Our Van Build Starts NOW!

The time has finally come. The van is going to the upfitter. But first, let's review our layout and look at some of the components we've been collecting this winter. Our new batteries just arrived. Oh my gosh! We've got four 200 amp hour batteries from Litime. That means we're going to have 800 amp hours of lithium power in our new camper van which is amazing. It's a lot of batteries. I feel sorry for the delivery guy. Look at that 800 amp hours. Let me give you a tour of our new camper van. Let's start first with the dinette area. Right here we'll have a table that's movable and we'll have a nice swivel chair. There'll be a raised platform here that leads into a bench that you can sit on and Benny's litter will be underneath. There will also be overhead storage on the side here. Now let's move into the bathroom. We'll have a shower area enclosed and a toilet area as well. Shares the same room. Now come into the bedroom with me. We're going to have a queen size bed at about this height which is fairly high but we want to make sure to leave just enough space for us to be able to sit up in bed while maintaining the maximum amount of space in the garage that has all of our utilities and storage. Now up top here we're going to actually have a 12 volt air conditioner. That's pretty exciting. And storage all the way along the top here. We're going to have a little door that leads into the garage and flip down steps to get up to the bed because it's going to be fairly high. Now why don't you come into the kitchen. Here we're going to have a fridge and a countertop with our induction stovetop. Cupboards underneath and a sink so we can wash dishes with a view. On the side here we're going to have a flip down table that goes to our other swivel chair so that both of us can sit down and have a workspace. And that's pretty much it. Now let's look at some of those components. All right let's take a look at these latime batteries. Those are the whole manual pack. Lots of padding. Look at that. They come with little handles. That's genius. Well that's pretty handy. Our vintage windows did not come with that. So each one of these is 200 amp hours and we have four of them. We're going to have 800 amp hours of power to power our air conditioner. And you know it's amazing how much prices have come down on these. Now we're getting twice the power for almost the same price even less. Now Latime gave us a great deal on these batteries and they also gave us an exclusive discount code to share with you. So if you're looking for lithium batteries be sure to use our code HAR or H-A-R also in the description below. All right the first component is our fridge. I think it's a little bit too big. Mel thinks it's a little too small so it's probably just about the right size. And it's going to go right about here. Now why don't I tell you a little bit about the fridge. It's a high efficiency 12 volt compressor fridge. It's got a couple of shelves, a crisper drawer, shelves on the door, and a little freezer compartment too with dual temperature control zones. In this box is our water heater. It's actually 120 volt electric and will run off our inverter and it has a four gallon capacity. The next part that we are taking with us is our composting toilet. And luckily it's portable because it takes up almost this whole space but we'll be able to move it around for shower time. But for now just to get a feel of how it's going to go we'll put it in here. Now the next component we're going to put into the van is our cabinets. And we bought these fabric lined ones that will hang from the ceiling and they pop up. Now the reason we went with this route is because a they're super lightweight compared to wood cabinets and b because they have softer corners we're unlikely to need stitches if we hit our head on them. Safety first. And the doors will roll up and velcro in space. Why don't I show you where we're going to be putting them. So first off we're going to have one secured up here to the ceiling above our dinette area. I love that there's these extra little mesh pouches for hiding things. Not hiding things but storing a little extra stuff. Then we're going to have I think it's three along here. So one of one above the bed one next to that which is a partially above the bed and partially above our fridge. And then we're thinking of a third one about here. I'm a little concerned that it's going to block our view when the side door is open so I don't know. But the beauty of that is that these can be just removed really easily if we don't like it. I also really like that there's all these extra straps that we can attach things to and on either end there's more pockets. So these I think are going to maximize our storage options in such a small space. Another part that we're providing is a telescoping ladder. Now we've opted to go this route instead of having a fixed ladder on the outside of the van because we want to be able to move it around to access all different areas. That's something that we didn't like as much with having a fixed ladder with our trailer so we're thinking this will give us more options. We're also providing this cooktop which is an induction cook top. It's a single burner. It's not even a burner because there's no fire or anything involved. But anyways it's going to live on the counter right above the fridge. Batteries. Now these will actually stack on top of one another but I'm going to leave them flat for bringing them to our upfitter. And last but not least our roof rack which of course is not going to be in the van but we got to put it in the van to get it there. The day has finally come. I am taking the van to the upfitter. Mel is teaching a yoga class right now so she's going to meet me there. But the wait is over and the new waiting has just begun. As you can see I've got all of our components packed up here and I've got three different straps so if there's any kind of incident all of this stuff should stay in the back where it belongs. Well this is a very exciting day. I can't wait to get the van to the builder so let's get going. This van avoids road closures on British Columbia One West. You're on the fastest route. All right I have just finished teaching my early morning yoga class so now I'm going to Coquitlam to get Jay who's driving the van to the upfitter. Yay! Hey Google call Melissa Hanley. Sure. Hi honey. Yeah you're on speaker. Yeah we're still doing pretty good on time. So I ate breakfast before I left but I imagine you're hungry. You're probably not that far behind me. I'm like going through where all that construction is. Yeah I just got through that. You said there was a diner or something that was in that area? I thought there was. I just realized that with the holiday I don't know if they'll be open but I'll have a look around and find something. Okay see you soon. Ciao ciao. So it's wet and rainy but I still want to give the van a good wash because it's been through snow and salt and dirt so especially underside I want to make sure there's no salt or anything like that left on it for when it goes into the upfitters for like several months. There we go nice quick rinse. Well with it being a holiday we made amazing time. We're not dropping off the van till at least 9 30. So we're going to get some breakfast. This is a great opportunity to show one of the major features of the van and that's how nicely it fits just in a regular parking spot. Look at this right next to our car. All right we have just dropped off our van. We've gone over all the details. We're going to spare you all those details because it it took us quite a while but that's okay. We want to make sure we get everything clear. Yeah no I think our van is in really good hands now. I mean it's just I'm really excited about this. Oh yeah. There's so much amazing stuff going into it. This is going to be such a cool build. Now we just have to wait a little bit longer. Yes. So much waiting. We're hoping probably around the halfway mark in the build so maybe a month and a half to two months we'll be able to give you an update, have some photos, maybe even get to come by and take a couple of video shots for you to yeah show you the halfway point. And but in three to four months we will have our camper van a two-year journey trying to get this thing going guys. So we're so excited. It's just a little bit longer. Thank you everyone who has been sticking it out with us and tolerating our travel-less content. But yeah. We're gonna be hitting the road again soon. Real soon. Real soon. Now let's look over our overhead cabinet specifically. So if there's any kind of... 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