Hi, my name's Danny.
This is my current home. This is my 2009 Dodge Caravan. I started building this
about a year and a half ago. It was a big mental health project cuz
I just had so much anxiety I couldn't make any decisions so I
needed something to commit to. And I heard this quote that said Anything
worth doing is worth doing poorly. So rather than doing an hour
of yoga, do two minutes. And I just threw a sheet of plywood in
and I built the floor and then everything just went crazy from there and I got
obsessed. So you'll see my obsession. So single bed, I got off of Amazon, the foam wasn't so good but I
ended up buying an IKEA mattress, cutting the foam and putting into
it, it's been much more comfortable. This is the second bed that I've done. The first one was a two by four frame
with slats and it was like 40 pounds heavier and it just hurt my hips. So I ended up buying some birch plywood
and building it a little bit shorter cuz I didn't need as much space underneath,
which gave me more headroom, venting it. And then this is the table
that I had on the old one too, which just helps with cooking or
having tea or whatever just for fun. Everything's pretty much for fun. I tried to put the mentality of
making this build as if it wasn't fun. I didn't want to do it. So I
live in a van because why not? It's something I've always
wanted to do, traveled a lot. I feel like there's so many reasons why I want to
do it. Maybe just out of curiosity, maybe out of just being a
transient person and traveling and always coming back and not
necessarily having a private place. I would always ended up living in other
people's homes cuz I was trying to save for my next trip. And also just the climate of
how much things cost now it's pretty ridiculous. And if you wanna save for things or live
in a certain way and personally for me, I think it's all about what's your
dream and what do you wanna live for. And if you want to really work really
hard for those things like a house and rent and work, lots of hours, go for it. But that's just not what
I want to do right now, especially when I don't know
exactly what I want to do. I'm in a transitory part of my
life and honestly it's just fun. You're not going to live
forever. So have fun. Took out all the stone go seats
which was like 200 pounds of weight. Saved a lot of weight. I put back
here. It's mostly just storage. I have some tools. My camping chair this also has a little light for nighttime if I need
it. I built these two separate, this is my first build the one year.
And then the next year I built this. And this has been pretty extensive.
This is about 50 to 60 hours of work, 16 pieces to make. Again, I said obsessed. Here's my little just
little reading light. I actually got off of one of forest's
other videos. Just keep it it amber, keep it stealth. My little coffee station. This is my favorite little
pride and joy so far. It's taken me a long time to wire this
in and it's still in its beginning stages, but this is my little vent, which I put through the vent window
and kind of see in the construction. There's a hole there that I built into
the wood and it vents out through there. This is my pullout kitchen.
I put everything in here, just a little leg. It's a friction so just save because
sliders do take a bit of space and I don't have much space. I just did friction
and again, it was fun, it was easy. Anything that got in the way I didn't
do. So just some extra stuff. Oils, food stove, cooking stuff. I
also have a small MSR stove, which I used the majority of the time
just for coffee and tea and heating up water and stuff like that. This drawer also slides all the
way into the van to the driver's seat so I can actually access it from the
inside if I do want to keep everything shut. Some of the benefits of living
in my van or a vehicle in my experience has just been just
pure freedom in the way that if I don't like being
somewhere I can just leave. If I want to go experiencing
something I can. It's a great conversation
piece for myself. For the last 20 years, I've isolated myself out of anxiety
and so this project's really became an extroverted way
of connecting to people. So when I don't want to talk
to people, the back's close, but as soon as it pops open, I
have people asking me questions, I can talk to them and see
what they're thinking about. I'd hear about other people's stories
and that's one of the larger benefits. I ended up custom making all
these drawers which took forever. And I gotta tell you, if you
wanna build stuff like this, you gotta be okay with getting upset
and getting a little bitchy for me, I'm pretty vocal about it. And then I just used some magnets here
that I screwed in and some L brackets to attach it. I did cut up panels, so this is a permanent build in the back. All of this is fixed to itself and used self-tapping screws to actually
brace it with some metal brackets and stuff like that. Fire extinguisher cuz there's
quite a bit of electrical in here. This is my battery monitor,
helps a little bit, just make sure things are working and
keep track of the voltage. And this is my main usb for most of
my charging retrospect is not the best place just cuz
the cords are always, always. And sometimes I might catch
'em in the door but say levy, I can always put another
one in somewhere else. And then on this side of
the bed it hinges as well and I've actually added
a lounge mode to it. This piece of wood I got at Home Depot
was already finished and pretty so I just screwed that into the floor and honestly
I don't use it that much but it was fun. So again, just have fun,
don't worry too much about it. And then actually I actually
access from the other side. I don't have to lift up the bed, but this is just a basic folding IKEA
container and this has all of my clothes in it so it's actually perfect
for the height of the bed. I would say minimalism was something
that's been growing in my life for a long time. Even before I thought
about Van Life or living in a van my first time downsizing was about 15
years ago before I went to Australia. Back then there wasn't much of a
marketplace for selling things, so I just loaded up a whole U-haul and
took it to the Salvation Army and just let go of things, which was so freeing. And every time I came back I was a lot
more mindful about the things that I would accumulate, more long-term
things that would serve me more, which end up costing less money in the
long run and more money in the short term which I enjoy a lot more. So by the time I got into
the van like I was saying, it's more stuff than I usually have
to make this lifestyle possible. This is where I'm keeping my
battery, my fuse box and my tools. Long-term project I'm working on
organizing the wires and cleaning it up and working on a cover. So don't worry I'm thinking
about those things. But you can't do everything
all at once. You know, gotta be patient and think I've
learned a lot about thinking. You just have to stop and think.
And then on the back of the chairs, I actually bought a full
door Walmart kind of shoe rack storage rack and I cut it
up and then added some denim to strengthen this. And then some bamboo sticks my mom had
just to make it a bit more rigid at the top. Sewed in some strings here and
strings on the bottom to fix it to the back of the chair. And it's been
great. I mean I love it. It's diverse, it's not pre-packaged and
defined. I can do what I want. So this is mostly toiletries
like milk wash shampoo moisturizer beard trimming
and stuff like that. And then on that side the black bags,
the garbage. Got my good old pea bottle. Love it, thanks. Value village. Last year basically I didn't have
any heat so I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting any mold. And
so that's why I did that. And the caravan itself has
two heaters, one in the back, one in the front and the coolant
runs through the whole vehicle. And I would just go for a drive and let
the car get up to 30 degrees and I've never had a problem with mold
yet. But in the other cubby, which is I won't show you cuz it's
a disaster, it's just full impact. I'm actually adding in a propex heater. So I've drilled some holes in the floor
already where I'm going to be running the piping for the intake and the exhaust
and I'll be having a propane heater. So my goal is to be comfy in the
winter and have my independence on top of the van. There's a
200 watt solar panel. I put a piece of stair molding on it so
you couldn't see the aluminum frame just to kind of black it out a little bit. And then it ran the solar
wire under my rooftop box here. And for those of you that have seen
people wire through the windows or cut holes, you don't have to if
you just run a wire down here, I just gorilla taped it and I
used a sleeve to cover the wires. And then just down here there's a grommet. And so whether you've
cut the panel or not, this is right behind a sheet of metal
that has a hole in it and you can actually pull the wires through and
be able to get it through. I actually ended up running mine through
my cabinet through the carpet here and then you can kind of see they
run in here to the batteries. And I have 2:50 AM power life PO
four, not how to sure how to say it, but lithium batteries. And I honestly have never discharged them. I only use it for charging my phone, my fan and my fridge challenge
is a little bit of a vehicle definitely just planning how you
eat and when you drink coffee if you have a larger vehicle and
you have a toilet bees knees, you can do with whatever you
need to do when you gotta do it. I like to just orientate myself so I'm
in places or close to places that when I need to do the deed, I got somewhere
to do it. Being a guy, it's easy. I got a pea bottle. I know that there's variations
for women to have that as well. Yeah, I think that's one of the harder
parts. And also if you're in suburbia, it's finding places to park
that you don't draw attention. Luckily my vehicle's small people
don't really notice it. I show up late, I go to work in the
morning, people don't know. But ideally I don't really like hiding. It's something I would love
to see different in society
that maybe more nomadic people or gypsies there, you know,
just see people doing it and it's okay. And here then you can see my
fridge. I got a Dometic C F 25. I saw it on another video actually that
one guy said this is the only one that fits in between caravan seats. And so I searched really hard for
it because it's not made anymore, but I found one that was used and it's
been fantastic for me. It's quiet, it doesn't need to list
lots of power. It's cold, it actually does free
stuff on the other side. I keep my water in the front and it's
just a basic three gallon bottle just with those Canadian tire, like blue and
white pumps, which you see all the time. So pretty simple. Yeah,
complicated but simple. Just like me, <laugh>, what I've learned about myself
living this way is how creative and how I can do anything. I feel
like the big lessons for me, when I was living in a home and
I had so much time to myself, it was like I could think
too much about myself, existentially about who
am I, what am I doing? I found that living in the
vehicle, I have these little tasks, whether it's going to get
food or going to shower, going to use the gym which I found
really beneficial is just taking care of myself more because I'm going
places rather than having comfort and as well as just having projects on hand. So my mind's occupied and I feel like
what I really want to pass on to people is do something with your hands cuz
it's real. It's here and it's now. The things I've learned about living
this way about myself would be how open I am to conversing with people, how much I love being outside,
how much I love fresh air. The quiet that you can
find, it's not always quiet, but the quiet you can find as
well as just the quiet of less electricity going on around you. I've noticed being in buildings and all
that there's this kind of static energy. And I don't mean hippie energy, I mean like actual energy around you
which I've experienced in power outages when everything's out, when
I lived in a small town, it just gets really quiet
and I really enjoy the quiet, the things I recommend for people
that are interested in this lifestyle. This lifestyle is just be brave and we're always doubting ourselves. I feel like it's just part of
being a human to have doubt. Being in limbo of deciding to do something
or not is kind of the hardest place to be. So you never know until
you start. Some people say, jump into your vehicle, get to know
it. Go camping. Maybe that's for you. For me, it was a lot about the project and
more about building stuff and it just happened to turn into a home
for me and just be brave and have fun and don't worry
about what other people think. And have good conversations with yourself, the things that you're afraid of about
maybe people seeing you or having to figure out the logistics of parking and
being stealth or whatever that means to you. Just talk to yourself about what you need
and then you'll find exactly what you need. I didn't really
have many expectations. I've lived a pretty minimalist
lifestyle for many years with a lot of traveling that I've done. The least
that I've owned was like a backpack, a t-shirt, a long sleeve
pants and a sweater. And I walked for two months through
Europe and every time I came back home I had less. So this is actually a
lot more than I think I would have. So I didn't really have any
expectations getting into it. I would say my personal
philosophy in life is to be kind. Do your best, to be kind to yourself,
to strangers, to your differences, to your humanity, to your darknesses and
your lights or your highs and your lows. And finding acceptance, I would say as well. A big thing in my life that taught me a
lot is just remember that you're going to die. Life can be way more shorter
than you think it could be. You might not have as much
time and not in a way of fear, but in a way of wisdom of being able to
live in the moment more presently with people. To remember that
when you cast judgments, you're actually just missing out on life. And also to have forgiveness for
people that have wronged you or the wrongs that you've done. Try to clear up all the negative
things that keep you from feeling more open of being yourself so
you can just be open and see what things could come. And just
be yourself. It's hard, but just do your best. Thanks for watching. And
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