Moving in!

Whew!  What a time it has been.  Well, since my last post, we have officially moved into our van.  Out of the apartment and into the VAN!  What a transformation it has been.  If you are seriously considering this lifestyle, be prepared to lose your mind for a bit while you get everything situated.  For a month I just kept walking around in circles in my apartment because I didn’t even know where to begin.  Keep in mind, we don’t even have a large apt, just a small two bedroom.  It was very overwhelming just figuring out what all needed to be packed, what little things we were actually going to take in the van, and what we wanted to store for later.  I know I’ll probably look at the junk in storage later and wonder why I packed it up at all.  We had a big yard sale and sold everything we owned, which wasn’t much, and the stuff we did have wasn’t very nice either.  We ended up making $252 at the yard sale, which was great because it was $252 more than we had before the sale, but also a little depressing because that was our life for so long.  The silver lining though:  materialistic things should not define your life, and making this move has really helped cement that into my brain.  I’m not going to be able to own very much while we live in the van, and I’ve still got some adjusting to do.  We don’t have everything set up how it’s going to be permanently yet, but we are on the right road. 

Life in the van so far:

Right now we’re staying on my parents property so we’re able to adjust to life in the van a little better than if we were just thrown into straight from our apartment.  We’ve been using their shower (we have an outside shower but haven’t set it up yet), and cooking at their place.  We have been sleeping in the van with two of the back windows popped open, with a mosquito net over the windows, because bugs are bad here.  We have three more “major” things to do to the van.  1) we need to get an air conditioner put in, 2) we have to get the solar panels installed on the roof and 3) we have to get the starter looked at, when we try to start the van, it seems to not want to turn over.  We haven’t made a decision about the air conditioner yet.  We would love to put in a roof unit, but that is definitely a costly way to go compared to having a window unit put in the back window.  The roof air units cost upwards of $400.  Plus, they seem to pose more of a problem with possible leaks from the seams.  A back window unit completely kills stealth, but we were planning on having a bike rack on the back anyway, which would have been just as bad.  The window unit will hopefully be easier to install and only cost about $150.  We’re probably going this way.

Time to get serious about blogging!  I have more time to do it now, so here's our progress and so forth:

Our van!

The view of the back of our van; starting the flooring!

Flooring is down.  We're definitely not carpenters by any means, but we did the best we could.  I like the way it turned out.

Our batteries.

Our sink area. 

Our original thought for storage area.  We thought we were going to have more room under the bed, but we didn't.  We ended up not going with this idea either.

Some of these ideas and or things we have added to or changed completely.  Its just a matter of trying things and seeing what works for you.  This has definitely been an experience neither one of us will forget.