INTRODUCING….. “RUBY!”

TADA!!! I am happy to share that I am in the middle of manifesting one of my longest standing, life-long dreams!!!

I have always wanted to travel around the country while living in a van. This has been near the top of my list for as long as I can remember. I believe it began when I was really young and my father had a friend that had a camper van. I was absolutely fascinated by a whole little house existing inside this guy’s van!!

This dream has changed form many, many times. Thankfully I was never attached to any one idea. I have always known the opportunity would present itself at the perfect time and apparently that is NOW. So… last September I bought a sparkly red 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan and the rest is just plain fairy-tale-esque. Soon after I had two dear friends ask me…[did you get that? THEY asked ME!!] if they could help with the build-out on the van, affectionately known as “Ruby”. The magic has already begun. What a tremendous gift! I am absolutely thrilled with how she turned out. Thank you!

We used ¾” Birch plywood so it is super strong and can handle weight on top. We sanded and smoothed all the corners so there were no sharp edges or splinters to be had. [Update: I am glad we went with the heavier wood as the structure feels substantial. And the birch is absolutely beautiful!]

We began by creating a mock-up design of the general structure out of some large corrugated plastic signs and taped it together with duct tape. It wasn’t quite to scale so we couldn’t use it as a template as we had originally thought, so many measurements were taken and up it went. The design changed several times mid-construction but works simply and beautifully. Here is a video tour upon completion of construction before it was sanded and sealed.