Ok, so I'm hooked.  Neat project so far, if "shop cat" gives it the blessing, then you are good to go. Great crew you have there, reminds me of some of my bunch, get-r-done!. I now am ashamed for complaining about working out of my one-car garage, been a long time since I tackled a project in the gravel drive.  I used to have a 5-bay shop to work out of, those days are long gone. For living space, I'm going to offer up what we did: a cargo trailer conversion.  My van still hauls people, (and gear) for short trips, but hook up the homemade toy hauler/camper for larger trips.  Also makes a good base camp for your van to hit the trail by itself.  You could build a smaller trailer for your needs. This was our trailer build, this site also is full of build ideas: 
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=48345 Don't get lost over there, finish the van first.  Hijack over, carry on.