C40's Journal

[jennypenny]

I'd probably put an anchor of some sort on them, like a safety chain, in case they did fly off. That way you wouldn't lose them.

[C40]

@enigma - yeah, it will lower the gas mileage some, but probably not a huge amount. It's already 10-15mpg, so I'd guess the drop will be something like 0.5mpg.

@jenny - thanks. I may do something like that.

[Toska2]

I would suggest an air deflector butted up against the solar panels instead. Going 60 mph, once they catch, they are gone. I had a home made S-10 box cover fly off from a cross wind. 3/4" plywood screwed every 8" into 2x6, no way for air to get underneath but it lifted. I was left with the two chains and the corners of the top.

[C40]

---------------------------------
FEBRUARY 2016
---------------------------------

• Normal spending – $1,189
• Van spending – $294

GUILT-FREE SPENDING MONEY = STRESS!!

I got some extra income this month from work travel. I received a $490 voucher from Southwest for taking a later flight home and sold it on Ebay for $425 by the next morning. I decided that I would not track this money and blow it on fun stuff. I bought some Bluetooth headphones, which are really nice for traveling – mainly because my computer has a sound output problem so the only way I can have audio is by using a Bluetooth device. At home I have a Bluetooth speaker but I don’t take it with me. The headphones work for that and also work well for the airport and planes and other situations like working on the van. It’s really nice not having a cord to keep track of.

So that was $107 or about 25% of the fun money. When I buy things like this I do a fair amount of research. That research and decision creates some stress for me. I found myself sort of uncomfortable about the stress and about spending the time shopping while I have plenty of more productive things to be doing. Trying to spend this money was getting annoying!! Now what am I supposed to spend the rest on? I recently got a Go-Pro with some hotel points, so a gimbal for that would be really cool. But I’m not sure how much I’ll use the GoPro so I should wait. A new pen? I really don’t need one right now and if I make a change it would results in extra money because I’d sell one and buy a cheaper pen. I have a list with plenty of options but I don’t want to think about this right now. I guess this is some kind of first world problem…

As I’ve been blowing less and less money over the years, a big benefit is that I no longer spend a bunch of time researching consumer goods and no longer spend my “decision energy” trying to make the right choices of what to buy. It has been liberating.

So anyways, I decided screw it, that I don’t want to blow the rest of the voucher money right now and I added it to my tracking file.



VAN WORK – ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
I’ve been working hard on the electrical system the last month. I’m nearly finished.

I never know how much detail to share here. I’ll just try to keep it really basic and share mostly pictures.




SOLAR ARRAY INSTALLATION


















PANEL WIRING AND TEST







That plywood box in the bottom right is the space that the battery will occupy


(my fish-eye lens makes it looked curved. It’s not)

The contents of the panel are, from top to bottom, right to left:

1a-Light on-off switch
1b - Light dimmer switch.

2a - On/off switch for USB outlet
2b - USB outlet. (4.2 amps)

3a - On/off switch for USB outlet
3b - USB outlet (3 amps)

4a - Cigarrette outlet
4b - Cigarrette outlet

5 - Battery meter

6 - Inverter





I really like looking at this kind of stuff. It’s a shame that the coolest part of the van build will be out of sight most of the time.







I have one or two more weekends of work left for the electrical system. Then there’s just a few little things left to wrap up and the van will be move-in ready. There are other things to do that I’ve put on a longer-term list.

Once I get to that point, I’ll transition back to house work to get it ready to list for sale, and to some car repairs to get that ready to sell.

I’ve got my fingers crossed that the stock prices go down more until I get the house sold. Come on baby, BURNNN!!!

[C40]

Looking at the wall that has the charge controller and positive bus, the stuff on the far right (a fuse holder and an on/off switch) is for the inverter. I don't have that wired yet.

Thank you

[EMJ]

Have you red Glenn's journal, he lost part of his solar panels while driving http://www.tosimplify.net/2016/01/a-sol ... .html#more

[C40]

Yep, I saw that.

I'm fairly confident that my array won't blow off the roof. If I was doing it again, I would use a thicker aluminum stock for the frame pieces. But I'm not concerned enough right now to change it.

If you guys want to make bets on whether the array blows off my roof or not, go ahead

[jennypenny]

If you guys want to make bets on whether the array blows off my roof or not, go ahead

I'm in.

You know me -- I'd be more worried about someone stealing the panels. That's why I would've left room to mount a 50 cal up there.

[C40]

hehe. I'm not too worried about the panels being stolen. First, I think most people who steal stuff are not really noticing or stealing solar panels much. I imagine solar panels are not easy to sell for a quick turnaround. And most of the people who want solar panels are not the kind of people to steal them. Also, mine are pretty secure. There are over 50 nuts holding it all together. Someone who really knows what they are doing and had a team of a few people, and something to stand on like sawhorses, and a truck backed up to my van, and had a big enough cable cutter - they could get the panels off the van in 5 minutes. But all that is very unlikely. And people stealing stuff in that manner are stealing things worth much more money.

[cmonkey]

Eh I don't know. A few security cameras mounted on the outside of the van so you can see from the inside would ward off any thieves. I'd totally do that!

That van is looking awesome btw!

[C40]

--------------------------------------
MARCH
--------------------------------------

I had a very eventful month:

• * A big net worth increase
  * Finished the van
  * Sold my car
  * My girlfriend broke up with me
  * Got my house almost ready to list for sale
  * Oh, and I’ll update you on how many of my solar panels have blown off and how many were stolen.

NET SPENDING: $750

• * Actual spending (money out) - $3,450
  * Sales (“un-spending”) - $2,700

NORMAL SPENDING: $1,526
Had some extra spending in here for 6 months of insurance and car repairs before selling it. I only spent $30 on entertainment/hobbies! That might be an all-time low for me.

VAN SPENDING: $465
This included $300 for the battery for my electric system. I bought a battery with slight physical damage for more than 50% off.

HOUSE SALE PREP: $1,485
This was mostly paint and driveway repair materials.

SALES: $2,730

• * Car - $2,000
  * A pen - $330
  * Weight lifting equipment - $300
  * 5 other things - $100

For my charts, I counted the car sale money as negative spending in the van spending category. I also spread the money out over the last three months so it didn’t create any negative values.


Here’s how the spending has looked:


And there’s a big difference between my TOTAL spending and my “NORMAL” spending.






BIG NET WORTH INCREASE

My net worth increased by nearly $30,000, (a 7% increase). I got my yearly bonus from work, and saved $12k from income. The other $18k was from investment price increases.





FINISHED THE VAN

I finished the electrical system. That was the last big thing to do.












I have a list of more things to do. I’ll work on some of these while I’m waiting for my house to sell. I’ll do others while I’m on the road or when I’m making stops to visit family

• * Add overhead storage (along where the sides meet the ceiling)
  * Better headlights
  * Put a front cover on the electrical system
  * Maybe off-road lights
  * Off-road gear (tow straps, come-a-long, traction pads, air compressor)
  * Reverse/swivel for passenger seat
  * Hidden/secure storage
  * Add insulation to outside of fridge
  * Redo the snap positions on one of the window curtains so it blocks 100% of light
  * Make more room for the tires (so they don’t rub when turning all the way or on very uneven terrain
  * Secure the battery (I’ll do this sooner rather than later)
  * Add an awning

I’ve also moved into the van and I’ve been living in it for around 10 days. I keep it parked on the street in front of my house. I do still use the toilet in my house, but that’s it, everything is in the van. I do pee in a bottle at night and I tell you what: it’s nice being able to do that without getting up entirely and walking to the bathroom.

It’s working out well so far. One of the nice surprises is that while preparing food, eating, and cleaning, everything is within arm’s reach while I sit at my desk/table. I can do everything from start to finish and not get up from the seat. The electric system is also working well. For those wondering, the panels haven’t blown off or been stolen yet. The array frames are aluminum, so there’s a chance it will suffer a fatigue failure. Stay tuned for a few years. As for theft, I’m much more concerned about someone breaking into the van and taking things that are more portable, more valuable, and way more important to me.





BROKEN HEART

(Ok, I’m exaggerating with the title)

My girlfriend broke up with me. It’s hard for me to explain much without also going into a lot of detail that I don’t want to. So I have a short list of notes below. I had a really difficult couple of weeks after, some/much of which is because it’s not a relationship ending where one of us has decided that we don’t like the other anymore.

• * My plans had basically been that once I finish the van and sell the house (or at least get it listed) I would take off in the van. Neither of us feel like we could maintain a long-distance relationship, and we expected that this would be the end of our current relationship. She was still planning to come with me for the 3-4 weeks I’ll take off work this summer. She was worried about the ending of that summer trip (and us seeing each other) being abrupt and difficult.
  * As I got closer to and finished the van, she was feeling sad/uneasy. She was also, as a coping mechanism, feeling resentment/jealousy towards me. It was becoming awkward to tell her about my progress on the van. She wasn’t hostile or negative, but it was hard for her to respond positively and she would usually get quiet. She was acting cold or less affectionate in communications when we were apart. It was often hard for me to tell why, as that’s the same way she’s acted when she was irritated by something I did. I just finished the van and I her resentment was increasing. She was stressing out about it, and she didn’t want to get to the point of hating me or having big fights. I was also noticing that when we hadn’t been together for a few days, I could feel a drop in intensity of my feelings for her – sort of a fading of love - also a coping mechanism.
  * We spent a few hours together talking last weekend (a couple weeks after she broke up with me). I discovered a couple big things I misunderstood. I’d known I should talk to her about at least one of them but didn’t ever get around to doing so. I was also hating all the “what if I’d…..” thoughts I was having since the break-up. I spoke with her about these things and asked about the things I was wondering. I’m not more certain that I understand her stance on these things and that has helped me a lot. For those thinking things like “it sounds like you are really into eachother, what about if you have her come with you this summer and then stay together after if you want by doing ….. “ or “what if you decide to stay in St Louis?” or similar things – we spoke about those things, and while we will spend more time together and she might even still come with me during the summer, those things probably aren’t going to work out. Most of those “what if’s” would take a pretty big leap on one or both of our parts, and she doesn’t think she has the courage or certainty for them.
  * We both want to continue spending time together. The chemistry is still there and we both want to act on it. It could be tricky trying to navigate this transition to whatever we’re trying to change our relationship to, without feeling like we’re back “together” again.
  * I would’ve thought that I could feel both sad about her and excited about finishing the van at the same time. But I’ve felt only the former so far. I’ve been feeling a lot better after we talked things out. I’ll get over it with time. Once the house sale moves along I’m sure I’ll start feeling excited. I’ve been keeping myself very busy with the van and house. Once I get the house listed for sale I’ll have a ton of free time while I wait around for it to sell. I’ll start researching locations, travel paths, places to stay, things to do, etc. that should get my mind ready and excited.

I had been working hard on the van and house, but in comparison to what was possible, I was going pretty slowly. I already had one week off work, so after the dumped me I spent that entire week working on the house. I figure I might as well get on with it and finish up the house as quick as I can. After that first week, I still had another week’s worth of things to do so I sent my boss a surprise email saying I wouldn’t be working the next week either.


GETTING HOUSE READY FOR SALE

After my girlfriend broke up with me, I spent two straight weeks getting my house ready to sell - making repairs, painting, and cleaning. I also moved into my van. I hired a listing agent. I have only two things left to finish up and then I’ll be ready to list the house. The housing market is looking pretty good here (well,.. good for St. Louis). It looks like I may be able to sell the house quickly. I won’t make significant profit from it though. I’m hoping I can sell the house before the vacation time I have scheduled for this summer. I’m looking at moving the vacation time back from June to July or August to help this work out.

I don’t see myself working much longer after that. I may even pull the plug right after my house sells. I’m feeling mostly ready right now. I do have a few other things I want to sort out first and that may take a month or two.

As far as work, the stuff we have planned for Q4 kind of sucks. We have unrealistic goals and I don’t want to spend the effort it will take trying to realign expectations and timelines, pushing our teams to go faster, etc. We have a bunch of what I’ll call audits in Q4. I don’t like doing those. There’s much more pressure this year on the results and my boss might feel cornered and try hard to get me to work through the end of the year. If today was in September and I was quitting, it would take a lot of extra money to convince me to work the rest of the year.



-----------------------

Also, I need to buy some more dividend stocks. If anyone has recommendations, please share – particularly REITS or MLPs to buy in my IRA.

[bryan]

Pretty bittersweet about finishing the van plus breakup. Maybe for the best, though; you will probably find someone more suited for you, especially if you'll be travelling around and meeting more new people.

Congratulations on joining the vandwelling club! If you were in the Bay Area I would ask if I could come over use your tools before you sell everything.

I like your graphs from March. Tempts me to put my data into visuals but I'm hesitant. I'll probably do that as a post-mortem post for the end of my working life It would be a nice treat.

[jennypenny]

* Oh, and I’ll update you on how many of my solar panels have blown off and how many were stolen.

I'm going to steal one myself now.


I'm sorry about your GF.

[Ego]

I’ve also moved into the van and I’ve been living in it for around 10 days. I keep it parked on the street in front of my house. I do still use the toilet in my house, but that’s it, everything is in the van. I do pee in a bottle at night and I tell you what: it’s nice being able to do that without getting up entirely and walking to the bathroom.

It’s working out well so far. One of the nice surprises is that while preparing food, eating, and cleaning, everything is within arm’s reach while I sit at my desk/table. I can do everything from start to finish and not get up from the seat.

Dedication! Imagining the neighbors made me chuckle.

"Ralph, what's he doing out there?"
"I don't know Hazel. He never gets up except to carry that bottle of Mountain Dew into the house."

Laying in the van at night you must be incredibly excited for all the amazing things that are just around the corner. Very, very impressive work all around.

Which song will you play as you drive away from the house for the last time?

[Spartan_Warrior]

It definitely seems like one chapter of your life is closing and a new one is about to begin. Awesome work on the van! Sorry about the GF, but who knows, maybe if it's meant to be you'll find your way back to each other. Or not. On the bright side, now you have even greater degrees of freedom to look forward to on the road, and Bryan does have a point about the ease of meeting new people while traveling.

[cmonkey]

Very exciting update C40. I hope things get better for you on the GF front from here on out, especially as you transition into the next chapter of your life.

Does your boss/team have any idea about your plans?

For stocks, IBM is still pretty undervalued and has good yield. I am eyeing adding more.

[jacob]

I see the 500 posts in a journal thread to reach FIRE is confirmed again

REIT stuff to consider: KRG, WPC, CXW, VTR, WRI

[C40]

Thanks everyone.

Laying in the van at night you must be incredibly excited for all the amazing things that are just around the corner. Very, very impressive work all around.

Which song will you play as you drive away from the house for the last time?

Heh, probably whatever's playing on the CCR or Rolling Stones cassette tapes that are likely to be in the radio at the time. (and that reminds me to add another thing to the long term van actions - get a stereo with auxiliary input)

I haven't gotten all that excited yet. I need more time to get over my girlfriend, and I need to get closer to selling the house. Right now I'm just focusing on getting the house ready to list for sale as soon as I can.

Very exciting update C40. I hope things get better for you on the GF front from here on out, especially as you transition into the next chapter of your life.

Does your boss/team have any idea about your plans?

I'm likely to struggle more with relationships. I'm really good at some parts of them but not so great at a couple things.

I don't think my boss or team has any clue. They know I've been building the van but they may (still) think I'm going to give the van to my brother (because that's what I told them a long time ago). So they may wonder if I'm going to use the van myself (I doubt they would consider me living in it entirely). Some of my co-workers might have noticed me slacking off or not caring as much, but they wouldn't have any inkling of me quitting.

how does meal prep work out? When I was single I was living in a room that had no kicthen, they make some pretty bitchin toaster ovens that fit a full size casserole dish, might be an option, depending on how much you like to cook.

I think the van is a way better option than an RV personally, so kudos on going that direction. I wanted to try out RV living so the wife and I rented one and went on a road trip for a month. The problem with RVs is when you have to move them around, driving in a city is a nightmare with an RV (I developed a deep sympathy for semi truck drivers), and if you plan to move around a lot redoing the hookups is never an appetizing chore.

Insulation is another thing I didn't see anything, I thought I spotted a space heater though. Do you plan to avoid places that are below freezing? Or is it not much of a problem?

I have a propane stove for cooking. So far I've been eating food that I don't have to cook. Once I have a lot of free time I'll start experimenting with actual cooking.

Yeah, one of my close family members now lives mobilly in an RV. Before, they had a 5th wheel trailer that took a lot of time to set up because of slide-outs (and they couldn't really sleep/live in it without moving out the sliding parts). They changed to an RV that is a little smaller and I think quicker/simpler to settle in and get ready to leave. But it's still a big RV.

I did insulate the walls and ceiling with 1 inch of Polyiso (R=6). But there are a lot of windows. The curtains I have probably do add a lot of insulation to the windows. I have a small heater that attaches to propane tanks and I'm planning to:
- Generally, stay in warm places
- Wear warm clothes when needed and sleep with a lot of blankets
- Use the heater when needed/desired

It's been getting down as low as 30 degrees lately in St. Louis. I have a warm down comforter that works great. When it's all the way down to 30, I use a second comforter and it is nice and toasty under both of those.

[7Wannabe5]

Sorry to hear about your break-up. It can be tough to maintain independence and connection. Your van looks cool. You could hitch a trailer full of potted plants to the back if you want a garden.

[Noedig]

Awesome van man. I've been watching lots of youtube van life videos and like how your setup is evolving. Keep us informed of your journey, and best wishes.