Sunday Summary #123

The First Cuts are the Hardest

Hi there,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 123rd Sunday Tuesday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written in northeast Florida.

Last Week.

We made the first cuts into our van and installed our Flarespace  flares! The first cuts into our van were hard. Thoughts of “What are we doing?” or “Are we sure about this?” popped into our heads, but seeing the flares installed had us smiling each time we saw it.

Like most DIY projects, we had a few ups and downs along the way. Here are a few of our lessons learned:

1. The project took way longer than expected. We started at 10 am (after a last-minute hardware store run) and finished at 9 pm. We thought the project would take us 3-4 hours, but ended up taking almost 11 hours. Part of that was because filming the project almost doubles anything we do, but DIY projects also come with hiccups. ⌛️

2. Demolition is the easier part. Cutting through the van was easier (cutting the two metal columns was a bit harder because of the additional metal to cut through). 🔨

3. Installation and finishing work is harder, especially at the end of a long day. Someone (🙋‍♀️) was tired and happened to lean a little bit while waiting for Elliot to tape the flare to the van, which caused a little bit more cleanup. Whoops! 😬

4. Leak testing is important. We found six leaks after allowing the adhesive to cure for 30 hours. So, back to the caulk gun and adhesive/sealant! 💧

5. Cutting into our van wasn’t as hard as cutting into our boat. Making the first cuts into Pivot to redo the leaky decks was way more intimidating and scary. That experience has given us the knowledge and confidence to take on this project is grounding. 💪

Seeing the new flares installed and the rear windows is so exciting! We’re so excited to be working with Flarespace! Knowing that the few inches of extended space inside the van will give us an extra 18 inches of workable room is amazing!

This Week.

We’re excited to continue moving forward with our van build as we tackle our next big project: installing our roof rack! We’re thrilled to be partnering with Orion Van Gear, who makes great DIY roof racks. When we were considering our next adventure, one thing we knew we needed was an epic spot to have sundowners and watch the sunset. Watching sunsets on the flybridge was something we loved aboard Pivot. We’re excited about working with Orion and installing our new roof rack to enjoy sundowners from our roof.

Videos.

In the past two weeks, we shared two of our three adventures from 2023 post-selling PIVOT. First was our 500-mile bike ride across Iowa with our friends Adam and Kathyrn from Adventures of A+K. We hope watching our RAGBRAI video brought you many laughs at our misadventure and naive ambitions.

The second was a trip to Maine to visit our friends Andy, Gwen, and Aiden from Abroad Reach Travel aboard their Tartan 37, Acadia. If you remember from our Great Loop Documentary, Andy and Gwen were our good samaritans who became friends. Sailing in Maine helped to refill our boating cup while traveling to beautiful destinations with two trusted boatlife friends. After a change of plans, Andy and Gwen bought a van and just finished their own van build, which they’ve been sharing on Instagram!

We hope to meet up with both couples in our van once we’re done with our van build 😊

Blogs and Guides.

We’ve continued to work on writing helpful resources on our blog. We share some great destinations on the Chesapeake Bay that shouldn’t be missed. Wether you’re traveling by car or by boat, these destinations are sure to give you a very Chesapeake Bay experience.

We also wrote a detailed guide to boating the St. Johns River in northeast Florida. This river is usually a side trip for many Loopers during wintertime in Florida. As northeast Florida locals, we share all the ins and outs of boating the St. Johns River! The detailed guide shares it all 💯🙌

From the Eyes of Ollie.

My parents are doing a good job building our new home. I gave them the Ollie seal of approval even though I wasn’t allowed to come with them while they did the work. I’ll have more supervision on their next project.

Gratitudes

Overwhelm has definitely been a constant feeling with this van build (and to think we’re only in the beginning stages), but after completing the first part of the Flarespace flares, we’re so grateful for the opportunity to build our next home together, to get to work with our hands, and to learn more about building. It’s a very tiresome, but extremely rewarding process.

See you next Sunday!

Peace and love,

Jen + Elliot