Hi, my name is Jian and
this is my van, big Red. It's a 1979 B 200 Dodge Van. The whole idea behind buying it was
just to have a bedroom cuz it didn't have a place to live. It's been a journey of fixing it
cuz it was in pretty bad shape. So it's all cedar interior. I wanted it to be cedar
because it smells good and it's like mold proof and it's, it absorbs a lot of moisture
so I didn't have to worry about it. It being humid cuz in a lot of vans
it's super humid. Well, for good reason, we're in Vancouver,
it's raining right now. I put my kitchen here because it
might take away some of the door, but at the same time, I don't
need any more than this. So I just kind of have my toiletries
and bags and stuff like that in here. And then I get these three really
big drawers where I can have my cups and whatever, I don't know, whatever
you want. So I have three drawers. They're pretty tight,
which is nice. So yeah, I have three drawers,
which is pretty great. I built them extra tight so
that they wouldn't slide out. So I have this jug right here. So it's a 23 liter jug and it has a pipe that connects
to this little thing here. And then in the back I usually put a pipe that
goes down into outside, but I didn't do that this time
cuz I wanted to not do that. So I have this little jug here. So it's super simple. I just
didn't wanna make it complicated. So I have this little jug. It
might change, I don't know, I just use what I had on hand. So I use my butane stove and
depending on the weather, usually I cook outside. So I take out my table and I go
outside or if I really need to, I made this table. So you just do what you gotta do, cut a piece of cedar and then
it just kind of leans on here. That's pretty much all you
need and it's pretty sturdy. So it's my extension to
my kitchen. Fire away, then you open your window.
That's pretty much it. That's how I put in my bench. This is the battery bank. This
is where my batteries live. I do have a solar panel
that's a hundred watts and it's portables. So I get to put it on my roof or I
get to put it outside so that you can recharge your batteries. I
have my inverter, which is, it was $10 at a garage sale. This is where my toilet lives and
it's just a chemical toilet and I'm fine with that. I also have the option of
lifting it up and just go if I wanna haven't done that yet. This is actually for my drawer. So this is what I usually do. And then I put a cushion on
top so then you can just sit like this and then you can tend the fire. Cause it's a lot easier
if you just sit here. So I have two seating
areas, which is pretty dope. So the goal for the whiskey
barrel was to use it for a shower. So this is
supposed to stay up here. And then I was going to put a
little shower head up here and then shower because in the summer I like
to rinse myself off before going to bed. So it was supposed
to be used for that. But unfortunately I tried to
stain it and it just cracked open. So I have to revisit what
I want to do with this area, but I might try it again. We'll
see. But that was the goal for that. This is a cubic mini. I chose a wood stove because I
didn't know about a diesel heater. I mean, no, I like the wood stove because I like to
stay in the woods for a long period of time. And it's easier to heat your place up
with a wood stove and plus you can use it to boil water and cook some food. And I think that it goes with
the vibe of my wood cabin I find. So yeah, it works really well. It gets extremely hot and I recommend it to
everybody except for nighttime. Nighttime is not the time you
want a wood stove, I promise you, because you have to stoke
it every two to three hours, which means you do not
sleep. But nighttime, I definitely recommend a diesel heater
because then you can just turn it on and it just goes and it stops. But yeah, this is a great little thing to have. I would not switch it for
anything else but, so I used tile and silicone, so I siliconed all the tile so
that when the van moves it's, it doesn't break. And then underneath, I used the high temperature silicone with these tiles and it
just helps to not make everything melt. So all of my wood
goes underneath there little pieces, little tiny pieces for my wood stuff. And it dries out the wood too cuz it's
right underneath. So it keeps it warm. This is how I light
things. It looks silly. But I didn't put any lighting in here
cuz again, I didn't know what I needed. So this is what I use for light.
And it works pretty well actually. It's kind of strange, but it
reflects off of the stealing. So wherever I am, I just put the lights
going upwards and it works. So it's really cozy. It's
like a pillow. Inside here, there's another little cubby
and that's my secret spot. Don't tell anyone, <laugh>,
tell anyone I told you. That's where I keep my secret things. And then up here I usually have two bins, which are like this. And this is where I keep other things, but it's a small little cubby.
I know this is all a wall. So in case of emergency,
I did make some doors, some so that you can go
outside if you need to bust, open that window and get out. I decided to put a wall back here because it is so cold to sleep near back doors. It was so cold and I
was just so tired of it. So I built this insulated
wall and now it's super cozy and it's like a cocoon of
cedar. When I bought this van, I needed a place to live and I've
never built anything in my life. So the plan was just to live
in it because it was already done. It had already been built. So I didn't know I was getting into a
van build until I was getting into a van build. There was a crack in the
window and there was a crack in the roof. And I didn't know because I
bought the van in the summer and when rain season started, it was raining inside a lot too much. And my bed was behind the doors and there was just water everywhere.
And I was thinking to myself, do I just sell the van
and just get rid of it, see what I can get for it? Or do I jump into something
new and gut the thing, gut it and just start over. And I'm not one to back
away from a challenge. So I just decided to be like
whatever, let's just do it. So I just gutted the whole thing,
not knowing what I was doing at all. Had no clue what I was going
to do and it, everything fall, fell into place. This
is my cabin on wheels, so I never have to pay for an Airbnb. If I wanna go somewhere, I don't
have to plan it out that much. I just pack my van and I leave. So for me, the benefit is I'll never be
homeless cuz I have my van. So if ever anything
happens to me rent wise, I will always have a place to live no
matter what, something to fall back on. And also while I get to have a
hotel, so I get to go to Tofino, I get to go to the states
someday, not right now, but you get to travel Canada
and wherever you want. So yeah, I save a lot of money on hotels
cuz I get to just park my home wherever I go. The challenge is, I mean it is an old van
so it does break down. So that was a big one. It broke down a lot so
I had to fix it a lot. Some of the criticisms that
I've had over having this van and keep, I keep fixing it. The reality is like I didn't
have any money to buy a new van. So I bought a van at the
time that I could afford. And there was nothing wrong with
fixing a van and putting thousands of dollars in an older van to fix it
because sometimes that's all you can do at the time is fix it as you go.
This van, I bought it for 4,700. So $4,700 is what I bought it. Throughout the years. I mean I've fixed almost everything on it. I have a new carburetor, a new gas tank, a new gas gauge timing chain, fuel pump, water pump, new battery and new coil like spark plugs. I've fixed the suspension in the back, now I'm fixing the
suspension in the front. So it's basically a new van. So I've spent, I don't know
if I should say <laugh>, put around in between 15 to $20,000 in it. Living in your van when it rains. I think that's another
challenge because you want to, when it rains you wanna stay at home, but then you're always in your van and
it's like sometimes it gets a little small. So that's one of the
challenges being a woman living in a van. The only challenge is when it's
that time of the month and you don't wanna move your van
because you just want to stay cozy and you're hurting
and you don't wanna move. So that's one of my
challenges was definitely that time of the month is definitely
a challenge living in a van cuz you want to have access to a shower, you want to be able to go to the
bathroom and not think about it. So I think those are
the biggest ones for me. As far as living in a van that
are a bit more challenging, I recommend it to everyone. You become a better person
living in a van I find, because you let go of your things
and you let go of so much stuff. So anyone can do it. It just depends on what kind of
mindset you come into it and it is frustrating and it's tiring
and it's such a mental challenge. But it's good for you because it
challenges you to be more creative. I learned that I don't need
that much stuff to live. I come from Ottawa and I'm a city girl. I was definitely not a country
person or camping, definitely not. I've learned that I
don't need too much and I, I've, I've learned that I can be
way more creative than I expected. What else have I learned? I've learned that being slightly dirty
is not the end of the world. True. Just put your feet in dirt and
it's fine cuz you can rinse it off. Just being slightly a little bit
dirty is not the end of the world. Recently I feel you only have one chance to be you in this one life. So just do what you want to do and
try not to be afraid doing it. And if you are afraid,
just do it. <laugh>, pretty much you have nothing to lose ever no matter what, even if it's your
house, even if it's, it's just things. So I figure I just want to have the
best experience that I can have. So yeah, just do it. You just have one life to live. So just have fun with it and
let go of what your mind is telling you. I think that's what
I'm learning right now. Yeah, just let go of what your brain's
trying to sabotage you and just have fun. My Instagram is Big Red van Life 1979. I'm also building out a
houseboat with my partner and our Instagram is at Boat N Bus. So it's boat with an N bus. And I also have a YouTube
channel and it's for our boat conversion. So it's a boat
and bus, tiny living conversions. So we're building out something
else. If it's not a van, it's a boat and if it's not
a boat, it's a bus. So yeah, I'm doing all the different things. Thanks for watching and
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