I really should not be hard on myself, but there were times I wondered who measured that length of wood and how when I measure the same piece of wood a second time I could be some millimeters off!?! Better that then inches, but even so! On the good side, I caught most measurement errors before cutting the piece of wood. As they rightly say, measure twice, cut once! 

If I was a woodworker by trade I am sure I would have less scrap pieces of wood. Its been disheartening when realizing I need to buy more wood for 3 drawer bottoms. How is it that none of the left-over scraps will work! Damn!

One tool I should have bought for this building project: a Kreg Pocket Hole Jig! Of course I would have learned which jig system to purchase and the importance of making pocket holes to hold joints more firmly, but all of that will escape me since I did not purchase a Kreg tool. Discovered that info too late! (Info alert: I do end up buying a mini Kreg pocket hole jig before this entire project is over; a bit late, but none the less!)

Other times I read material, watched You Tube videos and thought I knew what my next steps of action would be. But did I? Not always, so back to reading the material and re-watching the You Tube which was most beneficial … and easier to find if I wrote the name of the You Tube presenter in my planning notebook. Did I mention I went through 2 black and white notebooks with all my thoughts, notes, sketches, measurements of “must fit” items, shopping list, delivery info, wish list, waiting list, journal page of materials and money paid out, journal page of hours at work, etc? Yes! 

Work per day was anywhere from 4 – 8 hours. The time per day included lunch, clean-up, thinking and working … and around 10:30 am, it included a cup of green tea with honey. Blog writing was outside of those hours. Final tallies of hours and dollars will be presented at my last van conversion blog post.

Then there were days I expected to accomplish a few things and the materials had not arrived! Time to work around no L-brackets being available, or late arriving drawer sliders, or items shipped to my post office box across town (where I used to live) and not directly to my home! If I had known how often I would have used Amazon, I probably should have done the 30 day PRIME free trial! Oh well. 

A final note for today. When we travel there are usually restrooms available for our use or a nearby bush. With the realization that I could be traveling where a restroom may not be available, I decided to purchase a “luggable loo”. My initial thought was to deep-six it somewhere in the van interior, but in discovering the size of it I had to make other plans. I had seen some people put it within their bench area, but I had other plans for that area. I discovered the loo would work as a step stool to my mattress which is high off the floor, thanks to my need to have my bicycle under the bed platform! Is that a happy win-win! A loo as step stool to my mattress! I’ll take it!