unskilled and scared?

So I am just tieing up the odd ends and am nearly finished and I am not overly thrilled.

I started to reconcile receipts and time and what do I have at the end of the road?....

Not hardly a damn thing!

My ignorance in how to go through this process has cost me dearly in time, stress, costs,..you name it.

I had a friend that helped do much of the construction of cabinets and my bed... which was uneeded... you do NOT need anyone to build  it for you.

Getting your floor and walls in is fairly easy for the unskilled. I did mine with only a jig saw and they look fine. Remember that  much of it will be covered by a cabinet or bed.
There is no need to worry about in imperfect cut over the wheel well  or fuel hump.
The ceiling is a little harder to do if you are putting up paneling and a person helping out would be great. If you are good at carrying things with your head, you could probably solo it.
This is easy stuff that YOU can do.

Cabinets.. GO BUY READY MADES. for what I spent to have a couple items custom made I could have bought 10- 5 foot ready builts from home depot and simply screwed them in.
I suggest hitting the used stores first for the best bargain, tho you may have to refinish them or change hardware.
Ready mades at the home depot or similar will often have a variety of finishes to pick from and so you don't have to rely on yourself to not leave brushmarks and leave drips everywhere. 5 footer at my local store is 129 bux... with sliding drawers and shelving.  Compare that to buying all the materials to make such an item and then the time and stress.

Your bed?...go buy a cheap metal frame or a cot frame somewhere. The bed does NOT need to be some kind of massive hullaballu. I think most people use twin sized or similar.. those frames are a dime a dozen. It will be much lighter and cheaper than having a monstrosity with gas shocks.

The no build build is the best way to keep it simple. It will save you alot of time, money and stress. And you will have an item with a nice finish.

There is no doubt that ready made cabinetry will require a bit of cutting..nothing that a 20 dollar jig saw wont take care of. You will need to cut the wheel wells and such out.

I wish someone had told me there was a better way when I  was starting out.

There are trade outs of course. There is no doubt that the custom work I had done is very very sturdy.. it will be around long after I give up the ghost. It is also much lighter than a ready made.. but it was costly and time consuming and the finishes aren't as visually appealing.

You can literally and effortlessly have a nice build even tho you are unskilled and you wont have to pay very much for it.

I will be posting my saga in a couple more days. I am now on the third iteration of my "bathroom" and keeping it simple is right where I have returned. 2 weeks ago I spent another 290 bux on materials and labor.. and now it is all going to the trash... If anyone is near the LCV its yours..

I like my rig there is no doubt it is great.. it just sickens me that for what I put into it sure doesn't show.

I just had to vent and offer a precautionary to any of you that are wondering how to do this with out much carpentry skills or budget.

desert_sailing said:

I just had to vent and offer a precautionary to any of you that are wondering how to do this with out much carpentry skills or budget.

Click to expand...

That's why I went minimalist, on both time and money. 

Scared, what the hell, after all this time? Just lock and load and head on out over to Palouse Falls for a couple days. For sure, driving back to LCV will be easy.

I appreciate the advice. I'm definitely unskilled and yes, it does scare me at times to know how little I know how to do. I've had my van for a year now and lived in it most of that time. It is definitely no-build ... I've got a nice floor and insulation and that's all, at this point. I'm ready to install paneling but - no materials to do this with... maybe soon. My bed is a disc-o-bed double decker cot with a mattress 30" wide. Very sturdy, and attached to the side of the van by a couple of wires. I will be looking for some ready-made cabinets as soon as I get the paneling installed. I live 100 miles from the nearest home depot. This town I'm in no longer has a hardware store.

Hey there TA.. well there is no need to go buy a whole lot of tools and hardware and worry about how to put it all together. Take a look at the homedepot site and you can get a good look at what is available for cabinetry and the costs in your area.. that will make you feel much better. I walked down the aisle and went online as well and it just made me upset because it was much cheaper than what I forked out and they had much nicer finishes..

It sounds like you are nearly ready to have it all complete. The luan paneling is fairly cheap and it is light and easy to work with so for one person it wont be too hard to maneuver. Sofi put up a fabric/carpeting material on her sides and it turned out great, much lighter for one person to handle.

Bummer there is no hardware store in your town.  I had 13 receipts for home depot.. ugg.. that is 13 separate trips a half hour one way..If I  knew i needed to make ONLY 3 trips max.

Best wishes to you in your wrap up. A 20 jig saw and a driver/drill and you are golden.

Qxxx said:

That's why I went minimalist, on both time and money. 

Scared, what the hell, after all this time? Just lock and load and head on out over to Palouse Falls for a couple days. For sure, driving back to LCV will be easy.

Click to expand...

Last I saw Palouse Falls is currently closed for anything other than day use. It is always a very busy place as well. It is close to the University and tons of people pack in there parties all night long. A fine place to have a picnic lunch and to take a a few pictures, but I would rather park along the Snake and enjoy some peace.

I am no longer scared.. I was at first..but now I am jaded. :dodgy:  I also got a very good albeit expensive learning experience out of the build process. I feel like I spent 100k on tuition and am now leaving college with a basket weaving degree. Why didn't someone warn me?? LOL

I still dont have the electrical hooked up.. I tried to sort it out here and with some youtube vids but I got soo much conflicting info. The breaking point was when I was told that my inverter was too far away and then the next post told me to not move the inverter too close to the batteries. There is one guy locally that does solar installation on remote cabins and such. He is out of town atm will be back next week and he is going to give me some hands on advice.. gratis! He is getting more interested in doing van solar as well and is excited to see what I have going on.

Good, jaded is better than scared, LOL. We talked about Palouse Falls SP in a thread not long ago. No camping there, but I mentioned there are multiple Corps of Engineers campsites around, plus there must be myriad boondocking sites in that area. After all, between LCV and Pasco is basically nothing but a big open space along the Snake River, . I did that exact run a year ago summer, although I stayed in Hood River CG in Pasco.
https://www.allstays.com/Campgrounds/Washington-army-corps-campgrounds-maps.htm

You'd have to check the open/closed situation, obviously.
https://thedyrt.com/magazine/local/campground-closures-list-covid-19/
https://thedyrt.com/magazine/local/campground-closures-list-covid-19/#washington

BTW, my take on solar anymore is to shitcan batteries and DIY wiring, and go with one of the Portable Power Generators, like Jackery or Yeti, especially for anyone "not" an engineer. I've read all those posts on the forum too, and the whole electrical thing is just a big nasty bag of worms. Too much damn trouble. With a Jackery, etc, all you have to do is connect a couple of plugs, and you have everything from solar panel on one end to 120VAC and 12VDC on the other. Painless. I've been gradually tearing out the wiring I did 3 years ago.

desert_sailing said:

I also got a very good albeit expensive learning experience out of the build process. I feel like I spent 100k on tuition and am now leaving college with a basket weaving degree. Why didn't someone warn me?? LOL

Click to expand...

Actually, some of us have been making suggestions along warning lines ever since you arrived, lol. Mine have been along the lines of ...

... tossing the minimum necessary into the van, and going off on local trips as quickly as possible to gain experience.

... going minimalist at first and then evolving the build over time since ideas of what you "really" need will evolve over time.

... building things in such a way that they can be ripped out and rebuilt as your ideas evolve.

... that in something small like a van, the single most important thing to have is "more" open floorspace, rather than cabinets jammed in in every direction.

... K.I.S.S.

I did all of the above, and have been evolving my build for 3 years now, but then no one ever listens to me. Poor poor pitiful me. Ehh, I'm used to it. Me and Linda, nice.

I will agree SOME folks here have given great advice and I have tried to follow much of it. My build was already started before I had found the site here and was kind of locked into it. I did do a near complete redo of the layout and am on my 3rd iteration of the bathroom space.

Throwing things into a van and building it out as you go is fine.. if a person doesnt mind scrapping around for a place to actually build when they need to. I would much rather have a stable place to take care of the main build. Having a job as well requires a person to have certain things.. such as a place to properly bathe and sleep to be rested properly. I don't know many folks that can just wander off to the horizon and hope they find what they need along the way.

There is also the HUGE problem here of people that have different expectations and priorities.  I have had input from here that was sooo vague that the advice was worthless. In the most recent thread I made regarding hooking up... people talk about distance of components from the house battery saying not to put them "too far away" sersiously what does that even mean??? Then in the same thread someone comes in and says not to put the inverter too close..wtf is that??

Q..even by saying "going minimalist"...What does that even mean??.. I assure you.. it means something entirely different to every person we meet.

I do appreciate folks taking the time to respond to all the posts here..not just mine.. but if a poster cant or wont quantify.. they probably should resist the urge to comment when it comes to "how to do its".

As far as this site goes I have finally been able to glean through and sort out the chaff and eagerly await the posts from a select few here. I appreciate all of you.. yes Q.. you are one of those I find value with your posts..   There is no trophy or ribbon emoji.. so you get the tongue!

Life is just a big learning curve.