(upbeat rock music) - So the boys have given me
the honor to install the sink.
It is way bigger than I thought, by the way.
I feel like we could put Hunter in.
- Oh, I'm sweating.
Let's switch this on and see if we have lights.
(light switch clicks) - Oh my gosh.
(light switch clicks) Oh my gosh!
So our most requested question has been,
where is your bathroom?
And we've finally started to install our shower.
Hi, we're Stephen, and Jess, and baby Hunter,
and in late 2020, we bought a van
with the goal of turning into our new home on wheels
to travel around Australia in.
Over the weeks we've insulated, built walls,
and installed a ceiling, to much of our inexperience.
(saw rattling)
(laughing) (conversing inaudibly)
With this week's project,
we hope to finally sort out our bathroom solution.
(jazzy piano music)
(van doors opening)
- I think this is my favorite purchase of the entire van.
By the way, we have an Instagram account for Cooper the Van.
Make sure you go check it out, I will link it below.
Welcome back to another van build episode.
Thankfully, after the last two weeks of having our lockdown,
it means that we got rid of the COVID cases here in Perth,
and that's why we don't have any masks on.
But I am so excited to work on this again this week,
because in the last episode, so much happened,
and I can't even imagine, by Friday,
what's gonna get done this week.
(dramatic orchestral music) (van door sliding)
It's looking a little bit dark in here.
I think today's first task is we want to pop in some lights,
and just test to see if the electrical set up
that we did weeks ago is actually working.
So this morning, Andy went and connected up
all of the down lights,
and we're just gonna pop them in.
That's one.
(dramatic orchestral music)
We still need to get a sparky to come through
and sign off, and do all of the 240 volt.
This van needs to go through the pits, once we're done,
so we need him to sign off on it.
In the meantime, we've just got a little battery charger.
Let's see if we have lights.
This is very exciting, all right.
I'm, like, sweating.
Okay, connected the red wire to the red hole, (laughing)
and the black wire to the black hole.
I'm sure there's a way more technical term, but...
Oh, I'm sweating.
Let's switch this on, and see if we have lights.
(classical music)
(light switch clicking)
No way.
(light switch clicking)
(laughing) That is so cool!
Our van has come to life.
Wow, that has been the most satisfying thing
of this entire build,
because electrical is (laughs) not my expertise.
I know nothing about it,
and seeing, just, that all connect up.
I mean, yes, it's just on a battery.
There's still way more work to do,
but it's all about winning the small battles.
Let us know, what do you guys think?
I think the down lights in the cool white,
they look so cool.
I am so chuffed right now.
(drill rumbling)
(laughing)
- Hello.
(laughing)
(drilling)
(cupboard thumping)
See, and it gives it that little bit of positive effect,
so when the catch is on it doesn't flop around.
- [Stephen] Yeah. (cupboard thumping)
Oh, that's good.
- I'd tell you that's intentional, but it's not.
(Stephen laughing)
- So just to finish off (drilling)
what we were doing last week,
our handles onto the door, drilled it through,
and now we're going to be attaching it to the van
to finish off our cabinetry.
He's also chucked a little hinge on here,
so that when we go into the van,
it's gonna be way easier just to connect this onto the door.
Something you might be wondering, yesterday,
how we got all the handles on in exactly the same spot.
So we made a little bit of a metal template
with the exact measurements on where the holes are gonna go,
because we just bought (drilling)
the exact same handles for all of our cupboard doors,
put it on here, a little bit of marker on there,
drill in, and they're all exactly in the same spot.
(upbeat music) (screwdriver tapping)
(soft clicking)
Yeah. (drilling)
(drilling)
(soft clicking)
(upbeat music)
(cupboards thumping and creaking)
How good's this?
Monday morning, and we have lights and cupboards installed.
(cupboard creaks)
If you guys were wondering
what's going into the little cubby hole that we built,
it's our little water pump.
This little thing is gonna make sure
we can pressurize all our pumps,
and I suppose, make our taps work.
Heater, pump.
And at some point, water tank below the van.
(soft guitar music) (metal clanking in background)
(thump)
(saw grinding)
(tools clattering)
(metal clanking)
- Think that'll do.
- Yeah.
So we're actually gonna be doing
some quick renovations to our safe,
because we want one to be longways, to be landscape,
but we bought one that's horizontal,
because that's what most safes are.
The reason we wanted it horizontal,
was so that it can fit our laptops in,
without it just being placed up, like a book in a bookshelf.
(saw grinding)
Just being a bit resourceful,
we have the plates that they came inside it,
and we've just kind of cut it down.
We're gonna kind of mold it in a bit better,
and then, we can at least have a shelf
to put our laptops underneath,
and then whatever we want above it, like cameras.
(machinery humming)
(metal clanking)
(thumping) (metal clattering)
(machinery buzzing)
(drilling)
So we went under the van, checked it out,
see where we would place it.
Luckily, it is smooth sailing down there,
so we are now just drilling it,
connecting it to the chassis under this van.
This safe is not going anywhere.
Guess who's decided to come (funky music)
to the van today. (Jessica laughing)
- Thought you needed some extra hands.
- [Stephen] Yeah, I think so.
(laughing)
You gonna help us out?
(baby mumbles)
- Yes?
You show them all how you can walk?
Are you ready?
Look at you.
We're trying.
(laughing)
All right, so the boys have given me the honor
to install the sink.
It is way bigger than I thought, by the way.
I feel like we could put Hunter in this, but anyway.
Here we go.
(baby squealing)
We have a sink.
All right, Hunter, you're our tester.
Oh, look at you, girl.
What do you think of our sink?
It's a nice view outside.
Yeah, you're in the sink.
- [Stephen] When everyone was asking where our bathroom is.
- Yeah, you say, "Splash, splash, splash."
Splash, splash, splash.
What are you doing standing in your bathtub?
Don't put your foot down the hole.
There's a drain hole, girl.
So this morning, we have been installing
(soft clicking)
these struts, because when we were opening up the cupboards,
we realized, the whole time,
I was gonna have to hold it open
to ever get anything out.
So then, Andy suggested, why don't we install these guys?
So when we open it, look, no hands,
and it's staying open.
And we also have our tap,
and we've been trying to work out where it should go,
and we're thinking it's gonna go right here,
and as you can see, we have chosen
one that pulls out. (metal vibrating)
So we can, like, really wash the whole basin,
and everything like that, but yeah,
so I think we're gonna be installing this one next.
(drilling)
Morning, guys.
We've woken up bright and early,
AKA Hunter decided it was a good idea
to wake up bright and early, (soft, upbeat music)
and there was no wind today,
so we decided to head down to the beach,
and we've brought our standup paddleboard with us.
So you guys have probably seen us using this all summer,
we're kind of obsessed.
Any time we go and stay at, like,
a place that has standup paddle boards, we get so excited,
and we didn't realize they made them so easy to transport,
and this one is actually a blowup standup paddle board.
It's by Aqua Marina, and it is so lightweight and compact,
where I would have fit it
in the back of our car, (zipping)
and we have a full standup paddle board right here.
(zipping)
So we've got our pump, (baby giggling)
and then this here is the paddle,
and then, we've got the board right here.
So we got the Aqua Marina Magma,
and it has a PSI of 15.
So once the little pump, the arrow points to 15,
then you know it's ready to go.
- So I think the thing we love most about it
is that it literally takes 10 minutes to set up,
and we don't have to have, like, a four-wheel drive
to put the standup paddle board on the top of it,
because we have quite a small car.
So thank you so much to Aqua Marina
for partnering up with us on this video.
We've been having the most insane summer because of this.
It is just so much fun,
and look how clear this water is, that we have today.
It's gonna be a beautiful start to today.
- [Jessica] So dad's out standup paddle boarding,
I am here, looking after this little one,
who, all she wants to seem to do...
Hunter?
Boo boo? (baby mumbles)
(Jessica laughing)
All she wants to seem to do, is wanna eat the sand.
Do you think the sand is tasty?
(baby mumbling) Because it definitely
is not, girl. (baby mumbles)
(laughing) No.
- So to say thank you to you guys
for allowing us to have partners on this channel,
we're giving away a standup paddle board.
I'll link all the details below
in the description of the video.
Now, let's head back to the van build.
- So our most requested question has been
where is your bathroom?
And we've finally started to install our shower,
so I'm gonna show you guys our shower.
Okay, here is our little shower.
We just open it up,
and as you can see, we have a cold and a hot tap,
and then through here will be a shower head.
And we've got a little suction cup
that we're gonna put on the van, and so then,
if we ever need a shower and we're in the middle of nowhere,
we can still rinse off out here with hot water.
A lot of you have also been asking where our toilet is,
and we've stayed in about four or five vans in the past,
and some have had toilets, and some haven't had toilets,
and we noticed, the ones that have toilets,
we sill never used them.
The idea of having to, like, dispose of our waste,
and deal with all that, wasn't worth it for us.
We would always seem to go find public toilets.
So we've decided, for now, we aren't gonna have a toilet.
We're just gonna use public toilets,
and here in Australia, they are everywhere.
We even have an app,
where if you're trying to find a toilet,
you can use it to find one.
But if you guys know of any really small toilets
that you think are good, let us know below,
because in the future, if we decide to get one,
your suggestions would be very handy.
So we are still in the middle of installing it,
but I thought I would show you the shower head.
So it'll come out somewhere through here,
and they do have, here, a shower head holder.
But see how it's so low?
That's why we found a suction cup one,
which would then go something like this,
and then you can still rinse yourself off.
- Are you ready for some beach days,
when we need to shower you down?
(makes water sound effects)
(laughs)
- Oh, yeah, and I just remembered, as well,
I was thinking of a way that we can still give Hunter baths,
because she loves baths,
and I found this little bath bucket for babies,
and you can actually flat-pack it.
So it folds shut.
We'll have to show you, it's at home.
It's a really cool idea, but, yeah.
What do you think about all this, huh?
(baby mumbles)
Oh.
You want a shower now?
- You want to eat the shower?
- Okay. (baby mumbling)
This is how my day looks, (machinery running)
for most of the time. (classical music)
(baby mumbling)
Oh.
(baby mumbling)
So, Andy has been so nice,
and he decided to use some of the offcuts from our bench top
to make us some chopping boards.
(baby mumbling) I'm a little fox.
No, no!
(baby mumbling)
- So we got this kitchen bench oil,
to kind of stain over the wood.
We're testing it out on the chopping boards first,
before we actually go and put it on our bench top.
(baby mumbling)
(Jessica laughing)
(baby mumbling)
(Jessica laughing)
- So this is the side with the bench oil,
and this is the side without.
So you can really tell the difference, eh?
- Yeah, oh, looks good.
Today, I think, is the most excited and most nervous,
because today we are doing electrical,
and this is the one thing that, on paper,
just sounds so complicated,
but watching Andy go through and wire up the van,
it actually doesn't seem as complicated.
So in as much layman's terms as possible,
I'm gonna walk you guys through on how we,
pretty much, power up this van.
Hi, from Friday Stephen.
Thursday Stephen forgot to plug the microphone in
when I was doing my big explanation,
so I walked over here, explained the lights,
walked over there, explained the switchboard.
So there's no audio, so I'm just going to quickly
(laughs) explain from Friday Stephen
what we actually did.
Electrical, in as layman's terms as possible,
I'm sure there's some sparkies out there,
they're gonna watch this and be like,
"Stephen, you're oversimplifying things,"
but for the sake of everyone, and myself,
let's try to explain what we did.
So quite a few weeks ago, you would have seen,
when we were doing the insulation in the van,
that we had, literally, a piece of wire.
Nothing fancy, just a 12 volt wire,
that we ran to, like, one, two, and three,
and it was just, like, a wire,
that just all met into this little spaghetti mess over here,
and we drilled a hole, and everything came through.
So that's my very basic explanation
of how electricity works,
so then, those wires connected into here.
Looked like a bit of bowl of spaghetti,
and then what we did was we actually split the wire open.
So you cut it open, reveals two mini wires inside of it.
One black negative, one red positive.
The positive goes to the little light switch.
So you just screw it in so it connects in,
(light switch clicking) and how it works,
the negative, the black line,
we just kind of connect into a little ball,
a bit of a ball, put it in there, seal it all up,
and then, (drilling)
to get this one to work,
just in case we overload it, we have a fusebox.
All those wires are coming into here,
then we put a separate power line into here.
So just another wire,
and ran it towards the back of the van,
towards our little fusebox.
Okay, I hope you guys are still with me.
So the lights go to the switch,
which then come down to the fusebox.
Fusebox so that we don't blow anything.
So what we've pretty much done, now.
We've actually snipped the wire
to reveal the positive and the negative.
On the positive we're putting,
on the positive we're putting
these little connectors on there,
so it actually goes onto our fusebox,
and then, with our negative,
we're just going to bunch them into the back of the fusebox,
and then, we're gonna connect it to the battery.
So I'll just take that.
- [Andy] You grab a blue one.
- And they're called spades,
those ones, as well? - [Andy] Oh, these are crimps.
Generally, I suppose, you'd just want to
put them onto that.
- All right.
(wire clipping) (radio plays in background)
Like that? - [Andy] Yep.
- Sweet, again?
- You generally do it there, and then do it at the back.
- Oh, so it's meant to go through like that?
And then I put it in this middle one, here?
- In the second one.
In that one.
Yep, see?
(clicking)
- Oh, not like that, 'cause you'd be crushing it.
- Is that too far?
- [Andy] Yep.
- Oh, my bad. (laughing) - [Andy] That's dead.
That one's dead.
(laughing)
- Now, what we've done,
is we've put this little connector on here, crimped it on,
and then it's going to be placed, all the negatives,
just on the back, here.
Then the positives are going to be fed through to the front.
Our fusebox is officially all put in.
We decided, also, to put an extra 12 volt on there,
just in case we want, maybe, a portable freezer or fridge
we can put in the back, there.
If we find that we need a little bit more space
on the fridge, but I don't know.
Doesn't hurt to have an extra power point just here,
but as you can see, anything overloads
and it trips and switches it off.
I just come back here to the fusebox, replace it,
and then, fingers crossed, everything starts working again.
(laughing)
Probably gonna cut back to this footage
when we're on the road, later on,
and I'm gonna tease myself
for trying to oversimplify it. (laughs)
(upbeat music)
(fridge door opening)
- Happy Friday, everyone.
Pretty cool to see everything that the boys have been doing,
including, we now have light switches.
Ready?
I'm guessing you've already shown them this,
but it's the first time for me.
(gasps) (light switch clicks)
Oh my gosh. (light switch clicks)
Oh my gosh.
(light switch clicks) Oh my gosh!
Have you explained why they're all
in different little
light switches? (light switches clicking)
- [Stephen] No, I haven't actually.
- So what we decided is, so we have six set of lights,
like, two, two, and two,
and we decided to actually put them on different switches,
because then, if Hunter's asleep,
we're planning on putting, like, a curtain in the bedroom.
So that means that when she's asleep,
(light switch clicking)
we can have these two lights on,
and keep hers off.
Or if we just want to, you know, light up the bedroom,
and turn these off...
(light switch clicking)
This is pretty cool. (Stephen laughing)
(Jessica laughing)
And not only have they got the lights working,
we also have a running fridge.
Damn it, now I wish that I brought you
all your ginger beers from the house.
(Stephen laughing)
I'm bringing them on Monday.
So there's been something we've been wanting to test,
so today we've brought in Hunter's travel cot,
because I think she's still too little for the bunk bed,
so we're trying to decide
if maybe our travel cot (drilling in background)
fits in the van.
So we're gonna test that out.
Okay, we didn't measure, or anything,
so let's hope-- (radio playing in background)
I think it might fit!
(Stephen laughing) Oh my gosh,
this is going to help so much. (drilling in background)
All right, guys, that is another week done and dusted.
- If you are new around here,
and you're enjoying the van build,
make sure you hit Subscribe,
and we'll see you guys next week, with a brand new episode.
- See you, guys.