Overwhelmed and Frustrated [Day 17]

Sometimes Building a Van is Tough

Today was a tough day. Here’s the thing about any big project: no matter how excited you are about it, it’s going to get tough at some point. We’re in the beginning toughness, not even the middle part where you’ve been doing it so long that you just want the damn end result already. We rode our high of buying the van for at least 2 weeks. Then we checked off a couple of big milestones, like chopping holes in the roof and the sides to install the fan and put in our junkyard windows.

Then, we decided to shorten our timeline, and transition to a full-time build. I (Becky) was finally getting into a groove of juggling my business, podcast, and the build when we were part-time building. I was originally doing 3 days van, 4 days work. Since last weekend, I felt like my already long days have somehow gotten much much longer. Now, I’m not sleeping enough and working constantly, with the feeling that I should always be somewhere else doing something else, no matter what I’m working on. While the van build diary hasn’t shown me putting very many active build hours in, I spend hours each day taking photos and video (and managing those photos and videos), posting to Instagram and Facebook, writing these blog posts, none of which I count towards van build hours. Not only am I blogging daily and doing IG stories daily, but I am also trying to complete about 3 podcast episodes a week, so I can be done with 2020’s podcasts by the time we leave (and again, the departure date got moved up). All this to say, I’ve been trying to do too much all at once and feeling like it’s never enough.

With not enough sleep, I get downright cranky. When I feel like I’m trying to do everything all at once and working 12 hours a day with nothing to show for it, I get overwhelmed. When I’m cranky and overwhelmed, I’m not good at making decisions. And that brings us to today, the worst day of the van build so far.

Solar Postponed

The thing that helps me get so much done so quickly is planning ahead. But being a natural planner, I’m not typically as flexible as others. Luckily I have Austin to balance me out on that. We ordered our solar setup last week (read how we saved $255 on it here), we got the Fedex shipping notification that it would arrive Monday. Well, it didn’t arrive Monday, so we crossed our fingers that it would come today. Two pieces came today, but we were still waiting for a third. Upon re-checking the shipping notification, it seems that that third piece of the solar puzzle won’t be gracing us with its presence until NEXT Monday. So, the whole plan for this week was wrecked (which was basically to do solar and wiring). And, we felt like we wasted 2 days doing small maintenance tasks while waiting for the solar when it didn’t even arrive! It was frustrating.

No worries, I’ll just switch things around on the Gannt chart (nerdy, I know) that I use to plan our project deliverables. Well, the next item was insulation. OK, we’ll just do that next, we thought. That’s not a problem, except we were supposed to order our bunk windows this week so they could arrive (and be installed) before we started insulating. So that task ended up being the highest priority. Here’s where my overwhelm and frustration combine to create Austin’s frustration as well.

Window Plan Changed

Here’s the thing… I am just not keen on spending $600 on two small bunk windows. We budgeted (albeit $100 less than that) for it, but after getting $25 windows at the junkyard (which turned out spectacularly), I just couldn’t bring myself to spend that much. I’d been in contact with several people on Craigslist looking for RV windows, and I just couldn’t find any in the 35″ x 10″ horizontal slider bunk size that we wanted. So basically, when it came time to order the windows I decided that I wasn’t willing to spend the $600.

So, we head to the van to see what our options are. Option 1: no windows in the back. We hook up the Maxxair fan to the battery using jumper cables and turn it on. The good news is, it works. The airflow from the windows we installed in the front (up by where the fan is) is just beautiful. But there’s not as much airflow in the back. Darn, I thought, we could have saved ourselves $600 by installing the fan in the back, over the bed. Too late now, there’s already a hole (with the fan in it) in the roof.

Austin really wanted windows in the back for airflow. We could go and get another junkyard window, but it didn’t work as well with our design. So we finally decided (after hours of debating) to just go for the windows that we originally were going to get. You can imagine how annoying and time-wasting this was for Austin, who wanted this all along and thought I was on board.

Buying RV Windows Saga

Now that we’ve made our decision, I go to order the windows. Upon searching online, the windows we wanted are back-ordered EVERYWHERE. The earliest we could get them would be late October or early November on all sites. This was a problem because 1. we are now planning to leave at the end of October, and 2. we need to install the windows before we finish insulating.

I had given up hope, and then I found the one Unicorn site, which had both the driver and passenger window in stock. I had applied a 5% coupon and paid through Paypal with my Discover card, which would get 5% back for Paypal purchases. I submit my order.  I immediately get an email asking me to call their customer service line because there’s something they need to clear up. My heart sinks.

PS. (regarding the Paypal bonus) I’m pretty sure that Discover will rescind the 5% PayPal bonus because of the return, but we’ll see!

I know that it’s because they’re actually back-ordered, but I call anyway, hoping its something else.  “Sorry, our website is not updating. Those windows are back-ordered until mid-November” says the customer service agent on the line. I ask her to cancel and refund the order. More time wasted, and we’re still no closer to having any damn windows!

Next stop, Amazon. We can’t find windows anywhere near the dimensions we wanted on Amazon, or eBay, or anywhere else online. So we have to settle for 20″ x 15″ windows. Austin and I go outside and tape it on the side of the van. I think they look silly and small, and I’m still nervous I’ll hate them when they arrive. The only good news is that the price was $240 for two, so at least that makes me and my budget happy! They go in the cart with the rest of the Amazon order.

 

Amazon Order

We sent in another Amazon order today for 5% window tint for the back windows and a 5% pre-cut eyebrow for the windshield. Read our last post to find out how self-tinting our windows went and whether we’d recommend it (hint: we don’t 😂). But, Austin’s gotten more practice on the front windows, and we already started down this path so let’s see how Round 2 goes.

We also ordered a ScanGauge. This is a tool that accesses your van’s internal diagnostic computer and gives you information from the sensors in the engine. For example, coolant temperature, manifold pressure, oil pressure, etc. We want one because it will help us catch problems with the vehicle faster, and it gives us MPG calculations which we are excited to have. The one thing we needed it for was an engine temperature gauge because our gauge cluster doesn’t have one. Also, Austin’s a mechanic so he geeks out over the information these things can give you.

Saving Money on Amazon Order

We signed up for a Shop With Points promotion that gave us a $15 promotional credit on any item shipped/fulfilled by Amazon when you pay with points. The thing that most people don’t realize about this promotion is that you only have to use 1 point to be eligible, you don’t have to make your whole purchase with points. We don’t spend Ultimate Rewards points on Amazon because they have a higher value when redeemed for travel.

So I added 1 UR point as payment from the Chase Freedom credit card which gets 5% back (as Ultimate Rewards Points), and the rest was applied to the card. The ScanGauge was shipped by Amazon so instead of $144 it was $129. After completing the purchase I unenrolled the Chase Freedom card from Shop with Points so we don’t accidentally spend points on Amazon purchases. I can always re-enroll at any time.

 

DJI Refresh +

I’ve had my drone for about a year now, and I got a few emails from DJI reminding me that my extended warranty, called DJI Refresh, was going to expire in a few days. They have a program called DJI Refresh + that you can extend your warranty with for another year. Usually, I don’t buy extended warranties, but usually, I also don’t buy $1000 pieces of equipment that I then fly over water and hundreds of feet in the air over cliffs and stuff. The refresh plan covers 1 full replacement, including the aircraft, gimbal, camera, batteries, etc. and also covers water damage (as long as you recover the drone from the water it crashes into). Since I intend to be using the drone a lot more this coming year (I’ve only had 2 chances to use it all of the past year, in Hawaii and Costa Rica) when we go on our van trip, it gives me peace of mind to know I could get a replacement without having to shell out another $1000. I am counting this as a van expense because we’ll be flying the drone a TON during our trip and want to keep it insured.

Title & Insurance

We finally got our title today! Austin called the used car dealer last Friday and asked him where the title was, and it seemed like he just forgot to mail it to us haha. Then when I went to put it in a “safe place” I placed it on the counter for a moment while I went outside to check on something. I must have forgotten about it. Later tonight, I realized that I didn’t know where it went. After searching all over, we checked in the recycling, and there it was in it’s FedEx envelope. Who knows how it got in there, although I bet the envelope looked empty because it didn’t have anything besides one page in it. That was close.

I also called the insurance company, State Farm, and asked them why we haven’t gotten any policy documents yet. They said for commercial policies (like the one on the cargo van), it can take up to 30 days to send us the policy information. I also asked to make sure we were set up for auto-payments (I’m all about automation) because I definitely don’t want to be mailing paper checks while we’re on the road. They forgot to send me the paper to sign to authorize automatic payments, so they sent that, and I signed it. I also signed up for an online account so I can manage my policy online from now on. I’m happy we went with a local agent from State Farm because they’re able to give you personalized help and since they provided our policy they were familiar with what I was talking about!

Now, we just have to rough out the inside of the van enough for it to be called an RV so we can switch our insurance and lower our rates!

 

 

9/15/2020

Build Day #17

Hours Worked: 8

• Austin – 4
• Becky – 4
• Total Project Hours: 190

Money Spent: $505

• RV Windows 20″ W x 15″ H (Amazon) – $240
• ScanGauge (Amazon) – $129
• 5% Ceramic Window Tint (Amazon) – $40
• 5% Window Tint Windshield Sun Strip (Amazon) – $12
• LED Lightbulbs for internal lights (Amazon) – $10
• Tax (Amazon) – $27
• DJI Refresh+ for Drone (DJI) – $47
• Total Project Spending: $19,017

Tasks Complete: 3

• Order bunk windows
• Get title
• Set up insurance auto-pay

Questions Googled: 1

• Where the heck can I get some CR Laurence sliding bunk windows? (answer: order now and wait until November)