Van Tour: Living with a HUGE Recliner Inside this Cargo Van

i love that oh my goodness that's not a recliner hi everyone welcome back to my next video if hopefully you just watched my introduction we met vanessa i'm vanessa good to meet you and vanessa told us her story and uh it's a it's a wonderful story i i really hope you'll go back and and watch that video but now we're going to do the tour and see her home you will be the first one i will have ever seen where you uh actually brought in a recliner and and you'll have to have one i can i can feel it already yeah so let's take a look and see her wonderful little home that she made so let's take the tour so vanessa i know you've put in a um a recliner and i'm really anxious to see that let's let's take a look okay here's the sitting position and this is wonderful right here yes but it's just it's the most comfortable bed i've ever had and that just fits your body just perfect yeah i do have a neck pillow it but there's i mean i can sleep just like this but because i had neck problems i just got used to it so right yeah and you had a uh an accident on the job yeah a few years back yeah i have a herniated disc in my neck i mean i had nucleoplasty which is the same as surgery but it left me with a lot of arthritis muscle spasms and all that but i sleep in this i mean when i go to sleep i'm i'm asleep it's just so comfortable that's amazing i just love that and so you sleep great right it just happens to fit your back perfectly yeah every everything about it is just perfect it has um memory foam and it it i don't know it's like it gives where you need it to give but it supports where you need it to support too it's just wonderful it's called a straddle lounger because it's wider than like i sleep here and my dog sleeps right here so there's there's plenty of room for both of us so it's kind of designed for two people oh yeah that's just really really nice and so you lounge you sit there all day yeah when you're in the van when i'm when i'm awake if i'm watching tv i do put a pillow to my back i don't have to it's just my legs are so short that they don't really reach the floor but i mean i have it reclined anyway right when i'm watching a movie or just in here relaxing it's just it's the most perfect thing i've ever i can even lay crossways i can i can sleep crossways i have i mean i can demonstrate that sure well i don't even let it back to sleep like this and this is just so i just you got your legs propped up and it's just so comfortable that's just amazing it is i mean it just has everything i need now you do lose a fair amount of storage space yeah because of it but you just you live smaller right i mean i don't i don't need that many things and i like i just bought some new dressers but only because my other ones were worn out i bought some cheap ones because i didn't you know i didn't know 100 that i'd be able to do this so i got these and i will do some more you know adding to and and building but it i i don't feel the need to just jump out and you know run and do it because i'm i'm happy like this i'm comfortable and that's all i wanted was to be happy and if i want to travel or if i want to just chill you know i'm okay great yeah yeah yeah and so really you do you've done for the rest of the van what i call a no build building right right there's is there any carpentry in here no no there's no carpentry and so you've just put in plastic drawer units right yeah i have room for my towels and washcloths in the bottom and then my pants or shorts my pajamas and this one and my blouses and this one and then this one i have cooked well i have my plates and bowls in this one i have some uh groceries in each one of them and i don't even remember them yeah the bowls are in there yeah kitchen and then snacks in here junk food weight's on the bottom so it handles it well yeah i do have it strapped down with bungee cords but i've never i've never had a problem with it tipping or even hear it bumping the wall so i mean i would on a really rough road but and then i when i wake up in the morning i fold my blankets and we have three pillows and i just stack it all right here and these are storage pillows i don't know if you've seen anybody i ordered four and amazon sent me eight so i put um like stuff i don't wear all the time like my heavy-duty clothes from indiana i don't want to ship them home so i just put them in this and i have a couple pillows with stuff in it just for extra storage and then sometimes they go behind your back or behind your head oh yeah yeah yeah yeah they're nice little i just put little cushiony items in there so yeah here is your fridge yeah i'm probably going to get a electric one at some point but this is a 55 gallon lifetime i bought it on ebay but walmart does carry them i gave 89 for it and it does keep ice for a full seven days that's good and sometimes like in the cooler weather we've had it keeps it 10 and 11 days that's amazing to me yeah and i have it turned around backwards because of my drain been on this side i got tired of turning it around so and this is just as easy to do it this way sure and you have a tv i have a 12 volt tv i have a cigarette lighter up over my head here so if i'm too sleepy to get up and turn it off i just unplug it up there and i watch i watch movies at night that's what i do i don't have television i don't have internet or not internet but like dish or anything like that i just watched uh movies and i also i'm always trying to save space i bought these two organizers for my dvds and when i pulled them out of the jackets and threw them in the trash can i had a big huge black track like a leaf trash bag i had it full of jackets and because i thought how am i going to take all my movies with me so i have 100 and i think 182 movies and these two things right there so i have all i want to watch and then i put a shoe organizer over here for my stuff that i need to be handy my dish soap spray bottle lotion silverware and all that that's real handy and so here uh right at the entryway you have your stove yeah i have a one burner stove and i'm i'm probably going to be getting a two burner but that one has been okay i i do like to cook i'm from the south originally and i like to cook and i can make some pretty big meals on that thing yes so do you have a table and you cook outside well yes i do i have they're back at my camp i've got a four foot table and then i have a tv tray and sometimes i have it in here i cook i just change places all the time sometimes i cook on it and i don't have any certain way i do anything just whatever's handy at the time that's what i do so if it's bad weather you have no problem cooking inside oh no no i turn on my fan up here i have a max air fan and it works great i just roll the windows down a little and cook in here and i can't tell that it's left any cooking odors right no i've been cooking a van for a long long time yeah i don't uh no one on course hugo would get used to it but when you have other people in they don't notice this right right you know what's yeah i saw you do it and i thought i'm not going to worry about it i don't want to get out in the cold in the morning to make my coffee i want to sit here actually in the morning i just sit on the floor and make my coffee and sit here and turn on the tv and it kind of gets warm that way too yeah it serves as a heater that's for sure yes yeah i'm a big fan that works well for me yeah so yeah just you know you bought these plastic units and the fridge and threw it in here and away you go and that's something i could do myself no problem yeah i didn't have to build anything that was the thing about i got i hurt my neck on my right side so i'm right-handed but my left hand is the dominant one that's where i have strength so i thought well i can't be hammering and i can't even hardly put a screw and i may can't now you know but when i left home i didn't want to bother anybody i just wanted to show them i could do it and i'm perfectly happy i mean i love my little setup here right and uh right you just have to use the back as storage storage yeah i have some um little well why don't we take a look yeah yeah i'll just go back there and look around so that really left you uh behind the recliner a lot of of room oh yeah yeah i can't go any higher than this and and my recliner just goes all the way down so everything is i just throw my reflectix back here during the day there's my laundry a little bit of that and then i i just keep my laundry soap and my cans of butane and a few food items but mostly everything is in the front and you set up an outside camp because really you live out of the van yeah yeah when i camp i i have a tarp right now i hope i can get a a canopy at some point but i if i need to get out of the sun which i don't want to right now i can put up the tent and then i have my table and yeah i set up count first thing so it's not in my way and you've got an enormous amount of solar i have 750 watts let me walk over here and look at this that's that's amazing and where how did you end up with 750 watts well i watched you again on uh your youtube channel and i got it at san tan i was up in um flagstaff and a friend of me went over to phoenix and bought three well we bought more than three but i really was gonna get two great i'm so happy you you had that video because that saved me a lot of money yes he's got amazing prices yes yeah and and you fit those just perfectly yeah and they're extremely nice people there yeah they're they're very helpful right right and so you can with 750 watts you have all the power for anything you want right and i i have a nice um mppt charge controller and even on the cloudy days i i don't have a problem when when it gets daylight it us it starts charging so i i can't see me ever using all of this no no and there's nothing wrong with that oh no no having plenty is good yeah it's just like being at home and doing whatever i want to do and you could run a small solar i mean a small air conditioner right right you actually could yeah i've thought about that this summer i really don't know where i'm going to be this summer yet and i have okay like if i'm in flagstaff it's okay because the weather's perfect there in the summer but um if i'm going from point a to point b and it's hot you know it would be nice to have an air conditioner right and just run in a while during the day right that'd be the key thing you you take enormous amount of battery power to go overnight right uh and that probably wouldn't be worth it but occasionally during the day easy yeah you don't really need it at night i mean with the with the fan and i also have a a little electric fan i was going through arkansas in august it was so hot and i i just didn't know how i was going to make it and i went in and bought one of those little metal fans 14.99 and just went sound sleep that was all i needed right and so we haven't covered how you are going to the bathroom i have a five gallon bucket i converted into a toilet right just that simple yep i bought a 599 lid and snapped it on there i put my garbage bag in there and then i get a couple of walmart bags and that's how i go yeah works fine and when i go pee i got a one dollar pitcher i bought at the dollar store and then i i put it in a bottle and take it to the bathroom or to the bushes or wherever i am right right simple and easy yeah it works yep and showering um i pretty much do baths i put a big bat a big bath towel i brought some big ones i lay down the floor and just take time to take a good bath if i want to take a shower there's a beauty shop i can't think the name of it in court site you can get a shower for five bucks right and then there's some laundromats that'll let you come in there and wash your hair but i don't have that much hair so i just i get a pan i've got a big bowl i sit down in the floor and i just bend over with a towel for the water over my head so i mean everything i have a way to do everything from here i mean if i was uh a loner never wanted to be around anybody else the rest of my life i could do it you sure could yeah yeah and when you're tired of that you want to be around people lots of people to be around and i do like to be around people right i mean we all like to be alone sometime right because i have a big mouth i don't know if you can tell that or not so that attracts a lot of people right so sometimes i have to say i'm going somewhere for a little bit but i'm i'm not maybe two three days that's it i'm ready to go back right very good well vanessa thank you so much for sharing your van with us i love this that's just amazing thank you for having me i'm so happy to get to meet you and i love what you do what howa does and i appreciate everything you do so thank you for this tour and interview i've really enjoyed it well thank you and i do have a youtube channel tell us your youtube channel yes okay vans van and travel and that name came from my mother in mississippi she never called me vanessa she called me vanessa so that just kind of came to me the first thing so it's van's van and travels it's quite new but i do have like 50 something oh video it's a lot yeah that's more than most very good so go check out her youtube channel folks folks i know you've been inspired by vanessa and her story if you have like us on youtube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 364,205

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, snowbird, caravan, tiny, house, tribe, RTR, adventure

Id: egodozePV3E

Length: 17min 0sec (1020 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2020