Hi, I have seen blogs and posts by several folks who have done something similar to what you are doing. One woman I was particularly impressed with has a blog:
http://meandmoonbeam.wordpress.com/ she doesn't post often, but on the right hand side of the home page is a link to the steps she took to get her van ready to live in. I find it fascinating.
There are two yahoo groups you might find helpful/interesting:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/VanDwellers/ is a group of folks, most of whom live in vans of some type.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/womengosolo/ is a group for women who live in their RV - which includes women who live in vans.
There is a man who has posted details of his conversion of a 1999 Ford E-250 van on the Class B forum at
http://www.rv.net It's titled Step one: bought the van. There are others who post about their work on vans in that forum, but this man is particularly skilled at many tasks.
Good luck to you. I had first planned to undertake converting a van myself, but realized my limitations early on in the planning process. LG