VAN TOUR · Solo Female's Tiny Home in a Vintage Van

Hi guys, my name is Sarah and I thought that this week I would finally get around to doing a full van tour of my beloved home, Eva. A vintage van from the 90s and I have been living out of this rig for the last five years and haven't done a full tour so I thought I'd finally showcase all of her fun features and cozy corners that have made her so so livable for me throughout all the seasons. I also share this space with two cats and one dog and so thankfully for this chapter of my life I'm staying on a piece of property where everyone's able to roam about in the daytime and come back here for a safe space. Also this was a DIY build, built it myself. I do have a video that dives deeper into that but this one's going to emphasize how I'm able to live out of her on a Eva is a 1991 Ford E350 with the infamous 73 liter diesel engine. It's an IDI not a turbo which is honestly perfect for my style of travel. On top of that these engines have a reputation of being in the million mile club and she's literally a tank. Her quality has held up through time proving to be a great foundation for my build. I found Eva on Craigslist and back then she was actually built out to be a shuttle bus for the Charlotte airport. I immediately named her after the girl robot off of Wall-E. She was the one searching for signs of natural life on earth and before I painted her they also had a matching color scheme. But anyways she only had about 7,000 original miles, very low for a 73 diesel. She was stored in an airplane hanger for a long while so I did have to put work into her in order to get her back up and running but since then I've taken her all over the country. I've put about 60,000 miles on her. She has an extended fiberglass high top that is double walled with steel roll bars and insulation in between and the roof holds 400 watts of solar and a max air fan which is great to still be able to run in the rain. One of her features on her exterior that I really like is the bus door. I love the simplicity of it as well as the steps for entry. It sort of feels like a glamorous carriage as I walk in and after you walk in you can take your shoes off and they can go straight into the shoe basket. I put some simple hooks here to hang anything like keys or hats and these heavy duty magnets have been great as a movable coat rack. Upon entry you first see the captain's seat and this is my command station with all the fun controls to get her revved up and running. This is what the dash looked like when they made it for the airport and I thought it fun to keep the switches since it makes me feel like I'm operating a spaceship of some sort. There's something so nostalgic about these manual windows and I think it's because growing up in the 90s my dad had a pickup truck with these similar features so it definitely brings me back. Next we go straight into the all-in-one living area. Overall I wanted the van to be as open as possible so I didn't separate the cab from the den. I wanted as much flow and functionality and especially natural lighting so I think it somewhat imbues this. I've really enjoyed this little home. So you can see cabinets lying both sides on the top and I have counter space on either side as well and then in the back there is the bedroom slash lounge with a convertible bed to office setup. Honestly it has an ample amount of space for me to even have a stand-up desk option which is something that was kind of high on the list of one of the features I wanted in here. I'm about five foot four and from the ceiling to the floor is about six foot two if I remember and it's just it's nice being able to stand up to be honest and I also have the step back here which I still can stand without hitting my head and I think it's like five eight from here to the top of the step. So the hallway is long enough and wide enough for me to stretch and get a decent workout in. You would be surprised how creative you can get with occupying small spaces. In reality we really don't need much space as long as you can make it multi-purposeful. Let's dive deeper into the kitchen space. I love cooking and the creativity in it so I spend a lot of time in this general workspace often making tasty meals treats and smoothies. So with that being said I need a lot of space to spread out so I ended up going with a 10 foot butcher block countertop and I put about six feet from the drivers back to this section and I have a little over two feet on top of this storage box and then of course the remainder is on the slider which I use every day for prepping or just for sitting here and eating and yeah this is just a lofty amount of counter space and I really can't emphasize enough how much depth it brings to the area. Having the ability to stretch out and just be versatile has always been very important so yeah. Let's go look at the cabinets up top. So these two cabinets above are dedicated solely to the kitchen. This one here mainly houses my cups, bowls, coffee and tea section and then also my spice cabinet. Okay so the name of the game when you're living in a mobile dwelling is that you want to be able to dampen the amount of rattling that occurs when you're driving and so for the most part I have these cabinet liners inside in between any things that can rattle and so that is very helpful. There are four little holes in this box for my cups and what I also did here is I have a larger cup and a smaller cup and in between is just a koozie so that's a little trick there and okay so we've got the kettle, the pour over, I've got my coffee. I like to do a cacao and you've got honey right here and then just some extra things in the back. I'm really stoked about this spice cabinet. I found it on a clearance sale for like 10 bucks. It basically is able to house about 30 different spices and I have them all labeled quite nicely and yeah so that's a fun find. I also have everything on shocks which keep the face frame up when I'm going through here and then I put these magnetic catches on in order to make sure it stays closed when I'm driving and you have to put a decent amount of force in order to open it if you know I'm driving and I hit a bump but things aren't gonna just crash out. Okay so this cabinet over here, this is just the dry goods pantry. I would consider this is kind of what I need to access frequently so I've got sauces, nuts and beans and some dehydrated sea moss and I've got coconut oil and peanut butter. These baskets are really great because I can just you know if I need to like check and see what I'm getting I can just pull it out and they stay. I have a liner of cork underneath which is really nice it keeps everything in place as well and it just kind of looks more aesthetically pleasing. A flower, I've got dog and cat treats and yeah so then you kind of come down and I just kind of have some decor here. My sign board that I have barely ever changed. I probably should change it for the holidays or something like that. I also have the hooks where if I am working for instance and I need to like hang things I can use this guy and then I also have my little reading light so that's there. Oh of course my blender. This was my main concern about my electricity was making sure that I had enough power in order to power my blender. I really love smoothies and juicing and this was like a big must-have in here. So also surprisingly this has like suction suction bits on the bottom and it keeps it from ever falling. It's amazing actually so that lives there. I normally do keep my cooktop right here. I wanted to open up the space today and store it away but it's pretty simple to just set right back up. Of course you've got your slider, my fridge down here. This is a 12 volt nova cool fridge and it has a small section up top for a freezer and it provides a generous amount of storage in the rest of the fridge area. The black exterior also nicely matches the sink, my blender, and accents the cabinet handles as well. This is my little garden box. I normally keep sprouts in here when I'm growing them but right now I just have a water bottle, essential oil diffuser, and some oil. I also like to keep green onions and cilantro in a little mason jar in here when when I can. I've got my fruit basket which is sadly empty right now. I need to go get some more bananas and other things. Oh yes okay so I do have a bunch of hanging plant baskets. I have three in total. One, two, three, but I don't have my plants with me. I'm sad to say. I cannot ensure their survival during this winter time. I normally drive to warmer weather but I've kept them alive for a long time. They did die so I actually don't have them anymore. So come springtime we'll double check and you know maybe refill them but for now they work great as like a cup holder. I can put I can put a cup in there and it stays pretty well. Back behind here I also have the food bag that I use to go into the grocery store with and I will actually use it as a storage for potatoes, onions, and garlic. That is a nice little root cellar and this is the table also the platform that goes into the bed which I'll show you in just a minute. But I guess I should talk to you about my sink which is one of my favorite features. Here's a little bowl for my soap and scrubby and over here is the sink. It has a copper faucet. Let's just come down and talk a little bit about this cabinet here. Under here is the cabinet under the sink and so you normally have cleaning supplies. Here's my little hand vacuum. This I use almost every day. It's really a lifesaver. A little trash can, Dr. Bronner's, almond scent. This is just a vinegar spray and then behind the trash can is some more cleaning supplies. In the back is my propane tank that powers my cooktop and there is a little window so it can vent out and above that is some bottle brushes and my duster and over here and of course let's talk about the whole sink faucet setup. This is a foot pump. You normally put your foot here and water will just come straight out of the faucet from up top and it goes down straight into this gray water bucket which is about two gallons. I was so burnt out at the end of my build that I didn't feel like getting into finding a water tank mounted underneath and running the wiring for an electric pump so I just decided to go with a very simple route which is a foot pump sink and I can say after five years I clearly have not upgraded just because of how convenient and easy it is and the amount of water that I save has been probably pretty high up there. I also like the concept of things not freezing. If I was to run a tank underneath the van I definitely would deal with freezing pipes and so this is really simple. So I just take this out and I will dump it. I normally always just use something that's biodegradable so this is mainly just sink water and then brushing my teeth and this is actually a very simple faucet as well. I didn't even solder it. It's just some food grade tubing that goes from the water tank and through the foot pump and up to the faucet. So there's that. It's so simple and it works great. I don't have hot water that comes from here but when I do have my cooktop up here I will use my kettle and use that for hot water which is pretty convenient. So I'm pretty happy with this setup. I think that if I was to do a different build I would definitely incorporate this. So I probably should show you where I keep the water storage and that is going to be in this cabinet over here. So let's see. I store the fresh water underneath this cabinet. It is attached with this strap here and I normally keep two of these six gallon cans. I personally have found removable water tanks to be the simplest method for refilling because I honestly had a harder time finding hose connections than I did water dispensers when traveling. I mostly would find them inside grocery stores so this system works well for me. When you open up the other door you have a hook with my cutting boards and then underneath you can see all of the items that I keep down there. Here are just kitchen supplies. I've got pots and pans. I've got my omnia oven and then here is my propane cooktop. It's a double burner. Back behind are just some food storage containers, protein powder, cretine, and then other attachments for my blender. So I could probably make this cabinet a little bit more efficient if I put some shelves but I mean there's a ton of space in here. I could fit in here and yeah it's great. Up top is my very large drawer. I'll show you. It's on a latch so you have to unlock it here. Hey buddy, do you want some treats? Let me get you some treats. Okay there's Chester eating his treats and then let me show you my extremely large drawer. Okay so everything on the right is mainly just utensils and things that I need in the kitchen and then everything on the left is electronics and it opens up even more. I have just random things. It's like a junk drawer but it's kind of organized. I have my laptop here and it doesn't ever move and then underneath here there are just a bunch of tools and pens and things of that nature. And you can see it's winter because I keep a bunch of rugs down also. Okay so that pretty much sums up the whole kitchen area. I am going to move on to the bedroom. At first you notice it is a u-shaped seating area and I'm also standing on a step up that underneath is a drawer. Take this like that. This comes off. It's pretty simple. So this is more of like an office-y kind of drawer. A printer, important papers, and just extra electronic-y things. A little camera and it stays quite nicely like so. This that I had to take off was this is where the hot air comes out of my heater. This is nice. It puts me right at eye level to my clothing cabinets which I have on either side. Clothing bags. This is just a bunch of my clothes. Oh and then the magnetic catch, of course very important. My absent plant holder. And on the other side this one here is actually somewhat empty because this is where Chi Chi and sometimes Chester like to come and cozy up and hang out. I do not close it on them but yeah I always leave it open and I don't worry because these are super strong and they will not close on them either. Of course when we're driving I don't let them stay in there. And yeah fan. These cabinets back here come out about an inch mainly because in this area I'm just going to be sitting down and not really moving around so much so I just wanted to point that out. This little distinction it's it's nice to have that extra extra storage but let's let's understand how this whole bed setup situation works. So I can sleep comfortably if I wanted to this way. It's almost like it's a little bit wider than a twin bed. I have a lot of pillows which is actually kind of important I think for your coziness. Nice tummy chewy or coziness. You can also come over here and move this little pet bed and lay this way. And this is pretty long as well. This is definitely skinnier than from wall to wall but yeah this is Max's bed. It was the cat's but he he pretty much loves this little donut and he has this whole section normally when when it's time for sleepy time that gets right there. And then of course we have the option to extend this whole bed area so let me get the platform from that. Okay so this is the table slash platform. So most people are familiar with the lagoon table mount which essentially turns this into a table but I also have these hinges right here and some sliders and I'll go more in depth on these guys but this is what it looks like when we turn it into a platform for the rest of the bed. So now that hinge section makes sense because it kind of just closes this off and it just makes it look a little nicer. And now we take Chester and his cushion and we stick them. He's a heavy big boy. Now we have a full-size bed area and this was a queen mattress. I took two layers of latex, a soft and a hard, and I had to cut them up based off how the storage was down here. So you can see these are the custom cushion covers and I've got two different foam pieces in there. Okay and now we have a lot of space here. What do you think Chester? It is quite spacious when the table is down and I do like the ability to stretch out. Honestly I couldn't imagine not having all of these options when it comes to my bed setup, especially when my partner comes for a visit or when I just want to be cozy and just pile up all the warm blankets and make a nice hibernation nest. Versatility really does help small spaces not feel too cramped which is why having the option to turn this area into productive mode is also nice. Oh while I'm here I will show you where I keep all the bedding. Chester would like to show you what's in there and how you open up this storage box. I also have 12 volt outlets and the 120 right here. So this is the linen box. All of the sheets, duvet covers, and extra blankets live under here like so. And I don't undo the bed every day. Many times I will just leave the comforter and sheets out and just make the back portion of the bed but again it's nice to have the option of clearing out the bedding in order to have a change up and distinguish the area from rest and work. It was fun creating this table. I took an oak piece of plywood, measured and cut to dimension, and then added all the hardware. The mount, the sliders, and the hinges. Assembling doesn't take too long. It's kind of a nice ritual to transition the energy to be honest. The swivel feature of the table allows me to work from any part of the lounge and depending on where I'm parked I can shift my perspective and position myself based off of which window has the best view. I can choose to have the table extended with the sliders or just leave it static so besides the lounge, a bed, and an office, general storage is yet another purpose for this space. So this is kind of like the basement I guess. Let's bring it closer. I've got a bunch of seasonal clothes over here and in this basket different papers and books. Random things like paints, paint brushes, and extra toiletries, more water wipes, a bunch of vitamins under there, and then this is just some extra canned goods and stuff that I just have on deck. But oh yeah, over here is my 120 inverter and it's separated by this little plywood piece. So yeah, that is essentially everything in my basement. So this storage box houses all things electrical. 200 amp hours of lithium batteries powered by the 400 watts of solar through a 40 amp solar charge controller is my basic setup. Everything is fused and I also don't run any wiring behind my walls in case I need to access them for maintenance in the future. I also keep my heater stored in here as well. This is my toiletry slash self-care cabinet and I will give you a little rundown of how this is organized. Towels are all on the left. Of course you cannot live without baby wipes and a mirror that flips down and illuminates. Most of the items in here are stored in these clear bins from moisturizers, medicines, face and hair care, a toothbrush box. It's really nice to keep things open and in clear containers for easy access. This is just a fresh water spray, cotton pads, makeup, q-tips, and all things general toiletries. So instead of a half or a full bath, this is a quarter bath setup. I've got my powder room slash self-care cabinet and no toilet or shower. So I used to have a compost toilet in this box but I actually took everything out and I now just have it for animal food. I mainly just use the facilities of wherever I'm parked. So if I'm at a gym when I'm traveling, I'll use those. If I'm at a campground or if I'm staying at a property for a long term, I will use the facilities there. But if it was my preference, I would shower in nature at all times. But who does have a bathroom in here actually are the kitties. Oh this is just a little catch-all basket for the animals toys. But here is where I keep the kitty box which is honestly rarely used since they mainly use the outdoors for the bathroom. I also keep my extension cord stored here if I ever need to plug into the grid. I installed these full-length blackout curtains in the cab area and they're pretty thick material so they add an extra insulation barrier. And they're similar to the magnetic curtains I made for all the windows in the back as well. If you put all the curtains up and some noise canceling headphones in, you would never know you were parked in a loud city. Not that I frequent cities often though. Oh yeah so above this I have a couple hooks screwed into the steel roll bars and this is how I'm able to hang my hammock which is the perfect reading nook. And I can also extend it to the side so when I open the doors I have an extra hangout spot. There are things stored everywhere in here and so under the driver's seat I've squirreled away a spotlight, a battery charger, a voltmeter, a fire extinguisher, a portable fire pit, and even a tire compressor. So there is a lot of space underneath of the driver's seats. Okay so there's also some space back behind the shoe baskets. So I've got like a yoga mat, here's a camping chair, and a ton of fluids for the engine. So oil, I've got transmission fluid, brake fluid, coolant. Yeah that's all behind the shoe basket but you'll just have to take my word for it. I think there are just a couple more things I want to show you and they're outside so let's go. Through these double doors I extended the flooring with a hidden toolbox. You just slide the bench box forward a tad and can access all of my tools through this hinged section. Storage of the tank from a heater is also conveniently accessed from these doors as well. I designed and built Eva to keep me comfortable, self-sufficient, and close to nature all with the option of keeping me mobile and able to migrate when and if I need to. And after all this time I think I've really enjoyed the journey despite the challenges of learning to live with glass. Creating a home in this tiny space has really been a fun project. So that's pretty much it guys. Thanks so much for tuning in and it is clearly dinner time so I'll catch y'all on the next one.