Van Life: The most ambitious thing I’ve ever done.

I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I’ve had over the last year, churning through thoughts that won’t stop no matter how much I beg them. The decision to build a small home on wheels was one of the most expensive and all-consuming projects I’ve ever done.

The road trip that started the van life

Fourteen months ago, Kristi and I were on a long road trip. We took several weeks to drive to Michigan and back. Along the way, we’d stop to camp, hike, explore, and enjoy the wild and empty spaces in the midst of a pandemic. We drove Kristi’s beloved truck, which could haul all sorts of camp equipment and navigate rough roads with ease. We were having a blast. But the task of setting up and tearing down camp every day grew tiresome.

So as we traveled, played, and dreamed together, we decided to build a van and live that #vanlife. We had built a greenhouse together. How much harder could a van really be?

Budgeting for the cargo van renovations

We started saving our pennies. We’d need quite a few of them to turn a cargo van into a home. A few months after that, Kristi was hired for a massive project to paint murals and other creative projects for The World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Florida. It was an amazing opportunity. And Kristi, being the entrepreneur that she is, made enough pennies to get our project off the ground.

Construction in the cargo van to make it livable

Like anyone who has decided to tackle a home renovation or a construction project knows, it inevitably takes longer, and costs more, and is harder than you think. Kristi and I bought the van, a 2021 Ram Promaster cargo van, at the end of November. It was two days after Thanksgiving and, oddly enough, also two days after I had emergency surgery to remove kidney stones. Needless to say, that day will remain lodged in my memory like a calcified ball of shrapnel.

Our initial progress was slow. We were not alone in building a van. We were held back by lengthy delays in materials and skyrocketing lumber costs. But slowly and methodically, we began to see things take shape.

Insulation, floors, vents, windows went into the van with a mixture of excitement and fear. It’s a pretty scary task cutting large holes into a brand new vehicle. Then studs, and wiring, and walls went in and the van really began to take shape and have the semblance of being a home, rather than a cargo van.

Electrical systems in van homes

By far the most difficult task was designing and building the electrical system. I spent two months diving through YouTube wormholes of videos about off-grid electrical systems. Most videos were worthless or just plain wrong. But luckily I learned enough to eventually build the electrical system. With great anxiety, I flipped on the first light switch. The amount of relief that it actually worked was staggering.

Once we had a working electrical infrastructure, we could install our walls, water tank and plumbing, build countertops, drawers, and cabinets. After six months of work, things really began to look like a home.

It was a bit of a disappointment to not finish before hitting the road. We still had some exposed insulation and wires, and some unfinished elements. But it would provide us with the opportunity to travel, to see what was working and what we liked, and what we’d want to change before everything was completely buttoned up.

Lessons learned while living in the van

The day of our trip to South Dakota arrived. We packed up the van, stocked our fridge, filled our water tanks, and got ready to drive off. But within minutes of driving out of the driveway, we noticed that our water pump was not working. I frantically tried to troubleshoot the system. It had been working and we had flushed our tank several times before this day. After much cursing and frantic Googling, I discovered an air bubble in water line that was causing the problem. The fix was relatively easy, although not without a large amount of water that needed to be sopped up from the floor.

Sunsets and bliss

Despite the painful learning curve, we have thoroughly enjoyed living in a van. But two months of van life does not make us experts though. There will be many other rookie moments I’m sure.

That being said, Kristi and I are thrilled with the prospects of more travel, more time spent in nature, and being intentional with each day we get to wake up to our sixty square feet of heaven.