Van build that looks like mini Condo! Full time solo Van dwelling

hi my name is Sarah and this is my van Donna and she's definitely beautiful from the inside out so I'll take your inside and show you [Music] [Applause] [Music] around [Music] a contractor's van so initially it had some shelving units and some lock boxes and really like crappy plywood floor down and we stripped it all and took out the rest and started from scratch my kitchen kind of starts over here I've got this little fridge has a nice little freezer compartment at the top too it's pretty handy this is my pantry so it's a little bit a little bit chaotic sometimes but got most of my food up in there and then I love this oven so I've baked everything from Cheesecake to scones to oh I don't fish kind of roasted veggies I guess that's a a pretty unique feature to have in one of these little little Vents and I've got my little Ikea details the spice rack which you saw on the way in and then I keep uh my my pans and pots kind of down under here when I have the surf for it I've got to like tuck it up pull it out it's got all my baking sheets and stuff and then in this cabinet over here I have my electrical so I've got my inverter and my charge controller in there and let's take a look so it's just dishes I don't know if you can even see in there and then I have so my sister was looking at this cabinet the other day and it's kind of like every home needs a junk drawer and I guess that's what this is for me so it has nothing to do with the kitchen really but under here I've got my water so I've got 30 l i see if I can pull this open I've got 30 L underneath here and then I've got another 23 L at the back that I'll use if I'm off grid for a little while and then I've got gray water under there as well so I just empty that that out every couple of days and it's an electric pump so got the whole like pump and faucet and W go at an RV shop yeah so I've got a little pull up table here that's this guy I don't use it all that often but we got summer clothing unfortunately not time for that around here yet and then I've got these little slide covers so these were kind of designed with um my laziness in mind I wasn't going to set up my bed and take it down every day so I wanted to be able to get in and out without kind of moving the bed out of the way so I've got some warmer clothes on this on this side and then back here I've just got wet suits that kind of thing some extra towels and then this is it's like pajamas I've got some toilet trees and whatnot on this in this cupboard here I absolutely love my fan but it's awesome like it's great for cooking I feel like it draws out the moisture so quickly I use it like when I'm boiling water making a meal that kind of thing otherwise you notice like by the time you're done the front even has just like water dripping all down the inside yeah so anyone who has a van I highly recommend it so these are like my little blackout curtains and I've gotten a little bit too too lazy to put them away every day so I just roll them down but these are just like rare earth magnets in there so they're just really strong little magnets and they'll just like latch onto the outside if you do it properly it does a pretty good job of keeping all of the light in or out so I've got one of those for each of the like four windows window and then at the front just like a slid shut blackout curtain like the one back here the bed folds up into your couch so actually kind of slide out of the way here this just pops up on top of the other side and it's got magnets embedded in it so it'll like Snap onto that side and then the mattress can be used as a little back rest yeah I kind of designed it to have the walk through but with the surfboard being there I usually don't bother changing into your couch yeah it seems like a lot of work and with all of the bedding that I have it just makes more sense to keep it as a bed staying warm in Canada I have a little buddy heater or a Myst heater little buddy but I'm a little bit nervous to use it in the van so I usually just like sleep underneath my duet and my sleeping bag and have a little hot water bottle yeah so I've got 1 in XPS in the ceiling 1 and A2 inch in the walls and then half inch down on the floor underneath the subf flooring and then I use spray foam for the rest of it so use spray foam to stick the XPS onto the walls spray foam to fill the cracks yeah and then the doors are like U mineral wool insulation yeah I've got a 320 watt solar system up on the roof and then I've got the inverter for that in here and same with the solar charge controller and I have little LED lights I don't know if this will show up very well but they're on a on a little dimmer switch that's super nice at night there we go and then I have the electric pump that runs off of it as well and I have a little Outlet in the corner there go so that's where I'll charge my laptop or a camera batteries that sort of thing and I've got 460 amp hours of battery power underneath the bed all right so this is one of the batteries under here and it's hooked up to a little like switch for the inverter so it's the main power shut off switch fuse box over there which I've meant to mount but it's one of those things that you know get around to it eventually and then those cables kind of lead through the storage compartment back to the second battery there but this is the extra water that I carry around just if I'm kind of out of town for longer than 3 or 4 days I've got an old lawn chair which I haven't been using around here surfboard and then if you can see underneath there's like quite a bit of storage under there as well so that's my shoe covered and then further down it's just like camping Essentials that sort of thing and yeah just a little bit little bit more storage here some surf surf equipment I think that's a about the inside of Donna why do I live in a van well I kind of started out with a four-wheel drive in Australia so I was living in that for about 3 months it had a little Rooftop tent and I went to a van lifee Diaries meet up in Byron Bay and met a bunch of people that had nicer setups than what I did at the time and kind of got talking to them and realize that like with the right setup you can do it long term and you can live comfortably in a van and I decided that you know I love to be on the road I love to travel and it would be really like nice to be able to pick up and go whenever in my home and have everything with me biggest benefits of living in a man well I like I'm just realizing this now to coming back to real life but you don't have to worry about looking for a place to rent I just did a twoe course up Island and had a I had a home with me and that was really nice and I think it's really good in such a van friendly City you can wake up kind of wherever you want to wake up another benefit is you can go see like friends and family without worrying that you're kind of intruding on their space or riant on like staying with them for a long period of time and you can be like in an urban setting if you're stealthy enough but you can also be out in the middle of nowhere with all the Comforts of home like you know fresh baked cookies or whatever have you yeah the biggest challenges that I've faced in Van life uh that's a it's a tricky question I guess it's a car and your home at the same time so that's one of the one of the first things that comes to mind when you need repairs done on your car it's your home so there was one time where I was stuck in California in Ventura for several days and waiting for my van to get fixed kind of staying at not the most ideal location down there I think there's just a lot of little things that people in homes take for granted like you know you've always got running water whereas in a van you you have to think about filling it up but I feel like those little things that you have to think about whether it be your propane your water like we going to go to the bathroom it's just like insignificant compared to the benefits that it offers yeah I chose a cargo van because it was just a little bit more cost efficient for me so if I would have bought a sprinter van I wouldn't have had the money at the time to do a nice conversion as well so I would have been left with a bit of an empty shell of a van and so I knew that I had to compromise somewhere and that was where this van came in and I've been super impressed with it like it drives really nicely like it handles better maybe than some of the high top bands out there I've been able to take it like down onto beaches and on muddy roads and it's it's a pretty pretty awesome van and I had the money to do the kind of conversion that I was hoping to have yeah what was it's really rewarding to be a part of building out your own home so before my uncle and I worked on the van I didn't even know how to use like any power tools so I learned a lot from it and I wake up all of the time looking around and it's pretty special to know that you understand like every component of it you know where to look if something goes wrong with the electrical you know how to like fix anything if it breaks just because you put it all together from the very yeah from the very top I think I've learned to live with a lot less than what I had before uh I've kind of refocused my attention on what's important to me so several years ago I never could have seen myself condensing my life down into like a 50t space and I think that in doing that and you know whether it's like being alone and learning to be like independent in everything you do or sharing the space with someone and learning how to communicate really well with another person it teaches you a lot and I think for me that's what I've taken away from it I've learned a lot more about myself as a person just living in a van so minimalism was never really part of the goal I guess it kind of just came with the nature of living in a van I think that I'm still a bad minimalist like I have way too much Tupperware way too many clothes but I've definitely realized that everything that I have still like stashed away I can do without and I think that even what I have now it's still a little bit beyond what some people would Define as minimalism but yeah I guess it was the van that sort of forced me into that role yeah yeah of of course I recommend this lifestyle I mean it's incredible it comes with certain challenges but you learn a lot about yourself you meet incredible people on the road the community is one of the main reasons that I absolutely love it and feel like it's a sustainable thing I don't know if you have to be a specific type of person I don't think that four years ago I was the right type of person to be living in a van I think it just takes um an open mind and being willing to like be flexible be willing to adjust to different conditions and more so than that like to not expect consistency and a routine and you know for things to work out the way that you plan them to because especially living this kind of Lifestyle like there's always unexpected like hiccups and challenges and that's part of the fun of it all so I think anyone can do it yeah I think you just have to be willing to make little sacrifices here and there but they're totally worth it I think if someone's hoping to build a van like look out for other people that have done it go talk to them like I think everyone that's built a van is happy to share that knowledge and whether it be through Instagram or through walking up to someone's van in person people are more than happy to say hey like this is how I installed this type of oven or this is how I like install these type of lights and to give you kind of The Insider knowledge on what what to do in what order and maybe what to stay away from so I think talk to people and if you're hoping to live in a van then yeah well it doesn't matter what kind of a van it is I think and what kind of a person you are you just have to have like a different set of expectations for yourself and kind of adapt as you go along and learn what works for you misconceptions that people have about van life well I get a lot of people saying like oh you don't look like you live in a vad so I think one big misconception is that we're all just like you know sluming it and like you know have poor personal hygiene Etc and I think that's so not true you meet all kinds of people and yes sometimes you're adventuring and you don't shower for a few weeks but you're also able to you know still integrate into society like anyone else yeah and I think another thing another misconception is that everyone does it out of necessity I think some people they feel maybe a little bit sorry for you they'll offer you a bed in their home and actually I've turned that down so many times because this is this is home like this is my space and I feel just as comfortable like sleeping in my bed maybe a little bit more comfortable sleeping in my own bed than sleeping in someone else's home so I think you get people that feel just a little bit bad for you when you've made a choice and you really appreciate and enjoy the lifestyle I think my personal philosophy on life has changed a lot since I've moved into the van I used to be very focused on a routine and kind of like being very very driven and I think that a lot of my selfworth kind of came from how much did I accomplish and how much time and I've had about a year and a half to just sit and Ponder life and travel and I think in that period of time I've learned how important it is to be able to take that step back and to essentially be doing a whole lot of nothing and still feel content and feel like you have selfworth and you don't always need to know exactly where you're going in life to feel that way so I think I've learned to be a lot more appreciative of the little things and just you know be be comfortable with who I am as a person and know that like whatever I do in life doesn't necessarily Define who I am so I have an Instagram at the vanwagon so it's a little bit of a pun you know I hopped on the bandwagon of Van life and that's where I'm sharing my travel journey and where I have um a lot of posts on when I first started building the van eventually the goal is to set up uh the rest of the website so just a link to where you can plan a build maybe looking for advice on installation electrical that kind of thing and then also you know more insight into what exactly my uncle and I did on this particular van and the lessons that we learned from it so a lot of what not to do I think that if you feel like you would want to live this kind of Lifestyle don't let anyone tell you that you know it's not going to be for you cuz it can be for anyone and if you're like a solo female traveler like you don't have to be afraid if you play it smart you know kind of where you're going to be staying you know the areas that you're going to be visiting I've personally never felt like I've been in danger or threatened by anyone and I think it's a pretty empowering thing to feel so independent and that's yeah that's been my experience with it and to be able to get on the road when you like and still like you know live in a town and work can feel comfortable feel at home I yeah I [Music] [Music] recom [Music] [Music] w

Channel: Alternative dwellings

Views: 130,928

Keywords: Forrest Stevens

Id: OaGB2y4JFog

Length: 18min 54sec (1134 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2024