Road Life
Living and Traveling out of a Van
In the summer of 2022, I purchased a 2003 GMC Savana 2500, with a plan of fulfilling a longtime dream of mine to travel around and live out of it. Over the next 8 months, I converted it into a livable campervan and upon completion in June of 2023, my fiancé and I moved out of our apartment and started living in the van full time. At that point, the van was stationary and we still remained working. Beginning in late January of 2024, we officially quit our jobs, sold or donated just about everything we own and are now chasing the dream! If interested in following along our journey, I plan on documenting here via: photographs, expense tracking, mpg tracking and logging notable spots on a custom map.
Van Conversion
This is our van! She's a pretty simple build, for the most part. Rocking a standard wheel base and a low roof, living space for two people is definitely limited, but we make it work. Inside we have a pantry, a sink, an almost full size bed (the mattress had to be cut to fit), storage underneath the length of the bed, overhead storage and a pretty robust electrical system. For more information on the electrical system, check out Van Electrical.
Van Build Progress Pictures
Here are some photos taken during the build process. The whole build took about 8–9 months, starting in October 2022 and ending in June 2023. While building, I was still working full-time and most weekends were taken up by other activities, so it was pretty much a work on it after work, when I could, type deal. It was full of headaches and challenges, but I learned so much and gained a lot of confidence in my abilities! Pretty much everything has remained the same since I finished, but as we live in it longer, and since we have this newfound time on our hands, I plan on making some modifications to make the space more livable/enjoyable. For all the build photos, check them out here, on my Instagram.
The chart above can be broke down into the following sections:
Van Purchase: $3,000 - this covered just the outright purchase of the van itself
Build Tools: $588.32 - this covered the cost for any tools needed for the build. This included things like a jigsaw, sander, blades, screws, etc.
Build Component: $2430.88 - this covered any items that actually went into the build like wood for the ceiling or cabinets, the sink components, the bed, the upgraded sound system, and so on.
Van Electrical: $2481.34 - this covered everything that went into the electrical build. More details can be found on it here
Maintenance - $604.39 - this covered any regular car maintenance that was needed. Some examples included replacing the struts, ac belt tensioner, car battery, etc.
Note: I aimed to document as much as possible, so this is reasonably close, but there are some costs that I am sure I accidentally left out, so I estimate that my total cost is closer to $10,000.
Breaking a Project Down into More Attainable Steps
With any major project, sometimes the task can seem so large that it can overwhelm you to a point of procrastination. This certainly happened for me when I was trying to finish the van build by July 1st, 2023.
Between my realization of this in late April and my two-month-away deadline, I knew I had to break my project down into smaller, more attainable tasks, if I wanted to finish on time.
So, I bought a big poster board from dollar tree and wrote out week by week, from May 1st - July 1st, every small project that I needed to get done (see below). Essentially, I made a huge to-do list with checkmark boxes next to each item, and it helped majorly. Being able to mark something as complete proved to be a huge confidence boost, as I could see my efforts creating progress.
If you're in the same boat, trying to get a van build done, or doing any major project, I definitely recommend this method. It's confidence inspiring, more organized and very satisfying when you get work done!
For pictures taken while on the road, check out the On The Road photo album.