She lives in an ambulance?! Box truck Tiny Home for $19k

hi there welcome to my channel where I take  you on tours of unique homes and showcase   stories of people living alternatively in  today's episode we're going to meet up with   Jana and take a tour of her one-of-a-kind  ambulance turned tiny home in just 2 months   Jana built her home on a budget using reclaimed  materials to create a comfortable space for less   than $20,000 by choosing Adventure from the  comfort of her own home janana is hoping to   redefine what it means to settle down and if  you like videos like this one make sure that   you subscribe and hit that notification Bell so  that you know every single time we publish a new episode join there will you  go make this house our tiny home hey guys I'm J this is the jambulance this is   my home on Wheels it's a 2001 E450 and  I can't wait to show you guys all about [Music] it this is my home on Wheels I've lived in it  for 3 and 1/2 years right before I bought this   thing I was teaching and I've been teaching  in the Virgin Islands for like seven years   and I decided I needed a little bit of a change  I started talking to some people about van life   and somebody suggested uh that I check out  ambulances because it's a box truck and it   would be a quick build this just seemed like a  really cool opportunity I bought this thing on   eBay site unseen I had to fly up from the Virgin  Islands to pick it up I drove it cross country to   Iowa where my parents are and I built it out in  their yard that build took me about 2 months and   for anyone that's built their own house I think  you'd probably agree with me a little bit in that   it's a pain it's a process I watched a lot of  YouTube growing up my dad always had a lot of   construction in our house and I helped them with  projects but nothing like building your own house   especially with like solar propane lines water  lines like that was all very new to me I bought   this rig for 12K and then I paid a mechanic to  come and make sure that it was good and then   the buildout was under 7K so definitely did on  a budget use a lot of refurb material it was a   really cool process to kind of build with some of  new and old and all kinds of things on a budget so   the jambulance gets a lot more attention than  I do people are very interested in box trucks   and I think that's kind of rising the ambulance  is a perfect skeleton for a box build my family   on the other hand thinks I'm nuts the biggest  thing I hear from people is when are you going   to settle down and I'm like yo I am settled down  this is me settling down this is my house but I   would say most people think I'm crazy or they  secretly wish they had the balls to do [Music] it my home is 8T wide by 14 ft long and it's  about 112 ft of living space this box was   actually finished out as a red cross vehicle so  there's a little bit of a difference between Red   Cross and traditional ambulance builds the biggest  one is that the Red Cross has less outside storage   which means you get more inside storage or inside  Space which is great it also came with a window   the door was not here the window spanned from  here to here so it was a really wide window I   found a friend actually that can weld aluminum  so we took out that that window put a door in   this is my battery box and then over here is a  garage storage which keeps extra hoses and tools   and things like that up on the top up here is an  awning so this is great when it's too bright when   it's not too windy it can't be too windy for me  to pull it out uh it is not a draw one so I have   to actually unzip it from the roof roll it out  and I need an extra helper to help me pull the   poles down so by myself it's pretty hard to do  possible to do not necessarily the greatest idea   ever and then up on top of the roof I have 400  watts of [Music] solar other side of the ambo we   got another battery box and then we have another  garage this is my favorite one this has my spare   tire along with a shovel and some extra things  like my hose my extension cord if I ever need   extra power this is for Shore power if I ever  wanted it which I have done but not very often   well that pretty much takes care of the outside  of the ambulance let's go inside come on in as   you enter into my house you'll see some of the  original cabinets from the traditional ambulance   build so I kept this cabinet I also kept another  cabinet I also have my hall of fame some of my   artwork that I've created over the last couple of  years I have a seating area here this actually is   the tabletop and inside this is just storage  right for all your extra things but I have the   the leg for it and it sits right here and so you  have your own little kitchen area right where we   can sit down and have food or I do work here as  well I also have a standing desk that I do work   at working on the road one of the most popular  questions we get I'm pretty much a jack of a   lot of Trades not all trades but a lot and I  wear a lot of hats I'm a teacher when I'm in a   place for a while I can substitute in that state  you just have to be certified or licensed in the   state that you are in other things that I've done  face painting it's super fun at events I also own   a company it's called Art and soul and I teach  yoga and breath work I also am a raike master and   I incorporate raiki into those two [Music] things  so back here is all my solar setup and this runs   my lights the water pump the fan and the fridge  and the diesel heater I have 400 watts uh I use   two marine batteries So eventually I'll need to  revamp my battery system and go with lithium but   at the time I'm just using what was in the truck  which was two stereotypical marine batteries um   I have had to replace them one time since I've  owned the vehicle but I took it as just general   maintenance I also have an inverter that sits on  my computer screen right so I have this for my   standing computer behind it is is an inverter so I  can plug anything in that I need to in this space   I have kind of some of my tools and so I have an  extension cord in here I'll have to plug it in on   the inside with the inverter I run it either out  the door or through the driver's window if I need   to run any power tools on the outside which I've  done many times my lights right I have six lights   I usually don't run um with all of them right on  but you can if you want to the cool thing about   these lights is you touch them on and off so you  don't have to have them all on at one time and if   you hold them they dim and they get brighter so  that's a dim and then it gets brighter so that is   something I would highly recommend for anyone  doing a build this is my art storage space so   this houses a lot of my sketchbooks and paint um  other supplies it's uh definitely a creative space here I did this piece here this is a piece that  a student created for me a number of years ago   as well as this piece and I've cherish them  they've come with me in all of my homes on   the inside of this cabinet is a closet so I have  my mirror with some jewelry hanging and then this   is where I house most of my clothing items I use  really strong magnet this doesn't come open very   often on the road underneath you see my fridge  pull out I just have a set Power fridge it looks   very much like a cooler it is not a fridge and  freezer it is a fridge or freezer so I have to   decide most of the time it's a fridge we'll go  ahead and we'll transition over here into the   bathroom I wanted a shower right a fullon shower  when I was doing my build I went back and forth   on the traditional size for a shower pan but I  didn't really want to build out too far into the   walkway so I created this one completely on  my own this is all made out of wood and then   I use red guard on top of it and then I epoxied  it so from the base of it you can see the drain   it's had to be in a specific spot because of  the battery Banks where it sits and I wanted   it in this place for a number of reasons this  is kind of where I ended up with it but I was   inspired by the ocean I'm definitely a water baby  and so this epoxy is is water inspired so there's   a lot of creativity that goes into epoxy my shower  is epoxy as well as my countertop in the kitchen   so this is a full-on shower also houses a toilet  this is a compost toilet highly recommend it also   in the entryway is my diesel heater right  so it's in the entryway and then into the kitchen welcome to my kitchen anyone that lives  tiny knows that you find very interesting things   for small spaces so I actually used a like a  shower hanger inside this window because it   was the only thing I could find that would be  like a holding space that fit into that so it   fit perfectly into that frame that houses a  lot of things like obviously sunglasses and   some plants and just some gadgets this actually is  something that I've carried with me for 15 years I   was working in Brazil and they had this in all the  classrooms it houses your soap so that when you   turn it upside down it comes out but when you move  around it won't bounce out of there so that is my   my hand soap this is an epoxy countertop I decided  again to go with a little bit shorter of a kitchen   space than the traditional countertops which would  come out to about here because when I created the   space I wanted to walk all the way to the back  of the [Music] ambulance fun story I actually   created my sink I didn't buy it I made it out of  a stainless steel container and use a jigsaw don't   do that just buy the sink uh my window coverings  Are All Made they have on the inside of them um a   fabric that's supposed to be kind of like heat  resistant keeps it cool or warm in here that's   really great they fold up and then they are just  velro Clos otherwise they roll down magnetic rack   is great for all the knives and everything that  you need handy constantly in kitchen this art   piece was done for me by a friend in Durango Ally  is a beautiful artist that created this for me   that's front and center in my house it's one of my  favorite pieces I've ever had over here uh you'll   see my stove I actually got this secondhand so I  found this on Facebook Marketplace and the lady   had been building out a bus and decided to scrap  it and so I am the lucky second or third hand   owner of this wonderful propane stove top with an  oven which I love so the reason the oven was so   important is because I brew sourdough so I have  sourdough and I have kombucha over here you'll   see the sourdough in my pantry right my wonderful  collage of pantry but I just fed it it's popping   out um really great to make fresh bread almost  daily on the road we have the magic space of   like tea and things like that I like to collect  different plant from places that I go and try   them out so that I can try different tees from all  the different areas with the medicinal purposes of   each so I do like to collect things um secondhand  so some of the things in the kitchen that are   um purchased secondhand mostly from Facebook  Marketplace include this cabinet which I had   to restructure on the back so it was supported  these are actually oven racks I sanded them   down repainted them put them up and now they are  kind of holders of different things in my kitchen   another fun thing that I got secondhand are these  Pepsi crates I couldn't find Coca-Cola crates   which would have been my first choice and I turned  them into my drawers so I have all those that hold   holds most of the kitchen appliances cups and all  that fun stuff so I decided to keep my water tank   on the inside all right this was important because  I go into different temperatures and I didn't   want to deal with anything free using either my  water tank or the water lines so the water fill   is actually on the back side and you have to open  up this store in order to fill up the water which   is is a another safety mechanism just to make  sure you know nobody puts anything in it or I   don't put something in it but everything is here  it's a 33 Gall water tank that's where I store it all right we're going to move on into the  bedroom okay so I went with a a futon ish bed   and I have a slide out bed so this actually pulls  out it's what we call a finger bed where it slides   out when it's slid out it only goes to about here  so I can still move all the way to the back of   the ambulance there are some things that you can't  compromise when you move into a tiny space and one   of those things for me was I like to get dressed  up and and have fun like Halloween is my favorite   holiday and so I had to have a party drawer so  this hous is like onesie some wigs a skeleton   costume just some of the more fun outfits that I  couldn't part with this compartment was original   to the truck when I first got it it was double the  space and it went into the shower and I cut it so   right here it it used to be twice as long and I  cut it because I wanted to build a shower and I   the place to put all the um propane in the water  so over here as we move into this space we have   the propan pain water heater so this is where the  hot water comes and heats up for my shower this is   another refurb right I took old kitchen cupboards  actually and you can see they have this lip and I   cut them so that they could be my shelves the  reason I thought this would be really good is   because this lip creates a space where it catches  so not a lot of things will fall then I use extra   support with bungees and drilled it all the way  through so that everything kind of you know stays   put as much as possible this backing is actually  metal so the other side of it is the shower but   I wanted metal so that I could have what I call  the love wall this is where I house you know like   cards or gifts or pictures I had a cat for 2 years  that lived with me I mean he was 11 years old when   he passed but he lived in this for 2 years and  so this is kind of like his little Shrine area   another fun story is right before I drove the  ambulance an after I I built it out and I was   leaving Iowa I went to my mom's house and I don't  know if she knows this so this might be the first   time that she ever hears this as she watches this  video but um I don't know if you guys remember   glamour shots but when I was little my mommy  took me to get our glamour shots done and in   her spare bedroom of her house she had a glamour  shot of herself and I stole it off of her wall   and I've had it in here ever since so this is my  mom in the 90s and her glamour Glory Days and um   I've stole it thinking that she would it was a  joke and she hasn't said a thing so it's been   in here for three years fun fact I steal things  off of your wall watch out when I come to your house the biggest lesson and I'm still learning  this lesson but the biggest lesson I've learned   from living in a moving home is surrender  and go with the flow when people ask me   you know when are you going to settle I don't  have an answer like I am settled I feel like   I am settled wherever I go I'm home it feels  very comfortable to me I like the flexibility   I definitely want to do some International  traveling whether or not that's in this rig   or not I'm not sure yet but I don't foresee  me slowing down or Switching gears or being   somewhere stable for a long time and so yeah  I don't really see myself stopping anytime soon thanks for watching this week's episode  I hope you guys enjoyed it please make sure   to like share and subscribe and I will see  you soon with another Unique Home [Music] story [Music]

Channel: Tiny House Giant Journey

Views: 176,920

Keywords: tiny house giant journey, tiny house, Tiny houses, tiny homes, tiny house tour, ambulance conversion, skoolie, skoolie conversion, vanlife, female vanlife, ambulance, tiny home tour, solo female vanlife, nomads, nomadic movement, janbulance, ambulance tiny house, diy tiny home, affordable housing, diy RV, diy campervan, diy camper, solo female, tiny house movement, van life movement, nomadland, box truck, box truck conversion, stealth camper, stealth life, ambo conversion

Id: hwh_B39FmV8

Length: 18min 0sec (1080 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2024