Before we get into day 7 of the van build, I need to document the story of saying good-bye to our old rig. The day started bright and early with us headed to LAX at 6 am. You see, we sold the rig to a couple of fellow Airstreamers and today was the day they are flying to California to pick it up.
We picked up the new owners and drove them to my parents’ house so we could fill out paperwork, show them how everything works and so that the kids could say good-bye too. The two youngest didn’t seem to have any issues with selling the truck and truck camper but Ava was a bit more sentimental.
We met the new owners, Brett and Bree, back at Trona Pinnacles and Lone Pine when were there in March 2015. All of us were happily living in our own Airstreams, with no idea that downsizing was in our future. This is the rig that we built after a life changing summer in Alaska back 2015. Living in the Airstream got too comfortable and complacent, so we put it in storage and started designed a dream small rig. This is what we came up with and it worked so well for us. We adjusted to the smaller space faster than any of us expected and lived in it (mostly internationally) for 18 months.
After we parted ways with Brett in Bree at Tuttle Creek in Lone Pine, California, we noticed that they left their shovel behind. And after three years of not seeing each other, today we FINALLY got to return their shovel. Haha. That shovel was with us from the southwestern states of Mexico to the northeastern provinces of Canada and now it gets to continue its journey with the rig.
Here we are showing off the new van to our friends. They way Ava is holding her dad is hard to see. She hates to see things we own go away. She still talks about the first van we owned that broke down on the way to Alaska 3 years ago.
It was going to be difficult to give Brett and Bree a full deployment of the rig while parked curbside so we drove to an empty parking lot at a nearby park.
We went over everything in the truck, in the FWC camper, deployment the ARB awning and even partially set-up the ARB Awning Room.
I love that our rig is going to a good home and they seem super happy with it. It was hard for Dan and me to watch it drive away though. But we chose a different path and gotta stick with our new plan. No turning back now. Oh and if you want to follow them on Instagram, their handle is TheSterlingSpacepod.
Starting our work day was a little tougher today. Watching our old fully functioning rig drive away while going back to a not even close to being done van was a little punch to our gut. BUT also motivation to keep working.
Today’s plan is to cover all our foam insulation with Reflectix. There is a lot controversy with using Reflectix on the forums, well with everything in general to be truthful, but we decided it was worth the effort and price. As soon as we taped the Reflectix over the insulation, we noticed a pretty big difference in temperature. By just placing our hands on insulation versus Reflectix over insulation , we could tell how much cooler the Reflectix was. Worth every cent to us. And eventually we will make custom reflectix covers for the windows too but that’s a ways away.
Today’s Reflectix job was good for our moral because it allowed the ability to reinstall the door panels.
And just like with using windows, Dan and I have different thoughts on reusing the bottom factory wall panels. I say it’s easier to ditch it for installing wood from top to bottom but he says the bottom panels work and it will save time, money and give us a couple inches of extra room if we keep it. I gave in and we’ll see how it ends up working once the headliner is back in.
Hey, Dan! It’s too dark to take a photo of our handy work today. Much better 🙂
Going to cover those two mid-panels tomorrow for a few minutes and then take the day off tomorrow. Hopefully on Sunday, a part that we’ve been waiting for to cut the holes in the van will arrive and we can start installing fans and windows.
Here’s the video to go along with the day 7 build. Enjoy!
As always, thanks for following along,
Marlene
P.S. Don’t forget to also follow us on Instagram and for extra content, we also on Patreon 🙂
3 Comments
Kevin · April 15, 2018 at 10:17 am
Looking back when you started this voyage, would you have used a Sprinter Camper instead of the Four Wheel and Casita?
marlene · April 15, 2018 at 11:21 am
No. I don’t think so. We opted to buy the FWC because it was ready to go. Same with Casita. We looked into buying a vintage Airstream instead of Casita but the down time for a build was a deciding factor. We are doing some property shuffling right now and need to be in California so thought this was perfect time to try a build.
dan · April 15, 2018 at 12:34 pm
yeah what Marlene said and a new sprinter would not have survived in mainland Mexico because of the lack of ultra low sulfur diesel. Not a problem now in Europe.