Female Nomad Converts 32 Sq Ft. Vintage Van into a TINY Cabin on Wheels | VAN TOUR

[Music] hey everyone i live in this 1989 ford arrow star and this is my pup pity william say hi i originally lived in a 2014 ram promaster which is there that my mom now owns we swapped vans back a couple months ago after needing to find another housing solution after being basically kicked out of the house that i was living in i decided to go ahead and build out cocoa the van i live in now and hit the road again i decided that living nomadically was what i wanted to do and after living in a house for a few months after living in this van i decided that it was time for me to hit the road again coco the van was acquired when my mom and i took a trip down to la she was searching for a van at the time and we took a trip down and we found her bought her from a really nice man who said that he used to take his family down to mexico to visit their family from the moment we saw her ad on craigslist we knew she was a van that needed to be a part of our family so i took probably a total of three months to build her out and it was a lot of work the only tools i used to build her out were a jigsaw an impact driver and a drill i really wish that i had a table saw in the process of building her out but i just didn't have access to one so i just used a jigsaw to cut everything painfully it was so much work oh my gosh hey everyone and welcome to my little cabin on wheels come on in and make sure you take your shoes off welcome to the main part of my van this is where i have my cabinet area where i store most of the stuff that i take along with me in this cabinet here i have my clothes you didn't see that no and in this cabinet i have my spices and my utensils and then i just have like a few dishes that i need to cook like a couple skillets and some mugs lots of mugs because you always need your tea and coffee when you're driving around some plates and things i keep it simple nothing too wild you know just enough to cook one pot things and then i also have my tea kettle here very important hang that right here and in here i store my laptop usually and my nintendo switch which i got from my brother for an exorbitantly cheap price because i am really good at talking my little brother into letting me buy things off of him and and then i have a set of cards playing cards what not supposedly just like miscellaneous things and the cool thing about this is i made a little swivel table i was like i can't afford one of those lagoon tables so why don't i just build my own so i found this video on youtube of this guy who was teaching people how to build cables out of galvanized pipes and yeah this is my little work table here's my little laptop here just work here when i edit videos or sound or do whatever i have to do to make the bank uh this is my little resin table it didn't turn out as good as i thought it would but you know these are flowers from the last house that i lived in and you know it's a little memory it's not perfect it works but yeah so my table swivels around it fits perfectly with william apparently and you just close that and then i have little magnetic things here and then just just close that in this cabinet i have more dry foods and canned stuff my blender gotta have a blender and yeah nothing too wild there and then in this one i have my toiletries stuff in this little box and my little toilet handle and back here some of the electronics things that i don't use that often just store it back there and then in here i have different things like my hammock williams toys garbage bags um yeah cleaning stuff and my extra shoes for some reason all of these things feel like they belong together so that's why i put them right here and that brings me to this little area over here i have a print that my childhood best friend penelope she this is one of her prints of tupac that she painted on her own so i have that right here goes with the theme it's yellow i love it and eventually i see for this space a cubic mini stove yeah right here do with that information what you will i have a fan up here super nice max band it helps to ventilate the van and make it very cool and fresh in here when we're in warmer places or when we're cooking in here it's great to have that and definitely recommend going for the one that's covered because when it rains i can even have the air venting through which is great so it doesn't get too humid in here and then i have two sets of things uh lights and usb uh chargers here this one runs off of my thousand watt inverter and i have a little dimmer light here that when you press and hold it the lights go lower and higher then my little usb port there the light does get kind of annoying so at night i use this pillow to cover it and yeah this is that this is pretty much this area have a little miscellaneous things area no matter how hard you try to get rid of stuff and make sure everything is has a use and a place sometimes that's not possible that's what this box is for all right so we're pretty much halfway done with a van build already it's such a tiny space but the most important part of the van to me at least because i'm a foodie is the kitchen area so i had to fit a lot of essential things in such a tiny little space that i had to make some compromises in terms of like the maneuverability of things but i have everything that i need in here so when you open up this little hatch door here this contains williams food dish which needs a wash my little coleman butane stove which also needs a wash that just a one burner with some butane fuel that works really well just cook a lot of one pot things and william's little food holder which i need to make him some more food and then in here i have a dometic 12-volt fridge that i had to basically build around and it's stuck in here now but it works and i'm really happy that i have the extra space to fit food because it allows you to go out in the forest for longer without having to leave that is this little hatch thing and it's being held up by a little gas strut which is really helpful when i'm shuffling things around the fridge so the next important thing in a kitchen is to have your sink i chose this sink with high edges just because it's such a small space and water tends to splash around a lot and so i thought this would kind of mitigate some of that so this is my little square sink i wash my hair in it i do my dishes wash my face and i do pretty much anything water related with this sink i mean duh yeah so i have a water pump and i just turn that on and voila water yeah you gotta conserve your water when you're only living on 15 gallons of water at a time so i'll show you where that water goes in the front but yeah that's all piped in and on a 12 volt pump and yeah do all my washings there i have these two spray bottles this one is for soap and water so i can spray down all my dishes and then scrub them and then rinse them saves a lot of water and then this is my bottle which i currently need to fill it with vinegar and water that i use for my composting toilet which i will show you next this is where my composting toilet lives has the biggest door in the van doesn't mean it's the most important i guess it's kind of important uh especially during the pandemic i i thought it was really vital to put in a composting toilet some way to relieve myself when i don't have access to the safe bathroom solution so yeah i put in a nature's head toilet has a fan on it so it vents out pretty much all of the smells you do have to be careful about dumping your number one a lot i learned the hard way uh but yeah this pulls out and it turns around and i sit right here on it and then well last but not least in the kitchen area i have this little door which includes my trash can my teepee roll holder this is rv ply toilet paper just so that it breaks down faster in my composting toilet though it's not necessary and oh i also have my fire extinguisher in there and i also have this is where the bottle for my soap dispenser hangs it's nice to not have a soap bottle just floating around your van and the possibility of your whole van getting soapy is completely avoided with that when it's nighttime i closed all my curtains that i hand sewed my mom did some of them and uh yeah we hand sewed all of the curtains and i closed those back like this and i obviously tucked them in and do it better but yep i have my little curtains i close all of them and now i'm gonna show you how i set up my bed you're probably wondering how the heck do i set up a bed with a large dog in the van at the same time uh this is how we do it hey william it's time to make the bed come over here go here go here he knows he's so smart i move away all of the stuff here good boy stay and then i move my cushions out like this and i lift up this little thing bed thing here i haven't decided if i want to change it or not although we've really got our system down but it flaps under and i roll this out like that william's not a big fan of this process and i still haven't gotten around to making a little leg for the bed but this is my solution my multi-purpose solution for the bed leg put that under and i put my cushions in like so go there william and then you just squeeze in your pillows and then i use a flat sheet and i just put that out and put my pillows down and ah good night everyone i'm gonna take a nap now so the size of this bed is uh 11 inches smaller than a full and just as long as a normal full-size bed it is 75 inches long so yeah lots of space asleep all of these cushions were hand upholstered the first half of them we sewed with by really bad sewing machine and then the second half of them we sewed by hand so that was a labor of love i definitely think i cried so under here i have a little more storage it's a lot less organized because i don't go in here that often it's kind of a pain to have to lift this up but in here i have project stuff um i need to add a water filter to my water system i have this which i need to give away so there's a lot of stuff here just like hobby things like knitting which i'm gonna get back into once it gets colder and i have like towels and extra seat sheets and apparently some garbanzo beans but this is all just extra storage stuff that i don't access that often all of the things that require electricity are up here all of their wiring is wired back through here into the stuff so this is the back of the van this is one of those projects i still need to finish is put the door on the electronics section but this is my battery bank and my inverter and my charge controller and my fuse box and my everything if you're interested in checking out my electrical video i will definitely link that so you can see how everything's put together and then this is my laundry bag and a little picnic blanket i set right here i don't know it just kind of worked out that way i didn't plan to put laundry here but it fits there so that's where it goes this is my other storage area this pillow completely it's my little storage area if you open it up i currently have my warm weather clothing inside there and i have my things like dog shampoo and different hardware and things to fix the van when it breaks pretty simple a sleeping bag for when it gets really cold too that is that last of my storage we're in the front of a van now where i spend a good amount of my time because we drive a lot to places this is my little box area and i made this little weird box contraption thing to keep like the toilet because the toilet sticks out a little bit to the front so i covered it with wood and i made a little box where i hold my five gallon water jug and i have three of those and i just fill those up with water and replace them as needed that's my little water solution there and then here i have a little storage for shopping bags coffee which i haven't finished which i actually want to take a sip of and my speaker because my speaker system is not set up yet and this is williams little bed here he lays up here this is where i store my other water stuff extra engine oil williams dry food which i'm out of we have to go buy some of that and my rain boots are up here too this is a cool little feature that my mom and i added to both of our vans little cb radios a little old school technology if you're ever out there flip to channel three on your cb radio and maybe we can communicate uh so yeah we just talk on to the cv radio just like this yeah so that's the front of the van got a map of glacier national i love it i love driving in this fan this van was inspired by the shuttles that they were building at the time in nasa apparently whenever i'm driving up here i just pretend like i'm driving a giant spaceship so that's it from the van pretty simple these are my solar panels my mom actually installed these when she owned the van but i have three 100 watt solar panels and seems to do the job so far and this is the little antenna that we have for our cb radio last but not least this is my little floating table that i have to cook and stand up work on and do whatever i feel like i could draw a picture on here if i wanted yeah just wanted to show you that so i think this lifestyle is becoming more and more popular and i think that's really a good thing as the world is changing and the need for housing is really becoming an issue that is moving to the forefront more i think it's really great that this is a lifestyle that you can consider though it can be really frustrating and challenging sometimes and building out a van is a lot of work i really feel like it's rewarding it's allowed me time and energy to focus on the things that are the most important to me it's so nice waking up in the morning and having everything i need with me in one spot but i'm in nature and i only really use the things that are in my van so besides the minimalism and being able to explore i feel like this van has really freed me to find who i am inside and not be distracted by the social norms i'm 23 and i feel like so many people my age are pressured into having to find the perfect job and find the partner who you can build a family with and finding the perfect house and having all these things that deep down inside those things aren't aren't for everybody and for me i feel like things that really fulfill me are more of an inward thing and growing as a person and fostering relationships that are really important to me so this lifestyle really allows me to afford that so as for if i will live this life forever i don't know i think that i want to live nomadically for a very long time because there's just so much to see in the world and even in my own country i've changed so much since shifting my lifestyle to a more nomadic one i feel like as a young woman it's amazing to be able to step outside and push yourself and challenge yourself to maybe go down the road that's a little scary for you but you know you're gonna be okay i think there's something really amazing and powerful as a woman and especially a woman of color to be able to feel free enough and brave enough to push yourself out of your comfort zone and you'll learn a lot from yourself [Music] you

Channel: Adventure Time Loui

Views: 472,631

Keywords: van tour, van conversion, female traveler, solo travel, adventuretimeloui, Van life, alternative living, nomad, travel blogger, self conversion, tiny house on wheels, off grid, diversify van life, brown van life, woman of color, living the van live, mini van conversion, solo female van life, black van life, van life with a dog, full time travel, cabin on wheels, tiny cabin, Official van tour, van life vlog, van tour with toilet, van tour van life, van life in the woods

Id: Ghtt2i6OeEg

Length: 18min 58sec (1138 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 04 2020