December 2025 Update and Van Build Expenses

December found us in Beaufort, SC, taking care of an 83 lb. hound named Sammy. We try to divide up our house-sitting chores. In Chapel Hill, I was mostly in charge of the dog, Tori, taking her on long walks every day while Greg worked on the van. Tori was a dear, and I loved her, but she was maddening to walk. She was stubborn, pulled on the leash, and only wanted to go in the directions she was used to. This didn’t allow me a good walk for myself, and it was frustrating. So when we were told that Sammy wore a choke collar to keep him from pulling his owners over on his walks, I told Greg that he was going to have to walk Sammy. Luckily, Sammy didn’t need long walks, and the one time I walked him, he was very well-behaved. But Sammy did have to go to the dog park every morning to chase his spiky ball. He was pretty chill the rest of the day after that.

Sammy at his squirrel-patrol station waiting for a treat. He knew to the minute when each of his daily treats was due. Here he is learning that cracking open a beer equates to his usual cork-popping-start-of-happy-hour treat.

A glance out back of the house allows you to check on the tide levels in the estuary.

Sammy takes a short breather during FETCH.

In Beaufort, we mostly hung out at the house, working on the van and other projects. But we did take one day off for an excursion. In the morning, after taking Sammy to the dog park to chase his ball, we drove to nearby Port Royal to wander around the Cypress Wetlands. We just don’t spend enough time birding anymore, so we really enjoyed this. It was like a mini Everglades with so many different birds and reptiles!

Boardwalk in the wetlands.

Wetlands.

Wetlands.

Wetlands.

Wetlands.

Wetlands.

Wood Stork. The only other time we’ve seen these is in the Everglades.

Wetlands.

Wetlands.

Hooded Merganser. New for us!

In the afternoon, we headed back over to Beaufort for a little lunch and to explore its historic downtown. We really enjoyed the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park. The park is mostly informational displays, but I think it is so important to learn about this time in our country’s history to understand some of what’s happening now.

From downtown Beaufort, we went back to the house to walk Sammy and feed him before we headed out again. It was time for the Port Royal Golf Cart Parade. We parked ourselves at a brewery on the water, had some dinner and when it got dark walked a few blocks to the parade route.

It was a pretty good day sampling a bit of what the area has to offer: nature, history, and quirkiness.

Parade! It is cold, but the snow is fake.

One of many Grinches.

Parade! It is cold, but the snow is fake.

Parade! It is cold, but the snow is fake.

Parade! It is cold, but the snow is fake.

Disco Santa.

From Beaufort, we drove to Dumfries, Virginia, for our next house sit. This one was for two indoor cats, Walter and Mabel, and 2 outdoor cats, Stimpy and Bandit. The homeowners told us Stimpy and Bandit might belong to neighbors or maybe not (the neighbors themselves weren’t really sure), but they fed them anyway.

Walter and Mabel were easy to take care of. Walter had an infection when we arrived and required medicine twice a day. Although he didn’t like it, he was a sweetheart and accepted it without complaint. The cats loved to play and loved affection. Some mornings I could hardly make it up the stairs from the guest room to the main house because one of the cats was plopping down in front of me on each riser looking for belly rubs.

One of the outdoor cats, Stimpy, liked to hang out on the back deck where he could look inside and see the other cats. Our house sitting host told us that she had tried to bring Stimpy inside, but he wasn’t up for being an indoor cat. He would look envious when we played with Walter and Mabel, so I took the cat fishing rod outside to play with him. He caught the lure right away, but wouldn’t give it back. Apparently no one ever told him the rules of the game.

Bandit would come around the front door to be fed where he had fresh water and the choice of two heated cat houses. He was a little banged up and pretty skittish. At the end of our sit he stopped coming for food, and we were worried about him. But then I saw him in the driveway one day. He still didn’t come for food, but we knew he was OK. Maybe he found a food source tastier than dry kibble.

Cat Wheel!

Santa left the kitties peacock feathers.

Walter eyeballs an ornament.

Stimpy says “I know there’s frost out here, but The Man ain’t makin’ me crap in no box”.

Bandit disappears for days at a time.

Our house hosts were super nice. They left us a big Christmas bag full of treats. So much sugar. I am currently trying to work it all off. Their kitchen had every kitchen gadget you could want. In fact, I got to try out the exact Instant Pot that I have been wanting to get for the van. The big bonus was the pizza oven on the deck. For Christmas, we made 4 pizzas, which fed us for 4 days.

Treats.

Christmas pizza.

Pizza Oven.

Another bonus to this sit was its proximity to Washington, DC. Although not super close, it was easy to reach by public transportation. Our host left us two MetroCards with enough credits to get to the city and back. We checked the weather report for a warmer day to make our excursion to the capital. Unfortunately, the warm day did not manifest. We found a nice place for lunch, checked out a few museums (where we could warm up), and walked through the mall.

Christmastime in DC.

Us.

Anyone know what this is?

From an exhibit about Low Rider culture in the Smithsonian.

Van Build Expenses

Cost of the Van: $54,652.75

Cost of upgrade so far, 12/31/25: $14,593.29

We spent $227.49 on Periplo in December.

Our light spending for December was due to not actually working on the van much. Several things were working against us. Greg broke a tool, and we had to wait for a replacement. Then we moved to a new house-sit over 500 miles away.

Moving to a new sit always takes time. First, we have to do the laundry, pack, and give the current house a thorough cleaning the day before we leave. The morning we leave, there is always a little touch-up cleaning as well as taking care of the pets. Then we drive to the new sit.  At a new place, we usually have an orientation with the pet parent. Then we unpack.

Unpacking typically happens the next day because either we are tired from traveling or we arrive at the house sit late. The unpacking process involves figuring out where our clothes, few personal belongings, and food will live for the duration of the sit. If we are provided sufficient room (an empty closet, a chest of drawers, a mostly empty refrigerator, and a few shelves in a pantry), it is pretty easy. But if not, we often have to rearrange things (always taking pictures so we can put everything back) to accommodate our stuff and keep the clutter at bay. It takes time and mental energy. The moving process can take 2 or 3 days.

The last thing that kept us from working on the van was the holidays. Our sit in the second half of December was short and cold, so we decided to take the holidays off and just relax. We watched numerous Christmas movies.

But we did spend a little in December. $48.28 was spent on a new rivnut tool.

$50 went to our Starlink subscription. I have kept the subscription active so we could test the Starlink when we traveled from sit to sit. It works well. Now that we are on a 3-month sit, I have paused our subscription.

And finally, we spent $9.50 on screws, $48.28 on plywood to create furring strips for the wall, and $79.46 on plywood for the wall panels.

December’s Projects

And now Greg will tell you about December’s projects…

I don’t have much progress to report for December. After completing the power station in November, we decided to focus on building out the driver’s side of the van. Duwan has an excellent, compact 3D design. Our next step was attaching furring strips to the walls. Furring strips are like the wall studs in your house.

We’re mostly using custom-cut strips of 1/2-inch plywood for this effort. But how to secure the wooden strips to the sheet-metal walls? Through the magic of rivnuts!

Bolt screwed into an uncompressed rivnut.

Rivnut screws onto tool.

Rivnut screws onto tool.

We didn’t use this approach in our prior build. I learned about rivnuts by watching van build videos in which young, charming couples show you how to install one or two, then do a time-lapse video showing them knock out a hundred or so. My experience has been different.

A rivnut is a threaded cylinder that you can bolt into. The interior walls of a van are made of sheet metal with lots of pre-drilled holes. You pop a rivnut into an appropriately sized hole and use a special tool to squeeze it, creating a firm seal around the sheet metal. Presto! You can securely bolt anything to the wall.

There are a wide variety of rivnut tools, from small hand-helds to the Cadillac types, which use hydraulics. Lowe’s and Home Depot don’t stock them. I started with the Ford Pinto version, which Harbor Freight carries. I didn’t successfully do twenty before breaking it.

It took three days for my new Kia Sephia grade tool to arrive. It performs much better, but must be fine-tuned exactly. If you don’t compress tightly and evenly, the rivnut will spin, making it impossible to tighten a bolt. If you compress too tightly, the threads distort, and you can’t screw in a bolt at all. I honestly feel like I’m growing more patient. Not even once did I grab an axe and hack through the van wall to remove a poorly installed rivnut.

Installing furring strips.

Collar on a drill bit so you can counter-sink the bolt head.

Collar on a drill bit so you can counter-sink the bolt head.

Curved wall with weird projections mostly framed out.

Plywood walls screwed into the furring strips.

In short, we now (mostly) have a driver’s side wall. Up next? Lots of basic freehand carpentry, then cabinets.

To see all of our van build expense reports, click here.

To see our travel expense reports, click here.

If you are interested in reading other expense reports from nomads who really know how to live cheaply while still having a good time, check out the blog from our friends Mark, Liesbet, and Maya at Roaming About. They are currently traveling in their truck camper in South America!

If you are interested in becoming a Trusted Housesitter or having a Trusted Housesitter take care of your pet, use our Trusted House Sitters discount code for 25% off!