopefully when Adam gets here we can start getting more drawers put in and all that fun stuff so it's been a few hours and we got a little bit done we cut some wood to start framing out the kitchen or doing the face of the kitchen but honestly it is so hot and humid here I'm used to more mild temperatures now and even when I lived in Texas the heat was really hard on me and it's really hard on my dad he just gets so hot and sweaty so he's pretty pooped he's had a really like busy few days and I'm exhausted too and I have a lot of like van errands I need to go run so we're calling it a day today unfortunately it's only like three o'clock so it's kind of a bummer but we're hoping to hit it really hard starting early tomorrow morning and have a pretty good plan of what we hope to get done before I leave Monday so we'll see what happens whatever happens happens I'm just trying to stay positive but here's a little bit of what we did to prep for tomorrow so we're all that tape is that is the face of the kitchen cabinet so we cut some of the pieces and then we just tape them on that one keeps falling but we just taped them on that way we can just kind of see how they'll be and then we'll actually attach them tomorrow we have the sink in just to see kind of how it's gonna work with the face so we can plan accordingly and then we're testing out what the shiplap will kind of look how far it'll come out if we're gonna do shiplap on the side here as well as on the back of the van where the part that you see when you first open the door we put some bling on the van you got our logo up on there so we wanted to put our logo just because you never know that you're gonna cross on the road and in case one of you guys ever sees our van you'll know if it's for sure us and you guys can honk or say hi we would absolutely love that our goal is to meet as many people around the US who possibly can whether they follow us on Instagram or watch our YouTube videos or not or just meet locals wherever we go so we're excited to have our logo on there we just think it'll be fun to have our our brand out there a little bit more on the road since we're building the van in Texas but we live in Washington right now and absolutely love Washington love the Pacific Northwest it truly feels like our home and we just from the moment we moved to Seattle we've just felt extremely at home we never really felt homesick or anything we just felt like this is where we are supposed to be so going on the road in the van isn't because we want to leave Seattle it's because we want to just experience so much stuff we don't want to be trapped you know and the city all the time we want to be able to live out in nature so to kind of honor where we live now and how much it means to us since our van does have a Texas license plate we got this sticker to put on there so go this little Washington sticker with evergreen tree and it's just a way for us to show the two places that mean a lot to us Texas and Washington so really excited about it it was really hard to put on both stickers are very hard to put on it's a lot of work I love stickers but I'm not the best at applying them so yeah that's a another fun little thing that we got done today but now I'm gonna go run some errands at Home Depot and hopefully get some of the stuff that's actually gonna make our van look less like a work-in-progress and more of a finished product I'm back from Home Depot and I thought I'd share a little bit about what our color scheme is gonna look like as some of the decisions were making right now for the interior the van when it comes to decorating so first we have our floor so this is a vinyl plank flooring this is just the sample obviously unfortunately I got this at Home Depot the sample like a month ago maybe we were trying to decide between which ones we wanted to do and when I went to go see if they had it in stock today apparently no stores carry it so I ordered it online so hopefully get that pretty soon not 100% sure how much flooring we need we're gonna start with one box and then see if we need more this is the traffic master a lower plank and it's a grip strip I've read really good reviews about people using this in RVs which similar you know to a van or you know on the move all the time different temperatures and whatnot I even read some reviews on van life with it so any of you guys have thoughts on this if this is worked well for you or has not let us know we you know are not installing it quite yet we're buying it but we're not installing it yet so we have time to change our minds or it's just good to know if there's any horror stories out there I've tried to research I also found a wood stain so this flooring is the dark walnut color and I found dark walnut wood stain which we're gonna use to stain our butcher block countertops as well as our ceiling so everything will match really well then the other decision I'm having to make cabinet colors so we have the cabinet's that you've been seeing us working on pretty much the only thing we've been working on the last like two vlogs or so are the cabinets and getting those all ready to go so we're gonna definitely do a white color but I've learned that there are lots lots of shades of white and some of them don't look very white but when you put them next to a brown like the guys the paint store yesterday was telling me like a more yellowy white will look more white next to a brown so I don't know we have a lot of different options we're waiting on our kitchen backsplash to show up we're doing or doing hopefully something kind of more unique than we originally planned but it'll require us to make sure that the white matches so we're gonna wait and see what happens with that but I bookmarked a few of the colors I like this is Benjamin Moore paint we're gonna do cabinet paint specifically instead of just overall paint that you could use on a wall so there's specialty places in town that sell it and so I went there yesterday and learned a lot about paint and now we said to make our decision that's kind of it for right now we're also in the process of trying to find someone to make our cushions for us I have zero sewing skills and I could sew something very simple but we want like a zipper installed and stuff so we're trying to find someone that's reasonably priced in town to do those for us which has been hard it's definitely more than I thought it would be so that kind of sucks and then we're also trying to figure out what fabric we want to use for that so I'm gonna order some samples tonight and then yeah figuring out how we're gonna do all of our like window coverings we don't want to buy those even though it'd be so much easier to buy them just because some of our windows will be custom because of our boxing them in and whatnot so learning how to sew for that we have a selling machine so that at least helps us but yeah I'm trying to start thinking of all that stuff because I don't want us to forget about it and then like the last minute trying to hit the road I'm like oh no we don't have our window covers so for me it's fun I like it but yeah so that's kind of it for right now and that's it for tonight tomorrow we're gonna keep working on the kitchen work on the closet but I'm gonna call it a night do some more research buy some samples buy somewhere band stuff and get some good night sleep so I'll see you then it's officially Sunday Funday we're getting some good stuff done on the van first up we are making the face for the kitchen cabinet so we basically measure out all the pieces place them in the van to make sure everything spatially works correctly and now we're getting them all put together and then we'll put it in the man also working on getting the scrim installed around the back windows we finally got the back windows in recently and then we ordered this trim so that way it's a smoother surface around the cut the only sucky thing is we ordered the correct sizes they recommended for the window but there are certain sections of the window that are pretty wide and need to really stretch the trim over it so it kind of looks a little weird but it's better than how it looks right here where it's all cut you can see all the primer and whatnot so it's definitely an improvement and it'll work pretty well I got the window trim up and this is a big moment for me because the sides the insulation it's really like one of the first things I've done 100% by myself so I'm feeling accomplished and I'm finally feeling like I'm contributing to this bambo process instead of being just like learning a ton of stuff and slowing everyone down so yeah now we're shopping for some decor my favorite part we're getting these super cool pillows because as you guys may know by now we love Hawaii and these ones for - of Hawaii but while I was shopping my dad was working on the van more and I just opened the van door and saw what he's been doing and I'm really excited because although it's not like final it's not in place I'm getting a much better idea what the Vans gonna look like done and I'm so pumped gonna look at this ship laughs Joanne the games would be so proud of us so it's not fully attached yet it's just kind of secured in there so we get a good feel for what it'll look like these will obviously be painted whatever color we end up paying the cabinet same with the shiplap it's just primed from Home Depot but look so cool I don't think I've shown you the kitchen facing looks like yet but basically all this stuff around all the openings that's the facing looks awesome it looks you know the kitchen looks the same as it did earlier except now it's just cleaner it's not like the cut pieces from making the cabinet it's just more clean and this is how this is what you'll see whenever you open the doors and everything with the doors will kind of rest on so it looks really good we also got more of the closet facing and so it's not totally done that'll be something that'll get done this week and Adam will work on while he's here that's a step in the right direction and one other thing that I have not shown you yet is our cabinet hardware so we got these little guys from Ikea there's this size and then we also have a longer size which will go into our dresser drawers and they're just like black very basic we really like to kind a modern look of them and we think they'll pop against the white cabinets and they also don't stick out too too far and they're also more rounded so we've run into them because it's a very tiny space we probably won't run into them a time or two they won't hurt us bad so we really like these they were pretty affordable because they are IKEA and hopefully we'll like all they look when we actually get the cabinet's together stay tuned for that all right I am back here to work on brisket it is time to get my hands dirty first stop is of course Home Depot second stop is the paint store because looking to paint and prime some inside of the cabinet's here the bench seats so let's go so my big job for the day is sanding out the inside of of the benches here getting closer or getting closer so we've seen them out so that we can put the primer down and then hopefully get the paint on it as well before I leave sanded it down the best I know how so it feels nicer in there than it did before so next we're gonna apply the primer I put some tape along this tubing here to keep some primer off of it just to keep all these pipes looking nice no stray paint marks anywhere so here we go wish me luck [Music] oh my oh my gosh it's a warm one today but I got it mostly done I'm not a painter but I don't know it's covered with primer okay so what we're working on right now is we are getting some wall put in very exciting so we've got these little braces here so that the the plywood quarter-inch that we're putting in right here will have something to go up against okay and we'll attach it there fixin to put in some more insulation there and then we will get the backer on there and then the shiplap will run along the wall just like right here it's gonna look really cool today that's what we're trying to get done today is this wall right here at least ya even have the frame the window out that'd be so cool it would look like we got something major done today so that's the plan stick around to find out what we get done alright check this out this is cool got the whole most of the wall here up there where the insulation still is at supper captain's will go there we've got this plywood backer wall here going and then we've got three rows of shiplap and then if you look in that one there there's a hole for an outlet so getting getting real here it looks like a mess check it out long day today so tomorrow we're looking to do this to this side right so here's the work from yesterday and was promised got this side in plywood backer and then now we're gonna put in the shiplap got walls up on both sides I'm pretty clean I gotta say so that wraps it up for my time here this is my last trip of flying down to work on the van the next time we see brisket will be when we drive down here when we move down so I'm flying back tomorrow morning and then once school's out in about two and a half weeks we'll pack up our our car with a backpack a way suitcase and maybe a couple other things and drive on down here take a couple days and then when we get down here we'll have a few days to work on the van and then we go to Italy or should I say Italy gonna get all kinds of pasta pizza gelato you know the works and then when we come back from there we'll have a few days left to work on the van and then it'll be at the end of July and then trying to get a de'lon out of here so when we get down here we'll keep working do what we can do and we'll see what happens [Music]