There are a lot of opinions about the order of operations for a van build, and, ultimately, it seems to come down to personal preference. Because I was scared of cutting holes in the roof or side of my van and because I was less intimidated by building shapes out of foam and 2x2s, I decided, after scrubbing, priming and painting Mo‘s floor, that the next step should be installing the floor.…

My van, Mo, had a past life with FedEx and, after 44,000 miles of things thrown, tossed and dropped onto the floor of her cargo area, it was pretty beat up. To mitigate the chance of rust development, I spent the first month of van ownership scrubbing, priming and painting.…

Someone once said that words have meaning and names have power, and it’s widely acknowledged that vessels, sea-faring and otherwise, should be named. So I knew, when I bought the van, that I would name her. But I didn’t want to rush it. I had to get to know the van a little bit first before bestowing a name upon her, and, after a few weeks of deliberation, I’ve finally settled on a name.…