Van Tour Solo Woman Living in a Hightop Ford Van

hi everyone welcome back to my next video today we're going to meet jamie who lives in this really nice ford uh high top van and has just about ready to start her van dwelling life although you're not new to the nomad life you've lived in a vehicle before yes i moved around a lot many states i think i've lived in seven states so yeah i'm used to being mobile i don't know i like exploring i like new places it's inspirational for me i prefer mountains and you were in a trailer for a while uh last year i was in a borough it was a 10 foot borough and i was a campground host up in california in the sierras yep for those of you who don't know a burrow is an egg-shaped uh like a scamp for a casita yep um really very much very similar yeah and it was ten foot ten foot wow that was a small one yeah very small so you have the taste this is your first foray into living in a tiny space so you may have more space here than you did there about the same it's about the same it's about ten foot by six which is what i had there yeah very similar but this is more movable because of course that is all fiberglass so nothing can be changed around so yeah you know that's the great thing about a van is you can move it around and change it as it works for you uh and one of the things you did was cut your whole top off and put a high top on yeah that was a little scary um i was initially looking for a van that had the high top already a conversion van or you know i thought about the sprinter but i just heard so many problems mechanically um and finding a diesel mechanic i just didn't want to deal with it so um went with the ford and it had low mileage and um not that old 2005 and i decided to find a company that was on the east coast because that's i was in florida when i went with them and got the high top put on wasn't the best experience probably not the best company to go with i'm it's had some revamping done but i hope it's going to last a good long while the amount of space compared to not having the high top is just above and beyond you know it just makes it so much more comfortable and i'm short i'm only 5'2 but still just being able to put stuff up and not having to bend down to get everything all the time is great and it gives you a real sense of openness and a feeling of openness it really does and you're young yet so how are you supporting yourself on the road um i am a photographer assistant sort of a digital tech i've been many things i was also a biologist a professional photographer and this is what is working for me now it's very flexible i love the people that i work for um and i'm hoping it's going to work really well on the road you know the biggest issue may be internet making sure i have good high-speed internet when i need it and just getting you know images back and forth but i think it'll be okay having a high-tech skill makes that makes living in a van really easy and i i had to buy a car i didn't own a car because i sold it before i went to panama so i was just like this makes the most sense um i'm sort of a nomad anyway so let's just you know both feed in and and try it if you need a vehicle get the van exactly now i guess you would have debated between a minivan and a van a full size i did yes and this how did that weigh out for you um you know i just i knew after living in the borough last year just having the head space and the length you know it felt just the right amount of space for me okay and so the cargo van was the same and i just i felt like i didn't want to go smaller than that and feel super cramped and when i you know if i go somewhere where it's raining and i don't want to go into a coffee shop or library you know i don't want to feel claustrophobic like i did there just because it couldn't move i couldn't move the stuff around so i made this open i felt like it was the right amount of storage and so far it's been great and so to a degree because you're in a technical job working on in front of a screen all day for quite a while yeah you needed a little more office desk space yes that would have been more difficult in a in a minivan yes much more yes but as far as the work goes you know i i work part-time now and it's um good um it's still up and down you know my schedule is based around the people i work for schedule so i can't be like okay november is coming up i need extra work when they don't have it so i'm definitely looking for opportunities for freelance and also seasonal work i've done a lot of seasonal work for the forest service blm that kind of stuff you know even retail just christmases coming up the holidays and you know a month or two of that i can totally handle right most nomads find that adding a supplemental income is not all that hard yeah as you travel around especially if you're seasonal and you can go where the season is where you're at you can go wherever it has to work and you've with by living in the van you have reduced your living expenses pretty much to absolute bare bone minimum oh yeah so you need less money and therefore it's less of a uh a major concern to you where's my next check coming from yes oh yeah i mean this saves me you know just buying this even with all the expense that i put into it with the high top and you know some maintenance on the van it's still what i would have paid for a very low rent apartment in a year right so i mean that's to me that's worth it already for the next year so money wise living in a van is just a tremendous help oh yeah yeah okay so uh would you mind showing us around i think you really have made a wonderful home well this layout is actually based off of i think it was a fiat that i saw um you know on a video that somebody um did it like a caravan thing over in england most people put their bed you know across the whole back so there's no walking space i just knew that i really wanted to be able to get in and out the back if i needed to and i also this bed also flips up if i have to be in here i wouldn't be able to stretch out and not feel claustrophobic so you can do yoga in here now i can do yoga in here with the bed up yes i have enough room like i like to be outside and i like to cook outside but going in and out to prep and get food in and out it was a hassle so i knew that i wanted a big enough counter space that if i still had stuff on the counter i also had workspace right this by the way is one of my favorite things in the world for camping i don't know why i didn't have this my entire life but this is my hair washer this is my super powered uh cleaner for dirty uh pots and pans it works amazing and it's a little mini shower so basically that is a pump up garden sprayer yes it is like one gallon or a half gallon i think it's yeah yeah uh maybe a liter one and a half quarts that's all it is you just pump it up and you got pressure i've got pressure and it it stays on it has a little nodule nozzle thing here um and it stays on so i don't have to keep holding it just wash and go so basically that's will always i always ask how do you take a shower and that's how you take a shower yeah i actually had one of the big ones the two gallon sprayers um with the shower nozzle on it last year and that's what i used for my sink and it was great for capacity but you you constantly had to pump the pressure back into it it lost pressure very quickly because a lot of water came out so i wish i'd known about that i mean i would have taken that backpacking if i would have known about that 20 years ago absolutely so you have a background in backpacking yes yeah i actually would used to work i started my first favorite job was the yellowstone youth conservation corps so i would go into the back country of yellowstone for a week at a time back on the weekends but um yeah pretty amazing if you've never seen the back country of yellowstone you really haven't seen yellowstone and uh that really makes sets you up to be a van dweller yes if you can think like a backpacker when you're setting up your van yep then you're way far ahead absolutely it definitely helps and knowing just i mean you get used to carrying only what you need and so to carry that over you just weighed your van and it's very light yes um it's not completely completely full i still have a few things to move in but it was just under six thousand pounds which for a for a high top van is really really good i really haven't put that much weight into it which is good because that was my goal um knowing it's just a you know half ton e150 so i knew it did not have the huge payload of the e350 okay so you've got and do you work uh you have a laptop i'm assuming i do um i have a little table which i um i didn't put in here um because i'm still sort of in the house everybody's house but it's uh the kind that the the table itself flips down and the legs fold in so it's one flat piece but it will tuck in the legs tuck in underneath so i can sit on the bed and work with it i had an idea in my head i kind of well i saw somebody else do this and it was brilliant i really recommend this but i went to the liquor store and i got a bunch of empty boxes and i laid it out in here and i said okay this the bed's gonna take up this much room i'm gonna have this much room left for the toolbox some storage this is gonna be all counter space and i did it the right height and it really helped me know that this was okay i wanted this 18 inches that was going to be perfect you know i thought maybe 18 inches and i put it here and it was like yes that's the right length i having the same high top you have then you've added a board or something here oh no you left this on this is the original roof yes right here that's right this is just a metal metal roof and it is a little flexible you know it's not the sturdiest but um you know these aren't gonna fall off i i did drill screws in these these are just um you know planters i put this up because i did put this blue insulation up here so i built this little frame just to help keep the insulation up back here there is insulation on up there yep this is all insulated oh so that's styrofoam yeah the blue the blue stars styrofoam yep so the insulation on the walls is actually um the flexible fiberglass that's double sided double coated with aluminum that wraps around water heaters water heater blanket yes and i've used that it works well yeah it has it does work really well and so that's just on both walls and then i put on this side i put vinyl just because i thought there might be some splashing of food and stuff and so it's you know waterproof and on this side it's just a heavier duty fabric like um those blackout curtains but it's the stuff that you put on the reverse side of blackout curtains um probably my favorite pastime will be sitting in the hammock oh wow so i can either sit this way and move my table over and do my computer work as i'd like or if it's a beautiful morning and i want to drink coffee and look at the lake you can set open the door set and look out exactly turn around and i have my room with the view wow that is really impressive yeah and i actually have these hooks um at every corner and in the middle um and i have a full-length hammock that will go either way with the bed up so i guess really the only thing left up here is just this top storage so you left on the first couple feet above the cab that's pretty standard yes came all the way to here um and then this is just one of those cargo things it's a standard truck and i can pull it off if i want to get to stuff if i want to and over here i don't think we've looked at this this is just a framework you built to hold stuff yeah these are these are just cut up pallets a free pallet and i measured you know i kind of this was the original length um i really left it how it was the only thing that i changed is i moved aboard here i just think you've done a great job with almost no weight super simple build uh really pretty just nice little touches of color here and there yeah well insulated really really good job thanks it's been fun i've loved almost every minute of it i hated the insulation but everything else was very fun to do good good good so jamie thank you so much for sharing your home with us it was really really good i think you've got got some great ideas and people be inspired so everyone out there thanks for watching and take some of these lessons to heart and you can do it too so until next time like us on youtube and subscribe to the channel see you later [Music] you

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 202,110

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Fill-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, solo, single, woman, hightop

Id: arUe540Kqfc

Length: 14min 49sec (889 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2017