HOA said "no office shed" ...so instead I wanna build one into a cargo van... | 276

My HOA said I'm not allowed to build a beautful office shed that will increase value and curb appeal...so I want to park a giant eyesore on my driveway instead. A converted cargo van...

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Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Welcome to Geek Therapy Radio. You'vegot your mental curator, Johnny Hemburger.
Yes, this is a new episodeof Geek Therapy Radio. It has been
a minute. It's been a fewweeks actually, since I've recorded new content,
since I've recorded a new show.What has happened in the past few
weeks. I have had son numbertwo, my son Marshall Samuel Hamburger,

(00:34):
is now in the world. He'shappy, he's healthy, little fussy at
times, but all I really careabout is that he's got ten fingers,
ten toes, and he's just ahealthy, vibrant baby boy. And I
couldn't be more blessed. I couldn'tbe more fortunate. I couldn't be more
privileged to be the father of twowonderful boys. Riker's doing great. He's

(00:58):
three and a half or so yearsold. He's a fully functioning three year
old. I don't want to callhim a toddler anymore. I think maybe
at three years old he's a littleboy. He's a breaker, is a
bonafide little boy now. But alittle about Marshall, and then we'll talk
about some geek stuff that I'm thatI've been going that I've been into the
past few weeks. Other than myson, of course, that has been

(01:21):
all consuming. But well, we'lltalk some tech. I have this camper
van idea I want to talk about. I want to tell you how I'm
recording the show today. You canhear a little bit maybe of a difference
in sound quality. I'm testing somethingout. But I'll let you know a
little bit about Marshall. Marshall wasborn. You're not gonna believe that,
Like you're gonna think I'm joking.What day do you think Marshall was born

(01:42):
on. It's so geek apropos.Marshall was born on May fourth, twenty
twenty four, May the fourth bewith you. He was born. My
son was born on Star Wars Day. I can't make this up. My
son was born May fourth, onStar Wars Day a matter of fact.

(02:07):
So he was born at nine thirtysix pm on May fourth, And my
wife and I had a very kindof brief conversation like, hey, how
can we fit Skywalker into his name? And maybe we should change his name
from Marshall to Lucer, maybe MarshallLuke Hamburger. We have to maybe there's
some sort of Star Wars tie andwe can do here. He's born on
May fourth. That's crazy. Myson is born. First of all,

(02:30):
my firstborn son, his name wasRiker. He was born October twenty eighth,
which is not any specific day toStar Trek or Star Wars or anything
like that. But his name isRiker, after Commander Riker and Star Trek.
My second son did not have well, Marshall. I'll explain the name

(02:51):
Marshall here in a minute. Buthe was born on So I got one
Star Trek son and one son thatwas actually born on Star Wars day.
And I'm a geek and you're listeningto geek Therapy radio. How does that?
How does that all line up?That's so, that's such a funny,
such a funny thing. It wasa buzzer beat it. Like I
said, nine thirty six pm whenMarshall was born on May fourth, and

(03:13):
we're kind of like I kind ofwanted to go push down on Sara's stomach,
like all right, if he ain'there by eleven forty five pm,
I am going to try to inducemyself somehow. Oh I'm being gross,
but no. I Marshall was bornMay fourth, nine thirty six pm,

(03:35):
seven pounds seven ounce is just abeautiful baby boy. He is in I've
got line of sight on him rightnow. He is currently sleeping, which
is why I'm taking this opportunity torecord an episode of Geek Therapy Radio.
Riiker is out with mommy, uhdoing a meet and greet with the new
teachers for summer school, and thatis why I have a little bit of

(03:57):
time here. Hopefully I might haveto jump off the like to go tend
to Marshall. If I do,I'll bring the microphone over towards him so
you maybe hear him cry a littlebit. That's about all he can do
right now. He's three weeks old, almost a month old actually, so
yeah, So here's on to somekind of some geek stuff. You may
notice a little slid in audio qualityversus most episodes. And I'm recording with

(04:26):
my GPD Win Max two. It'sgot the sixty eight hundred YU in there.
It's been out for a year,a little over a year, so
I've had it for a little bitover a year. It's been a wonderful.
I'm just amazing, like all inone laptop with more ports than you
can shake a stick at, builtin Xbox controls full sut not big enough
keyboard, trackpads, a little smalltennis screen. It's a great, great

(04:49):
all and around laptop. I editvideos with it using Da Vinci Resolve.
I'm obviously using Reaper right now torecord this podcast, and I'm using the
built in microphone of the GPD WinMax two. That's the big kind of
tinker here during this episode. Youknow, some episodes, I kind of
tinker with things. Usually i'm tinkeringwith If I tinker with something on the

(05:11):
air, it's that I'm using adifferent microphone, or that I'm using a
different computer, I'm using a differentcompressor, I'm using a different audio piece
of gear or whatever. But rightnow, that the the live tinker as
I'm recording, it's you're not listeningto this live, but as I'm recording
right now, that the tinker whileI'm recording is that I'm using the built
in microphone to the GPD Win Maxtwo, which is not so I've talked

(05:32):
about, and I've demonstrated in pastepisodes that one of the reasons why I
love my MacBook Pro. I've gotan M one, M one Max or
M one pro, MacBook Pro sixteeninch whatever. Even back when I had
the first M one thirteen inch MacBookPro, I said, one of the
reasons why I like the mac likemy MacBook pros is that the built microphones

(06:00):
are thehenomenal compared to other built inmicrophones of other over the laptops, Microsoft
Surface has really good built in microphonestoo. Higher end flagship laptops tend to
have decent built in microphones, butnot always. I guarantee you the built
in microphone. I need to testthis. I can't verify this, but
I have a very high feeling thatthe built in microphone and my AROS seventeen

(06:27):
h my gigabyte AARs seventeen h youknow, that's a That thing's a beast.
It's an RTX forty eighty GPU inthere. It's a Intel Core I
seven thirteen, seven hundred K likeit's it's insane. It's it's a beast
moode. It was over. Itwas expensive when it came out as my
Riker's home and now so things aboutto get nutty in here. But it's

(06:50):
an expensive computer. It's a besmokecomputer. But I don't expect the built
in microphone. I expected to begarbage. I mean, really, that's
kind of my expectation. So Ididn't have high hopes for the microphone built
into this wind Max too. It'snot the first thing that comes to mind.
A matter of fact, the speakersthat are built in the GPD wind
Max two don't sound that great.They're functional, but they don't sound great.

(07:12):
They're not MacBook Pro speakers for sure. But the microphone. I did
a little test before recording, andI had to save it to my dropbox
then listen back on my phone throughsome better quality speakers to see if the
microphone was usable. And it soundedusable. But I'm going to see how
usable because for this episode, ofcourse, before I export this, I'm

(07:33):
going to put the compressor on it, put the EQ on. I kind
of I'm gonna judge it as muchas I can to make it sound even
more useful if it needs to be. But I always like testing the built
in microphones because I'm a big proponentof, Hey you've got an idea for
a podcast, just do it.I mean, you've got a good microphone
in your phone, maybe a goodmicrophone in your laptop. It's always great
when it's all in one solution likethat. More Geek Therapy Radio coming up.

(07:56):
Don't go anywhere. Welcome back togeek Therapy Radio. You've got your
mental curator, Johnny Hamburger. Idid a little switcheroo over the break,
and now you are listening to thebuilt in microphone of the rog Ally,

(08:18):
and I did a quick little test, a little audio test between the segments
here, and I think if Icould be wrong here, something, could
you know, mess up in thewash or whatever, be different in the
wash when I go to render.I don't know, but I think this
microphone sounds better. I think thisbuilt in microphone to the rog Ally,
which you are listening to right now, sounds better than the built in microphone

(08:43):
of the GPD Win Max too.What a niche observation to make? What
niche information to give to you.There's two microphones that I can see on
the rog Ally. On the faceof it, there's a little dot over
on the left hand side of thescreen. There's a little dot in the
top right of the right hand sideof the screen, and those are the
two microphones. And I like thatin Reaper it's actually kind of neat.

(09:05):
I can select between the two.They're broken into two separate channels, channel
one and channel two, you know, left and right. But I can
just select channel one and just betalking right into this left microphone. Matter
of fact, I'm gonna switch myvoice, so I'm gonna move. I'm
gonna move the rg ally across myface so that I'm talking into the second
microphone. Now I'm talking into thesecond microphone. You should hear a difference

(09:26):
because the second microphone is not on. It's not the one I'm currently recording
with. I'm gonna move back overto microphone one on the left side of
the rg ally, and this shouldsound normal. Again, this is geek
Therapy Radio. This is what wedo. I have. I've just said
it once or twice on here,and I'm sure, man, I'm self
diagnosed ADD. If I don't haveattention deficit disorder, then I don't know

(09:52):
who does. Because I've been testedas a kid and it was kind of,
as I recall in elementary school,it was just kind of inconclusive.
Again, this was back in themid early to mid nineties, So I
don't add and not that autism isn'tas necessarily linked with ADD. I'm not
an expert on this. But maybeit is, maybe it isn't. But

(10:13):
I'm just saying that whole field ofattention definit disorder and what the spectrum was
for autism was not what it istoday. You know, back in the
early nineties, it was a lotmore limited. And again take this all
with the grain of salt, becauseI am not speaking as an authority on
autism. I'm not speaking as anauthority on attention def attention deficit disorder.

(10:35):
But I think even just by listeningto Keek Therapy Radio, just by listening
to past episodes, you can kindof say, yeah, that guy probably
has a touch of the a touchof the ad D. But when I
got tested as a kid, Iseem to recall, it was inconclusive and
the doctors prescribed adderall I believe itwas. They said, here to try

(10:58):
this and see if it kind ofhelps this. This was like seventh grade
by this time, seventh or eighthgrade where I actually got prescribed adderall for
basically just in case I had ADDThat's kind of just describing things willy nilly.
They couldn't really decide if I wasADD or not, but they said
try this, and I tried.I took it for like two days.

(11:20):
I took one pill in the morningbefore school for like two days and then
stopped. I did not like theway it made me feel personally. I
did not like the way it kindof made me zombied out and kind of
kept I liked that my mind isscattered, and that a ghost all sorts
of different fascinating subjects at any givenmoment. I didn't really like. I

(11:41):
didn't like being altered. And that'sjust kind of my stance on prescription drugs
or illegal drugs or what have you. Alcohol. I don't like to feel
completely out of control. That's whyI don't I'm not I don't know.
I don't like to I don't liketo do it too much. Everything in

(12:03):
moderation for one thing. But theadderall, I didn't like the way it
made me feel. I was like, this is not me. I'm not
me when I take these pills.So I used to lie to my mom
for a while for a couple ofmonths. Yeah, I took the pill.
She wasn't hard to like, pushthe pills on me. Is it
still recording? Because the screen turnedoff. I wasn't even looking. Is

(12:24):
it still recording? Yeah, itlooks like it's still recordings. That's good
to know that even if the screenturns off with the rg ALI, it's
still recording here. And my momwasn't trying to push pills on me.
She wasn't that type of person oflet's just fix everything with medication. Absolutely
not, but it was worth formy condition as a kid, it was
worth a try, and that's whyshe said, let's just try it.

(12:48):
And I don't know why I hidfrom her, the fact usually kids hide
the hide that they're taking drugs,Like that's the secret you keep from your
parents, is that you are takingdrugs or that you did score some pills
or whatever at school, and thatyou hide it. I was hiding from
my parents that I wasn't. Iwas telling them that I was taking it
when I wasn't. I was tossingthe pill. I would go back up

(13:11):
to like, Okay, I'm gonnago brush my teeth and take my pill.
And I would put the pill,which they would give me each morning.
They controlled the prescription of it,but I would take it and I
would go upstairs and I would putit in a drawer and say, yeah,
I took the pills. It's allgood. So I was lying about
not taking it, if that makessense. Where every other kid in my
class basically not every other kid inmy class, but you kids usually hide

(13:33):
the fact you're not gonna If yourparent asked you, did you smoke some
weed? No, I promised,Did you drink? No? I didn't
drink with me, it was theopposite. I was like, no,
I totally took the Adderall yeah,I totally did. It was the opposite
with me. But anyways, gettingoff on a tangent, I don't know
what other outlets you might listen tothat test the built in microphones for podcast

(13:56):
purposes of different device. I thinkthat would be I think that could be
a podcast in and of itself.I think that could be a YouTube channel
in and of itself. There's aYouTube channel that I follow called I think
it's called podcast Stage or podcastage.And basically the guy would in some of
you listening probably know it. Basically, the guy would test just all the

(14:18):
microphones, you know. He wouldtest cheap little natty microphones, cheap barringer
microphones all the way up to moreexpensive noyman like TLM one oh three microphones
which bright a thousand bucks. It'sthose are expensive for microphones. For most
people, thousand bucks on a microphoneis expensive. So annoyman TLMO three one
oh three, is hir right?Anyways, podcast stage, he tests all

(14:39):
the microphones. There might be achannel, maybe it would be geek Therapy
Radio, though I don't I justdon't know how much time I would have
basically a channel, an outlet,a podcast, a YouTube channel, something
TikTok that would test the microphones,the built in microphones of different devices,
different laptops, different tab blitz,different phones. Say can you podcast with

(15:03):
this? So as you're listening tothe rog ally right now, that the
built in microphone, the rg ally, I'm legitimately impressed. I was not
not that it sounds as good asmy normal signal chain running through thousands of
dollars worth of pre amps and microphonesand whatever, but for just right out

(15:24):
of the box, just the littletiny it's a little pinhole opening, two
little pinhole openings in the front faceof the rog ally, and I'm talking
into the left side of it,into the left microphone, and the fact
that I can go into reaper anddesignate which microphone is which or which microphone
that I want to use, andthat it sounds like this is that's pretty
impressive. I'm always impressed when I'mpleasantly surprised by different devices, especially when

(15:50):
with audio quality. You know,I talked about the M one MacBook Pro
in the in the Past segment thatone of the reasons why I like the
MacBook Pro the current at least thecurrent ones, is that not only are
the speakers great, but the microphone, the built in microphone that is usually
the main microphone for all who thoseof you need to refresh or the main

(16:11):
microphone in MacBook pros are under theleft speaker grill, so they have an
array like twelve or thirteen microphones allaround the chassis of a MacBook Pro,
but the main microphone, like ifit's only using one microphone, what does
it date to mic? The mainmicrophone, the primary microphone, and a
MacBook Pro is under the left speakergrill. So that's how you get the

(16:33):
best results when you're recording a podcastor whatever you need to do a voiceover
for increasingly well, I won't getoff on that tangent, but I want
to tell you what's been on mymind incessantly for the past few weeks.
And you might say well, isn'tit your second born child that was just
born three weeks ago Marshall, Yes, of course that is what every waking

(16:57):
moment, and there are lots ofwaking moments these days spent with an infant
who is almost a month old.What's been on my mind? So what
happens when everybody who's had kids knowsthis when they're especially at the infant stage,

(17:17):
you're up all the time. Imean, you have to get up
just throughout the night. You getup two or three times a night if
you're lucky, and it's just thatfew amount of times, but you get
up. It's just normal. It'sjust the normal stage of life. People
like to give doom and gloom tonew parents. Oh, say goodbye to
sleep. You're never going to sleepagain. Dah da, that's not true.
You go through the first few monthsof a typical, healthy child.

(17:42):
I don't want to speak for allparents, and God bless them with other
issues that they might have going on, but for a normal child waking up
two or three times a night asis normal. Let's talk more about just
stuff when we come back. Moregeek Therapy Radio coming up. Don't go
anywhere, Welcome back, to GeekTherapy Radio. You've got your mental curator,

(18:07):
Johnny Hamburger. I am just chuffedthat the built in microphone of the
rog Ally, which is what you'relistening to right now, sounds as good
as it does. Like I said, it doesn't sound like a thousand dollars
signal chain going through a large diaphragmcondenser microphone or anything like that, or
a broadcast microphone and electro voice ortwenty doesn't sound like that. But for

(18:30):
a gaming handheld, the built inmicrophone doesn't even have any business sounding this
good as good as it does.And this is the rog Ally, This
is the r this is the ogoriginal Gangsta rog Ally, Republic of Gamers
Ally from who makes this? Asis? A seuss? Who makes it rog

(18:51):
Why am I blanking out on?Who? I think it's a sous?
Yeah? Armory Create Yep, Yeah, like a sous. Unless I'm totally
brain farting. I brain fart alot on this show. I think a
lot of y'all listening, especially ifyou've been with me over the years,
some of y'all call me out onit, and I appreciate that, and
I understand it, and I understandand I know what you're saying. So

(19:15):
sometimes when I record a show,I'll go back and listen to it as
I'm editing, or not even asi'm editing, because sometimes even when i'm
editing, I miss it also becauseI'm too close to it. But I
go back and listen to the shows, Like a few weeks later, I
put some distance between me and theproduction process, and I go back and
listen to shows I hear really justblatant kind of mistakes, you know,

(19:38):
misspeaking, maybe saying a wrong awrong pedantic thing. So like, I
remember a couple of years ago,I mentioned the frequency of RAM. I
was like, yeah, I builta new computer. It as thirty six
hundred megahertz DDR for RAM, andwhich is a like it's different from the

(20:02):
frequency of a of a CPU DAda da mega transfers. I got it.
I got a little I misspoke alittle bit about how RAM speed is
measured and how it's implemented. Andsomebody listening emailed me back and said,
hey, that what you said waswrong. It has nothing to do with
that. I was like, yeah, and I misspoke. Other times I'll
just flat out say the wrong wordand hopefully y'all. You know you I

(20:26):
kind of trust the audience to fillin the gaps like, oh, yeah,
he misspoke, because that's what Ido to other UH podcasters and other
content creators, is you know,I'll listen to a podcast from MKBHD or
Linus UH Linus or something like that, and they'll they'll miss speak, and
I just kind of, yeah,you use your context clues to to understand

(20:48):
what they're really saying, and youkind of chalk it up. Yeah,
people, especially with stream of consciousness, can kind of misspeak on some things.
It doesn't mean they're an idiot,doesn't mean they're completely wrong necessarily,
just they miss spoke. So Igo back when I listened to shows a
few weeks later to check in onthings, I'm like, how did I
miss that? That was such ablatant miss speaking on my part? I

(21:10):
said the wrong thing there? Howdid that slip through the cracks? So
anyways, here's what I've been geekingout about since well, not even since
Marshall was born a few weeks so, I've been I've been thinking about this
idea for a few years now.It's always kind of been like a dream,
just kind of relegated to the backburner of my psyche of my consciousness.

(21:33):
Yeah, it's a nice dream,But now I've been obsessing over it
for the past few weeks and justreally trying to poke holes in the in
the in the notion of it alland the practicality of it all. Is
this something that can actually be done? Is this a pipe dream? How
can if I did go through withthis, how would I make it work
and function day to day? Andthat idea is this I mentioned at the

(21:56):
beginning of the show. My dreamright now, in my fantasy over the
past few years has been to builda like a man cave office shed basically,
and that kind of fell through.I applied with the HOA to build

(22:19):
a nice, beautiful office shed inmy backyard. Fully finish it out,
and it would increase curb appeal,increase property value, increase the value of
the home. Look nice, beinga nice addition to the home in the
backyard, it would match. Itlooked great. HOA said, no,
no, you can't have any shedin your backyard over over six feet tall,

(22:44):
which is basically so you can't seeit from your neighbor's fence or whatever
like that. And no, matterhow much I would explain to them,
I was like, this is youfixated on this word shed, And yes,
that is I'm going to buy aprefabricated one whatever from Low's or home
depot, a tough shed or somethinglike that, and I'm but it's gonna
be finished out. This is notsome ugly eyesore. It's the roof.

(23:07):
The shingles of the shed are gonnamatch the shingles of my roof. The
color of the shed is gonna matchthe exterior color of the house. It's
gonna this is a very nice thing. What they're what the HOA is thinking,
is that you're gonna build some sortof corrugated metal two by four monstrosity,
you know, kind of just ajust like a lean to shelter bear

(23:30):
grills style, Like you're just gonnahave a sheet and some sticks in your
backyard and that's gonna be your shed. I think that's what the HOA is
worried about. They I could notexplain to them clearly enough that this is
not just some shed like you're thinkingwhere you're gonna throw shovels into and it's
gonna get rusty and become an eyesore. You need to think of this
as an extra structure on the property. And they said, oh, well,

(23:52):
if extra structure on the property,then you're gonna need foundation. You're
gonna need to hire electricians and plumbing. You have the hook up to city
power and hook up to the grid, you're gonna hook up to the city
water. And y'all aren't getting it. So I just abandoned it. I
just said, you know what,screw it, I'm not going that route.
But I found a loophole, andthis is my obsession. Why not

(24:15):
just build a shed on wheels.You know those giant cargo vans, the
Ford, the Ford Transits, theDodge Promster, the Nissan Envy, whatever,
the Mercedes Sprinter, those big giantvans. There's people that live out

(24:36):
of those vans. They convert theinside of those giant cargo vans into just
immaculate, tiny homes basically. SoI'm not about the van life that that
doesn't necessarily appeal to me right nowwith a wife and two kids. But
and this is kind of just agiant middle finger to my hoa. Okay,

(24:56):
you wouldn't let me build a nice, beautiful match office in my backyard.
Now I'm going to park this gianteyesore, this twenty three twenty four
foot long eyesore on my driveway,and that's gonna be my shed. That's
gonna be my mobile office slash mancave. Basically everything I was going to
make the shed to be is justgoing to be in this van. So

(25:18):
that's my current obsession is I'm researchingdifferent cargo vans, different wheelbases, different
wheelbase links, different extended or notextended. So right now the top of
my list is for Transit two fiftyor three fifty high roof extended. So

(25:38):
the high roof is so that youcan somebody like me and somebody taller than
me can actually stand up straight inthe cargo area of the van with room
to spare. So a high roofextended, cargo van extended means that over
the rear axle there's like four morefeet of or a couple more feet of

(26:00):
actual cargo volume. It's a big, long, tall van, basically a
shed on wheels, And I didthe math on it and it's pretty much
an eight x ten shed on wheelsthat now the entire neighborhood can enjoy sitting
in my parking, sitting in mydriveway. I have not bought anything yet,
but it's just funny how the HOAis so protective of building a shed,

(26:22):
even if you're gonna build it beautifullyand immaculately and increased curb appealing,
increase the overall visual of the neighborhood. Say, Nope, you can't do
that because of X Y Z.Okay, let me get a big giant
cargo van and park it in mydriveway. How did that increase the visual
of the neighborhood. That's what I'mgonna do anyways, because that's what I
want to do. So the otheruse case of this van is that the

(26:48):
ultimates kind of dream of it isthat it's very versatile. In its stock
configuration, it will exist as myman cave as my office. I'll have
my production desk in there and futonand possibly even the arcade machine in this
thing track lighting like I'm going.I'm not going all out, because the

(27:11):
dream is to have it, likeI said, versatile. So in it's
default configuration, it is my mancave. It is my office. It
is where I do my workout of, and I can go out in the
field for the museum and just havea nice place to bed in there and
lay down, either just have afuton, the folds like whatever. It'll
exist in that capacity. But itcan also be easily configured into a camper,

(27:36):
into a camping situation. So forinstance, if I want to take
my wife and my two sons,which I definitely do, to the Grand
Tetons, or to Yellowstone or toall of it, just go out west,
go on these adventures that I canconfigure the van for adventure mode.
Put in a kitchenette complete with alittle sink, a burner in there to

(27:56):
cook meals, possibly even a littleoven, refrigerator, everything you need for
camping, a shower, probably anext Dear Year shower, like one of
those just nozzles you hang on thedoor of the car. But some way
to rinse off, like if yougo to the beach, there's a way
to rinse off at the van,so you can get in the van nice
and fresh, and basically configure itas adventure mode, as camping adventure mode.

(28:21):
And how would I do that?This is where it gets interesting,
and I can see we're coming upto the end of the third segment here,
so I will go into more detailof my cargo van conversion man cave
camper idea here in the next segment. It's really cool, it's very simple.
I've not seen anyone really do this, and I can't wait to tell

(28:41):
you what my idea is. AndI want your thoughts too. If you've
done something like this, So youhave buddies that have done something like this,
let me know Johnny at geek Therapyradio dot com. Just john n
Y at geek therapy radio dot comor geek Therapy Radio all over social media
to search for it, or geekthere for radio coming up, don't go
anywhere. Welcome back to geek TherapyRadio. You've got your mental curator,

(29:08):
Johnny Hemburger. I am still justkind of pacing around my bedroom, uh,
recording into this rog ally the left. There's two mics on the face
of it, and I'm recording intothe left side of it. That's the
microphone that I'm using. And itsounds pretty good for a freaking gaming handheld.
Like I said, it didn't soundlike a my large diaphragm condenser going

(29:30):
through thousands of dollars of equipment,but for a built in microphone to a
gaming handheld, not bad at all. Oh I hear Marshall stirring. Let's
see if I can get him onthe show a little bit. Marsha,
what do you ding? Oh?Oh mar oh. Those are the first

(29:55):
little sounds of a hungry boy who'sbeen snoozing and now he's hungry. Usually
he kind of falls back to sleepafter making those little noises, but I'll
keep an eye on it. Thisis just dad mode. This is recording
radio shows and podcasts, full dadmode. This is just how it is.
So back to my camper van buildout, cargo van studio, man

(30:17):
cave on wheels, shed on wheelsidea. I mentioned that it could exist
in different configurations. So when youlike go on YouTube down a rabbit hole
of camper van conversions or cargo vanconversions for Transit conversion, ram Pro Master
conversion, Mercedes Sprinter conversion, Vanlife, just type in van life.

(30:41):
It's a whole thing that exploded overthe pandemic. People said, you know
what, screw houses and screw anapartment. I'm buying a cargo van and
I'm converting it to a tiny homeon wheels van life. If you go
down that rabbit hole on YouTube,you see some amazing versions. Straight up

(31:02):
luxury home on wheels. Like it'sinsane the the cost of buildings out,
So they buy the vans for xtens of thousands of dollars. I say
they buy a new four transit onefifty high roof extended. They buy that
thing brand new from the factory forsixty something thousand dollars or whatever. It
is just bare bones, this engine, steering wheel, and a cargo van

(31:25):
and then you build it out.These people are putting tens more thousands of
dollars. They're really high end conversions. Are putting, you know, one
hundred grand more into the buildout ofthis van to be this luxury tiny home
on wheels. And they are superclever. They are extremely clever uses of
space, extremely clever uses of materials, absolutely gorgeous on the inside. And

(31:49):
here's the thing. I threw abunch of numbers at you. I said,
it's like sevent you know, sixtyseventy thousand dollars with a van right
now or whatever it is, andthen you put another forty thousand dollars fifty
thou dos into converting it, likebuilding it out to be a little tiny
home on wheels. So you're allin for around one hundred thousand dollars,
over one hundred thousand dollars, butyou don't have a mortgage. That's what

(32:13):
a lot of people have done,is they go way cheaper than that.
You don't have to spend over onehundred thousand dollars converting a van. You're
all in cost. But whatever theyput into it, they're done with it.
So they don't have a mortgage,they don't pay rent, they don't
pay the city for utilities, theirbills are They basically go. They can
cut their living expenses by two thirds. A lot of people do it,

(32:36):
cut it by more than that,and you think, what more do I
need? I'll just put starlink onthis thing and do my work from the
Grand titons, from the top ofthe you know, from the Grand Canyon,
do my work from anywhere. Sothese conversions are very very clever,
a lot of high dollar, lotsof high you know, craftsmanship. And
I've never built anything out before.I've done very very basic carpentry. That's

(33:01):
not my thing, that's not mygeek thing, it's not my strength.
But part of the appeal of thiswhole process is going to be that it
will test me. I will learnthings along the way. So now let
me tell you what they build outis actually gonna be. It's gonna be
very configurable. It's not going tobe one of these permanent conversions, very

(33:21):
clever, nothing like that. It'sgoing to have to be very basic to
allow it to be very configurable.So here's what I'm thinking, and let
me know your thoughts if you've donesomething like this, seen something like this,
or not seeing something like this.Here's the thought. Okay, so
it's basically going to be a bedroom. Think of it finished like a bedroom

(33:42):
on wheels or like a dorm onwheels. I'm basically just gonna put flooring
and baseboard trim around the bottom ofit, three or four one hundred and
twenty volt electrical sockets on each side, on each wall. I'm going to
finish the roof, probably in cedar, maybe the walls two. But the
floors will just be kind of vinylwood flooring wood vinyl, like the fake

(34:04):
wood vinyl flooring. So it's justgonna look like a normal floor, fake
wood floor in any random small roomin your house. And then the walls
will have the baseboard trim, thewhite baseboard trim going around the bottom.
It still just looks like any oldroom in a house. The walls will
probably be more fake vinyl wood.We'll see how what route I go with

(34:28):
there. It might just be allseed from the walls and ceiling, who
knows. But you're just gonna walkinto it, and it's gonna be this
big open space. It's just anempty room. Picture an empty room in
your house, a small empty roomin your house. That's what I'm gonna
build the van out to be.Along the walls of the van, I'm
gonna have at least two, ifnot three levels of tie down rails.

(34:53):
So if you look in trucks orcargo vans, you see these rails with
all these slots going all the waydown the link of the walls there so
that you can put straps on thereand ratchet it down and anchor things to
the wall so they don't go flyingaround. So picture the blank room,
fake wood floor, the molding trimaround the side, the outlets on the
side. It just looks like aroom, just like looks like a small

(35:15):
room in your house. But oneach each wall is going to be two
or three levels of those anchor railsjust flush into the wall so that I
can take something like the arcade machine, put that big boy up into the
van and run a strap over themaybe over the top of it, maybe

(35:35):
over the bottom by the wheels,maybe over the middle of it. However
it's going to do, that's what'sgoing to keep it secure, an anchor
to the van itself. So pictureto the left of it. This is
all just kind of matter, figureof speech, just spitballing here. Picture
to the left of the arcade machineon the driver's side. So you open
the big sliding door and you hopin and you're looking at the driver's side,

(35:57):
big wall there, the steering wheelsto the right receipt and then behind
the driver's seat you got the arcademachine. Now to the left the arcade
machine. Picture a futon, youknow, a small full bed futon that
acts as a couch and then itpulls out as a sleeping arrangement. How
do you adhere that, Well,that those anchor anchor points that I have

(36:20):
going along the bottom of the wall, just just above the molding on the
floor, that's where you put thestrap around the bottom feet of the of
the futon, so that keeps thefuton anchored. And secure. And that
also means that when you get toa camp site. So when you get
to wherever you're going and you wantto reconfigure the room, just undo those

(36:44):
straps and the ratchet straps and movethe furniture around as more as you want,
and then when you need to leaveagain, just push everything back to
the wall and strap them down withthe legs to the anchor points that are
along both walls, and you're goodto go. So that's how I'd keep
it multi configurable. It's just asmall room on wheels, And we might

(37:12):
be asking, well, why wouldyou go that right? Why won't you
just kind of finish it out customand get it things to where you really
want them, Because that's permanent solution. That's a more permanent solution. I
may be down the road, mykids may be grown up a little bit
bigger and I need different sleeping arrangementfor them, or I don't need a
sleeping arrangement in there for multiple peoplethat just need my office back to the

(37:35):
normal office configuration. Just finishing outthe van to be a big to just
to be a small room on wheelsallows me to configure it as needed on
a whim. And those anchor pointsthat're go on along each wall, one
kind of by your ankles, oneby your hip in one kind of shoulder
link or head length along old walls, along both walls will allow me to

(37:58):
kind of configure and put furniture inthere. And I just want to use
furniture. That's the other thing.I just want to use normal furniture.
I want it to look like anormal room that I can change on a
whim as my needs change, evenfrom day to day. So that's my
big idea. I'll keep y'all postedon that. Still have to do a
lot of teas and cross a lotof eyes to get there. But you

(38:19):
are worthy of love, You're worthyof giving love, you're worthy of receiving
love, and you're worthy of yourown self respect. I so much appreciate
that y'all listen to keep there forradio, and that y'all hang on with
me while I have kids and lifechanges and I can't put out as many
episodes as I used to. Ijust appreciate being able to talk to y'all.
I appreciate having y'all's ear from timeto time when I do when I

(38:43):
am able to upload, and justI just I very much appreciate you all.
Geek Therapy Radio across all social media, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube
of all that good stuff. Justsearch for geek Therapy Radio and you're good
to go. Thank you so muchfor listening, and I'll talk to you
next time. Peace out,