Well a few more weeks have passed and we've made some more progress. It feels like the summer is flying by and there's still so much to do. Here's a brief update for anyone who is following this nutty RV build! I've noticed the pictures aren't as colorful as sailing pics.

When we first started considering an overland RV for our next adventure, we knew it was popular in Europe but didn't realize it was growing like crazy in the US. We don't see too many trucks like ours around here but did make some new friends, Scott & Mary who have an Earth Roamer RV. When they came to see our truck at the workshop we are renting, we parked side by side and took tours of each others campers. Its a great way to get ideas. Our truck doesn't look too much different than other overland trucks in terms of size when you line it up with others.

The heat has been pretty incredible lately and I hear there's plenty more in store. Long days at the truck wear us out and the A/C on the boat barely keeps up despite taking up the space of another person in our aft cabin. The gym is the coolest place so at least we have that... Eastern N Carolina is filled with spiders. They're harmless, but really annoying and we have a zoofull of them all over our hull. Walking down the dock at night to hit the ice cream freezer, we have to plow through the evening's webs to get there.



The bathroom construction is completed and we think its really cute. We didn't build it sideways, I just can't seem to get this pic righted so you have to hold your head sideways instead :) Solid surface material around the shower base and another small counter at the sink. There is still the shower faucet to mount but we have it and a roll-up shower door that we'll install when we're done making dust... We found a cute sink online and Jon made the cabinets so we have plenty of storage. Composting head is in and it was almost fun putting in the flooring. We'll have the same flooring for the main area too and that will go in soon. All that is left is 2 doors for the medicine cabinet and we are mail ordering mirrors cut to size for the outside of both doors.


Doors for the headboard are done so aside from the last minute ordering of the mattress, the bed area is pretty much done. Jon was joking that we can't really call it a bedRoom because there is no room! We goofed a little on the amount of space we left for the mattress & covers before it would hit the window. Our priority was lots of gear storage so we raised the bed up as much as we could which means we can now only have a 6 inch mattress. Oh well, we'll really enjoy the toy area! We have 2 fans to mount in there along with a fold out arm for a computer screen. The thinking is it will fold out to be viewable in the main sitting area and then stow neatly out of sight.

All the overhead walnut cabinets and lower cupboard cabinets are done except for the drawers, but the slides were installed by yours truly! I've also spent a good deal or time applying silicone to all the exposed adhesive areas. I hope it stays white like it says!



We're pretty pleased with the bathroom door. It really is a work of art and fits so well, it took Jon many hours to get it shaped perfectly. We realized the door handle won't allow it to fold flat against the wall so there is another one coming to try instead.

Jon isn't always smiling in the shop, especially since he is very tired of making doors...

Just as the cabinetry work was winding down, we realized that in the entryway of the RV it would be nice to have a floor to ceiling bookcase of sorts to hold an assortment of things like keys, sunglasses, wallet, shoes, some books, produce- all of these things have an easy to grab place on the boat. So we had to go back to Raleigh to get more wood but this time metal also and we got a hotel for the night so we could visit the art museum there and do some hiking. Jon started the bookcase today and pretty soon we'll be able to bond that in- will that be the last piece to bond in???? We will hope.


We've shifted our focus to the exterior some now. All of the custom corners and profiles on the box needed finishing. The corners required a lot of forming and shaping by Jon and then I cleaned, primed and sanded them and now they are ready to be sprayed but the humidity is too high right now to do it. The roof feels really high!


We'll be glad once the solar panel mounts are done and we can install them up there. Jon also began designing the rear tire/motorcycle rack using CAD (cardboard aided design) a term he loves. In a nutshell, it has been really challenging to find a welder/ fabricator here. They are all really busy or not interested in following through. We even tried a place in Charlotte and Raleigh. So our current thinking is that we have to do everything we can on our own (and this is primarily Jon) and then with pieces in hand, go to a welder and say can you weld this right here and this right there, etc. So he has become a mechanical engineer, designer and soon to be welder for some of the easier pieces and we have now started cutting metal instead of wood. Neither of us likes working with metal and unlike sawdust, metal dust hurts when it hits you!

We're headed to Florida tomorrow to visit Jon's parents and pick up the gray water tank we're having made by the same company that did the water tank for us- Dura Weld. But first a stop in Jacksonville to hang out with Jan & Rich for a day. Then we'll be heading to Vermont to catch up with my parents, sell our Scamp camper because we no longer need it and hopefully Jon will be able to make a pretty maple table at our friend Chase's house, who might have a piece that will fit. We haven't been at all impressed with the maple we can get down here. The Scamp on the other hand, has beautiful maple that we just sort of lucked out at finding among the boards at Home Depot. We had hoped for the same luck with this RV but it didn't happen. So probably not a lot of progress on the truck in the next few weeks but that's OK.

We decided we have too much on our plate to try to sell Evergreen right now so we are just enjoying our home and when its time, we'll shift our focus to it.