Port Angeles, WA

Port Angeles is another town with a bit of an unfair advantage, given that Cameron grew up here and we've spent many holidays visiting the Littles and exploring the Peninsula. When Cameron and I first started dating (almost 10 years ago!) I asked if he would consider moving back. Back then, it was a hard "no," but since then PA has gotten more hip. The downtown is expanding and young people are moving back into the area. 

PA has great access into the Olympic National Park, and even excluding the outdoor aspects, there is a lot going on given how small of a town it is (population just at 20,000). There are a growing number of bars and restaurants, a great walking/biking trail along the Salish Sea, there are regular festivals and activities around town, and you can easily ferry to Victoria, Canada. Since we've seen most of the tourist highlights, we took this trip as an opportunity to experience residential life. Rather than staying with the Littles in their mountain home, we rented a tiny house in town (both for practical reasons, but also to practice for van life).

The Good

• Really close to family. Cameron's parents, sister, and grammy live in town; his other grandparents are an hour away, and his brother and all of our Washington friends are within 3 hours.
• The Olympic National Park literally boarders the town. I love this park! Almost all of our backpacking trips have been here and the Hurricane Ridge skyline (which is only 30 minutes from downtown) is represented on our wedding bands.
• Although the downtown is a little worn down, it's growing into a young hip community with a strong local vibe. Every time I go back there's something new and nice that's been added. The most recent cool spot is Buena Luz Bakery (owned by Emily Little).
• The town has a year-round farmers market and plenty of annual festivals/activities. 
• Great views: Olympics, the Puget Sound, the Salish Sea, Victoria, and the Cascades. On a clear day there are even views of Mount Baker. Plus, because it's on the north end of the Salish Sea you see both the sunrise and sunset along the water.

The Bad

• Really close to family. Yes, I know this is also on the good list, but my ideal distance to family is a 1-3 hour buffer – close enough that you can visit for a day but not so close that we have no autonomy. I want to move to a place that feels like it's my town, and not my in-laws' town.
• Far from an airport (about 3 hours from SeaTac, which includes a light rail ride and a ferry ride, which add to the transportation costs). However, it seems promising the the regional airport might start offering daily flights between PA and Seattle.
• The main road leading in and out of the town is also the main peninsula highway, which means to drive into town you have to go through fringe dumpy highway businesses.
• Far from good/reliable skiing. There technically is a Hurricane Ridge ski area, but the road is rarely open and it does not meet my minimum lift and vertical drop qualifications to consider it a "real" ski area.
• The weather, especially in the winter, can be dark and dreary, and even being back for just a week reminded me of my seasonal affect disorder (SAD).

The Verdict

Yes? I guess it has to be considered a definite "yes" since we bought a house while we were there.

"What? You bough a house?!" you ask incredulously. "Does that mean the Goldilocks Project is already over?" 

"No," I respond. "It just means we will have a secondary home base. We're still moving forward with the original plan, and renting the house to family while we get in on those sweet sweet first time homebuyer tax credits."

But in all actuality, I do like Port Angeles, and would say it is currently tied for the top position with Mountain Green, UT. Although being close to family is both good and bad, since Cameron's vetoed everything in the Southwest I'm more inclined to seriously consider the locations in the Pacific Northwest. The draw of being near my closest friends is also pretty immense, and I've considered PA as a potential future home for a long time. If I had to make a short list prior to starting the Goldilocks Project, PA probably would have been in the top five. Now we'll just have to see if it can stay there as it stacks up against the less well-known future contenders.

The views are the best part of Port Angeles. Of course the whole time we were there it was pretty gloomy, which is typical for fall/winter.

Port Angeles has a really nice community college. If we moved her I might toy with the ideas of becoming a professor.

It's very lush. Part of the Olympic Peninsula is taken over by the Hoh Rainforest.

One of the plus sides of all that moisture is fungi. We harvested and cooked up this lovely cauliflower mushroom.

This is one of the two streets of downtown. It's nothing special, but it's getting better.

There are some really nice spots in town, and plenty of sculptures and murals.

This was our cute tiny house for the week. It was a great stay.

Hopefully this place is even greater, since we went ahead and bought it! Yep, this is our house. It's a cutie, isn't it?

~~~~~

For those of you who are regular readers, please note that there may be longer gaps between posts as I do not have any immediate travel plans. There will still be periodic van buildout updates, but we are on pause until some key pieces get shipped (which may still be a month more of waiting). Thank you for your continued readership and have a happy new year!

Van Buildout: Subflooring and Stable Structures

I'll admit, Cameron is doing at least 80% of the work on this van buildout. I tell myself that's because he's enjoying it so much, but it's equally because of my many insecurities about my ability to plan and execute any significant parts of this. Cameron is the one who has designed a virtual floorpan; calculated the sizes, quantities, and materials of all of the hardware; and done the bulk of the construction. I am the second set of hands that is needed for hauling builds between the garage and the van and I'm the second set of eyes for gauging how livable the space is. That said, I will try to be as detailed as possible with the buildout descriptions.

Subfloor Assembly

Under our feet will be a layer of foam insulation, cork cushion, plywood stabilizer, and then final flooring (likely laminate). Striped between the sheets of foam are 1.5" aluminum crossbars which will be the primary anchoring system for any structures that get added in later on. We're also adding radiant heat, so we'll need to cut out channels for that tubing to run through. 

Measuring out the shapes for each of those layers is a little tricky since the walls of the van are not perfect right angles. Quite the contrary – there are lots of curves and kinks to navigate, so to fit everything snugly requires a lot of practice on cardboard sheets. You basically cut out a rough, but conservative, shape in a sheet of cardboard, and then slowly slice away inch by inch, then centimeter by centimeter, and finally millimeter by millimeter until the cardboard fits precisely. The cardboard sample then gets traced onto each permanent sheet.

You do that process separately for each layer, and the tools needed vary depending on the material; a foam knife, a box cutter, and a jigsaw are all called into use. The tricky trick, which I probably would have missed if this were my solo project, is to offset each layer. So, even though the foam and the plywood come in the same sized 6'x4' sheets, you don't want the ends of each sheet to line up in a single column of gap space. 

Bed Frame and Layout

Because the bed is the largest single structure, everything else is getting planned off of that. Using the same aluminum bars (80/20 brand), Cameron has fully built our double bed. Our bed is parallel to the car length and will be flush with the passenger side. (Typically, you only can have a full-length perpendicular bed if you add extension inserts into both sides of the van.) The 1' gap on the driver side will eventually be built into floor-to-ceiling shelving. The bed hinges at both the head and the feet to allow for easier access into the garage (the space underneath the bed) and also for more comfortable lounging. 

The bed plan has been a staple from our earliest mock ups, but everything else has been in flux. Having the bed frame in there has helped solidify some plans and change some others. The big change – we're not going to have a permanent shower structure. Hurray! I didn't think we needed it, but Cameron was pretty insistent since he expects to need regular post-run showers. We'll still have an option for an interior shower, but it will be deconstructed when not in use.

Going from the bed to the front cabin, on the passenger side we will have a five foot counter that will be our primary counter top space and also our cooktop. On the end of the counter will be a collapsable desk so that will be accessible as a workspace when sitting in a turned-around passenger seat.

On the other side (the driver side) the bedside storage will extend into upper cabinets and a more counters. Embedded in these counters will be our refrigerator and sink. Our composting toilet will be next to that, but will be covered by a bench that sits across from the driver's seat most of the time. Between the two chairs will be our fold down dinner table. When we get to that point, and if we're feeling fancy, we can probably find a way to extend the table and add an extra seat, in case we ever have guests for a meal.

Radiant Heat

The radiant heat tubing will be routed from the water heater, which will sit behind the sink/toilet area. In preparation for that step, Cameron spent a full Sunday drilling two dozen holes into the aluminum bars in the flooring. He's also started to test the best methods to drill out the channels in the foam and cork that everything will eventually need to run through. There are a lot of specific small pieces that need to be purchased and precisely places for this to work correctly. We've made regular trips to various hardware stores, often hitting two or three in a day. Some things can't be found in person so we're a bit at a stand still until our ordered tubing and heat plate arrive. Unfortunately, since the radiant heat is embedded in the subfloor, there's not much else that can be committed to until this step is finalized.

Batteries

We've bought four big 100-amp hour batteries that will need to be strung together and then hooked up to the van's diesel and the future solar panels. I never could wrap my head around electricity in school, so Cameron is definatley taking the lead. He's been tinkering with a fuse box and laying out the connection plan. I've helped put together battery cables, which involved stripping the ends of the cables (which are about 1" thick), adding a metal connection piece (sorry I don't know technical terms), covering that with rubber, and securing it all together with a clamp and heat gun. It was fun!

~~~

The whole process requires a lot of in-and-out (hence my usefulness as a second set of hands). We're constantly putting something into the van to test our placement or to make it feel like we're accomplishing more than we really have, and then having to remove it to access those many layers of subfloor. Although there are days were I am too cold and unmotivated to go work in the van, I'm really impressed with our (read: Cameron's) progress so far. There is an element of "hurry up and wait" since often there are a series of steps that need to be accomplished simultaneously, but I think it's pretty likely that we'll have a semi-livable structure by mid-January and will be able to take it out for some practice overnights.

I'm starting to learn that power tools are fun! They take a lot of concentration, though, especially when there are only small margins for mistakes.

The workspace (our garage) has a nice view, especially when wild turkeys cross by.

This is what it looks like under our feet right now. You can see Cameron's drill holes and his clever markings to make sure we keep everything in order...

...Which is important since we're regularly taking the flooring out and piling it up to test something or to work on a lower layer.

The 80/20 came in the specific dimensions Cameron ordered, but everything else is DIY.

Tape and plywood are our friends. Daylight is limited so we're often still putting things together after the sun goes down.

This is our model layout: bed in the back that feeds into the kitchen. Cameron is sitting in the drivers seat, which will double as one of the "dining room" chairs.

Our bed is pretty cool, but there are a lot of pieces that need to fit together!

Anything electric is in Cameron's sole domain. I know this will connect to the batteries somehow, but trying to explain more than that is far out of my abilities.

Creating battery cables and making sure to not burn the house down. You can see two of the four mega batteries that we have in the bottom right corner.

Modeling out our battery plan before it needs to get secured in the van.

Cameron mapping out where the radiant heat tubing will go.

A practice drill through some of the foam with a model tube securely tucked in.

By the end of this, Cameron will know Vanjie Meriwether very intimately.