Van Life DIY From Rusty Van To Cozy Home

Innovative Tiny House Ideas

People all over the world are coming up with innovative tiny house ideas, that allow them to live life their way, designing and building tiny houses in all sorts of different styles, designs and plans. This DIY van home is an example of someone who did just that. This site is the story of how Mike Hudson took his dream and turned it into a van home. The Vandog traveller quit his job, and with the money, he saved from working on offshore gas platforms in the North Sea, moved out of his house in Sheffield, gave away all his furniture, clothes, and sold his car, and decided to work on his van. The van was a mess to start off with, but with hard work, he converted a work van into a place to travel and live comfortably. With some friends, he drove south through France and Spain, in his converted van house.

DIY Van Conversion Features

He bought the van, a Convoy on eBay and worked really hard to outfit it to be his home sweet home. Mike used common materials found in home improvement stores rather than using the specialized materials from the RV or campervan stores. Some of the features he included are the compressor fridge and freezer, a pressurized water system with a 70-litre fresh tank, a 200-watt solar charging system with approx. 190Ah lead-calcium batteries, 240V mains socket from pure sine inverter, 12 Volt power distribution board with mains hook-up. LED lighting in the ceiling, studio speakers, a shower and toilet, his extendable bed that sleeps 2, a large hammock, a desk, on demand hot water, Propane gas tank, a gas cooker and sink as well sa plenty of storage under the bed and overhead.

The Freedom of Van Life

It's very impressive how Mike took a regular rusty old van and created a home out of it. Now he can travel and live as he likes without having to worry about accommodations or renting an apartment. He shares all of the information on his van conversion too so if you're interested in having a van home of your own you can be inspired by his journey. There are also plenty of good posts on his site about living in a van and surviving winter, 16 ways to save money while living and travelling in a van, his DIY camper from a van to a cozy home in 5 months, all the details of the van conversion. You can follow Mike on his travels and maybe even get so inspired by his lifestyle that you decide to try van life. When you're looking for the perfect van to convert into a van home or camper van, you can buy pretty much any van, but it helps to buy one that is larger than a minivan. A cargo van would work well because you can tear the seats out and create whatever layout you want inside. You can also get camper vans that already have little kitchenettes in them and even bathroom areas. Just look in your local buy and sell for vans and see what's out there.