Teddy’s story
It’s time for Teddy’s story…
I bought a van. And three weeks later, the pandemic started.
At the time, I thought, Lord, what have I done?
Supplies started to become hard to source. Plywood, at least, was not horribly expensive… yet. My parents were stuck in Florida at my sister’s house. This was not a big deal except that I was supposed to be building this van at my dad’s shop an hour and a half from my home. Normally, they’d be back in early April. In 2020, they didn’t get back to Iowa until June.
In the meantime, I had a Maxxair fan installed in the van. This, ultimately, was the only part of the build that I could not bring myself to do. I just could not cut a fourteen-inch hole in my brand-new van. Call me chicken. It was worth it.
While I waited for dad to return, I sourced supplies. Havelock wool insulation, Killmatz sound deadening, plywood, foam board insulation, Plus Nuts, flooring, window covers, refrigerator, Jackery 1000. All of this would trickle in over the summer. I was a frequent flyer at my local Menards. Save big money, right?
Dad got back in June. I would go over on Saturdays and we would work for about 24 hours before I had to head back home to work on Monday. We got the flooring done, started framing out the walls, installed the bed. We were getting into a groove and then…
The Derecho hit on August 10, 2020. My home was hit with 140mph winds. I live in Iowa. We don’t have hurricanes. We have tornadoes. We had about 45 minutes warning that the Derecho was headed towards us. Floridians had DAYS to prepare for a hurricane.
Once I knew the dogs and I were safe, all I could think about was the van. I was so fortunate that the van was fine. It was covered in storm debris and there was a large limb laying across the hood, but ultimately, it was fine. I was without power for two weeks, but luckily, I was an experienced camper and had a battery pack to use to keep things powered.
We recovered from the Derecho and powered on! Walls went up. Installing the ceiling was a bear, but in it went. We started on the electrical and then winter showed up and it was time for my parents to head back to Florida. Once again, the van would sit for the winter until we could start working again. The spring of 2021 rolled around and we “finished” the van. We all know you’re never really finished with a van build. There are always projects and upgrades and repairs that need to be done.
I traveled quite a bit in 2021 and there was always that full time van living thought in the back of my mind. Could I really do it? I love my time in the van. It’s my happy place. It’s relaxing and simple and minimal. My full-time wish didn’t go away. It just kept growing. Over the winter, I came up with a plan to remodel the area between the seats and the bed to make it more functional and full-time friendly.
When the spring of 2022 arrived, I was ready. We remodeled in a couple months and I loved the new layout. It was definitely useable for full time living.
Could I actually do it???