She Built Her Dream Tiny Home on Wheels - Solo Female Van Life.jpg

My social life dried up and I had time to do a build. So I started looking for a van to buy in 2020 when COVID hit. And I thought it was going to take me three months to do the build. LOL. Overall, I love the space. I love that I have space to sit and work and have friends over. But the other reason why I sleep with my head here is because if I'm in the city and I'm street parked. Welcome to my kitchen. I knew that I wanted to have a large amount of counter space, and I also knew that I did not want my sink to be in front of the door because I wanted to be able to sit on my couch and look out. And I wanted to be able to cook with the door open and vent out the door. So with the sink back here, I knew I wanted a long countertop. When I started the build, I was looking for a countertop solution that was unique, and I found this plank of wood in the top of my dad's barn. He actually bought it before I was born to do a project he didn't get around to. And he gave it to me, and now it's part of my van. And I also wanted an upright refrigerator. This one fits really well right here because of the wheel well. So it can't go back any further. Then I had enough space to put in a pantry drawer and also stacked these three drawers here for miscellaneous items and things like that. But what I like the best about this middle drawer here is my two burner camp stove fits in it perfectly. I chose to go with the camp stove for the first year because I wasn't fully committed to needing an oven. I mostly just use burners to cook, and I didn't want to give up all the storage space. But when I built these drawers here, I made sure they were wide enough that I could retrofit an oven into this space if I ever decided that that was something I did want to do. This cabinet up here is where I store all of my dry goods. I have these awesome tension rods from Amazon that help hold everything in. This was another thing that I added after the first year because if you hit a couple of rough roads and then you go to open your cabinet, everything comes out at you at the same time. And the shelf is actually movable. So I have these pegs that I can move it up and down depending on what I've got stored up here. And then right here, I also have a mirror, which is another thing I added recently. It just makes it so much easier to get ready in the morning so I can just set up all my makeup here and get ready right there. And it's easy to set up and tear down and put everything away and keep it clean. Welcome to my living room. This space, I wanted to be in the front of the van opposite my slider door, so that way when I was sitting here working, I could look out. I also wanted it to be somewhat longer, so that way I had space for a guest bed. It does actually pull out. This is 60 inches. Fits most people, but my front driver's seat also swivels backwards to kind of create a longer space for somebody to sleep. Underneath it is open storage, too, so the storage runs the whole way through so I can fit longer things underneath there. Everything else is kind of if you had something really long, you wouldn't have anywhere to store it. So that's where that goes. And then above it is an aftermarket window that I installed. And my favorite thing about that actually is last year I put in just a pull down blind, which is so easy to pull up to camp at night, pull the blind down, and then everything is kind of private. And then up here is just additional open storage. It's a lot of extras, dog treats, that kind of thing. And then I didn't have enough storage after the first year, so I also added these shelves, which are great because they hold everything in, so I don't have to worry about it falling off. And just miscellaneous things that I keep up here to just grab really quickly. Overall, I love the space. I love that I have space to sit and work and have friends over. Two things I would change, I would not have as narrow of a galley. I'd make it a little bit wider. And I'd also make the opening out the slider door a little bit wider, too. It's hard to come in with a lot of groceries and things like that with shorter space. I started looking for a van to buy in 2020 when COVID hit and my social life dried up and I had time to do a build. And Mercedes was out of my price range and Ram at that time was having some weird transmission issues, so Ford it was. I found it at a local dealer close to where my parents live, which is where I was doing the build and spent about $45,000 on it, but that was 2020 pricing. I thought it was going to take me three months to do the build. LOL. It took me a year and a half, but I was also working full time and I had never done anything like that before. So I say like 50% of the time I spent building was researching just on the computer, trying to figure out what type of wood to use, what type of pot water heater to put in, what refrigerator do I want? All of those things. So a year and a half tip to tip to get it all done. And about $25,000, but I didn't keep track perfectly, but it's somewhere between the 20 and 30,000 range. This is the shower slash toilet room that really is more of just storage. I originally built a shower because I was planning to live and work full time in my van and I thought I would need a shower. The reality is I've used it twice. The entire shower is made out of RFP to waterproof the walls and then the bottom is DIY fiberglass, which I would not recommend. I actually ended up going over it just with Flex Seal, which is way better, way easier, way cheaper, way faster. And the toilet is an airhead composting toilet. So I knew I wanted a composting toilet because they're just super easy to maintain. I looked at the airhead and the nature's head and I went with the airhead because it actually has a real toilet seat. You don't have to take the lid off to get the liquids out and look at the solids. So it's just, I liked it better. It's been working really well. I've used it for three years now and it's fantastic. Welcome to my garage area. Underneath, I have these really large drawers. They're on 500 pound drawer side, so I can put pretty much anything I want into them and they're very deep. They go the depth of the bed. This one is where I have all of my water. So I have my outdoor shower. My van is capable of carrying 25 gallons of fresh water. And my hot water tank carries another seven. So in total I have 32 gallons. Over here, I have more storage. So things that I use on an almost daily basis when I'm setting up camp, like my camp rug, my yoga mat, my chair, all of that slides right into here for easy access. And then over here in this bench is where my electrical is. So I have 400 Watts of solar on the roof that comes down into 400 amp hours of lithium batteries. And I have a 3000 watt inverter. Which will power basically anything I want. I can run a hairdryer, any cooking appliance and everything I have is Renogy, which was really easy to buy as a kit and install. I wanted a system that I would never have to upgrade. And I've never had to, I've grown into this thing and everything works flawlessly. I was born in upstate New York. I grew up in the same house my entire life and had a very stable home life, which was great. But after college I wanted to travel and explore. So I moved around a bit, um, all along the East coast and ended up in Raleigh, North Carolina. I've been there for over 10 years and then just got the itch to go out West and see what else the U S had. And especially when COVID hit, um, I had really focused on international travel up until that point. But when that kind of got shut down, uh, I started looking at like road trips in the U S and then the road trip turned into a van and then a van turned into three years. So I've seen so much of the U S it's really rewarding. There are still things obviously that I'll always want to do, but um, three years was really, really what it took. I thought it would take a year and three years is what it took to see it the way I wanted to. Welcome to my bedroom. This area I originally built to be a bed at night and a dinette during the day and ultimately never used that function. So it's just a bed now. The bed is a queen size bed. It is made from foam for the cushions for the dinette. And then once I decided I was never going to be using the dinette, I bought another foam topper that goes over the top just for a little bit of extra cushion. The other thing I really love about this space is I have a window here. So a huge window, it's not just a bunk window when I'm laying in bed, I can see it's like I'm sitting on the beach or I'm looking at the mountains. I love it. I also added this cubby over here, which is perfect for like storing my laptop. I have an outlet here so I can charge my phone and things like that at night. And then I also have, um, gooseneck lights. So those are great for reading, not having the overhead lights on. And this fan over here, which is fantastic when having a dog, uh, he usually will find the spot that the fan is on and just sit there. Above the bed I have upper cabinets, which is great for additional clothing storage and things that I need to access on a daily basis. And then also I installed this clothes line so that when I have clothes I need to dry, I just string this across to the other side on the anchor and then I can hang my clothes across the bed while they dry. So when I first got into the van, I actually slept with my head on the passenger side. Um, but I quickly switched to this side. I thought it would be claustrophobic because of the wall here, but I actually really like it. It's kind of cozy. And then I can see out the window. But the other reason why I sleep with my head here is because if I'm in the city and I'm street parked, streets typically slope towards the passenger side. So my head is higher. If my head is on the driver's side, the only thing I would probably do different, uh, I wouldn't have white linens with a dog in a van. When we spend most of our time outside, it is impossible to keep it clean. It wasn't until the third year on the road where I started to really make friendships and start having community where no matter where I went, I knew somebody I could camp up with somebody. And that really helped make the lifestyle feel more sustainable because you had people along the way. And there was a sense of community with that. Um, I would say if I had gone to Baja my first year, uh, for the winter, I think I probably would have tapped into that community a lot faster. It just happens to be where people are in the winter time. So it's easier to make those connections and moving forward. I definitely still want to be on the road and I still see travel being a very big part of my life. It's probably not going to be full time for me, but I think I'll transition into a smaller rig and do something that's three months on nine months off maybe. Um, but still having that sense of community and having the ability to travel and see these cool places in a more in depth and detailed way. If you want to follow my journey, you can follow me on Instagram. I'm at everywhere underscore with underscore Claire, or if you're looking for a van building materials or national park resources, you can check out my website everywherewithclaire.com. Thanks for watching.