July 5, 2015–A number of people asked to hear more of and see photos of our van, which I showed some blogs ago. Here are more photos. The van is an ongoing project, always looking for ways to improve.
Why, just yesterday we had to purchase four new tires. The tires of the van were older and somewhat dry-rotted. The van had sat some before we purchased, and the tires were older. Feels great to have the new ones on now and be safe for upcoming adventures.
We are very comfortable living in our new home.
Let me tell you of some aspects of the van we live and travel in. I built a seat that is six feet in length. The top lifts by way of hinges and there is storage under. On the other side is a shorter version of the same, and I put in a mechanism that makes lifts the top into a tabletop so that we can sit on the other side and work or have meals on the tabletop.
The back rest for the seat lifts out to be placed between the seating/table area to make a full size bed. We have a memory foam mattress that is used for seating/backrest, and then this is then laid out to turn into our bed. This memory foam is very comfortable as a seat or a bed; we sleep well.
The kitchen area is in the back of the van. This can be accessed from the inside or the outside with the doors open wide (when you are using it from the outside.) As the doors are open, I installed a tabletop on each door that folds down to use in cooking.
Cooking utensils and cookware are mounted on the doors and backside of the van. We also will have a water tank and pump for the sink that I installed into the kitchen area. And, this same nozzle will be used at back of the van to take showers.
We have a small cooler to hold our refrigerated items like fresh salad stuff. We get ice about once a day to various fast food places for free. Later, after I install the solar panels and battery system, we will purchase a small refrigerator.
You can walk from the front driving/seating area to the back easily. There is storage in each bed, and also in overhead cupboards that came with the van. Being a conversion van, it is a little wider than most vans.
There is a skylight on each side, under the skylight I built a shelf that holds a one foot long planter, secured down; there are three planters. In these planters we are growing much lettuce, spinach and cilantro. So, a moving vegetable garden travels with us. In the future we will be growing more and other things (the banana tree will look fabulous growing out of the top of the van.)
Solar power will be upcoming, along with a refrigerator and TV. So, all the comforts of any home I can think of. In fact, we are already more comfortable in this than any home we remember.
The smaller you can make the “things” in your life, the better life will be, I have found.
For the yucky stuff—I have an empty quarter galloon court milk container with a screw on lid to use for when I have to release some of that yellow stuff. In fact, I have kept one in the car for years for such needs while on the road. This is a recommendation to you? Tina sent away for that that is for ladies to use. We do use bathrooms when we can, though. For the brown stuff, we have always found a place when we need to, but we do have a fold up seat for that.
As far as kitchen, we have all we need. For the small cooler, we often stop at a fast food place and get ice for it. We mainly keep fresh salad things in there.
We do eat well.
If you have any questions about our van/home send them my way, I will be happy to let you know.
