VAN TOUR | Sprinter Van Converted to Beautiful Tiny Home for Full-Time VAN LIFE

tomorrow we are finally pulling out of Nate's parents driveway to begin full-time van life but before we do we wanted to give you a complete tour of our new home and show you how everything works we're carrying Nate after traveling internationally for the last four years and visiting a hundred countries 2020 brought us back to the United States of America where we purchased a converted Sprinter van that will be our full-time home as we travel across the u.s. exploring our home country this is a 2014 Mercedes Sprinter van it's the high roof model which means that we can both comfortably stand up inside and it's the 170 inch wheelbase which is the longer of the two the shorter when being 144 this band started is just a regular white cargo van and it was completely converted from scratch by its previous owners Ashley and Adam who we purchased the van from about a month ago so everything that you see inside the van they get 90% of the credit for but with that said we have made several changes and updates to fit our lifestyle and so we'll show you those along the way pretty basic up here the previous owner did install a backup camera which is kind of an eyesore here on the dash but it's pretty nice because it's hard to see out the back when there's this wall right here we have made two big modifications to the cab that we're really excited about we have installed a swivel underneath the passenger seat so now this chair can turn all the way around which will be great when we're parked because before the only place to sit in the van was in the back but if the back was converted into a bed there was nowhere to sit unless to be facing the front leg we were driving and we bought this lap desk never thought I'd be a lot that's kind of person but here we are and I have a feeling that I'm going to be doing a lot of editing in this position so this is kind of like a second office space I'm so excited about this setup also we've installed this headliner shelf because there was so much wasted space up here and when you're living in a place this tiny you really need to take advantage of every single inch but we loved how open it felt in the cab and so we're a little hesitant I'm so glad we went with it because we have so much more storage space now right now we just have our window covers up here but I am sure it will be full stuff in no time come on easy it was totally worth all the effort it took to install this area right here is one of the places that we've done the most work when we bought this van this was just a big open calls it with a small safe down here in the middle and that safe didn't hold all of our expensive electronics that we were traveling with and we needed a more convenient solution so like on that show Extreme Home Makeover where the host had that secret project that he was always working in the background on that's kind of what this has been for me I've installed a safe that's about three times the size and completely customized the inside so I've bought some of that rubber mat that they use for workout floors and I created dividers to hold all of our electronics securely so nothing would bump around while we were driving so up here this top shelf we have our zoom lens we have a place for both of our computers the second shelf is completely devoted to all of our drone stuff and then down here on the bottom we have a place for both of our big cameras when we're not using them it's really easy to access our batteries so we can charge those and then also a spot to hold our GoPro but probably what I'm most excited about is I was able to get a power strip in the back so I actually drilled a hole through the bottom of the safe in order to get that power strip in so now not only is the safe keeping everything secure but it's just a place where all of our electronics can live they can charge because I knew if every time we left the van I had to like gather everything and then put it in the safe we would never do it and so be pointless to have a safe in here but now all of our electronics just have a home inside of that closet so we're doing want this safe to be the first thing that you saw when you walked into the van so we installed this this closet door to cover it up and then we use that as an opportunity to hang a mirror for Cara couldn't find one that fit this area perfectly so we had to buy three separate ones and put them together which which kind of worked as long as I don't mind looking at my body in three separate sections it's kind of like being in a carnival in one of those fun houses the mirror warps your body and then down here where the old safe used to be we've installed a this was one of like the big things that we learned when we took that little test trip for a few days was that we had no place to store our pots and pans without stacking them on top of everything else so like if you wanted to get a cutting board out of the drawer you had to take every pot and pan out I literally had one of our frying pans in the cabinet with our bedding it was like sheets blanket Frank and I love my drawer and then we just left this bottom area down here the same because we thought it'd be nice just to be able to like kick off our shoes and throw in some way and I think this will just kind of turn into like this catch-all storage area Cera's vacuum cleaners already made it right here we go today it is if you've watched many of our accommodations videos last few years you may have noticed that bathroom tours have kind of become I think definitely the best view from the toilet I've ever had so I'm very excited to give you a tour of our bathroom the toilet is in the shower well so stretching this is a nature's head composting toilet and if you saw our last video you'll know that the liquids go in these front two holes and empty into this tank and when it's full but not too full feel like we shouldn't have filled it up all the way oh there's pee we take this out and dump it somewhere and then for these solids you open up this back compartment with this little lever do your solids in there close it and then stir it around a few times with this thing which stirs up the peat moss that is down there which literally decomposes any of the solids that go in there then the previous owners told us that in about three weeks if we're living in here full-time that should fill up and then you dumped it in a trash bag and since it's compost you can just put it in a new trash can and then on the other side of the toilet there's a vent with a fan that is sucking all of the air out and so it's supposed to never smell bad so I've heard we haven't actually put the back compartment to use yet oh and then for the front part when you're done you spray this vinegar and that's supposed to reduce the smell as well but just in case I bought some poo pourri and then on this side is our shower we haven't actually taken a proper shower in here yet I accidentally shower my clothes on the other day but we have a 40 gallon water tank in a two and a half gallon water heater so if we want to take a hot water shower only we'll have to turn it on get wet turn it off lather up turn it back on rinse we have a five gallon gray water tank than meet this so this is the tank and when it fills up you just have to crawl under here and empty it out with your face not so close yeah place this off yeah I've been sitting there for a little walk across from the bathroom is our kitchen we have a two burner stove that runs off a ten gallon propane tank under the sink so there's our propane tank we have some cleaning stuff here and behind this tank and you take it out here you see it we've just installed this water purifier back here so our water tank we just fill up with the hose pipe and regular hose pipe water comes out to sink and then if we were if I'd water we use this the previous owners didn't have one of these and like they're fine they're still alive but we just want to have to worry about the water the way our drinking we also installed this paper towel holder and we got the one that has this resistance so our paper towels weren't always unraveling but unfortunately they didn't really work as planned so we've made this makeshift rope weight thing that works for now we have three drawers in the kitchen and all of our drawers have these leather tabs instead of handles and we weren't sure how we felt about these at first but then I realized I'm not gonna have bruises on my legs for the rest of our van life from knocking of all the handles so he's really great we also have these locks on all the drawers so when we're driving these aren't just sliding in and out all the time in this drawer I have my blender a cup and our melamine dishes that look nice if they won't break in this drawer I have one more smoothie cup some kitchen towels our coffee cups our wine cups and some cutting boards this is the drawer where I was trying to fit all of those other pots and pans and I'm just so happy with how clean and easy this is now so getting used to this in this drawer we have our cutlery in just all of our other kitchen tools we've also put a little hook right here for a hand towel and just like the shower there's a separate 5 gallon gray water tank underneath the van on this side that catches all of the water coming from the sink and last but not least is our fridge there's not much in here right now mostly chocolate and bubbly water it has a little freezer compartment it's probably not what we would have chosen we would like something a little bit bigger but it wasn't really worth redoing this entire cabinet just for a little bit bigger fish but it'll there's no and continuing in the kitchen this is our main pantry cabinet I have this double spice rack that's holding all my spices in place so they don't fall over a wardriving one thing that we learned on our test trip is that pretty much every time I open this up something fell on my face and so this basket has solved that problem at least for now and this has kind of become my favorite corner of the whole van the previous owners had a TV here and we don't watch a lot of TV and we're nervous that if there was one in here then we would start watching it all the time so we took that out and instead we put this beautiful hanging plant right here to cover up the hole that the TV made we got this super cute bluetooth speaker and in general it's just given us so much more space right here this is an extra like chopping station when we're cooking we could stand here and work if we wanted to and I just think it's so pretty over here it's kind of turned into like our drink station as well as you can see we've installed a wine rack which you'll see why this is important in the future and up here we have some more baskets with more draped stuff these all of our healthy smoothie goodies we have our green juice protein powder and most importantly a coffee basket we love coffee and for the last four years we've had to drink just whatever coffee is available which can be hit or miss so since we officially have a home now we went all out on our coffee set up we have a 6 cup glass Chemex which is totally not practical for van life we really wanted it anyway he's a hand grinder which cries the perfect amount of beans for our Kim X and probably the thing that we are most excited about our water kettle oh this is so nerdy but not only is it beautiful but it's super functional as well when you turn it on you can tell it the exact temperature you want it to boil your water to and then it will hold it at that temperature totally not necessary but super exciting for us we are so excited about them fit what's next underneath our drink station is our toiletry drawer I've put all these little bins to organize everything and all of this is mine and I've left this one for Nate these bottom two drawers are for our clothes this one's Nate this one's mine and what's crazy is the size of this drawer is pretty much the size of our entire suitcase that we've been living out of for the last four years I feel like most people when they move into a van are downsizing but we can't believe how much space we have like this is only half of my clothes other half are in this cabinet I got these little drawer organizers and turned them vertically just to add a little bit of separation and Nate I filled mine up yeah so if it looks like we've been sweating a little bit during this tour that's because this man has no a/c and the main way of cooling it is this max air fan which we've had turned off because it's a little loud and the way it works is it's a suction fan so when we open the vents on the windows outside it sucks the air inside and creates a surprisingly good airflow to keep the van nice and cool for the most part but one of my least favorite things in the world is sweating while I sleep so we installed two extra fans in here with a little bit of extra effort which was not easy but totally worth it the thing that makes you spin super nice for the van is that they use very little power they provide a lot of air and you can rotate them 360 degrees so you pretty much get air anywhere you are in the van but we specifically placed them right here because this is where we're going to be spending a lot of time this is the dining room slash office this table is about to get fixed once in Pearl if you missed our renovation video when we originally bought this man this tape was super wobbly and set really low and so what we did was we and now after almost catching the van on fire it is nice and sturdy this table also comes off in this whole area converts into a bed but before we show you how that works I want to show you what's under each one of these benches underneath this left bench is pretty much completely devoted to water this is where we have our big forty gallon freshwater tank back here we have our two and a half gallon hot water heater and then this is the water pump that actually moves all the water to the sink and to the shower the really nice thing about having such a big freshwater tank is that it lasts for a really long time we've been living on and off in this van for a week now and we've yet to have to refill that water tank and then over here on this side if I move the table under the right side of the bench we have storage in the front for things that we don't plan on using very often because that is extremely annoying to get to and then the back half is all devoted to our power our van is completely solar powered by three 100 watt panels that we have on the roof so if we have enough Sun we can exist indefinitely off the grid and all this stuff down here is what allows us to do that so underneath here you can only see one of them right now but we have four 100 and our batteries then we have a bunch of cords understand what about half of these two and then this is our 2000 watt inverter I had no clue what an inverter was before I bought this van three weeks ago but we've been having a lot of trouble with it recently and so now I have a decent understanding of how it works and from what I understand our van is able to charge via solar but it's also able to charge if it's just like plugged into a house or an outlet and this inverter takes the 120 watt power that comes from a house and then it turns it into 12-volt power which is what the batteries run off of and so this enables those batteries to charge from being plugged into a house and then it also works the opposite way since the batteries are 12-volt your normal household plugs run off 110 to 120 volts so an order from the power to be usable for the batteries to these outlets they have to be and this makes it possible to run outlets also don't quote me on any of that stuff but it's been pretty fun to learn about how how all of this works you sounded like you know you were talking about and then in this very messy cabinet right here we kind of have the brains that control all the electronics you saw down below this is our fuse box this little thing right here goes to the inverter so that we don't have to crawl under that bench to turn it up on and off anytime we want to over here we have a cell phone booster that may or may not be working and then this is our charge controller which I don't fully understand but based on this little picture up here it takes the power from the solar panels and puts it into the battery and then turns it into a light bulb now we're going to put the entire dining room back together and show you how we can burn it into our bedroom honestly going into bed mode is a little inconvenient we're still getting the hang of it but I think it's totally worth having this awesome workspace during the day let's do this first thing we have to do is take the top of the table off the stand all right so you like press this little button down loosen it this way I think just kind of wiggle it and set that here for now and then we take the stand off and it works the same way there we go and then you wiggle this off put it on the ground and then this table goes between the cushions to act as support and then we have an extra piece right here that just lives underneath this cushion it goes at the bottom all right so that's really the hardest part from here it gets a little easier so we take these side cushions they squeeze down into the middle a little tricky though it's a little bit easier Nate's helping me and not tell me what that right something I really could make it look what he harder than it really is it's really not that bad and conveniently all of our bedding fits well most of it not our pillows most of our bedding fits right here surprisingly this is pretty much a king bed just four inches short of a king so we have king sheets to put on here quite on the line filming this section topsheet Charlie will get better this is time and quit I really like this quote we found it's a linen blend so it's pretty lightweight but it's still very warm and rolls up surprisingly small this is my contribution to the bed making and then five maybe ten minutes later we have a vent it's not the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in but after traveling full time the last four years and sleeping in like a million different beds playing strains busses we can pretty much sleep anywhere back by our pillows we conveniently have two outlets and two USB ports on both sides of the bed and this little night light switch turns on the slide right above our bed and then in the front of the van there's another switch that turns on all the other lights our windows are pretty tinted so doing the day it feels private in here but at night when the lights are on it's like we're in a fish tank and everyone can see exactly what we're doing so we're storing all the window covers right here behind the driver's seat the previous owner made these and the back ones just are magnet and pop right on and they attach to the side ones with velcro but instead we took the velcro off and we had Nate's mom so in these promised then we added these little hooks on top of the window just last night we glued these washers on the bottom of the window and glued these magnets on the bottom and I honestly don't know if they work yet before these would just kind of hang like this and they still didn't feel very private but now they I just think these look so much better than big velcro things sticking here all the time now no one can watch asleep and that about wraps it up for the inside okay last and probably actually least is the trunk area of the car we're pretty much just using it for storage the previous owners had these shoe bags back here and we thought all of those are kind of ugly we'll take those off for sure but then we just kind of started putting random stuff back here and it's really helpful for organizing all the little things that we don't know where to put in the van like sunscreen bug spray cleaning supplies and then all of the big stuff that we needed to store kind of goes in this trunk area right here I guess the only like interesting thing back here is this is where we fill up our our 40 gallon water tank somehow it connects inside the van and that's about it we're storing a two-person sleeping bag back here because one thing that our van is missing is a heater and I know I could install one but I started researching and it looks like a lot of work I'm sick of working on the van and I'm ready to start traveling so this is gonna do for now honestly the heater thing to me isn't that big of a deal I'm super happy with this van but after we bought it I did realize that there's one huge thing missing so there's this little groove up here on the roof and this is where the roof rails are supposed to be but they weren't installed before the van was built out so now there's no way to attach the roof rails without tearing out the ceiling which means that unless I tear out the ceiling we can't put a roof rack on top of the van honestly I don't need to store anything on the roof so it's really not that big a deal I just thought it would be cool like that was kind of a bummer way to end our van tour her bed few weeks have been really really special for us turning this place into a home because we haven't had a home in four years and I love it so much we are hitting the road full-time tomorrow and we cannot be more excited we can't wait to share this next chapter with you oh I hit the eject of the dark power button Oh first time for everything nate is this middle one the one that's kind of broken I broke it I'm sorry I have a feeling my clothes wind up over there as well convenient so you've taken all the toiletries all the clothes space having all this space is dangerous I will fill whatever space I have also this is like love you see how weird the color of the sky is today but apparently there is a dust cloud that has blown from the Sahara Desert in Africa and that's why it's hazy today in Tennessee in the United States crazy and windy [Applause] King Philip I don't think that was gonna happen [Music]

Channel: Kara and Nate

Views: 3,217,196

Rating: 4.9099774 out of 5

Keywords: van life, van tour, van conversion, tiny house, off grid, camper van, van life vlog, living in a van, tiny house on wheels, van life tour, tiny home, van life build, sprinter van conversion, van build, camper van conversion, vanlife tour, tiny home on wheels, van life conversion, off grid living, travel, travel vlog, vlog, travel couple, couple vlog, husband and wife, husband and wife vlog, tiny home vlog, off grid tiny home, off grid tiny house, van with shower

Id: C_yxhmenP78

Length: 24min 34sec (1474 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Albort]

making that bed every night... i think i would leave it as a bed forever... lol

[u/[deleted]]

I just don’t feel like I can relate to them anymore. Something changed and I don’t see the same two people that I enjoyed so much.

[u/[deleted]]

I’m trying to stop watching these two. Watching Trent and Allie instead.

[u/Aa_ron204]

Imagine what happens on the bed