Build the campervan - We bought a van!

SO funny news - we have bought a van that we will build the campervan from !!!

It was bought completely empty and Miska and I will rebuild it like a camper !! :)

We have already started and I have posted some on Instagram Stories that are saved in my highlights @HelenaAmiley, you can look it in right now!

But I will also make more detailed step-by-step posts here in the blog for those of you who want to know more, perhaps before building your own? However, I will change the blog design a bit first, so that the categories are easier to understand. Thinking type beauty /vanlife/ entrepreneurship, what do you think about it? :)

Here comes the first post about building the campervan and our plans around it!

Our van, Hector! ♥

Frequently asked question - how and why?

Are you going to live full-time vanlife as a small mini house? Are you traveling abroad or in Sweden?

The answer is that we are open to everything! We build it fully equipped for both hot and cold climates, but the basic idea is to be able to go on longer trips in Europe and work remotely at the same time.

Long journeys are otherwise not optimal for us because we have a cat. Then we also have a rather unclear housing situation, we have been living in Annika's (our business partner and friend) guesthouse for almost 2 years. But she will move next year and we do not want to buy anything in Sweden before we can afford our dream - a mountain house in Spain;) So we also see this van a bit as a security, no matter what happens we will not be homeless haha.

Should I guess, I think we will stay partly with Annika even after the move, either in the parking lot with the van or if she buys a house that also has a guest section. As well as partly on the road with the habit.

We simply like freedom! ♥ Lite ”vanlife entrepreneur”You could say, but possibly only part-time.

Then we think that we still have the habit even when we have achieved the dream of a house in Spain! Our dream is a house in the mountains, but to have a van that we can go to the coast with (we love Tarifa!) You get the perfect mix! :)

But as soon as we are done, we will start slowly to get used to my cat. She's calm as long as she's cozy and that I'm with her, but we will not drive a long trip the first thing we do. Then it will probably be Gotland and Finland as first trips!

I insulate the doors with rock wool. I thought it was just fiberglass insulation that itches and sticks, but had to learn the hard way that you need proper gloves and full-coverage clothes even for rock wool;)

The plan: From an empty van to finished construction!

So we have bought a completely empty van (Citroen Jumper L3H2) and will build everything ourselves. We have done a lot of research!

Details our van will have:

• Solar panels
• Electrical outlet with 230 volts and 12 volts.
• Spotlights in the ceiling, with dimmer
• Diesel heater
• A large sunroof over the bed that can be opened. With mosquito nets and blackout.
• A sunroof with fan in the front. For cold air and ventilation.
• Water tank of 150 liters
• Bathroom with shower and toilet. I have looked into a spa shower which is very water-saving but still perfect pressure / spread. Taking a lovely shower is quite important for my well-being so I think we will put some extra money here.
• The toilet will probably be a self-built toilet toilet :) This is how we save some money!
• Kitchen area with deep sink, gas stove and refrigerator with freezer compartment
• Fixed bed (not how you convert to a sitting area)
• Seating for 2 people.

The bed at the back and the seats at the front, so you can open up the back doors or the side door and sit and chill with a wonderful view when you are at inspiring places :)

Then we have lots of ideas for smart solutions in terms of storage and other flexible, we hope to get it! :)

Miska builds most things but I help a lot too! He does rough work and I do fine grinding and small pills, you could say. We have good teamwork also when it comes to decisions and ideas, not just the execution, so I feel very involved even though I can neither screw, saw or carry heavy;)

We have done this so far!

As I said, I will make step-by-step posts later, but we have already come a little way so I thought I would show a little quickly what we have done so far!

And note: Everything is probably not quite according to the rule book. We are not carpenters :)

Step 1: Away with everything, so it's just a tin shell! Only the cleaning was a project, it has been a work car before so exactly everything was gravelly and dusty + dog hair. I felt that it was very important to get it completely fresh before we started building, even though most of it will be built in, it's more mental as well.

Sound attenuation :) It is important to reduce noise as much as possible, both for us but also for my cat Viktoria who will be in the closet while we drive.

There is a lot to think about when building the campervan!

Here you see a blissful mixture of all the parts that we use for the whole habit, this very corner is our future bathroom :) Will be type 80 × 60 cm is the plan, so at least!

The black on the floor is armaflex insulation. Like a soft carpet type.
Then the blue discs are xps insulation.
The white foam between the blue panels on the wall is foam insulation.

We have insulated very carefully in other words :)

In the picture you can also see our drain in the shower and the pipes with power cord that we built into the beams before we insulated.

And finally: plywood!

Miska is so good at building the campervan!

The walls get the black armaflex carpet as the last layer and then panel over. Here Miska is working on the side door. Rent good ??? ♥

We will paint everything later, but other than that, all the doors are now completely finished! Nice huh? :) I'm so happy!

And so far we have come in building the campervan at the time of writing! Where there is a panel, a kitchen counter will be, and the deeper part next to it (with plywood board) is where the bed will be.

We will sleep across the car so we have insulated less right there to get a few cm longer bed. I think it's 188 cm in total and I'm 160 and Miska 180, so it's going to be perfect :) And type 120-130 wide is the plan.

Live small & work remotely - how will it go?

Had I moved directly from the large villa we lived in before to a van then I would probably have been more worried. But now we live in a small attefallshus of 15 sqm (I think) so we are very used to living a little already.

We will need to scale down even more, absolutely. But at the same time, this is super-planned down to the smallest detail with storage built into every single thing, so sometimes it feels like we will get more storage than we have now haha.

Things we are already used to:

• Small refrigerator with freezer compartment. It's just a little bigger than what we'll get used to.
• Only two hotplates. We currently also have a portable hob that we bring out when we use it.
• Small bathroom. Just so you can just "step in".
• No hall. Kitchen, living room and bedroom in the same room.
• No oven
• If you compare with ordinary households, we do not have many kitchen machines. Kettle, blender, toast, waffle iron and everything you have :)
• Very few kitchen utensils. For example, only two small pots, no colander, etc. :)
• No washing machine / tumble dryer. This point depends a bit on where with the habit we are somewhere. If we are in Annika's car park or in a country with a laundry company here and there, it's just like today - we take the laundry to Annika. But if we are in the middle of the forest, there is of course a big difference!

Things we need to get used to without:

• Micro
• Coffee maker
• Fewer clothes, shoes, etc. I do not have much of that in any case, but will still need to reduce. So I have some cleansing in front of me!
• The hardest part: My make-up corner with photo studio !!! Must solve this with just small ring lights and toiletry type.
• Cat door for my cat Viktoria who is used to running in and out.

This is sooo fun! Both building the campervan, dreaming and curiosity - how will it be? :)

The next step will be sunroofs and electricity, I think (batteries, solar panels, lamps, sockets, etc.) so that we can make the roof later. The bit I think sounds the most difficult and can not help almost anything, otherwise we have incredibly good teamwork actually!

I post regularly on my Instagram @HelenaAmiley and there you also see videos which gives an even clearer picture, so come on in and take a look! :)

Search here to find more posts about building the campervan.

Hugs are !! ♥