Closet installed, downstairs bed finished!

This past week Adam officially installed the closet, and we put the bench seat back in. Then he built rails for the remainder of the bed (that the bench seat folds out into) and cut plywood to hold the remaining cushion. We got the cushion out of the bedroom (where it's been stored...) and put it in the van. It looks great! Check it out:

The bed (with bench seat folded down) and closet.

The bed from the back--plenty of storage space under there!

The passenger side rail holding up the bed cushion.

The driver side rail and access hole to under-closet space. 

The seat in "seat" position with the bed cushion behind it. When the seat folds down into the "bed" mode, the slides forward and down to create the bed flat surface. When it "seat" mode, the back cushion is a great dog place!

Now Adam is out working on the front cabinets that will house the fridge, port-a-potty, and misc storage items (probably some pots and pans for cooking, cleaning supplies).

I've helped Adam a bit moving things in and out and helping bolt things down. I've also been doing some gray/rainy weekend baking. Check it out:

A yeast bread! (My first in a really long time, so an experiment) Cinnamon-oat-raisin bread. Makes great toast. A little dense but I think it's normal to be that way. Has a cinnamon-sugar topping.

Icebox cookie dough--Lemon-Cream cheese cookies. I only baked a few. 

Viennese crescents.

Chocolate "banana" bread--I put the quotes because you can't really taste the banana. It's an interesting recipe as there is no sugar or butter/oil. You make a paste out of cooked prunes which provides sweetness and moisture. Sounds a little strange but tastes really good!

Here's the extent of our holiday decorating! It's the "holiday ficus". It has three ornaments on it, most are on the backside as I didn't want the pets getting into things. We're not big into Christmas (well, I guess excepting the holiday baking....) but I think the ficus with lights is nice! 

My dad stopped by this morning and gave us one of his Christmas ornaments. He's known for making a new, creative one every year. This time around, it's a mini wreath made of wire, acorns and ribbon. Totally awesome, Dad!

...And while I was typing that our garage door broke!....Makes it a little more difficult to work on the van......

This post is only about the dogs! Next post only about the van....

So, we had quite a week with the dogs. A little background-- (and if you don't care about our dogs, or don't like to hear about barf, skip this post! It's a little wordy....)

About a week ago, I came home to find that the dogs had gotten into one of the kitchen cupboards, and pulled out some brown sugar, jello mix, coconut, and marshmallows. They ate some brown sugar and all of the marshmallows and otherwise made a mess. I honestly wasn't positive I had left the cupboard open or closed, so I just cleaned up the mess and from then on checked to be sure the cupboards were all closed in the kitchen before I left (we keep the bedroom and bathroom doors all closed always so that's not a worry).

Well, when I got home from work on Wednesday, I walked into a GIGANTIC MESS. I instantly saw that the same cupboard was open again (this time I knew it was closed when I left in the morning!) and they had gotten into the same baking supplies, including the brown sugar again and had pulled out a bunch of containers (all unopened). The biggest issue was they had found the baking chocolate--there was 6 ounces of 100% cacao chocolate in that cupboard, and one or both dogs had found it and eaten every last bit! There was chocolate thrown up all over the house---a huge pile on the carpet and in the kitchen, plus about 5 small piles on the carpet and on the couch.

Being the neat freak I am, my first reaction (unfortunately) was to get extremely mad at the dogs--I called Adam on the phone to vent and started cursing the dogs and the mess! He caught word that they had eaten the chocolate and immediately asked me about the dogs--were they ok after eating the chocolate?? (Chocolate, especially the baking kind, is toxic to dogs.) Of course, I was just mad, and actually for the first time looked at the pups. Carex looked normal (and normal for her is weird) but Dude (Spencer) was obviously funky once I actually looked at him. He was lying on the floor at this point, swaying weirdly back and forth, and his eyes were really red. He let out a strange quiet bark and stared off into the distance. By this time I realized something was really wrong (at least with Dude) so I hung up with Adam and called our vet. She said that if there was already barf around the house, that it would be best to take them both to UC Davis emergency vet. I changed out of my biking shorts (no need to wear spandex more than required...) and called the dogs to the car. Spencer came out of his trance and trotted to the car like normal and Carex followed like normal. In the car Spence just laid down, which is a little weird.

We arrived at the vet and on the way in, Spencer was coughing up mucus but Carex was normal. They immediately took Spencer (his heart rate was more than double of normal) and induced vomiting--he vomited up ~5 ounces of chocolate! Carex's heart rate was elevated as well, so as a precaution they induced vomiting for her as well, but she didn't barf any chocolate. It was determined that just giving her some activated charcoal and sending her home under watchful care would be fine. Spencer, on the other hand, needed to stay and have lots of fluids and have his heart rate checked hourly. Chocolate is toxic to dogs, and also has caffeine to elevate their heart rate. It can also cause irregular heart beats, so Spencer needed to be watched.

Once we got at home, I was of course totally worried about Carex. Adam was great and kept an eye on her, checking her heart rate while he worked in the garage. Once she was inside, I checked it and worried that it seemed irregular, but after checking it for longer decided that I was just not feeling in the right place. She cuddled with me in bed, then slept in her bed right next to me so I could check on her in the night (sounds like my kid, I know, but I'm a total softy and really attached to her....). We got some sleep, and I took her to work with me the next day--she was fine. No chocolate eaten.

After work I picked up Spencer, who was now nearly 100% recovered, but also stir-crazy from being kept in a cage at the vet for almost 24 hours! Once we got home, I was confronted with the insane chocolate-barf-covered house...but some careful carpet and upholstery cleaning has solved those problems (if anything I now have clean spots in an otherwise evenly dirty carpet). UC Davis was great in their care of our dogs, but they are really expensive (as to be expected for a 24 hour emergency vet teaching hospital)---we are out almost $1000 for this experience! Adam has already installed some child cabinet locks in the kitchen and until we finish that job, chairs are blocking the remainder of the food-containing cabinets, just in case. And the baking chocolate is all gone, so that's not a risk anymore! Sheesh. What a week!

New wall panels, closet in, seat in!

This week we got the wall panels installed. I put one coat of primer on, and then two coats of paint on. We chose a light tan color for the paint. I painted the panels in the garage, then Adam finished up the insulation and we put them back in. Here's a pic:

After the panels were back in, Adam did some finish work on the closet (trimming a bit off the back to make it fit just right) then we put it in. After that, we put the seat back in! It looks fantastic--Adam did an amazing job on the closet, it looks great. The plywood we used--prefinished maple Applyply--has really pretty edges when sanded down and finished (I helped with the sanding!). Check it out:

You can see on the picture above that Adam cut access holes--one under the bottom closet shelf and one in the shelf--that one will have a hanging basket and lid to make a laundry compartment! The middle shot shows the attractive finished ends of the plywood. We both love it. I also can't praise Adam enough for the amazing job he's doing--he spends a ton of time on this project and it really shows. 

In the meantime, I made cookies: Double chocolate-orange-walnut ones:

I'm also going to make "Viennese crescents" (almond crescent shaped cookies) and probably ginger cookies and at least one other kind.

Dude is cute cuddling in the van on Adam's jacket:

Also, I think this picture is pretty much adorable: (they're all mine!)

Stay tuned for winter adventures....

Thanksgiving weekend, Van closet

Thanksgiving and Adam's birthday were great. We went down to my (Liz's) parents' house in Benicia for the afternoon. Here's a pic of the backseat on the way down:

Good thing we weren't bringing any other people with us! 

Adam requested lemon meringue pie for his birthday (and thus it was our dessert for Thanksgiving). This was an area of major stress for me as meringue is notorious for being difficult to get right. I read up in the Joy of Cooking and was victorious!!! Happy Birthday, Adam!

The meringue was cooked through and nothing was runny or gooey. Very exciting for me and tasty for everyone. 

A week before Thanksgiving I made the cranberry sauce:

Looks amazing, doesn't it? (I'm not being humble on this one...) Well, since Thanksgiving was also Adam's birthday, and there was the stress of the meringue, and planning/packing for the trip we took right after Thanksgiving, plus I had a bad cold all week----I COMPLETELY forgot the cranberry sauce in Davis! When we were getting ready to serve dinner, my mom asked where the cranberry was....I nearly passed out, and I felt SO bad that I had left it at home! Needless to say we all survived Thanksgiving without cranberry. Still getting over that one. 

Well, after Thanksgiving we decided to go to Big Sur, Ventana Wilderness for an overnight backpacking trip to get out of Davis and get everyone some good exercise. We did 21.4 miles in two days. The first day was 14.6 miles. We backpacked from the Big Sur station to Barlow Camp (~7.4 miles in) and set up our tent. The camping area only had about 6 other groups, and no one was close to us so it was really quiet. We were right on the river. After setting up, we left our stuff at camp and hiked another 3.2 miles to Sykes Hot Springs. This area had more people around, but we did manage to get one of the pools to ourselves. 

Here's Adam at the springs and a picture of one of the pools. The pool wasn't really hot but it still felt great after the hiking we had done! 

Here's the view from the pool:

That's the Big Sur river and associated mixed coastal forest. Beautiful!

Here's part of the trail:

We were actually a little surprised about the trail--we had expected it would spend some time along the river, but the trail was high above the river the whole time until Sykes. We did go down and cross some side streams, which were really pretty. 

For dinner we were fancy (only one night, might as well carry heavy stuff)--we made poached salmon with mashed potatoes and butternut squash. I had pre-roasted the squash and froze it in cubes. The salmon was frozen when we left, and the potatoes were the flake kind. Chocolate pudding for dessert...YUM!!! After dinner I was exhausted (still was fighting the cold I've had for a week), and I fell asleep before 8pm and slept with only a few interruptions until 6:30--about 11 hours of sleep! Darn good for backpacking, I'd say. :)

NOW, FOR THE VAN:

Today Adam is working on the closet. Here is the first try of putting it in the van--it's not fitted perfectly yet but it looks fantastic!

Awesome, right?!

This is the prefinished maple. The two big openings are the clothes closet area (and that end piece is just temporary and not the right size). It's going to have 1 shelf in the middle, and the shelf will be covered with fabric to keep things from sliding around. There will probably be plastic bins for socks, underwear, etc (small things). The closet will have 2 sliding doors. The tall narrow area is the pantry and will have small (cans), medium (small snacks, rice mix, misc.) and large (cereal, pretzels, big stuff) boxes in it that will work like drawers but will be easy to remove. That way, if you need a couple of cans, you can just pull the box out and bring it to the cooking area or onto the counter to find what you need. Or, if you want a snack or cereal selection--just grab the big box. 

Adam will probably cut a cubby hole into the area below the closet for accessibility to the under-the-closet area. There may also be a cubby hole with a lid on the bottom shelf area of the closet, which would work great as a laundry basket area. 

I'm really proud of Adam--he works really hard on the van and I think it really shows!

Now, for some concluding dog pictures:

 That's Carex with her new collar.

 This time my pictures are Carex-biased..here's Carex with Adam, snuggling on the couch!

Ok, this isn't the dogs--but it was funny. Adam microwaved 2 eggs (I was not involved!) this morning and one exploded, shooting the yolk out of the white. Talk about a mess......

Bed up top!

Well, because of the unexpected smaller size of fold out bed/seat in the van, we decided to go ahead and buy some wood to make the penthouse bed. Last weekend we went to a super cool wood store (yes, I am my father's daughter) in Berkeley called MacBeath's Hardwoods. We got some less expensive 3/4" birch  plywood for the bed (has lots of plys!). We also got awesome prefinished maple 1/2" plywood for the cabinets. 

So the bed up top is in two pieces. One piece is larger and ends about where Adam's elbow is. When the top is down, this piece actually hangs from the roof (raising it up). The second piece is smaller and remains resting on the rails (the sides of the top that hold the whole bed up) even when the top is down. The smaller piece can also be stored behind the seat below. 

We are going to get some thick foam and upholster it onto the boards. Double bed sheets will work just fine! 

Below is a bad picture of the prefinished maple just to give you an idea of what it looks like. It's really light in color but has a nice grain. It's not as "white" as the birch which both Adam and I like. 

Right now the prefinished plywood and the cushions from the bench seat/bed are being stored in our guest bedroom (also known as the cat's room). It's a little crowded in there, but what with 5 bikes, a motorcycle, stuff in storage, more plywood and hardboard, etc, the garage is full, too!

Cute picture of Carex:

Sportsmobile asked us to come back down to Fresno in December to have the top adjusted after we sent them pictures of the corner of the penthouse top that sticks up. So, we are planning on making a winter camping foray down near Oakhurst (I think) that weekend. 

Other planned travels include going to Sykes Hot Springs for a weekend backpacking trip with the dogs. We have been home every weekend for three weekends in a row--that's not like us!! We are both dying to get some exercise and spend time outside. (We found out about Sykes through another blog The Commentators ).  

Wall panel update!

Check it out:

Totally awesome, right?! 

Sportsmobile!

Well, the biggest event lately has been that we (Adam) got down to Sportsmobile in Fresno again and got the penthouse top installed as well as the seat/bed! Check out the photos:

The top pops up easily, you just unlatch the latches and push up on a padded area with your shoulders. To take it down, you have to pull down fairly hard (Liz doesn't quite have the bodyweight to pull it by herself...). The windows have screens that open, plastic covers for when it's rainy/windy, plus there are roll down shades to keep light out. 

The seat has three sets of seatbelts (2 lap, 1 shoulder) and folds down into a bed. It's 68 inches long and about 49 inches wide when reclined into the bed. The seat slides forward when it reclines flat, and meets up with a cushion that's not installed yet (cushion will cover the back portion of the van and be over a storage area--not shown yet!). 

We are very excited to have these new amenities, but we did have some problems with Sportsmobile:

1. The bed was advertised as being 53" wide and 71" long--which is small but we thought we could make it work if this was the minimum size. Turns out their website doesn't match reality, and from what we heard from the folks at Fresno, no one had ever brought this to their attention! Weird. So, this is really small for us so we decided to pursue the bed that is up in the penthouse sooner than we had originally planned (Which can be at lest 76" inches long--much better for us tall people). 

2. The penthouse top doesn't fit quite right on top of the van. See this photo:

The tops sits flush on all other three corners, but here it pops up and wobbles a bit. This hasn't been fixed yet.

3. The tie-downs for the fabric walls of the penthouse top were secured too tightly, so that the fabric ripped a small hole! Adam made patches which should solve the problem:

You can barely see it but there is a diamond of fabric now behind this bolt. 

Other than those problems, we think we will really love the new situation and we hope Sportsmobile will help fix the issues. Last weekend we put the first coat of paint on the top (it came bright white and we painted it a grey to match the van):

It looks great with the grey top. Due to inclement weather we couldn't put the second coat on, but that should happen this Sunday I'd guess. The paint (Interlux Perfection 2 part epoxy in "Platinum") was scary at first but went on really nicely with a special roller. 

Right now Adam is out working on the wall panels! (And I walk out occasionally to give him a hand...and I made dinner..and I'm blogging....and I do the laundry and keep house...) He's making the wall panels out of 3/16" hardboard. 

This weekend we are going to a special plywood store to look at Appleply, a high density plywood to use for the wood base for the bed that goes up in the penthouse. Also, we are looking for wood to use for our cabinets. We are considering baltic birch because it looks good with unfinished edges, but we're not sure. Adam likes a medium stained wood, and Baltic birch looks weird with a colored stain on it. Liz likes plain baltic birch but Adam insists this will be too light a color..... So we're considering either a different kind of wood or paint! (No idea what color though!)

Also started looking at Corian for the countertops--our project is so small we can use scraps so it will be less expensive. Adam likes the color called "Silt". (http://www2.dupont.com/Surfaces/en_US/products/corian/pr_corian_colors.html)

Obligatory dog photos:

Autumnal Carex

Dude in his nest

AND, this is NOT DOG:

It's a pork loin with a cranberry-apple-walnut filling, and it was amazing!