7/25: New Day, New Start!

7/25: So yesterday was a bit of a setback day and I think the frustration with being tired and burnt out on the project just came to a perfect storm so I had to check out for the night. We will have to go back to yesterday a little later. I want to discuss today! :) So, still not sleeping well so I am up and at 'em at 6am this morning. The weather is actually decent and I was able to walk my dog in 63 degree weather, normal humidity! The plan for today is as follows: I need to get to REI in NJ to get my mosquito net. They are about an hour away and open at 10. Usually I'd be the first one there, but I think I'm going to wait till they are open and give them a call to make sure they have what I need before driving all the way out there. I thought about this 3 minutes before they closed last night, but it took me more than that to try to find their phone number! At 9am Joann's Fabrics is open, so I will be there first thing so I can use my 50% off coupon to pick up some black material to make the black out insulative window coverings fr privacy. So in the mean time, I need to make my calculations on how much fabric I'll be needing. I need to also review and formulate a new plan or updated plan for the bed.

So regardless of whether or not I can get the "ding"ing to stop, the seat needs to come out. No more being wishy washy. There was 1 other thing I needed in order to get the seat out. I need to disconnect the seatbelt and it's being held in by some crazy star shaped cone bolt. So first off I am headed to Pepboys to see if maybe they can help me with a tool. They open at 8am. I am glad someone other than me expects to be productive on a Saturday morning! And off we go, the day has officially started!

I went to Pepboys just as they were opening and they were super helpful so I got the funky shaped tool to remove the seat belt so I can take out the car seat. (pic of the funky car screw and the tool to get it done!) Then I made it to Joanns just as they were opening so I got the fabric and spray adhesive I needed. (pic of everything i need for the job!) I called REI at 10am, right when they opened and had them check for the mosquito netting and the computer system said they had 1 in stock. I kindly explained that I'd be diving over an hour to get there so I asked if she could physically verify if it was there and put it on hold for me. She was so nice and found the 1 and left it up at the counter with my name on it. So I headed straight over there and realized when I got there I was hungry. I figured I'd do my shopping and grab food after. Somehow, REI is a bubble. Leaving the store 2 hours later I apparently forgot I was hungry! I came here for a $16 mosquito net since it's the cheapest I found around and online. ...I manage to spend $200! Guess that was a savings!

Now time for food! There's been this groc store that I've been wanting to check out cause I've heard people talking about it and it's supposed to be like a Whole Foods. It's called Wegmans. I passed a sign on the way to REI so I figured I'd check it out and grab lunch. There's none within 30 miles of where I live so while I'm out here, I might as well. So I picked the unhealthy food bar (pay by weight) and got over a pound of Chinese food (pic). It's like buffet! :) Grocery shopping next for some healthy stuff and then I'll head home.

(picture of my smorgasbord of Chinese food by the pound and my, Christmas in July bag!...yes, $200 does fit in just 1 bag!)

4:27pm It might just be nap time before hitting the camper bed again!. Nightie night! It's been an exhaustive morning/afternoon running

errands and the traffic to New Jersey.....ugh!

Today was a 100% fully successful day...finally! After my melt down last night, I needed a good day. After I got my nap in, I headed over to my friend's place to keep working on the camper bed. I had some setbacks last night but I took some time to recap and reformulate a new plan. One of the issues I was having was that since I took out the back seat, I had the nice flat trunk space for about 41 inches (not long enough for even me to lay down). Then it dropped down about 9 inches to the back seat base. The way it is, it's kind of variable with all the under the seat parts, not a flat surface to be able to calculate any measurements off of. Then it drops down again to the foot space and floor of the car. Hopefully the pics below will illustrate and clarify. My original plan was just to have the bed platform extend the full length of what I need (about 61 inches) and have long legs down to the floor of the car to support it. But I don't think it was going to be stable enough, since I discovered last night that the 6 inch legs

were not built well enough to support me (so I am currently working on a new bed legs plan). So in order to remedy the support for the bed for my upper half body (to be where the backseat was) I decided to add in a storage crate. This would add room for storage, size is still in the works but I am looking at about 22" wide x 34.5" deep and somewhere between 9 and 12 inches high. (included pics foe what I have completed so far-the crate doesn't have the sides built yet as I determine the right height, so you'll have to use your imagination like I do until it's done,) At the same time it would give a flat sturdy base for me to use as a support for the bed base.

I also pulled off the wobbly, falling apart legs from the bed base so I could reconfigure and I was able to use the tool to remove the seat belt attachment and fully pull out the passenger seat. I included pics, but it was after dark so not sure how well they will turn out.