status of honda odyssey

i looked at the honda odyssey yesterday and discovered i have the 7-seater, not the 6-seater,  so the middle row bucket seats don't have tabs that allow you to easily remove them.

below are some generic pictures showing the layout.

the middle row seats collapse and fold up against the front seats. the seat back can also recline until it's flush with the rear seat.

the rear seat can fold flush with the floor by dropping into the trunk area, the seat back can recline until it's parallel with the floor, and the seat back can fold forward onto the seat.

this is the trunk area behind the rear seat.

the picture above shows the the middle row seats collapsed against the front seats and the rear seat folded flush with the floor. if i was a little shorter than my awesome 5'8", this would be perfect but i'm not so it's about 4 or 5 inches to short for me to lie straight. i would have to lie at an angle with the middle seats taking up space and limiting what i could put on side of my bed. the spare tire is already imposing into the interior space. i don't want to lose even more space to the seats.  (on another note, i remember reading on a vandwelling blog where someone else moved their spare tire from the inside to either to the top or bottom of their vehicle. i'll try to find that posting later.)

another option i have is to recline one of the middle row seats until it's flush with the rear seat and then recline the rear seat until it hits the back of the rear door. that would give me enough room to lie flat and i could just put a futon chair mattress on the bed to even out the dips. i could use the the other side of the rear seat as a chair to knit, read, etc and i would be able to use some of the trunk for storage. to get to it, i would just have to fold the back of the rear seat forward.

the problem with that is the unused middle row seat would still take up much needed space, i wouldn't be able to store anything under my bed, and i wouldn't be able to use all the vertical space in the trunk because i have to recline back.

my last option, and the one i'm going with i think, is just to have someone remove the middle row seats and keep the rear seat. that way i could use storage bins as the foundation of my bed which would give me storage. i could use the right side of the rear seat for sitting, and i would have some of the trunk for additional storage. plus i would have space on the right side of my bed (assuming i place it behind the driver's seat) for maku's litter box, which is an entirely different set of concerns.

that being decided, it's off to my local mechanic to see if he can remove the seats and find out how much he's going to charge me. i'm thinking, guessing, hoping removing the seats won't be a big deal but who knows. life is seldom as simple as i want it to be.

take care and be blessed.