Sunday Summary #121

Revealing our VAN LAYOUT (Pivot II)

Hi there,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 121st Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written in northeast Florida.

Last Week.

Ahh, van building. We didn’t think this process was going to be easy by any means when we started, but theres were a few things that we didn’t expect. Here are our three biggest takeaways so far:

1. We can’t plan everything. Some things will just have to be a “game-time decision” when we get closer to things like user error, specific wood widths, and unknown things. - We’ll see if this is a big mistake later on 😆

2. It’s a slow start. Taking measurements, designing different layouts, and researching product sizes is a slow but important process. We’ve reminded ourselves to take a breath and be patient. Good things take time. ⏰

3. Filming again has been rough. We’ve forgotten to turn on the camera, the mic, several dead batteries, and more. Getting into the swing of filming again has been an adjustment, but we’re excited to be back in front of the camera! 🎥

Working in the summer Florida heat has been draining, so we’ve been strategizing van work in the early mornings so we can escape the heat and get in the AC during the day's heat.

We’ve been using VanSpace 3D (affiliate link) to 3D model our van and get a feel for how the layout looks. We started by listing our non-negotiable items and working out different layouts that included those items. We’re excited to see it on a computer and are even more excited to try our best to bring this idea to fruition!

This Week.

It’s more van-build this week 🥳 We’ll be ordering van-build components and starting our first project - painting our Flarespace flares. We’re grateful to work with Flarespace as one of our van build partners. Installing flares will allow us to sleep perpendicular to the direction of our van, giving us 18 extra inches of valuable space in our van. Getting them painted to match the exterior of our van is the first step to installing them.

Videos.

After our Great Loop finished last year, we invited our friends Adam and Kathryn from Adventures of A+K onto our boat for a week of fun in the Florida Keys. We had a blast with them exploring Key Biscayne and Carysfort Reef and showing them our favorite spot in Islamorada. In our latest YouTube video, we share what sharing a tiny home is like with four people (and a dog)! They also filmed a video of our time together, and you can watch their video as well, where they highlight the places we visit and share a different perspective on their channel!

Blogs and Guides.

We’ve continued to work on writing helpful resources on our blog. This week, we wrote some hefty guides! While writing the Paducah guide, I learned so much about some of the attractions, restaurants, and history of Paducah that we didn’t know about during our visit. Our goal with writing these guides is to help you plan and make the most of each destination! We wish we had these when we traveled around America’s Great Loop.

Suggest Boating Guides from Us

We are developing schoandjo.com as a resource for traveling on the Great Loop, our van, and the places we visit. If you have any part of the Loop or boating in general that interests you and you would like to learn more about, let us know via email, and we will consider writing a detailed guide on the subject if we’re knowledgeable about it. The guides are free and meant to be informational to help you travel. We’re writing them specifically with the information we wish we had when we did the Great Loop.

From the Eyes of Ollie.

This weekend, my cousin Finn visited me. We went on walks together and chased after squirrels. It was nice to have someone help me with my squirrel duties, as the squirrels really love the bird seed.

Gratitudes

As we design our van, we are so grateful for the opportunity to customize our home on wheels and make it fit our lifestyle and needs. Although the process has been challenging, it’s been a fun adventure! We feel so lucky to get to design the next place we call home 🚐💕

See you next Sunday!

Peace and love,

Jen + Elliot