Tomorrow Is A Camper Office Improvement Day ...

I've been busy with other things (helping my wife and kids finish the move into the new house while getting my day-to-day work done, celebrating holidays, etc.), but now it's time to get back to work turning the "office in a pop-up camper" into something a little less cramped and more enjoyable.

This may not look like much, but it's one of the most important parts:

It's a 30"x 48" piece of plywood (some leftover material from a previous project, which I brought over from the old house), with its first coat of paint drying (eggshell interior paint left over from the previous owner's remodeling of the house prior to us buying it, left behind). I'm a "reduce, reuse, recycle, upcycle" type. Not for environmental reasons but more because I'm a cheapskate who hates to waste anything.

Right now, my (cramped) desktop is the Jayco 806SD's included "dinette," which is about 29"x36". I'll be turning that sideways (which may require a cut to its plywood base for positioning) and using wood screws to attach the plywood to the top.

Then, instead of sitting on one of the "dinette" benches, facing the rear of the camper, I'll be sitting on a chair, facing the port side of the camper. My dual 24" monitors will no longer sit in a very steep "V" toward each other, with the risers at the very edges of the surface.

If my measurements match my vision, the two "dinette" benches, which have storage beneat the seats, should still open and should remain relatively accessible. I might store some of my smaller musical instruments (lap steel guitar, melodica, ukuleles, etc.) in one of them, and perhaps office supplies or whatever in the other.

The down side is that when I'm working, it would be difficult for anyone to come into the trailer and get around me (I guesstimate that my back will be about two feet from the camper door), but that's not really a down side -- I don't know why anyone else would be trying to come in.

My plan is to do this tomorrow -- anything after 7am or so on Friday is effectively my "Saturday" on the work front. I can't see it taking more than a couple of hours, but best to have an open time frame when you're tearing your computer rigs down, rebuilding your desk, and getting set back up.

I have clear acrylic on the way to put in the camper's door windows. The previous owner had a couple of poorly measured opaque plastic sheets for that; I used some old campaign signage to replace those temporarily, but it will be nice to have the option of looking out the window.

Most of the remaining work will likely wait until spring and warm weather, and for dry days. An online weather atlas tells me that March has an average of 15 rainy days in March, with an average high temperature of 76 degrees.

On one of those dry days, I'll remove the tarps from the roof, give it a thorough cleaning, use silicone caulk around anything attached, and put down a nice double coat of roof sealant. I only had one, very small, leak before tarping the roof, so I expect that will get things fully right.

On another couple of those dry days, I'll take measurements, frame and sheathe removable/stowable walls for the main body of the camper, cut out the existing canvas, and install the walls. If the acrylics I have coming for the door work out well, I'll probably get a couple more for use as windows. Natural light is a nice thing to have.

Once that is done, Bitcoin value allowing, I'll look into a rooftop solar array sufficient to power everything in the camper, including its rooftop AC unit, my computers and monitors, etc. It will have to be a setup that can either be left in place when the camper travels, or that is easily removed and stowed.

Of course, the camper is just sitting here right now, but longer term I'm thinking about buying a used pickup truck with a hitch and some kind of roadworthy Internet access device (maybe the Starlink Mini?) so that if I want to travel and camp without missing work, I can.

Everything beyond tomorrow's stuff is highly provisional, though. I may come across a larger, nicer camper at a reasonable price ($1,500 or less) and decide to empty this one out, crank it down, and remodel it for use as a chicken coop. I do want to give this one at least six months (one down, five to go) before making such a decision, but if I find myself leaning in that direction I'll hold off on putting time into further improvements.