King the Van

I am very, very happy with how the kitchen has turned out so far. It's been years since I first envisioned this, and it's extremely surreal to see it coming to life. Details under the cut.

I took a three-week break from building last month, to travel and then to recover from traveling, but aside from that, a lot has happened on the van. I got my gas heater mounted, which I will post about later once that install is fully complete. But I needed to get that started so I could build the kitchen base around the heater.

For the lower kitchen cabinetry, I'm using my old TV stand, which I painted several years ago. This is something I consider to be a core piece of the build, not only because the kitchen is such an important part of every home, but also because my plans for this build centered around me not having to build cabinets from scratch or buy a whole set of brand new cabinets.

I removed the legs from the TV stand and built a new, sturdier base that provides additional storage space and also raises the unit to counter height. The heater is somewhat visible on the right.

Underneath the base, I installed anchor points to secure some of my water jugs to the floor. This is about half of my water storage, and the opening on the front of the base is sized to let me pull the jugs in and out with ease. These are 20 liter jugs, which is what I'm able to reliably carry. I'll talk more about my water system in full once I get the plumbing done.

I took the TV stand apart so I could reassemble it with wood glue, since I don't trust the cam locks it was originally built with, and so it would be easier to move it into the van, since it's about 50 kilos when fully assembled. I then glued and screwed the partially assembled stand to the new base and added the side walls after that.

Because the walls of the van aren't straight or at right angles to the floor, there's a sizeable gap behind the kitchen, so I used some offcuts of wood to anchor it to the wall. These pieces are glued and screwed to both the kitchen and the support beam, and, again, that support beam is bolted directly to the metal frame of the van.

I installed a corner brace to anchor the unit to the floor, and I've got three more I plan on adding, but I need to get a drill that fits into tighter spaces first.

I also added a metal latch to the drawer to keep it from flying out, and I'd like to test the strength of this latch for at least a few weeks before I hang the cabinet doors, to see if I want to stick with this model or try something else.

I mentioned previously that I have a potential trip upcoming. I camped out in the van for a night back in January, and it was fine aside from my really sad, pathetic attempt at a bedroll, so I really wanted to get the bed ready for this trip so that I could have somewhere comfortable to sleep and to recharge.

Details under the cut

How it started vs How it's going

I'd wanted to make this post after the walls were fully done, but I have a potential trip coming up, and I'd like to get the bed installed before then, so I'm going to save the finishing touches on the kitchen wall for later. Details under the cut.

I was very excited to get to do some upholstery in the van. It's been a few years since my last upholstery project, and, while I'm no expert, it's something I really enjoy doing. Details under the cut.

This feels like a major step that happened very slowly and then all at once. Details under the cut.

I spent several days this month running wires for my electric system, so I can prepare to install my walls. I'm using 12 gauge stranded marine wire, and I've been doing my best to protect it from any sharp metal edges in the frame.

I taped out my layout beforehand so I could get a better idea of where exactly I needed to run wire to.

I'm trying to keep this system relatively simple because it's DIY and my electric needs are relatively simple. I'm using a power station instead of building everything from scratch, which means for AC power I'm just going to run extension cords instead of wiring outlets and fussing with junction boxes and ground wires. I'm also not pre-wiring lights; I want all my lighting to be battery powered.

Basically I just ran wires for some 12v appliances like my fan and my fridge, some USB charging ports, and then I added like five extra lines in case I decide to add anything to the van in the future, like a water heater or a freezer.

The wire was somewhat easy to run because it's stiff enough to push itself through, and because the channels in the Promaster's frame are relatively easy to access, but some of the longer runs took a while bc of the number of bends and turns to go around.

Most of my time was spent putting things in place to protect the wire from sharp edges and screws. I used rubber grommets and plastic conduit, I zip tied it in place wherever I could, and when in doubt I covered the sharper edges of the frame in duct tape for extra security. I do want to get clips to better secure the wire that's running across the ceiling, so I can keep it tucked out of the way of any drilling I do in the future, but I just went ahead and loosely zip tied those wires for now, since I won't be putting the ceiling up for some time.

I really tried to be as thorough as I could because I had a device in my house explode last year due to frayed wiring, so I'm very conscious of the potential for that to happen if I'm not careful 😬

I posted a couple months ago about starting to apply butyl sound deadener to my walls while I worked up the energy to begin my floors. Before I finished the floors, we started getting some cold weather, so I shifted gears in order to get the van insulated, which meant finishing off the sound deadener. Like I mentioned previously, I've been juggling various projects.

The sound deadener was really easy to install. I don't think it made much of a difference, however, on the wall panels, even when exceeding the recommended 25% coverage. But it did make a really noticeable difference on the doors, where I went a little heavier on coverage, since that's where most of my road noise comes from anyways.

In order to get at the doors, I popped off these plastic panels that protect the lock mechanisms. One of them was really badly cracked from the previous owner and hanging on by a thread, so I went ahead and duct taped it along the back, just to keep it together for now. I'd like to replace these panels in the future with something that has storage, but it's not a priority atm.

And while I was removing the panels, I got the urge to get some sample paint to try out a wall color that I'd been eyeballing for a long time. This did not end up giving off the mood that I wanted, it's far too bright and poppy, but it was a good starting point. Anyways, that's just an explanation as to why you may see this random coral colored panel in various updates.

For the ceiling, I used the leftover underlayment I had from the floors to give it a little extra soundproofing. I find that it does scare the shit out of me whenever an acorn falls on the metal roof, so I figured a little extra couldn't hurt.

The insulation I used was 3m thinsulate, which is pretty common in van builds. It's got like 50% recycled material, and really good soundproofing and thermal insulating properties.

I used my fabric shears to cut it out and 3m spray to glue it up. Because of how thick it is, even my ginghers struggled a little to cut it, but that was really the only difficulty in the process. Overall, it only took a few evenings to complete.

It's been a while since I posted, and there's been a lot of progress in the meantime, but I've been juggling various projects in the build all at once and wanted to wait until things were at a finishing point before doing a write-up. You can also see above that I finally hemmed the second curtain, and some other things have happened, which I'll post about soon.

Last update, I left off with the subfloor partially cut. To finish it out, I used up scraps that I had left, since I didn't want to get a third sheet of plywood.

Structurally, I don't think it's the greatest to have this many seams, but this part will be under the bed with zero foot traffic, so I'm not too bothered by it, it was worth saving wood imo.

After getting the plywood cut, I waterproofed it and then started gluing down first the insulation and then plywood using construction adhesive. The seams of the insulation, I covered with foil tape to mitigate heat transfer between the cracks.

Once the plywood was glued down, I went along the edges with spray foam and then cut that down to floor level. These gaps between the plywood and the metal wall are there to prevent thermal bridging. The spray foam fills that gap while offering a little insulation.

I picked up a roll of underlayment from a resale shop and glued this to the plywood. This is 3 mm eva foam and offers some soundproofing qualities. It's not cushy like carpet padding, but it does make the floor a little more comfortable.

For the actual flooring itself, I went with sheet vinyl. I wanted something waterproof, and I didn't want plank flooring that would be expanding and contracting a lot from the large temperature shifts inside the van. Which basically left this, or marine carpet.

It was really exciting to get the flooring in the van because this is the first major aesthetic change, aside from my one singular curtain panel (now two panels, two months after installing the vinyl lol). I really love the look of poured concrete and while it's maybe not for everyone, I've been obsessed with it for a while. The visual texture is just really stimmy to me, and I love the subtle variations in color. I'm also planning on having a lot of color and patterns in the van, so I think it's nice to have a floor that's more neutral and muted, to balance things out without being totally flat.

The floors also just feel really good. They're not perfect, and I'm certainly not a professional nor have I had any practice with flooring, but tbh they're nicer than the floors in my house, so I'm personally really proud of them.

The actual installation was somewhat laborious, simply because the vinyl was like 50lbs heavy and very bulky, so getting it up into the van and unrolling it and moving it around took a lot out of me. But the upside of it being so heavy was that it was really easy to smooth out any air bubbles, and it didn't crease or crinkle easily.

I did a rough cut, used 3m spray to glue it down, and then I trimmed it to size with a knife. I made a couple small miscuts around the seams, but these were easy to patch and seal with silicone, and they'll all be covered by furniture eventually anyways. I did also run some caulk between the vinyl and the metal walls of the van.

For the doorways, I used the multitool to get all the layers (insulation, plywood, underlayment, vinyl) flush with each other, and then I used lap sealant to seal the edges. Then I cut down some aluminum stair nosing to size and screwed this to the floor, and repeated everything for the back door.

I'm really happy with how the trim looks and how the floor turned out overall. It's made it so much more comfortable to work in the van esp since I have a weak knee and the metal floor was killing me.

This past month has been rather busy with the van.

The weather was finally cool and dry enough to spray paint the interior to rustproof all the scratches. This was rather simple and straightforward.

After the painted dried for a few days, I started applying butyl sound deadener to the walls. This was really easy and relaxing and gave me the opportunity to get my energy levels up to start work on the floors.

Here are photos of the process of making the floor template using old packing paper. This was rather tiring on my back, and spending so much time sitting and kneeling on the metal floor (even with a towel for padding) just made me appreciate it even more when I finally got a solid surface after the insulation went down.

I'm using .5 inch insulation board for the first layer of the floor. This was really easy to cut with the jigsaw, the only difficulty to the process was how much it reflected the sun and heat back up at my face when I was working on it outside. The good news is the insulation works. You can also see here that I got the first of the curtains hemmed.

And here are the first two plywood panels cut, which is where I’m currently at. I've offset the seams from the first layer so that it's easier for them to lay flat. This is only .328 inch plywood, but each full sheet is at the upper weight limit of what I can carry, so it's been a little bit laborious getting this to my cutting station and then getting it back to the van. This is the majority of the virgin wood that I plan on using for the build, since most everything else will be upcycled. I can’t pretend this whole process is environmentally friendly, but it was pretty sobering thinking about how old of a tree must have gone into this wood.

I also had to replace my van's battery this month, which was mostly difficult due to it being a ~50lb battery in a tightly fit space under the floor. It was fun to get under the floorboards, though.

I spent the past month removing the bulkhead wall from King and getting a curtain rail installed. I still have work to do on the curtains, but I'm going to do most of that by hand when I'm not able to be outside working on the van.

Having the wall out helps increase ventilation in the back, gives me access to a little AC while I'm working, lets me move between the driver's seat and the back without having to go outside (troublesome when it's raining or when there's strangers by the driver's door), and will allow me a better blindspot view when I eventually put a window in the sliding door.

Most of the wall was held in place by hex bolts (not pictured) which were really simple to get out, but there were two rivets on either side, two D-rings, and a tougher hex bolt that all had to be removed by force.

The rivets I was able to remove by drilling through them until the head separated from the shaft. I tried repeating this with the D-ring bolts, but the head of the bolt was much deeper than I anticipated. After drilling, dremeling, chiseling, and prying, I eventually bought a multitool and a metal-cutting blade and was able to cut through each in under an hour. The multitool is now my best friend.

One of the bolts was pressurized so tightly that when I finally cut it loose, part of the steel wall surrounding the bolt hole ripped. Which made me feel less like I was really bad at removing bolts but was also unfortunate because I was hoping to sell the wall for a couple hundred bucks, and now I think it would take some welding to get it up to safety standards (maybe, I'm not an expert).

I thought it would take me maybe three days to remove the wall (on youtube it was taking ppl a few hours, so I was trying to be generous with myself lol) but it took me three weeks. Most of that time was due to needing to give myself rest days from the heat (August is the hottest month of the year in Houston, and for my sanity's sake I don't want to know how hot it was inside the van), and I also spent time visiting family, but it was still a really frustrating and grueling process.

No one I've seen online removing a wall was working with the same type of bolts that I was, and most bolt removal guides I looked at did not mention a multitool. So I felt like I did the best for my situation, and I learned how to use a new tool from it.

After removing the wall, I set to work installing the curtains. I took a flexible curtain rail that I already had and attached some corner brackets to it in place of wall mount brackets (which would take several weeks to ship). I then screwed the brackets into the face of the headliner shelf and reinforced it with construction adhesive, then gave it a couple days to cure.

The rail seems to be about as secure in place as it can be, so I'm happy with the result. Once I get the ceiling up, I'll be putting a valance over the shelf (using leftover fabric from the curtains), so the rail will be covered up and everything will look tidier. I'll also be sewing magnets into the curtains so they'll snap together in the middle and sit flush against the walls when closed.

Last month, I installed a ventilation fan into King’s roof.

I’d looked at a lot of guides on how to do this over the course of a year or more, which were very helpful and without which, I would not have been able to manage. However, not a single one mentioned that when you are cutting a hole in the roof with a jigsaw, the jigsaw will cause the entire roof (that you are sitting on) to shake (at an increasing intensity the bigger the hole gets). It’s also very important that you do not baby the jigsaw trigger, in order to prevent the blade from skipping. So that was a very pleasant “I’m 9ft up in the air with a bladed power tool and everything is shaking and I can’t physically react at all” surprise. 🙂

That, along with really intense heat, and the added stress of “if I fuck this up I could total my van” made this a much more exhausting and laborious process than I had anticipated it being. I could feel myself developing a fear of heights in real time lmao 😭 And bc this involved cutting a hole in the roof of what is essentially my only mode of transportation, I had to finish the installation in basically one go, instead of being able to take longer breaks (which is how I usually deal with step-intensive tasks).

With that said, although I do not want to ever do this again, the installation did go smoothly, and I am pleased with the results.

To summarize it in brief, I cut a 14x14 in hole in a section of the roof that’s designed for this sort of installation. I drilled screw holes for the fan’s frame, which was then screwed into a wooden frame (that I had previously made). The metal of the roof is sandwiched in between these two frames. Lap sealant was applied around the edge of the exterior frame and over the screws (so far there have been zero leaks). The fan was dropped into the frame, and the final screws were attached and sealed in turn.

Then I climbed down off the roof and did not move for the next four or so days.

There is a plastic cover that will eventually go over the wooden frame, once the ceiling is installed further down the road. The fan is not wired into electricity yet, but I am at least able to open the cover to let some heat out when I’m working inside the van.

I’ve had this old dresser for over thirty years—it was built by my grandfather in the mid 80s when my oldest brother was born, and I got it as a hand-me-down in the early 90s. My mom painted it white before passing it on to me, and it’s been white ever since.

The paint, especially on the top, was badly in need of re-doing, and I’ve been wanting to update it from the white anyways. I had originally planned to refinish this next year, but because it took me four months to find a van, I decided to go ahead and start on this so I could at least make some sort of progress during the long wait.

I used citristrip to get off most of the paint, but I wasn’t super happy with it, and a lot of the paint was really buried in the pores of the wood, so I had to switch to a palm sander, which I think would have been easier to begin with.

I was very excited to see the original woodgrain, since I've had this for so long and never seen the grain. While I love transforming thrifted pieces, I think this was even more exciting to take something so familiar to me and turn it into something new.

Here is the finished result, which I think turned out really lovely. I used BEHR oil stain in Amaretto for the top and the drawer faces, and Benjamin Moore Stormy Sky paint for the body. I then used a polycrylic spray for the topcoat, since I wanted something both durable and food safe.

So I recently bought a used van, King, and am in the process of converting it into my future home. Since this is my Home blog, I will be using it to document the process of my build. There’s going to be a lot of structural work in the beginning, but I do intend to carry my personal aesthetics into the design, and I will be repurposing some things from my house in place of building all-new cabinetry from scratch. So if you’d like to stick around to see what I make, please feel free to follow along.