VAN TOUR | Solo Female Vanlifer - Cozy Ford Transit Camper Conversion With Oven and Home Theater

[Music] hey everybody my name's anna this is sterling and this is our wonderful home on wheels firefly she is a 2015 ford transit and is named after the best sci-fi show of all time you're like ships you don't seem to be looking at the destinations what you care about is the ships and mine's the nicest don't look like much oh she'll fool ya you were sailing a firefly like i said firefly is a 2015 ford transit she has the high roof and extended body so she is one big girl she came to me as an empty cargo van about six months ago and i built her out over the course of about three of those months um i see a lot of people struggling with whether to get a cargo van buy something already built out or go the route of buying an rv i've lived on the road or some sort of tiny house for about five years now and before that i oftentimes would live out of a car for a summer live out of a backpack something like that i started out on the road in an rv with my ex and we lived in a travel trailer that was pulled by a truck and was already built out as like a regular rv um and then i went from there to living in basically like a trailer that was built out as a little house to a studio apartment and then resumed my nomadic life by living in a land rover that was converted to an rv which side note was really awesome looking super cool but was not the most practical of vehicles it was quite small inside and land rovers in general maybe not the most reliable vehicle so as cool as it looked i decided to sell that and by that time i really had a good handle on what i wanted out of a living situation one of the biggest sort of pieces of advice that i have for people just starting out tiny living and particularly mobile tiny living is to maybe either try something cheap at first get something already built out or be prepared that maybe your first build will be something that you sell and start over again and the things that you think that you will need or want on the road oftentimes aren't what you actually end up wanting and each person really has individual feelings about that so it may be hard to completely decide by watching other people's van tour videos and things like that so yeah that is my advice but saying that welcome it to the van let's take a look inside [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right welcome inside so a little bit of a disclaimer though i designed firefly by myself i did have a lot of help in implementing that design and fine-tuning it from friends and family i don't have a lot of construction experience pretty much none and a van is a very difficult thing to build out there are no right angles there are you can't use a level it's just it's very difficult so if you're starting out keep it in mind that you may want friends with some knowledge on your side before starting out then again some people do it all by themselves and piece it together it just might take a little more time than it took me since i did design everything myself though i am absolutely in love with this build there's only one or two maybe three things that i would change and i will tell you about those in just a little while also up front if you have any questions about any of the products that i use in here i will link them below and if you have any questions beyond that feel free to leave a comment or find me on my instagram so the first thing i did when i bought firefly was to get a new stereo with a backup camera installed i don't have any windows in my van which i will explain my reasoning behind that in a little while but i really wanted that backup camera for security and also a good stereo because i drive a lot and so having music is key for me i also wanted to point out these reflective window coverings i have these on my windows just as a way for some extra security and also to keep the heat out because i do have a dog on the car so it's really important to keep the actual fan part as cool as humanly possible the only other thing of note in the cab is this i installed a swivel seat on the passenger seat to turn it into a captain's chair this is huge because it really opens up the cab to have people over or to use this as a work desk because it's a little more ergonomically friendly than the couches for long work days all right so the cab is separated from the rest of the house by this insulated curtain here it's not technically a blackout curtain because there is you know space up here um but only a little bit of light gets through to the cab and then with the window coverings at night it still can be pretty stealthy um you know if i really need to be stealthy then i just don't put on a lot of lights back here and then it works great it also helps just for quick privacy if i want to change something quick in a parking lot i can just draw this quick without bothering with all those window coverings and then it really helps with temperature control in the van area i insulated with sheep's wool so it stays pretty nice in here but every tiny little bit of temperature control that you can do in a van is going to be super helpful the curtain is held up with a tension rod that then has brackets and then there are magnets along the side that keep it tight to the sides of the van so speaking of curtains i have these on my side door and also on my back door they're kind of a linen looking gauzy curtain um i don't really love the look of the big black mosquito netting that is oftentimes used in these bands it is going to obviously be more effective against bugs than this solution but i'm in the pacific northwest right now and even on some pretty buggy nights this has worked really great i just put a little bit of bug spray right at the top these are closed with magnets in the middle there and on the sides and it looks really really pretty when the light comes through it it's a nice warm light and also um you know when they blow in the breeze it just like has a really homey feeling to me rather than like having big black net across my my visual to the outdoors for those of you familiar with ford transits you may be wondering about this in many of the cargo bins they have side airbags that are then covered with this big ugly foam blob that helps the airbag deploy where it needs to go um in my 2015 version i did not have those side airbags when i pulled out the foam blobs to look and so i was able just to cover it with wood without having to worry about if the airbag deployed all that wood shattering down so if you have the side air bags you don't want to design it like this all right moving into the cabin so the first thing i did in the build of course was the floor i used a baltic birch subfloor and then i covered it with vinyl sheeting i use this stonework pattern because one if you lay down vinyl sheeting it can be kind of hard and you might end up with a couple little lumps the stonework covers that pretty well and then the other thing is you know i see a bunch of van belts with like these beautiful white interiors when you live in a van you're outside quite often and track in a lot of dirt so i wanted to have a build that kind of hid that dirt even though i still have to sweep quite often pretty much twice a day and then i finished this by trimming it with iron a friend made the iron for me cut it to fit and everything obviously not the lightest trim but i do think it adds something a little special so for the couch i designed the couch cushions by picking out some fabric online and then having them sewn and then the table is on the lagoon wagon i had no idea how to pronounce that right um table leg this kind of lets it go to a couple different locations it can also move up or down um as you saw maybe earlier i can access it from the captain's chair and i can put it really high if i have zoom meetings or something or i want to be looking right into a camera i decided on this placement for the couch because i really like being able to see out my side door i see a lot of people put their couches right next to the bed sort of right in the middle of the van but that didn't really seem to suit what i wanted for it i do some long meetings on computers and long work days on computers in general i work as a leadership and team consultant and a personal professional coach so it's really important for me on those long days to really be able to open the door get some air feel less claustrophobic and to be able to see the amazing beautiful nature that this van takes me to so the first slide out here is going to be the nature's head composting toilet in previous iterations on the road i lived in an rv and that little land rover thing that i showed you all earlier and in those i had a black tank in a cassette toilet respectively um i emptying them was just like so gross you constantly have to find dump stations technically with a cassette toilet you could do in an outhouse or something but it's just a little less gross to do it at a dump station but that costs money it also stinks and it stinks like pretty quickly um if you're using it for both one and two and the way a composting toilet works is that it separates out the urine and the solid waste into two different compartments the urine is just in like basically a bottle they just empty and then the solid waste goes into another compartment that's filled with coconut coir or peat moss and you can use that for up to like a month even a month and a half um and without having to empty it so it works great it doesn't smell at all there's a little bit and there's a little fan that takes up just a tiny tiny amount of electricity that is then vented outside and that keeps any of the like kind of earthy smell that comes from that solid tank out um like i said it's not really a bad smell it's more just smells like earth so highly recommend the composting toilet this one is the nature's head there are a few different options they aren't quite as cheap as maybe a cassette toilet but for me it has just made such a huge difference in how comfortable i am living on the road that worth everybody so i shared with you in the beginning that there were maybe a couple things that i would do a little bit differently in my build if i was to go back and do it again um this is a maybe on that list because i knew it was gonna happen before i was done with the build and i didn't change it because i just don't know how else i would do it but the composting toilet is quite high and so by the time that the whole couch was built it ended up being a very tall couch and i am a very short person so i when i sit on the couch here my feet do not even close reach the floor um i went ahead and did it anyway because i don't actually ever sit like this in chairs i always sit cross-legged which i will go slow so you don't see up my skirt here cross-legged or you know kind of sit sideways or whatever on this couch and find it perfectly comfortable that way um but it is a very high couch so it's a little bit awkward um but yeah i just i'm not sure where else i would have put that composting toilet so that's why i went ahead and still did it in the couch so another hotly debated topic along of course with the toilet is should i build a shower in my van for me personally it takes up a ton of room and though i did have one in my last rig i didn't use it very often you're still pretty limited on your water so if i want a long hot shower and then i go to a truck stop or a friend's house and in between either baby wipe bath always effective or use a solar shower this works by you put this out flat the sun will bake the black and it will heat up the water and then i stick it to the side of the van with this magnet here and then voila shower type the other slide out that i have underneath the couch is for trash and recycling which is obviously very full right now a mistake in a previous rig of mine is just not having a dedicated place for trash and recycling and also for laundry and so it just always had like bags of stuff around or up in the cab or things like that which you know is ugly and just annoying so uh build a place for your trash intercept living all right so moving along these are the upper cabinets here um this one is my pantry like that you can see it's pretty hard to open which is great because it doesn't fly open when i'm on the road um this is all of my dry goods in here and these twigs are actually some of my favorite little aesthetic pieces in the van um just you know little pieces of cabinetry i think can really add a difference when you're creating a little space like this just all those little touches um as my spice rack a lot of people use magnetic spices i like the feel of cooking with glass spice bottles for whatever reason i did put these little bumpers on them here um and that means that they won't like crack against each other when i'm bouncing around on back roads um i have a little light here to help with cooking and then this is my propane situation so this is a solenoid solenoid um and that hooks to the propane system in the garage and allows me just to turn it off with one click of a button so good for safety and also just good for convenience um this is my propex heater it's the pro pix hs 2211 and that is mounted on the underside of the van and then comes up and is vented through some vents in this cabinet this lower cabinet it was really important to me to have a heating system because i home base out of colorado and my friends and family are there a lot of them and i want to be able to visit at any time of year um with a system like a mr buddy which is what i have had before it creates a lot of condensation um and also you really need to like vent out the cabin area and so with the propex it's a dry heat so it will not create as much condensation and then also you don't have to keep like a window open or anything like that so it works just a little more effectively of course the other thing that i use my propane for is going to be my stove oven combo so this is the furion 17 inch it's a three range burner and i love it because it has one continuous grate on it so it offers more space it has some nifty lights right there and then of course the oven so i kind of have a hard time motivating to cook for myself sometimes i love cooking for other people but having an oven really helps me just because it has more options and it's easy just stick something in there and be done with it and below the oven is where i keep all the pots pans that sort of accoutrement one of the little nifty things we did in the van that i really really love is create this under counter bar slash drink of all kinds storage um feels a little fancy and it also makes a little more use of the really beautiful black walnut countertop that is also on this side of the van which i'll show you in a bit so under here it opens up and i have a blender under there my soda stream and of course some good colorado whiskey one of the biggest design decisions that you have to make when starting to build a van is if you want a convertible bed which goes out to seating for the middle of the day or if you want a fixed bed with a garage so as you can see this was not a hard decision for me to make i have to have a garage i am a boater and boating takes a ton of gear i have my raft warframe paddles all of my rafting gear life jackets etc back there um additionally i'm a mountain biker so i have to have my mountain bike i am a climber so i have my climbing gear i have backpacking gear um i have tools a 20 gallon water tank with a water pump that goes into the front my battery uh random knickknacks my professional bag for when i take work trips and also a very large bag of costumes because i firmly and truly believe that you cannot go through life without a very large bag of costumes for every possible scenario [Music] so now for my favorite part of the van of course the bed so i have a five inch full-size mattress and that is covered with a mattress topper it's super cozy i did want enough room there so that i could sit and read in bed or work while looking out the back windows so it's a great size for that you can see sterling's favorite part of the bed here is my voited blanket this is made by a friend of mine who also does van life and she designed the perfect van life blanket you can use it inside outside mine has the nice cloud touch so it's super soft inside you can make it into a pillow a sleeping bag it's absolutely amazing it's one of my favorite things that i own so i did link it below and there is a code next to there so you can do 20 off if you would like to buy one as well the full-size mattress did not come up to the outside of the van so i had room on the platform to build my wardrobe which was great because i can just get up and get dressed for the day i have my accessories there as well as a nice bedside table a shelf for my books my uke my linens and some extra coats and then i organized my clothes into storage bins that then have storage cubes in them that have all my different things separated and labeled and organized obviously organization hugely important in a van then i have my hanging storage and this has a jewelry storage in there which is great for me because i have a ton of jewelry and then it's just a place for me to be able to have stuff without it getting all wrinkly if i need to go to work or want to have a nice dress or something like that i also have a mirror in there which is great another one of my favorite things in the van is my skylight i really debated between doing it this way or having two of the max air fans i'm really happy i did it this way if i open it up and then put the maxer fan on bringing air out it creates like a very nice like full wind through the van so great ventilation plus i can look at the stars and have basically a little window i chose not to put other windows in the van simply because i'm completely okay with being in like small spaces i'm not very claustrophobic and not having the windows is better for insulation and it's just a little bit more private not as many places that are kind of weak points if somebody was to break in or try to look in the van so that was my decision i know a lot of people really prefer to have windows so your preference for under the bed storage i actually also have an entrance from the front of the cab that opens up to some shelves this opens up and then i have room for shoes for sterling stuff for workout gear for all my electronics and also for a bunch of games although with covid i haven't really found many people to have game nights with it's pretty much uh just me and sterling hey sterling no cheating this time okay all right i saw you palm that card last time you can't get anything over on me shake on it okay good boy it is true that you don't necessarily have a lot of friends at hand all the time on the road um but i don't actually mind being alone that often and when i just want a little bit of extra entertainment i do have a home entertainment system this is my projector it does have a dvd built in and that lets me watch all the dvds that i've collected over the years and i can watch it inside or outside depending on whether or not i want to watch it from the tripod or i can also hook it up with carabiners to my curtain so it's not exactly roughing it behind sterling here is a very important part of the van this door opens up and i can access my control system this basically allows me to control whether or not my inverter is on it shows me my charge controller my battery monitor my fuse box and i have shut offs for my battery system and the solar control system um for my electric system i have 170 amp hours of lithium i chose a lithium battery because although it is more expensive if you do run it past 50 um even all the way down to zero it doesn't damage the battery like it would um like a normal deep cell battery um that is charged off of the alternator if i'm driving or 320 watts of flexible solar panels which are on the roof so if i'm parked in the same place for a number of days and the battery is not charging off of the alternator and if it's cloudy the solar panels aren't charging things up then i do have this portable power station as well this is the jackery this is great just as a backup if i need to charge my laptop or whatever it's also great if i just want to charge something while i'm away from the van or if i'm going on a long raft trip or something else where i just want a little bit of extra power this charges either off my inverter i can charge it while i'm driving or i can charge it off a fold up solar panel that i have in a bit off of the battery i also run all my light systems and things like that i have recessed led lights on the ceilings that are hooked up with dimmer switches i have an electric pump for my plumbing and i have fairy lights because you have to have fairy lights i just believe that is my entire design aesthetic it's true moving along to the plumbing system i really love this sink one of the things in previous rugs that i lived in is having these tiny little sinks that like nothing fits in you have to do dishes immediately if you want to drive anywhere so you can't just do like a quick breakfast or something like that so for this build i have put in a very deep sink um this is a cutting board cut out of this same piece of black walnuts and then it's a super deep sink down in there um i also have a soap dispenser because soap just seems to be one of those things it's like always floating around that you never know quite what to do with when you're driving around and then the sink itself comes down it can either be used just normal as a sprayer and here it's kind of a loud electric pump there or you can bring it around here and ta-da a little shower so like i mentioned earlier i have a 20-gallon water tank in the garage i fill that with a specific hose for clean water with a water filter on there and then for the sink it just plumps straight to the bottom of the van and just comes out there i chose not to have a grey water tank because mostly i think ground water just smells so terribly and i just don't really want it around for very long two i use all biodegradable soaps i have a trap in the sink that gets any little particles so that's not going on the ground if i am in a place that has like really delicate soil like the desert or if i um i'm just like really wanting to be stealthy then i put a little bucket into the sink because it is so deep collect it and then disperse it at a more convenient time up here i have my other overhead cabinets i have my toiletries in here and my cups and then down here i can close that are my little hand towel face towel and then paper towels again paper towels are just one of those things that are always like floating around that is really nice to just have a dedicated spot always have to have the jbl speaker always and then right here is where i plug in um all of my appliances that go to my inverter so like a computer charge cord basically anything with like a normal household plug goes right into that plug here and then it winds down to my inverter that is in the garage so this is my under counter drawer here and this is going to be all my kitchen supplies i've used primarily bamboo one is just a little quieter to go down like dirt roads rather than having silverware go around and two it's just a little more eco-friendly i also use all disposable or reusable plastics rather than like disposable ziploc bags all my appliances plates etc are in here then below this i have my fridge freezer um it's a winter 65 and it has both i really love having a freezer so that i can have ice and you know popsicles and also just things to cook in the oven in this drawer so we are coming to the end here but one of the last things i wanted to show you was my door partially because when i was doing my build i had such a hard time finding even pictures of people's inner doors for the sliding doors so the bottom we did tongue and groove which is what most of the build is anyway it's all cedar tongue and groove and then the top we did plywood and we had to cut out a little compartment for the um lock and then just to spruce it up a little bit i put the white board on there which i use a lot for work to plan out retreats and other events that i'm putting on and then some fun pictures just to spruce that up before we wrap up completely i want to tell you the number one thing that i would change in my build and will change at some point and that is the placement of my propane locker and how it opens so ideally it would open from the side of the locker which would mean that i could access it straight from the back and just take out a couple things right now it opens from the front of the locker which as you can see means i have to take out everything just to access my propane so not the end of the world just a little bit inconvenient and it may be that i go back to try to redesign this and find that this was the best method all along i'm not sure yet the good thing is i really don't go through propane very often i use the stove the oven and even the heater and i've been on the road for about five weeks now and my propane is still at 56 which i know because i just got a new sensor that goes on the bottom of the tank that bluetooth then to my phone and i can see how much propane i have left this is going to make a huge difference because then i just need to take all this stuff out just to change the propane not to check it if i want to go off grid for a few days and want to make sure that i have the propane there the propane locker is vented from the bottom and sealed with a neoprene and silicone this lets the any propane that gets let off from the tank when it's trying to regulate itself especially if you're going up and down in elevation and that propane's heavier than air so it'll vent out the bottom this is especially important if you're planning on going to countries like canada and i believe california might also have a law about this that if you have propane in an enclosed space it needs to be vented so i used far outright for my propane diagram they're really wonderful resource if you want to look them up online alright everybody thank you so much for joining me sterling and firefly today i hope you enjoyed the van tour if you did if you could like or share this video that would be great and if you want to see more van life content and also content around how to reclaim your personal power and design the life that you want then you can subscribe here or follow me on instagram at firefly underscore and underscore i i really hope to see you out on the road sometime whether you're traveling or stationary and have a wonderful day [Music] you

Channel: Firefly and I

Views: 614,699

Rating: 4.9332709 out of 5

Keywords: van life solo female traveler, off grid, van life vlog, van tour van life, van tour solo female traveler, van build series, transit van camper, transit van conversion build, campervan conversion on a budget, selfbuild van, ford transit 15 passenger van, self build campervan conversions, how to find a van for van life, living in a van full time, tiny house on wheels, self build van, van life with dog, selfbuild camper, living in a van tour, Firefly and I

Id: K1akfaNkIf0

Length: 31min 44sec (1904 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 29 2020