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The workstation is where I intend to spend the second-largest timeslice of my life, right after bed. It's where I'll do paperwork, computer work, and most everything else. The original design was for something somehow mounted to the wall, made of various plywoods, and pretty unforgiving, actually.

Then one night I was working as a security guard in an apartment complex. Quite literally thinking "how am I going to round up the right plywood?" and "How am I going to do the good job I want to, with that wood?" When I turn the corner and find this free-standing workstation left out in the hallway. After asking my manager for clearance, she reiterated the policy: "if they leave things in the hallway during your (night) shift, they're being thrown away. It's in the agreement." So I brought it home!

What this can't show is just how well it fits into the area allocated for it, on the vehicle's port (left, facing forward) side. Notice the keyboard holder that I removed, since such things don't work well in motion (and I have a flatscreen and don't need it).

What's hard to see in this photo is just how perfectly it fits. Front-to-Back it's perfect to the 1/2 inch. Side to side, with a two-drawer storage cabinet, it's just as exact. If I went to the workstation-store and started choosing, I wouldn't have found this one; it's more than just luck.

The computer that sits on the file folders takes it's audio output to a switch. One side, it sends music to the local speakers right next to the screen.  The other side of the switch takes the sound through the radio (above, forward) where it's amplified and sent to the two overhead speakers at the headboard. When complete, these speakers, and probably a couple more around a flatpanel, will make movie-watching a wonderful thing in the bedroom.

Soon, the back of the entire workstation area will get it's coat of sound-deadening and navy blue canvas, and I can start thinking about anchoring it to the wall properly. But it won't take anything like the nuts-and-bolts of a plywood install I originally had in mind.

This, too, was a good design because I had so little to do with it.

This is one of the few borrowed designs; the idea comes from OTR truckers who similarly need a place for socks and underwear. It became integrated into the idea for a 'shelf of some kind' over the headboard of my bed.

The result was another surprising design. The tan in the middle is a furnace register that uses the wood to be the ductwork. On the right you see the cubby-holes just before completion. Now they have pretty little rings around them, made from 3/4 vinyl tubing, colored a smart-looking gloss black.

The top holes are for loading.  Just toss'em in, underwear on one side, socks on the other.

The bottom has a constant storage of socks and underwear made possible by a kind of 'ramp' inside that forces everything in there to the front.

The point behind this was to make laundry as simple as possible.

• All dirty clothes go in a bag that hangs in the closet
• On laundry day, the bag goes to the laundry
• Upon it's return, that which doesn't hang, goes here

In Chicago I was able to use this system. After a week, I'd take the bag to the corner laundry and have them done for a mere $10. They even put things on my own hangers instead of the mean, annoying metal ones.

In a conventional home, laundry is a problem. Stuff stacks up because I can always get more clothing out.  But when the selection is small-but-meaningful, and the process drop-dead-easy, there's just no excuse not to have everything clean and neat!  Another aspect of the place I just totally love.

Like most parts of the design I had a small part in the setup, but things got wildly changed as things went on. Nowhere is it more evident than here.

Having lived in a customized van for 11 years, there were a number of things I wanted desperately when I had the chance to plan my next vehicle. Those were a large bed, my own shower, and a closet.

The closet in this place is solid; no excuses. A strong bar holds a lot of clothing, with plenty of room and a light for making choices. Everything that hangs, is here. All the shirts on the hangers the one way, facing the same way, pants, too. The idea is to put "all" of the clothing there, minus the socks and underwear, which is another article.

The overhead light is made of several LEDs, so it comes from several places, and costs almost no power to maintain. The switch is conveniently mounted on the outside-front.

I promise you; I thought I had a better photo of the closet before I started this. When a better one appears, I'll post it here.

The Computer bay/Toolbox/Bench

This section is pretty genius, considering it was made by my mere hands. Several kinds of storage become available due to this one device at the bottom of the closet.

Right under the closet is usually wasted space. You don't even want to know my original intents for it. What got made was so much better. Here's the walk-through.

Tripstar lives in a compartment on the forward side. It's heat comes from the internal fresh-air source underneath, through the compartment, and dumps heat into the utility closet, where it can be taken outside. The photo doesn't show the aluminum shielding around the computer, nor the covering on the bottom of the bench lid.

Right-to-Left: the door, then the closet/toolbox, the fridge/microwave/battery bays, and further left is the cabinet over the headboard. The bed is missing; I'm working on the pedestal under it.

Notice the shaped plywood- it's just tacked on to keep tools and things from falling out during shipping. The monitor on the floor is similarly temporary, for Tripstar.  If you lift the 'seat' you'll see it sitting right in, there.

The seat also reveals space for an enclosed trashcan (that hole on the far-right is for that) and all the other space is used for tool boxes and other ground-handling gear.

When you work on a project like this, with only a vague starting idea, and it turns into something so very, very specifically designed for yourself, it's a feeling that I can't describe. Had I the $30,000 to have someone make my own specifications, it wouldn't be this good, nor would I love it as much as I do.

One of the pillars of the design is the 'utility closet'.

When I started considering this design, I thought the computer would occupy the entire top section, make use of the vent, and hold a display.  But that idea forgot how nice it'd be to have cold things, and keep leftovers. Fortunately my plans were over-ruled and it became another clever design I didn't make. Let's start at the bottom.

The Battery Bay

We start with the battery bay. It stores up to three batteries mounted to steel bus lines. The power converter turns 'shore power' into a smart charging power, and puts it on these bus lines. The power converter is RV-intended, sensitive to heat, cross-polarity, even a shorted battery. It's likely the best $80 I've ever spent. And while they don't even know I have one, it comes from this great company.

Notice how the fresh air (here, round and white disks) enters this section, which may get warm, and has holes to vent it upward. That much has always been part of the design.

The Microwave Bay

I have a tired old microwave that an employer was going to throw away during a break room conversion. It's a simple thing, just the way I like it. And it's been running for a couple of decades with no signs of slowing down.  Until it decides otherwise, it'll be the first microwave to inhabit this bay.

On the doors are frames intended to hold soap in the shower. You can get them at Walmart, currently. They hold the plastic utensils and sugar. And yeah, that blue network wire will soon be removed, routed through the lower bay along with another 110V power line.

When both doors are closed, the entire thing is low-profile.  When it's opened, it demands I clean up my mess. I like self-convincing states like that.

When I'm on the road and don't want to stop, a bowl of oatmeal is an easy choice. I have plans for a can dispenser of some sort, but it's not here yet.

And here's the front view of the microwave bay.  The table holds it up to make room under it for various things. But it's temporary, and will likely be replaced by the can dispenser. I've looked into some plastic ones, but they're designed in a way that's not space-saving.

The strategy is to loiter on the edge of a city or other area; not boondock in the middle of nowhere. Those places tend not to have any jobs or internet. I suppose this vehicle's design is that of a social surfer.  As such, it's assumed I won't be far from a grocery store or similar. When I'm actually on the road I intend to eat out a lot, with breakfasts and most dinners to happen here.

Notice again how the heat from the bottom enters this area and continues up to the next bay.

The fridge bay

This bay is mostly unremarkable right now, providing a storage space for the tools as I work on other things. But this area has a vent in the back (not shown), and the sensor network hookup on the forward side, as well as a control panel.

The vent is the culmination of the battery and microwave bays. Fresh air coming in the bottom winds it's way through the lower bays, warming as it goes, passing the fridge and exiting the vent under program control. At 80 degrees, Tripstar vents this 'room' taking the heat with it.

The control panel

This space also permits me to keep an eye on things, right at eye level. Again, not my design, but a really good one. The photo shows a panel under construction.  When it's done it will be a landscape photo of Chicago at night, with grey spots marking where the buttons and LCDs will be. This is because I'm using two-layer plexiglass covers.

The design idea comes from a very clever fellow who found a great way to create panels like these for his mega-flight-simulator. He was working to make them look like fighter cockpit consoles; I just want mine to look pretty and different.

The control panel permits me to kill all 12V loads in case of a fire, with the exception of Tripstar, whose job it is to monitor the batteries. The 'big red switch' allows me to cut off the lights, fans and other loads in case I need to park it for a long time, or shut off the power in a fire.

The next section shown here in black, monitors the three main 12V busses with cute little green LEDs. It will let me know when a bus has had a problem and lost power.

The next section is an LCD panel for Tripstar. Here I can see not only inside and outside temperatures but humidities, time, and (one day) weather notices too. And yeah...one day it'll have a pretty, probably smoke-colored bezel around it.  Right now I'm just happy it's working properly and keeping me informed while I work on the other parts.

Also notice the large, long section covered by cork.  This area is actually done. Another not-my-design, this area lets me post papers of importance, again at eye level, right there where I'll see them. It's already paid for itself in reminding me to keep meetings and stay on-track. The back will eventually be used for storage, but it's not been a priority.  Under this corkboard is the clothes closet, in another article.

Summary

This one section of the trailer touches on most other commonly used parts. What started out as a tiny closet, morphed into a computer closet has blossomed into a clever design that meets a lot of needs.