I built a bed on Saturday, most of a bed anyway. I mean I didn’t have enough wood for the slats. But the main frame—done. Square and level and sturdy as hell. Then I tried to put it in the van. Or more accurately, I hauled it around to the back doors of the van and started laughing. I’m a dumbass. The bed’s not even a twin length bed but the doors are smaller than the inside of the van. There was no way it was going in right without removing the legs. So I chucked it in sideways and took Woody for his walk. When I got back, I realized all that wood glue was going to be dry soon and I should probably take the legs off it while I could.
It sat like that, legless and sideways for a couple days—rain, cramps, more rain, and a strong case of “I don’t wanna.” But today I finally went out there and built the rest of it, minus the slats. I couldn’t go buy more wood with a half a bed sliding around back there.
It somehow looks bigger than a twin. But it’s a twin. Sort of. I’ll still have to cut some of the mattress and sleep diagonally. It’s a twin because the van is too small already. And let’s be honest here. “Hey, you wanna go back to my van” is not a phrase I’m ever going to use because I’m crazy, not insane.
I didn’t go buy more lumber today. We were pushing up against Woody’s dinner-walk hour. So I hung the fire extinguisher and a carbon monoxide detector. I nearly learned that lesson the worst way back when I was living in the Winniebago.
I’d parked at a truck stop to sleep for the night. One of those giant RVs pulled up beside me and cranked up their generator. I thought it was annoying at first, the noise. Then I thought, actually it’s kind of nice—drowns out the trucks and the announcements about showers being ready. So I went to sleep as my winnie filled with generator exhaust. By the time the carbon monoxide detector went off, I couldn’t make myself sit up. The detector was set up right about the kitchen sink, about 2 feet below my head where I was sleeping over the cab. So I was pretty good and poisoned already. So, yeah this detector’s installed right up at the ceiling. And now I have another one of those horror stories you tell people who are planning to live in vans. Buy a carbon monoxide detector. You never know when some jackass is going to vent their generator exhaust right under you. So now I’ve told y’all.
So now I have to buy some wood for slats. And some wood to frame out the box for the electrical stuff. And once all that’s done, I get to go to Ikea for a mattress and see if I can find something to work for the sink/kitchen cabinet. But, we have a bed, mostly.
One day soon, we’re going to get to discuss what the hell I’m doing with a van anyway. For now, hey look it’s a bed. (Ignore the little one bys. I was being lazy/trying to use up scrapwood. It’s not going to work. Annoyingly I’m going to have to do it right.)
(Also, okay so you know how some of y’all have offered to make curtains and I’m awkward as fuck about accepting help which I realize is rude as shit but here were are, and my neighbor said he’d do it and that was more comfortable because dogs are friends/was gonna pay him. Okay so the thing is, he may be more into talking about curtains than making them. I have the material and will happily pay if any of y’all are in Austin? I refused to learn how to use a sewing machine when I was a kid, for reasons. And now I don’t know how. If you’re that person or know someone, email me? laurenthehough at gmail. Thank you!!
I was just about to offer. If you run out of offers and still need curtains, call me. I'm seriously good with a sewing machine. I used to make clothes, quilts and doll clothes for my kids when they were wee, and have made many houses worth of curtains. They are easy to run up in no time.
Looks like a good bed :-) We learned the hard way that when you build a bed in a space, sometimes you have to take it apart when you move it out of the space. That's what happened to our platform bed that we had to take apart to put back together when we moved last year. Oh well!