Alfreenos Hit The Road

Oh hi there!!

It’s been a while hey?  So long that I basically forgot my passwords to even log into this site to update you on what’s happening.  My fingers are so lost on the keyboard, they keep pressing the wrong buttons.  I have probably used the backspace writing this more than I have used all the other keys combined just getting to this point.  It’s hella weird to be honest.  My laptop used to be an extension of me.  Now  it’s just this weird thing I’m petrified of losing but I’m slowly wondering why.  Yoh, how’s that for getting into the lifestyle faster than my kids on a pizza?!  I’m annoying myself, with it but it’s true.

The last post that’s up on this here blog is the one that let’s you know that we only had 15 days before the crazy hit – the crazy of leaving our lives behind.  Now we’ve already spent 19 days out on the road.  It’s crazy how time flies when you’re having fun.  Or shouting at each other.  Or packing the van.  It really just depends on the day.

But back to the preleaving chaos.  Man was it chaos.  It’s actually such a crazy time that most of it is a blur.  Which leads to this post because I want to remember as much of it as I can before it fades altogether.

In that last post you’ll see that the van is basically still a shell.  We had the back bed section, but the girls bedroom still had leaks, Knox didn’t have a bed at all and we had no grocery cupboards or anything above the stove area.  Thanks to Seth’s incredible planning, handy work and just general determination in working every night, he was able to get it all together in time for us to leave.  And thankfully also with the help of Brian and Papa when they were free  It’s great to have little pieces of their handy work to travel along with us.  Thank you both again for your help – we love you.

The van took real shape in the space of a couple of weeks.  From going from what you see up there, it transformed quite a bit.  Still not Optimus in his Prime, but he’s flipping close.

I’ll eventually do one of those great reveal posts.  You know the kind I’m talking about right?  The pinterest worthy ones?  Yeah, one of those babies.  One of those where we’ll basically have to unpack the entire van just to take the photo.  So bare with me on this one taking a little bit of time will you?  Right now, ain’t nobody got time for that!  Plus I need to get my bikini body ready because apparently a #vanlife photo ain’t a #vanlife photo without a swimwear clad woman in it.  Haha

So that’s a lot of work they did right?  Cupboard everywhere!  We really need the storage so it’s great.

Another thing that we did is paint the girls bedroom area with gold paint.  It looked amazing just using the normal gold metal paint.  But we wanted more.  So much more.  We wanted GLITTER.  So we got gold glitter spray paint and completely messed up all the great work that I did with the painting.  I really had to curb myself from smashing my fist through the wall in frustration.  But it is what it is.  We’ve learned very early on that most things don’t go the way we want them to when it comes to this van reno.  And that’s OK, we can’t get this life and everything going right, that’s just too much to ask.

What we like to do is leave everything to the last minute.  Just to stress ourselves the heck out.  Not necessarily on purpose, but because that’s just how it works out.  There’s so much to do with these things logistically that it’s impossible to do it all with time to spare.  At least, that’s what I tell myself.

Anyway, that’s how we found ourselves walking into a fabric store the Monday before we had to leave on the Saturday.  Needless to say, they were a bit concerned, but managed to pull off creating our foam mattresses for the our bed and for Knox’s bed too.  We went with a rather bold colour choice, but when we got home we realised that it perfectly matches with Optimus’ colours!  YES!!

Then there were a few other things to wrap up before we left.  We had to say goodbye to our dogs.

We did it about a week before we actually left so that everyone could acclimatise.  The drop off actually went really well.  There were no tears.  But yoh.  Guys, I’m dying writing this right now.  Looking back at these pictures and those faces just makes me ball my eyes out and that’s super weird for me.  I mean I like a good cry but wow.  I can’t stop.  Spartans smooshy face man!  I just want to kiss it over and over again.  Luckily I know that they are living their best lives, being walked and loved and cared for.  I’m so grateful.

The other thing that we managed to get sorted, literally at the last minute, is a tenant.  It was quite literally an answer to prayer.  They are a lovely family who are paying the contribution that we need them to which really is a load off our shoulders.  It’s such a relief to know that these little things are taken care of at home so that we can enjoy the journey!

All that was left was to pack our entire house into storage, pack all of this into the van and actually hit the road.  But more on that next time.