All Systems Go

I made my second trip to the Sportsmobile factory in Fresno and I've seen my actual van! (For pictures, "Read more".) We went over my final plans and I'm getting 98%+ of everything I wanted. Well, with one important exception...

First, the exciting stuff:

Can you see my name scrawled on the windshield?

This is my van. My van. I own it. I wired them the money the day it arrived, so there's no going back now. It makes me happy - even in it's unfinished state. Looking more critically, the first thing you might notice is that it's missing some windows: five to be exact, in the cargo area of the van. Sportsmobile will add these. They cut out the metal and replace it with very sleek tinted windows, three of which can be opened for ventilation. The last shot above will serve as a good "Before" picture for "Before and After" conversion. I'm thinking the Brilliant Silver Metallic paint I chose is going to work well for heat control. Standing inside the van to take pictures, with all doors closed on a hot Fresno day, it was warm, but not like an oven. And that's before the insulation has gone in.

All the elaborate plans I've detailed in previous posts have really been nothing more than a wish list. This visit to Sportsmobile was reckoning day, determining which wishes would be granted and which would be denied. So, how'd I fare? Essentially everything I've planned can and will be done! I'll list here the few changes needed just to emphasize how small they are. Due to space limitations under the van, my propane tank will be 4.5 gallons instead of 8.9 gallons. That's a minor nuisance of having to refill it more often, but I can carry a "reserve" tank to hook up if I ever run out. Space under the van has also created some issues about the gray water tank for the shower, but it looks like just repositioning the shower drain will solve those. The good news is that it will be no problem giving me a sloped floor in the shower so it all drains to one point. Inside the van, there are only certain positions in the side of the van where the furnace and water heater can vent, so there may not be quite as much space available for storage under the front dinette as I'd planned. Also, structural issues limit the possible positions for the roof air conditioner, and as it stands, the inside vent will be in the way of curtain I want to separate the front of the van from the bed and shower area. There are several decent compromise solutions, so it's just a matter of working out which one I want. Generally, though, what I was hearing all day long (we met from 10:30am to 4:00pm with a break for lunch) was yes, yes, yes, and yes.

I tried to take some pictures of samples of materials that will be used in my van, but the lighting in the conference room was fluorescent and the color balance was all off (even with the proper camera setting). So, instead, I'll use the photos from the Sportsmobile website, which are pretty accurate. The cabinets will all have a cherry finish:

The interior walls and ceiling will be Dove Gray to balance the darkness of the cherry:

The galley countertop will be a solid surface called Tundra:

There were brown-tone countertops available, but I like the contrast of the cherry and the Tundra. The flooring is a marine vinyl with a mottled brown and white pattern:

It reminds me of sand when I see a large expanse of it. I'll probably have throw rugs covering most of the floor, anyway. The bed in back and the pillows provided for the dinette will be this fabric:

I felt I needed a bit of color to spice up the mostly brown decor. The bed will be covered with sheets, anyway. The window curtains will be gray:

These curtains are in place of accordion style window shades which seemed to me like they'd be the first things to break (an opinion borne out on the forums). The divider curtains (between cab and living room/galley, and between the living room/galley and bedroom/bathroom) will have a bit of a pattern to them:

The cab seats and the dinette will be in two shades of ultraleather (high grade vinyl):

in this pattern:

Other miscellaneous surfaces such as window surrounds and the inside of the rear doors will also be covered in the off-white color.

At the top of this post, I wrote that I got 98%+ of everything I wanted - with one important exception. What's the exception? Completion date. I was hoping for a mid-July completion date. That would have required an average delivery time for the van - which occurred - and an average time for the conversion, which is decidedly not occurring. I'm not even getting the "worst case" conversion time of 8 weeks listed on their website - nor is anyone else, for that matter. The explanation is that Sportsmobile business is booming (probably due to the improving economy), and conversion times have stretched to 13 weeks. Ouch! So, the end of August to mid-September is the new estimate for final delivery. There goes my planned first trip to Seattle by August 1st. It's even questionable whether it will be getting too cold in the northwest (Calgary, Banff) by mid-September to consider making that trip this Fall. 

I'm philosophical about this delay. As I've said before, the last thing I intend to do is get stressed about any aspect of my retirement plans. The delay gives me more time to work on fixing up my house for rental, and it definitely needs it. Plus, I just found out that though I retire at the end of June, I may not have access to my pension until the beginning of September (what's up with that!!!).  So it's almost essential that I'm still local to make sure that process starts smoothly. It all works out. If you've been following previous posts, that wedding I intended to drive to at the beginning of August, I'll now fly to. I'll probably just hang out in Seattle or Spokane until the planned Idaho lake cabin vacation during the second week of August. And though it's not all exactly what I planned, I'll be content in the knowledge that I never have to work another day in my life. How can I complain about anything?

I'm not sure there'll be enough news to justify weekly posts in the near term, but there should be a fairly consistent trickle of information to report. Look on the bright side: we've now got a whole 13 weeks to hear how my conversion is going. Yea!