I am almost done with sheep’s wool. I only have the top of one of my back doors left to insulate after which the van will be as warm and snug as I can make it. I have even insulated the wheels, boxing them in neatly. The insulation would be complete, but I ran out of tongue and groove cladding, so am now waiting on a delivery.
In the meantime, I have begun the shower. It is when I mention my plans for a shower that most people remark on how much bigger the van must be than they’d imagined. Something about the comforts of a shower and toilet seems to change what they are envisaging when I talk about my tiny home.
I can understand that. It is hard to imagine that the back of a van could possibly hold every room one finds in a house, that it could have its own bedroom, dining room, kitchen, studio, living room, garage, toilet, and shower. But it can and I knew from the beginning that I needed to imagine it that way. That to make the van enjoyable to live in, I would need these comforts, most particularly the shower and toilet.
And so, I planned for them, drawing them up on my floor plan and marking then out with masking tape. Dreaming all the while of what coming home from a day’s adventures to a warm shower in my van would feel like. This week I began the process of learning to build a water system and making those dreams a reality. Thankfully the unknown of a water system begins with a stud frame, which is at least a vaguely familiar activity. Though even that is proving more complicated that it should.
I wrote last week about dreams, their power and fragility. The van is a dream, one that feels both eminently touchable and just out of reach. Every time I struggle with learning something new, or read headlines of rising gas and diesel prices, or another complication from Brexit hits the news, I wonder if my dream is possible at all.
Then I spend a day building, getting covered in saw dust or filling my sketchpad with designs, and my dream once again feels within reach.
Nothing worth having comes easy, but things worth having are worthy of the effort. Dreams are worthy of the effort. There are days I struggle with the state of world, with measuring and cutting straight lines, with believing. Then I remind myself of the feeling I got when the idea for the van first came to me, the sense of utter rightness and peace that filled me.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few weeks trying to focus on that peace, rather than the fear my dream might have come too late to work in the world as it is today. It feels somehow right that I work on the water system as I try to build from this place of peace and dreams. Dreams, emotions, and water are connected in myths and legends from across the globe. Perhaps if I can build my dream into the vans water system it will flow more smoothly into reality. We shall have to wait and see. Until then, I have building to do.
I have put most of this week aside for the van. Hopefully the shower’s stud frame will be ready to show off to you all next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Ps. I have opened the archives of A Nomadic Rose for free and paid subscribers alike, so if you’ve missed some of the van build feel free to take a tour of the back issues.