Oh hi! Remember when I said we'd be leaving Utah by the end of April? Well, have you ever heard of a construction project that wasn't at least there months delayed?
That's at least what I'm repeating to try and appease myself, but I was pretty upset when Cameron announced in late April that he needed at least three more weeks to finish everything up. I was mad that he hadn't announced this setback sooner, and I kept thinking of all of the small delays and less-than-ideal project management moments that could have been improved upon. Shoot – we probably could have saved three weeks simply by being slightly more expeditious with online supplies orders!
There are a few exceptionally frustrating parts about this new delay: 1) It makes me more skeptical about Cameron's ability to predict how long this project will take and if we will ever actually live out of this van. 2) I feel like I'm disappointing my "fans" (gosh, I know my ego is so overinflated!) since I promised everyone a late-April start date. 3) I'm getting more grumpy about the van in general, which makes me think I might be resentful towards Vanjie and will not want to embrace van life. 4) I have to redo the schedule again and I really liked my last schedule. 5) We won't be able to do a social visit to the Pacific North West to kick off our trip.
Yes, I suppose there are some good things about this delay, but I'm choosing to be a grump and not dwell on those. However, I did make a vaccination appointment for Pancake for May 19th to mentally trick myself into believe that Cameron's not fully at fault for our delay – the rabbit's contributing to it, too.
I know it sounds like I am putting all of the blame on Cameron, but when there are just two of us it's easier to be cheesed off with him than to take on any of the fault myself. Clearly, I have a healthy approach to lifelong partnership and should expect absolutely no worries about living in a box with someone for an extended period of time! Mostly, (I think) I've been sympathetic and appreciative of all of the work Cameron has put into this, however when we finally got our bug netting materials (which happened to be one of those online purchases that could have been done months ago) and he started to explain his vision, I about lost it! The bug net possibly launched the biggest fight we've gotten into in our 10-year relationship.
When I say bug net, it's exactly what you're picturing – a mesh fabric barrier to allow you to open the windows (in the case of the van, the sliding side door and back doors) to let in some fresh air while keeping pesky critters out. I expected the bug net to be a relatively simple project that required cutting out some square pieces of fabric, hemming said fabric and then perhaps sewing on some sort of clasp or zipper to pin the net to the side or ceiling when not in use. Oh no no, it couldn't possibly be that easy!
First off, the materials list was overwhelming: three types of fabric (bug mesh, black nylon, and heat resistant black nylon), zipper treads, zipper pulls, zipper stoppers, magnet strips, Velcro (yes, it was Velcro brand, otherwise I would have written the generic term, "hook and loop"), 1" black webbing, and a handful of buckles. That doesn't even include the couple of extras that Cameron bought as a just-in-case-we-choose-a-different-approach. Then there was his explanation of how he wanted it to come together, which I absolutely could not follow and he absolutely could not draw out in a comprehensible manner. The more he tried to explain, the more I was thinking that my skillset was not cut out for this, and the time it would take would not match the cost savings of doing this ourselves. Heck, just charging my hourly rate for the time it took for Cameron to explain this to me probably already covered half of the cost of ordering a pre-made custom-fit bug net.
Eventually, he got his point across by cutting out mini models of the Velcro-nylon-magnet-magnet-nylon-zipper-zipper-nylon-netting-nylon-zipper-zipper-nylon-magnet-magnet-nylon-Velcro-nylon-heat resistant nylon-nylon-zipper-zipper-nylon-Velcro. Easy peasy, right? Remember, that is only the order laterally; there were additional elements that came into play for the tops and bottoms. Also, our coverage space was not an easy square, like I was thinking. The walls are curved across multiple planes and we also were working around our jutting-out counter. To cut to the chase, it was a nightmare to measure accurately.
What had originally been a two-day-max project in my head, ballooned into a two week project, with persistent resentment along the way. Cameron kept trying to cheer me up by saying "you're learning new skills!" and I kept mumbling retorts under my breath like "these are skills I will never need again" and "this is the worst unpaid internship ever!" If this were an internship and I was getting a position-end review, I'd probably give myself an A- for final product, and a C- for attitude.
I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but let's just say I got a good laugh when I recently re-read "I feel quite confident in our abilities" in an old blog post. The next line, in an overly perky tone, talks about all of the pre-van purchases we made including a collapsable table (still to be installed) and a storage canopy (I have no clue what I was talking about). There were so many lines in that first van-specific post that make me realize how truly naive we were!
 |
| Look at that worried face. That's the face of someone who is assessing their work, and realizing even though she has already put in a dozen hours, she's not even half way through. |
 | ||
This is where the problems start - a rounded door frame.
|
 |
| Although he's keeping it together better than I am right now, he's still getting wiped out from this van buildout, too. This is not the sort of project that I would recommend to others. |
