There is a white van sitting in our driveway. What happens now? Brent’s mind is exploding with ideas as he plans, watches Youtube videos, plans some more, visit Home Depot and Lowes, and sits inside the van all while envisioning what he wants to do. He has a vision and sees great potential. I see a shell of a van.
Brent disappears at times. Where do I find him? Yep, you guessed it: in that shell of a van. Brent talks about things we can do and places we can go, even teasing me with a trip to Tennessee to see my sister and a trip to Colorado to see my brother. I know he does this to entice me more into the idea of this van life thing. He has the inside of the van all planned out. There’s a problem. I still see a shell, a big white shell.
Well I decide I can do one of two things. I can just let this be his project and get frustrated with it and the time it takes him away, or I can change my mindset (Yes, growth mindset from my teaching is coming into play in my own life). So I go out and ask him to share his vision. This sparks an excitement in him (how can I not now?). I still see a shell of a van and space but I am open to hearing his vision and plan. He has a floor map of the van (Remember I told you he had been planning and planning while I was just seeing a shell) that includes flooring, bed that would be built high enough to put our mountain bikes in trays underneath (basically a garage area as he calls it), kitchen, couch, cabinets. The floorplan of his included where everything would be and all the dimensions. He asks what I think, what I want to see in there (he is trying really hard to get me into the idea of this).
As Brent shares his ideas of the floorplan and we toy with different layouts, there are so many questions we have to ask ourselves. What purpose do we want this van to serve us (remember we are not going to live in it like many van lifers)? What type of flooring? What kind of bed? Where will we store things? Will we have a kitchen? How big of a kitchen? Where will we sit? Bathroom (uh, hello this is a biggie for me, especially if we will be traveling and we find ourselves in areas with no rest areas, restaurants, or truck stops). So now we have the floorplan figured out. Well, really Brent had it all figured out, but now that I am on board with it, the trips to Home Depot and Lowes start. And yes, I am there with him. What will we do to this shell of a van?
