So close to completion we can almost taste it!

So I have to say that I am very nervous and feeling the pressure. We have very little time left and I feel like there's so much to do! If you look at the photo above it's clear that we're actually working after dark. A lot of it has to be done at my mom's house because there's wood cutting and other things to do and they are so much easier when you have a power outlet right next to you.

This is us trying to do some minor cuts at Mike's apartment. You can see that we sprayed sawdust all over the deck and probably covered the neighbors below us. I can imagine that no one likes us very much because the saw is super-loud.

We also spent a lot of time caulking in and then waterproofing the gear area. This needs to happen before any of the bins can go up and unfortunately the caulk takes a while to dry, more than 24 hours, so the gear area is out of commission for a little while.

One of my biggest projects for the entire Van was to do something about the walls. Everyone who knows me well knows that I hate wallpaper. This meant that I needed an alternative. Insert sticky tile adventure here.

The process of doing sticky tile is incredibly time-consuming because the edging is already up on the wall. This means that the sticky tile has to be carefully inserted under it before it is stuck down. Luckily Mike was at work for a lot of this so I could vent my frustration privately. There is a little video compilation of the process.

Adventures in sticky tile (You can see more videos on our YouTube channel if you're interested. ) Once the entire process was done, I was able to see the final product. It might be one of my favorite things that I've done in the Van.

We had lots of less glamorous work to do as well. Patching holes, and putting away all of the gear that had been pulled out to do odd jobs around the van and needed to go back. You can see that we're working to patch this area. Obviously the large holes are never going to be done with wood filler but we're going to get a painting or other piece of artwork to go over it at some point. We figure we'll pick up something on the trip. It can be one of our first little souvenirs. I can't tell you how much patching, gluing, and JB welding we've had to do to make this Van stand up to the stress of 14 months of living in it. It may not have been the best way to do things, but sometimes you just have to get the project done.

I also realised as soon as I started working on putting food away that we needed shelves...

This 3-hour project took 4 evenings after work but we have shelves now... and our food has a place to live. In this cabinet you can see all of the kitchen utensils and kitchen supplies that we are taking with us. For those of you who have eaten with Mike and me, you know that this is going to be a tough one for me...leaving behind all of my capability to make complex and fun new food! I guess I'll have to see it as an adventure in small living where I learn to use less to make more.

My mom was kind enough to buy us a Shady Boy Awning. They are a really neat company located in Canada that makes the awnings. They may not be cheap, but they are unique and amazingly compact. It doesn't go out by electric power, and we still have to set it up, but it does live on the outside of the Van which is really nice. Don't worry, we'll do an entire video walkthrough when we actually set it up but for now this will have to do. The company also has amazing customer support. We strongly recommend them if you're in the market for an awning!

I know it doesn't seem like it, but this was basically the last thing that we needed to do. There is a place for pretty much everything in the Van and it's almost all packed. Our next post will be us getting underway!