Solo female lives in army van conversion - stealth tiny home

hey there welcome to my channel where I take you  on tours of tiny and Creative Homes in today's   episode we're traveling to Colorado to meet a  young woman who converted a box truck into an   off-grid tiny home Heather's going to take us  on a tour of her amazing home which is rather   stealthy on the outside but on the inside  it's admittedly girly the outside was very   specifically designed to be very masculine and  possibly intimidating and the inside is the most   feminine I could ever ask for and she's  also going to explain how she stays safe   on the road while traveling solo and if you  like videos like this one where we showcase   stories of people living alternatively  make sure that you subscribe and hit   that notification Bell so that you know  every single time we publish a new video oh hi everyone my name is Heather and this  is my tiny house on Wheels named Joy when I was a kid I was definitely raised as  a free range kid we built forts we played in   the woods we played in the creek we played at the  park we climbed trees and having that experience   of just being outside constantly as a kid has  definitely influenced me as an adult and the   decision to live life outside in the way that I  do I lived in the Bay Area for 12 years most of   which I worked at a company called Marine Lair  and I helped build that company from startup to   National brand and I loved that job until I  was ready for something different so in 2020   being in the Bay Area being confined to small  spaces small apartments not being able to go   outside I felt the impact of City living and then  the fires happened I just remember driving across   and looking around and being like I have  to go and I didn't know what that meant yet   still brings up emotion um I first set out  for three months in my Prius but I never had   this spark I didn't feel the spark of yeah  this is for me I want to live in a van until   I met a man who had this fan and as soon as  I walked into his van I knew I'm gonna live   in something like this I was dead set on finding  one of these and within a month I found one online   at on an auction site and it was everything  that I wanted finding my van within a month   might feel really unusual for a lot of people  but I'm like yeah because I wanted it more than   anything else in the entire universe that was  the thing I wanted and so it came to me so my   dad and I are really good at projects together  because we had done an entire basement in four   months my Outlook on this build was like easy  peasy I was like oh my gosh it's ten by seven   we've got this and we did once we got inside  the actual interior build only took us one month   what I did not anticipate was the exterior  Bodywork that was needed the original Windows   had pretty significant water damage to the  exterior of the van which is fiberglass so   it's wood and fiberglass and the wood was really  rotted the process of building and repairing the   walls of the van took us six out of the seven  month build the positive side of that was   um it helped me see the value in spending this  much quality time with my mom and dad building   this van I paid somewhere in the six thousand  dollar range for the rig itself but after all   was said and done through the process it was  about 8 600. the build itself was about 20 grand   total cost of vehicle and build was around let's  say 28 grand hi everyone welcome to the outside of   my home Joy she's a 2001 Chevy Express box truck  it's actually a really unique vehicle it's an old   army base commuter van as far as the outside go  she's about 16 feet long nine feet high and 10   feet wide and weighs about 7 000 pounds she has  a really short wheelbase which makes it very easy   to park anywhere and travel on dirt roads and  get around while also feeling a bit like a van   Mansion the interior is quite large because of the  box and I just love the size and shape one of my   favorite things about my van is that I have two  giant windows on either side of my bed on my roof   I have four 100 watt solar panels from renegie  to 100 amp hour lithium batteries I also have   a Dometic RTX 1000 air conditioner it's 12 volt  which a lot of people are really shocked to hear   that with this amount of solar and my batteries  I can run my air conditioner for a couple of   hours a day which is plenty to be cooled off in  the summertime all right let's head to the back let's talk about the buck uh just a couple of  things back here one of my absolute favorite   things about this van is that both doors open  fully and so I want to show you this process this is my electrical system and my garage so to  a hundred amp hour battleborn batteries this is   a 2000 watt sine wave inverter charger so on the  outside back here I can actually plug in to shore   power and this helps me do that so I wanted to be  able to run 12 volt and 120 volt and the inverter   charger allows me to do that we also left space  here just in case I wanted to get a third battery   this is my little garage and it actually goes  back under my bed about three feet further foreign let's check out the inside of joy welcome to the inside of joy the outside was  very specifically designed to be very masculine   and possibly intimidating and the inside  is the most feminine I could ever ask for   pink Golden Green were the colors  that I wanted to utilize the most   there are rafters here about every three feet that  do go up to the ceiling and in that space we used   a wool to insulate but the height specifically  is as tall as this vehicle gets so I think five   nine or below is comfortable anything above that a  little bit of a neck Bend so if you come this way   I will show you my favorite part of my van it's my  shoe shelf it's just five inches by 17 inches all   the way down the vision here was to take a tiny  unusable really space it was just this little   lip on the side of the entry stairs and build it  up and create a lot of really important square   footage let's see what's behind this curtain I  have a pass-through to the cab of the van and for   me it's a priority to be able to pass through back  and forth when I park anywhere this is my pantry the real star of the show in my pantry is my loamy  composter in its eco mode it takes a full bucket   of compost and turns it into soil dirt in four  hours I built this into my van it was one of the   first priorities that I had identified because  I'm vegan I eat a lot of Freshies and have a   lot of food scraps and when I'm finished it's  nutrient dense soil so depending on where I am   if I'm not in the desert then I'll just sprinkle  it outside otherwise we can just throw it away and   the environmental impact of doing that versus  throwing fresh scraps is significantly better traveling as a solo female fan lifer I think  discretion is nice if I'm arriving somewhere alone   and I'm unfamiliar with the area or who is around  then it feels very comforting for me to be able to   Park turn off and just head back I also do a  couple of things up here that kind of support   that safety component I have like a men's hat I  have a couple of work gloves over in the corner   usually when people who I don't know are  engaging with me I think because of this   scene people are like oh uh where are  the two of you from I get the the two   of you often just by way of me kind of  like staging some more masculine items all of my cabinets countertop and most other  things in the van were sourced from habitat   for humanities restore so it's all second hand  the countertop is one of my favorite pieces it   was a six foot dining table my favorite part about  the table itself was the Live Edge and the color   all of the knobs are different I wanted it to be  playful some of them are crystals I just wanted it   to feel a bit Whimsical it was really important  to me to have a black sink I think it's sexy am   I allowed to say that this is a life hack in Van  life if you don't know about this washing dishes   with a sprayer saves an astronomical amount of  water so I filled this up I'll Suds up all of   my dishes I'll spray them off and it's just  it's a life hack with water highly recommend   my internet cable just tucks behind my jars  these are plastic too by the way important   life hack for Van life when I'm working I have  the Verizon internet gateway I can just set it   up here from wherever I am and then I have  the internet to do work for the most part   it is pretty reliable if you are someone  who's working on the road and needs 100   full access to Internet high speed constantly  I would recommend going with starlink for sure   I made the decision to use my camping stove in my  van because I actually cook very infrequently for   me personally it wasn't a high priority to take up  space for your stove so let's talk about the floor   I wanted something incredibly unique there are  different wood tones pink tones natural tones I   have never seen another floor like this it's also  waterproof scratch proof and insulated so that's   Form and Function which I really really love but  my floor is one of my favorite things in the van   too let's go to the other side and talk about my  bedroom Okay so this is my friend Matt's lovely   dog stala who I just appreciate hanging out in  my van today and this is my bedroom you'll notice   these gigantic Turkish pillows on the back side  of the bed I really wanted an inviting kind of   Cozy Lounge space in my van this serves during the  day as more of a couch loungey space and it's also   again Form and Function it's kind of a theme of my  van these pillows provide a lot of insulation on   the back doors and back windows because that was  the one area of the van where we couldn't insulate   I do have thermal curtains but it's okay they do a  good job but this really blocks the cold at night I will show you how I set up for work and this is it this is where I do clothes  most of the work that I do is done on Zoom   and so this is this type of  desk works really well for me   um when I'm doing work on my computer I'm  usually in the lounge space on my bed but   when I'm actually talking to people hosting  coaching sessions then this is where I do   my work and it's perfect this works perfect  my refrigerator is right here I personally   don't use a lot of refrigerator space because  a lot of my diet is fruit and vegetable based this is a Nature's head composting toilet I highly   recommend it I use coconut core in the  base and it's been really great I it's   simple easy to clean easy to function I  would recommend it to anyone thank you a lot of women don't feel comfortable doing what  I'm doing but because of how much I traveled alone   in my job in San Francisco I feel very comfortable  being alone and it's looping back to my intuition   I trust myself I trust my intuition if I feel  safe I'm good if something is like maybe not   then I listen to that and I go somewhere else  I have a lot of road ahead of me and I am   more than thrilled about where the road will  take me I have no idea and I'm excited to   see how many miles we can put on this baby just enjoyed it any or unique home tour thank you

Channel: Tiny House Giant Journey

Views: 223,429

Keywords: tiny house giant journey, tiny house, Tiny houses, tiny homes, tiny house tour, van life, solo female van life, military vehicle conversion, van conversion, van dwelling, van conversion diy, van buildout, tiny home tours, affordable housing, alternative housing, nomadic living, nomadland, nomadic movement, tiny house movement, tiny home movement, tiny homes on wheels, tiny houses, van life tour, van life build, van life girl

Id: TBqYCaEb_ZU

Length: 15min 59sec (959 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 05 2023