Van Tour: Solo Woman Turns CHEAP Work Van Into an Incredible Cozy Home!

one welcome back to my next video well today we're in for a real treat I've just met a new friend Vanessa hi Vanessa hi Bob welcome to the channel thank you so much for having me and you are fairly new to traveling as a nomad yes I've been doing van life for one year now I made my year anniversary on June the 30th wow that's quite a leap uh from Apartments to Van life that's it's kind of a hard one to make not really it was an easy translation for me uh because prior to living in an apartment I was homeless and living in a vacant building for about 10 years no lights no gas no water no Plumbing for 10 years and I was off grid and it really really did prepare me and give me a lot of knowledge about things that I knew nothing about moving into the van was a step up from from that 10 years of being homeless well I wish I would have known about van life before I moved to the apartment because I wouldn't have done it I would have prepared a van to and I had a van at the time now I have treasure and she and I are not complaining we're not trying to party anytime soon but uh you know I want to start saving just because coming down here to meet you she hit 300 000 males wow that's a lot of miles yes I got this van for thirteen hundred dollars oh what a deal and it was somebody else's trash and it became my treasure and so that's why her name is treasure because I take I tell everybody all the time I can take nothing and I can turn it into something so I take your trash and I will make it into a treasure and that's why her name is treasure so that is that is a great attitude to have so you have a YouTube channel yes so let our folks know at home about that YouTube channel my YouTube channel name is Vanessa's van life journey and I'm also on Instagram under Vanessa's van life Journey as well so folks everyone go and uh and watch Vanessa's Channel And subscribe and like and do all the good stuff go do that right now thank you thank you Bob you are bad you can't have enough wow thank you I appreciate this so much good yeah so go right now folks I think you'll be very pleased that you did so uh after about a year on the road how is it gone for you are you glad you did it I have no regrets this is my first coming to see you is my first trip out of the state of Texas so I crossed New Mexico Arizona and now we're into Nevada for you and it's a blessing for me because I didn't see myself being in another state anytime soon and now I'm like oh I'm here and I don't have to sleep in a parking lot I don't have to worry about a police knocking on my window or on my door so it's amazing to me to be able to meet like-minded people I want to meet more people doing van life now I left Texas and I can go anywhere now anywhere so we probably have some folks out there who are just tuning in and finding out about it and they're a little afraid to go which is pretty normal healthy uh what would your message be to them wow I could talk forever uh there's nothing to fear but fear itself if it's something you want to do just work I'm a firm believer in working towards what you want regardless of if you have what you need can we uh take a look at your van by all means why don't we do that please do there you go let's take a look inside folks okay so now we're inside your treasure and uh my goodness this is beautiful thank you how did you accomplish all this and make it so wonderful wow I don't know I just did it I guess so uh you really have an eye and a feel for beauty it's just really amazing thank you sir so um I'll we'll give us the tour and we'll follow you along okay first of all my one of my prized positions in Pride of joy is this sink over here this is a sink this is where I take my bath at and uh this is actually a flower pot that I got from uh Walmart and I turned it into a sink um and I do have running water in my van it is gravity fed I have a tank on the top of the van that is 18 gallons over here this whole countertop is storage underneath uh to catch the water and uh my extra propane tank and all of that stuff it opened up from the outside for me to get everything out of so this is just a piece of countertop you got it Home Depot this is something I already had most of the things in my van I already had and I repurposed and is this wallpaper it's the no sir what is this uh it's a paint design I did that you did this it's a full I don't even know if it's Marble it was an attempt at faux marble it's really beautiful yes sir thank you and uh you have videos on your YouTube everything that I did in this van I was live so I did live streams and so every single thing that I've done to my van from beginning to end is on my YouTube channel Vanessa's van life Journey so I have linoleum here and I built this little seat over here and I have it fully covered with linoleum as well and have a seat cushion uh here as well so this is a bench right here and behind me I'm hiding my real pride and joy because I love home-cooked meals and when you get ready to do van life you guys figure out what it is you need everybody is not going to live van life the same so figure out the things that are a deal breaker for you and the things that you need in Van life and go from there and don't try to do your van the way everybody else did it because the things that you need in your home are going to be different than what other people have in their home one thing that I needed in my van was a full size four burner stove because I love to cook and I love to eat home cooked meals and that was not a compromise at all so tada oh wow look at that that really is uh so this is my four burner stove and I built a box Fort and this is a cabinet that's that you will see uh it comes from this point all the way to the back and that's my under storage uh but I eventually when I get ready to cook I move these these are little uh containers I move these over and I could put these in front of me and I could use them I have a cutting board that I put on top of here and I can cook I also have a refrigerator here uh I before I came on this road trip I canned most of my meat so when I get ready to eat something this is my beef that I canned and I just warm it up and it's already cooked so that really saves me as well from having to keep things in the refrigerator this is one of those regular little storage bins that you buy at Walmart or anywhere you could buy them from and I customize all my stuff this is a skirt I just buy clothing items and I like the pattern and this is a skirt that I actually cut and put on these to cover them this is a pillowcase that I have over the other part down here is my under Neath storage stuff might fall out and you're not gonna believe how much stuff I actually have in this van these are all my Meats on this in this section and goes all the way through the back I'm going to show you guys through the back as well and these are all in Van in home life I had nice pots and pans I did not want to get rid of and so all of my pots and pans are over here for me to cook in this piece of stainless steel I had in home life and I was going to have a cabinet built for it uh and I got it at a garage sale and it actually which I'm not gonna do right now but when I don't want to use my stove and I just want to have my stove as a surface which is not very often this whole thing comes down and covers the stove and everything perfectly and I did not plan that but Bob I don't have a fixed bed in my van and I think that's very very very important the living that you see that I can do in my van all of the space that I could have in my van is because I do not have a fixed bed at night time where you're standing in between here becomes my bed and I put my mattress down I felt like if you're putting your bed on top of a piece of plywood the floor is a plywood so why is it that you need in your mind to think that you need to be sleeping on top of a bed surface which is going to take away so much room for you to live and the shells that you see up here are spice racks that I got from Amazon but because I live in a van and the van is moving it's not typical for the van so I had to drill extra holes in it to give it extra support because some of them that I did buy fell apart the first time because of the moving in the van these are slidable oh my God all the way across and I thought that was the wall of the van no and they pull out oh my goodness and so when they pull out that's why I don't have a fixed bed and I just have that room to sleep because I have so much storage oh my goodness I never would have guessed it and one thing about this things that I love when I have my bed here I can move and slide this and get access to anything I don't have to pick my bed up to get in here I don't feel like I'm deprived of anything living in a van because I have every single thing that I would have in home life all the way to the length of the van I pretty much have storage and again I just take these out and just to let you know this is the thinnest wood that they sell at Home Depot and I took my measurements for each one and seeing how much and I let them cut it for me and uh on the ceiling or all the cards that my subscribers send me and love and gifts that they send me and I wanted to be able to display that again Bob you see the design oh yeah this is a box I found all this wood dumpster diving and it worked perfectly I didn't have to spend any money on it I just had to cut it and configure it this is a box and there is more under storage in this box this is where all my batteries are my controller and my uh whatever it is you need for solar I don't always know the proper name but all of that is housed under here my batteries and everything but it also serves as a seat cushion or like a love seat if I have company that people could sit on there they could Lounge on there I could sit on there I could Lounge on there and you asked me about my bed earlier and here's my bait oh my goodness that is my mattress you haven't noticed anything in there this is my mattress just pushed back this is a rug this is not a curtain this whole thing comes down from my privacy at night where if I'm sleeping in the city or sleeping in the parking lot nobody knows and so here Bob is the under storage that you see to this right and again the sliding doors this slides and it comes out and here is where all my water is caught and this is my oil this is my extra propane tank and behind there is my air compressor and nail guns and everything so this is one of those dinner tables I just took the legs off of it put it up here and voila and of course the typical way that everybody makes their covers magnets from Amazon and a piece of material from Walmart I like to have even though I'm in a van and when I'm cooking or washing my face or whatever I like to be able to reach stuff and not have to always go in my cabinets for everything so this is like a little you know compilation of everything that I need to reach for the back is a lot is something that a lot of people don't expect as well because remember from the inside it goes all the way through so uh I built this little shelf in the back this is all my canned food this is my bacon that I just canned uh these are my Pine pellets and just everything thread anything that I need that I'll probably need one day on the road I just pull it out one by one you're probably wondering oh she has nice storage up here yes I do but it's something that you probably have in your van too but I'm just creative oh wow and these are regular crates yeah just milk crates and I have t-shirts on them so that's just the typical stuff but it's a way to conceal it without anybody seeing all the junk I don't want them to see the junk I want them to look at it and see that it's pretty and this is my propane tank that is hooked up to my stove and the little holes that it goes to and I hooked all this up myself this is my portable bathroom one of my subscribers ordered this off of my Amazon wishlist I didn't actually think I needed it but she suggested it so I put it on my Amazon wishlist and she ordered it and this is it's it's excellent and it's perfect I'm so happy I listened to her sometimes other people know best yes and this is the citronella candle that I got from Walmart yesterday this is my portable bathroom my toilet this is my regular toilet that is always in the inside of my van right this is just a regular cooler that I painted on the side of the van because I have my solar up top I have my storage container up top that is all my winter clothes up top in that carrier up there and I also have my water tank up there when I get ready to fill my water tank I need a ladder tall enough to be able to uh get up there and clean my solar and everything so I have this ladder the ladder rack is not intended for this kind of vehicle it's intended for a trailer or a a vehicle with a flat surface of course the van is curvature and it's not intended for it but as you can see I put it on here and I made it work and I have my ladder uh braced down and the ladder rack did come with these two little uh locks to be able to lock and secure your ladder with and I also have bungee cords and these type of Bungee cards to secure it to keep it from opening up or anything like that and again I have my carrier up on top and I have two three whatever they call these things a letter right yeah I have three of those that at first I had it expanded out and I was going to put my solo on it and I actually had my solo on top of there one of my subscribers ordered me three solar panels I only had two on my Amazon wishlist and they wanted me to have three so they ordered three solar panels and at first I had two on top of here but I decided to go ahead and go with what they had ordered and I put all three and just mounted them directly to the van and so that left me with these three racks and now I have my carrier up there and all my winter clothes are in the carrier this is my water uh it's a black tank that I purchased was pretty expensive and I just figured out how to do it and that's my water up there it's a 18 gallon tank and I'm able to get water from the from the front and I also have one in the back so thanks Vanessa so much got some great ideas I'm sure you've inspired a lot of people and if anybody wants to implement this design in a van please by all means do and if you want help in implementing that or suggestions and implementing it you can email me at Vanessa's van lifejourney yahoo.com I will be happy to assist anybody in any shape form or fashion that I can I don't have money but I have my services so folks be sure to do that and contact her and tell her how much you appreciated this video so folks if you got anything out of this video Like Us on YouTube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later and subscribe to Bob because he brings you all of this wealth of knowledge he inspired me to do van life so subscribe to his channel good idea bye now

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 98,657

Keywords: car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, camper, camp, boondock, travel, caravan, tiny, house, RTR, Bob Wells, Nomadland, CheapRVLiving, Cheap RV Living, vanlife, van life, how to live in a van, van dwelling, van tour, van conversion, living in a van, camper van, van build, diy van build, sprinter van, van living, #vanlife, van dweller, campervan, vandwelling, diy camper van, RV Life, Living in an RV, Class B, Class C, Truck Living, Living in a car, boondocking, Living in a RV

Id: 7RElaMboIHE

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 26 2023