She's ready for a road trip

Hello all on this beautiful Fall day!

Well, it would be a beautiful day if it weren't for the smoke in the air, but it's better than it was last week, so one must be grateful right?

I promised some photos of our (somewhat) finished Van project - the bed anyway - and I'm happy to say it's done and ready to go!

Here's the "before" the bed went in............

And here's the "after"!!!!!!

All I can say is HURRAY... and I'm so happy and relieved it's done......

The mattresses fit side by side perfectly and are very comfy and firm the way we like it....

We used two foldable memory foam mattress pads that I purchased from Amazon - they had very good reviews.

A queen sheet fits (almost).  The two mattresses make this about 5" larger than a queen bed! I'm so happy! We're used to a king bed.

Rudy likes it!

The bed is made up with nice soft sheets - this lady does NOT like sleeping in sleeping bags! I want my bed to feel like home. I mean, we will take one in case we need it for extra warmth on top of us, but I wanted our bed to not feel so much like we are camping. 

I sanded all the plywood and drilled holes in the end to hold it on the frames, so it won't slide around. The plywood on the frames is also in 3 pieces, so that we can, if we need to, remove one of the mattresses, and fold over the blankets and slide the middle piece to one side, so that we have an "aisle" down the middle to walk, or sit on the beds. 

I bought a large flannel sheet and a quilt from the thrift store, to put under the mattresses. The quilt was too narrow, and had scalloped edges, so I cut some quilt batting (4 layers) to fit along the side, so it would all be level. No lumps for me!

And voila.. it's ready!

Our heads will be at the end by the back doors, and there's just enough room at the foot of our bed (up front behind the seats) for stowing a few things, like our ice chest, water jug and porta potty (yes... we HAVE to have a porta potty!)  Doesn't give us much room, but it works.

We both use CPAP machines, and those will have to sit under the bed at our heads.. and the cords will run up front to where the two batteries and inverters are. We've had two extra heavy duty batteries installed, that are hooked up to the Van battery, and they will charge every time the Van is running. That way, we can be "off grid" if we want to or need to be. I'm anxious to try them out. 

They take up alot of room, but I think it'll be worth it. This way, hubby can take the Van hunting and park and sleep out overnight where there is no power. 

So........she's ready to go. There are nice blinds on the side windows and I have made curtains (temporary ones) for the back and side door windows. They are only temporary.. I made them last summer on the fly using some fleece blankets I bought, so that we'd have curtains when we (attempted) went camping in the Fall. 

My next project is to (somehow, not sure how to) put hooks in the Van to hang things on. I'm afraid to start drilling into the frame, but hooks are a great plus in such a small space........ I also need to buy some little baskets or tubs that will fit under the bed frames, to hold our things like food, clothing, toiletries, tools, etc. There's lots of room under the bed frames.  I actually have some Dollar Tree baskets that fit perfectly!

See the  foot stool? Of course we have to have a stool to get up into the Van.. and down again!

So she's ready to go... just not sure when WE will be. There's still alot of smoke here from the fire west of us.. and I think all of Oregon is under smoke, as hundreds of thousands of acres of forest land are still burning. It's so sad to hear about all of the beautiful forests that have burned up, towns gone, land burned, houses leveled, businesses gone, and people have died in the fires. 

Our moods right now aren't the greatest for wanting to take a trip, but I do hope we can find it in ourselves to at least try her out for one night, before the snows hit. It would be nice to find somewhere without smoke hanging over everything, but right now, I think that might be impossible. There's still lots of do to winterize our house which takes first priority.

But now I can at least mark one more thing off my "to do" list - "get Van bed done"!! (it only took me a year.........)

I'll let you know if/when we hit the road.........

ALL CONTENT © PINK PAPER COTTAGE.

PLEASE DO NOT COPY MY PHOTOS AND IMAGES INTO YOUR OWN POSTS WITHOUT FIRST LINKING TO THIS BLOG AND MY NAME.