The Walls
No, we didn’t quit the Submarine.
We took a hiatus, mostly due to traveling and weird work shifts. It also gave us time for more supplies that we couldn’t get at Big Orange to arrive. Like my wool.
Buying this submarine, we thought the build would be pretty rapid and straightforward. Joke’s on us. Decision-making is not this group’s forte and coupled with the sheer volume of options and information available, and add some lessons learned along the way (*cough spray foam cough*). I have come to the conclusion we will never finish.
Anywho, back to my wool. I watched a two minute long tutorial video and had taken a sheep science class at college. Confidence, I was not lacking. I proudly waved Jake off van duties while I took the wheel on this one.
It took multiple days to stuff every single metal hole and gap in the submarine and an entire box of wool. I am convinced at least a third of it was stuck to my clothes, in my hair and I likely swallowed some. Leinie loved it though.
Jake framed out the long wall using a complimentary pallet. Following behind his progress I added wool battens using the super technical technique with scissors and masking tape. While not fast going, it was starting to look like a real wall and we finished the weekend pretty satisfied.
Until driving, which caused all the battens to fall down. Ugh! Jake finished framing the ceiling and short wall and installed our ceiling vent during the week while we discussed walling options.
It was almost as debilitating as insulation, almost. The most common, clique choice would be tongue and groove. Everyone and their cousin have tongue and groove in their vanlife vehicle. Final decision, tongue and groove. Call us sell outs, but in all the influencers’ defense t&g is a logical choice for work ability and financially.
We got a nice, actual early start on the day (before noon). We started with the middle of the ceiling and moved outward, adding wool battens while my hands could still fit behind the boards.
It was pretty straight forward and the instant visual results made the task rather fun and motivating. The first day, we were able to complete most of the ceiling. We strung some wires through the light holes. We were pretty proud of ourselves.
The next weekend we got another relatively early start, before 11am this time(!). Having thrown a few ideas for the ceiling to wall transition we gave up and decided to start with the wall base and move upwards instead. It went quickly with the battens already heavily taped in place. We had to stop a few boards short when we ran out of wool.
Fast forward a couple weeks, a new box of wool and still no decision on the wall-to-ceiling transition. We started our now typical Vanlifing Sunday Funday with the short wall. Jake had installed our electrical system earlier in the week and would jump between ceiling lights and t&g install while I insulated and drank beer. We finished just as the sun was setting and decided to bask in the coziness of our submarine.
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For as much as we love the outdoors, we also love a good lazy Sunday.