My first two Home Improvement Projects weren't exactly the highest caliber works of craftsmanship. For example, putting more than two or three articles of clothing on the clothes rack caused it to bend, shake, and warp, and the rope around the bed came undone approximately once a day. So my third Home Improvement Project was setting right what I had previously done so, so wrongly. And it's the weekend, which means that after my workout and shower, the sky was the limit as far as errand-running was concerned.

Back to Home Depot

Home Depot is a recurring theme/location of these posts, and I'd be pretty lost without it. I recently found out that Home Depot will cut 2x4s for you to whatever length you want, which I thought was pretty sweet because it means that I don't have to buy a circular saw. So I used my handy dandy tape measure (also previously purchased at Home Depot), and took a few measurements.

Reinforced Clothes Rack

I cut some 2x4s to be the length of the gap between the pre-installed wooden railings. Learning from my mistakes, I purchased some wood screws this time around, which made the whole process far less painful. I measured out the distance between the 2x4s, again learning from my previous errors. Then I re-secured the hanger mounts and screwed everything back down. The end result is pictured above, this time with a fully loaded rack of clothes, including my heavy jackets and sweatshirts. I have much more faith in this refined, sturdier clothes rack, and I'm starting to get comfortable with do-it-yourself projects.

Bed "Frame"

So I didn't quite build a bed frame per se, but I did cut a 2x4 to the width of the box, and then secure it with some angle brackets. This will keep the box spring in place, and I doubt the mattress would be able to overcome the static friction keeping it on top of the box spring. In other words, I ditched the rope, and I'm pretty confident this will work just as well, without the inconvenience of a having a length of rope running through the middle of the box.

What Next?

The box is starting to come together! My next project is going to be some carpeting, a little bit for aesthetics, but mainly for noise reduction and for keeping things from moving around. I also purchased a dresser from Ikea, but I'm only half way through putting that beast together, and it will definitely get its own post when it's done.

I've survived my first (nearly) whole week of work. Granted, it was mostly filling out forms, hearing about benefits packages and retirement plans, and going to developer workshops to get synced up with various company policies and infrastructure. Not that it wasn't interesting (it was), but I'm not a fan of how little I've gotten to contribute thus far. I understand it'll take time to get caught up to speed, I'm certainly not unfamiliar with the concept, though I'd like to start actively applying myself to it. Aside from actual work, there are a few things I hope to accomplish, once the orientation presentations start to quiet down next week and I start to fall into a consistent schedule.

The Gym

While I was in school, especially for the last two semesters, I'd settled into a very structured workout plan (Jim Wendler's 5/3/1) that I'd tailored to my needs. I've started going to the gym again (after a three week hiatus), and I'm definitely feeling that intense, all-over soreness that I missed oh-so much. Starting on Monday, I'll get back to my routine, start the first week of a cycle, and put myself back on the road to physical self-betterment, a part of my personal philosophy that I'll probably detail in a future post. Basically, the carrot I dangle in front of myself for motivation is an improved, future version of me.

Planning The Future

Falling into a routine means dedicating time after work each day for planning my future. The goal of this whole intense money/resource saving expedition is to save money so that I can travel the world in 4 to 5 years time. I plan on spending the majority of my time until then charting out my course around the world: picking out which countries I want to visit, which sights I want to see, which languages I want to learn, and what events I want to experience. The adult world quite frankly freaks me out, and having a future goal to work towards (aside from retirement) takes the edge off, and gives me more of a sense of purpose. Again, I'll probably dedicate multiple future posts to my travel plans, this is just a snippet of what I'm working towards.

Basically, consistency is key. There are all sorts of physical and chemical processes that occur in the body that expect routine and consistency. If I can wake up bright and early every morning (okay, maybe to a lesser extent on weekends), hit the gym, go to work, eat three square meals, and then plan my trip and work on personal projects before heading to bed at a predictable time, I'll be doing a service to my mental and physical state, and it'll make me more productive overall. More important than being productive, it'll also bring me closer to reaching my goals.

Don't worry, I'm not going to post about every single night I spend in the box truck, but this one was markedly different than the first, and deserves to be noted as such. When it was bed time last night, I wasn't feeling the same type of anxiousness that pervaded the previous night. I was much more relaxed and confident. I still did my best to be quiet, but I wasn't stopping every few seconds to make sure that nobody was watching. The overall experience was much more pleasant this time around, and I slept like a small child.

Theories

I don't know what made me so much more comfortable with the idea and the whole situation after only a single night, but I have a few theories about what is going on with me.

Acceptance of the Situation

Maybe I subconsciously realized that it's not the big of a deal, if I have to talk to security or a co-worker, it doesn't really affect anything about my situation. Absolute worst case scenario: I have to move the truck. That's really the worst thing that could feasibly happen, and that would be far from the worst thing that has ever happened in a human being's life. Realizing how large the world (or even just my workplace) is, and how nobody is particularly out to get me, was a big step in calming my nerves. Having the first night go so smoothly made it clear that this whole scheme is actually viable.

Insanity

I've mentioned before how I already have accepted that I'm completely crazy, and that normal human beings don't do these types of things, but I can't help but wonder if some mental safeguard has actually snapped, and I'm actually losing my marbles, starting to become comfortable with the fringe lifestyle I'm in the process of adopting, like an even weirder form of Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe the first night was so traumatizing to me that I've now lost all mental faculties keeping me even remotely reasonable. Who knows?

Regardless of why I settled into the new routine so quickly, it shows me something that I think will be increasingly important for me, especially in my future travelling endeavors. It shows that I can adapt. Adapt to an unconventional situation and adapt to a new life. And like I mentioned in an earlier post, this experience and capability will be crucial as I travel around the world without much more than a backpack.

I did it.

And by it I mean sleeping in the box truck for the first time. I still have a corporate apartment until Sunday, but I wanted to try out living in the box truck, because at least I still have the flexibility of normal human housing, and this way, I could work out any potential kinks.

A Whole New World

Okay, maybe that's a little bit dramatic, once I was in there, it really just felt like being home, in my own bed. It was pretty comfortable, especially for a mattress that only cost me $99. The eventual goal is still to get a super comfortable memory-foam, fancy-shmancy bed, mainly because I feel that without a solid sleep foundation, the rest of my day suffers and I end up using caffeine as a crutch. Not ideal.

Being completely new to the whole process of living in a van, I was pretty anxious for most of the night. I set up the environment on my work computers to my liking, played some Dance Dance Revolution at an arcade (in my office!), grabbed a late dinner with a few friends, and then headed over to my super secret hiding spot. Interestingly enough, the place I picked to park the box truck was already inhabited by more than a few equally sketchy looking vehicles: an RV, a few hippy vans, and a large truck or two. I have a hunch that I'm not the only person doing this.

Heading to Bed

I felt like a criminal walking across the parking lot. It's 9:30 PM, a dark truck with tinted windows slowly drives by just as I'm approaching the box truck. My heart is beating out of my chest, I slow down until it drives past, and then open up the back once I'm convinced they've passed. I re-lock the door behind me, leaving it slightly open for ventilation and so that no one can lock me in. I spend the next ten minutes quietly getting undressed and unpacking the suitcase I threw in early in the morning, completely paranoid that someone is watching/listening and going to bust in at any second. I shut off my lantern, and spend the next half an hour listening intently to the silence of the parking lot, interrupted only by the occasional thuds of doors closing and squeaks of suspensions going over speed bumps. Eventually I fall asleep, waking up intermittently because of strange truck and security-related nightmares. When my alarm goes off at 5:30 AM, I silence it immediately. I grab my already-packed gym bag, and I start my day.

I did it.

With the bed out of the way, I was ready to try bigger and better things. The next thing on my list was a place to hang my dress shirts and pants. In a real-world setting, this would be called a "clothes rack". So I took another trip down to Home Depot, which is quickly becoming the most important place in my life, and I picked up some screws, a screwdriver, some clothes hangers, two mounting brackets, and a 6 foot long wooden rod. If I had done everything correctly, here is how the process should have gone:

1. Screw in mounting brackets, approximately 6 feet apart.
2. Place wooden rod on brackets, screw into place.
3. Place hangers on wooden rod.

So right off the bat, I realized I bought the wrong screws. How did I realize this, you ask? Well for one, they were clearly marked "Sheet Metal Screws", and I was working with wood. I quickly learned that the difference between the two is the threading, which is far more dense on sheet metal screws and makes it really hard to put them in, especially without a drill. So after 15 minutes of painfully torquing one of these screws into the wooden railings of the box truck, I was sufficiently satisfied with how far into the wall it was. I put the mounting bracket on over it, tightened it a few more turns, and moved onto the next one.

That doesn't sound all that bad, right? Well that's because I haven't adequately set the scene for you. It's a beautiful, sunny 75 degree day in Santa Clara, and I'm in the back of a nearly ventilated box truck, trying with all my might to fit square pegs (sheet metal screws) into round holes (wood). So anyway, I exhaustingly put up the second mounting bracket (without measuring because that would be reasonable and take all of the fun out of it), only to find out that I've placed the two mounting brackets 6 feet and 1 inch apart, meaning that the wooden rod for hanging the clothes won't rest on the brackets. Tragic. Repeat the bracket mounting process, but now 6 inches over.

Throw in a couple extra screws, because a little over-engineering can't hurt, and the end result is pictured above. How well will it work? Who knows! Only time will tell, but in the mean time, I'm fairly pleased, and ready to take on some even more ambitious home improvement projects as I refine my newly-pioneered form of crazy.