Taking the Van Leap

The #vanlife quickly became a social media movement, for various and pretty obvious reasons- it's cool, it's adventurous, and it's different from the norm. Many Instagram pages and youtube channels contain videos and testimonial blog posts about how they left their corporate jobs and became van dwellers. Although our story is a little different, my husband and I took the leap and we got a van! Here's why, what we plan on doing, and how we're doing it.

Ever since my husband and I met, it's been obvious that we weren't going to settle down easily. We are in no way opposed to it and know that we will eventually find the right place for us to nest in permanently or at least longer than three months. But for now, we're still inspired by the freedom of movement. Seasonal jobs have been common for Florian, and the past two years have been a constant state of moving and changing for me.

We got married in December and have wanted to make a home together without having to commit to a piece of land just yet. We'd been talking casually about living in a van since the first few months of being together, and the more we thought about it and compared it to other possibilities, the more excited we became.

We want a simple life. A slow life. A sustainable, minimal life that allows for a constant home with the freedom of movement. What better way to combine change and stability than to create a home on wheels?

So, we got a 2003 Renault Master (a typical French work vehicle) that had been previously built with an elevated bed and a 'kitchen' with a small sink and 2 burner stove. For the past month, we have been renovating it to fit our personalities, our wants and our logistical needs. It's been so incredibly fun (and sometimes challenging) renovating, creating and building our new little home.

We named our van Bonnie. (You'll find out why in the questions below.) We are so grateful, excited and curious to see where she brings us.

Here's Bonnie the day we bought her!

Here are 10 questions and answers about our van adventure thus far.

1. Why did we buy a van that was already mostly built to live in?

Time and money is the simple answer. We loved the idea of building everything from scratch and making every little bit specifically for us, but for us right now, saving time and money is more important. We would rather spend our time and money on the road!

2. How much did we spend on the van and renovations total?

We got the van for €5,500. We have spent around €1800 on the renovations so far. (The largest cost was the items needed for safe, quality electricity.) We have pretty much bought everything we need for the moment, but there are still some purchases we will probably make later. We have tried our best to use what we already had. Luckily, Florian was able to use wood he already had to build our couch, bed extension, and dividing wall, along with a lot of small extra storage cabinet doors. We also had some extra foam for the couch, dishes, utensils, bed linens, etc. I will be posting the list of all of our costs along with how we built everything in a separate post once we are finished.

3. How can we fit all of our belongings in a van?

Neither of us own a whole lot of stuff. I've gotten rid of about 3/4 of my things over the past couple years, and I moved to France with two large bags. I own 5 pairs of shoes, a few books and knick-knacks, art supplies, and about one large bag full of clothes. Flo has a few more items than me, but that's mostly because we are in his home country. We also have two bikes, a surf board, skis, and climbing gear that we will hopefully be able to fit! We are firm believers that less is more, and that too many belongings weigh ya down. It's very freeing to know that all we own can fit in a van.

4. Do we plan on living in the van full-time?

After we got the van, we really didn't have a specific plan, and we still don't. Our loose plan is to travel in France for the month of May, go to the south of the French Alps for a few months, and then to the UK in the fall. But everything is subject to change, and we are totally happy with that. The beauty of having the van is that our home is wherever we end up going. If in our future travels we find a place that feels more like home than Bonnie, then we might choose to stop and get a house. We are open to anything and everything.

5. How will we afford it?

Seasonal jobs, no unnecessary spending, no (unless legitimately needed) paying for parking, possible workaways and whatever else we end up finding! To be competely transparent, we are in no way rich people. We got a cheap van, spent the bare minimum on renovations, and we are going to have to be very careful about our spending. A lot of 'van lifers' start off with careers on the road, or lots of money saved. There are also those thousands of retired people who buy camper vans. We aren't those people. But we are people that know we can always find jobs, have trust in each other, and believe there is always a solution. Flo's favorite expression is "go out of your comfort zone." As simple as it is, it's a damn good way to learn, grow, and live a fulfilling life. We understand that money is an important part of life for certain things, but it doesn't control us, and it has no power over our feelings of happiness.

6. Why did we name our van Bonnie?

We met in Scotland, a country that is especially precious to us. It is wild, full of life, and the way the wind feels on your face is like no other feeling in the world. The Scots use the term "bonnie" to describe something beautiful or something that's super excellent. Our van adventure will be called The Bonnie Road. The beautiful, excellent road of our life.

7. What are we most nervous about?

I would say we are less nervous and more curious. Living in a very small space as a newly married couple will most likely be challenging at times, but we also know that when living in a van, we will be spending more time outside! Finding alone time and our own space will just be a matter of taking a walk outside or riding our bike into the nearest forest. I think we are both a bit nervous to see how much the cost of living will be, and to find out what our monthly budget will be for gas and food. Flo, being the more realistic and logical one of us, is apprehensive about the mechanics of our van. Since we bought it for pretty cheap, and with no guarantee that it will last, it was a bit of a risk. Only time will tell! But, again, it's curiosity more than nervousness. Fear doesn't help anyone, especially two people setting off on a new life adventure.

8. Where do we want to go in the van?

Morocco, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Corsica, Hungary and Slovenia are some of our top choices. But there are so many places to see in France, first! Our goal isn't to see as many places as we can, it is to be patient and present for every little step of the way. We don't want to be driving all the time. It's unsustainable and completely the opposite of our intention for living. We want to have a few destinations in mind, to head in that direction, and find places to park, things to do, and people to meet. We also want to use our bicycles as much as possible, too!

9. Do we have a bathroom and shower?

Flo built an awesome couch that serves as a compost toilet too. (Sounds strange, but look at the pictures below and you'll see what I mean.) We plan on using the great outdoors as our bathroom as much as possible, though. The compost toilet will serve as an emergency only option. As for a shower, we plan on using a solar powered hook-up and attaching a shower curtain to the back of the van for privacy. We haven't worked on that yet though, because we didn't put it on our priority list. There's always lakes and rivers, until we figure it out. :)

10. Do we plan on converting it to vegetable oil or installing solar panels?

Yes, absolutely! It was too expensive to install the solar panels right now, so we decided to wait unitl we made some more money in the summer. Bonnie is a diesel van, so we will hopefully one day convert her to oil! (Even though it's forbidden in France, we would rather do something that's better for the planet and costs less money. Civil disobedience, we would call it.)

Now that we've answered a few questions, here are some photos of Bonnie before we started renovating, and what she's looking like now. All photos will be in order from oldest at the top to newest at the bottom.

BEFORE:

We are in no way done, and it's a total mess, but this is where we're at now! We are so happy with the way Bonnie looks and feels, and I'm so proud of Flo for building such amazing things in our van. He also learned how to hook up electricity, which was a totally foreign concept to him before now.

He was too tall to fit in the bed that the previous owner had built, so he had the great idea to re-build it, with a pull out extension (not pictured yet) We bought a new foam mattress and cut it to the right size, then I sewed the mattress to fit.

I painted everything and sewed some cushions for the couch, which took a lot more time than I thought!

Flo's brother gave us some beautiful wood and made the new kitchentop. Very grateful for that because I really hated the faux gray marble. (Thank you, Thomas!)

I will be posting the final photos soon, so stay tuned!