Homelessness to Vanlife - Her DIY Ford E-350 Cargo Van

Hi everybody my name is Vanessa and I live in a van and her name is Treasure. This is a self-build that I did. I'm almost a year anniversary into van life so I want to show you my van. So this is the inside of Treasure you guys and this is a Ford E350 cargo van and it's an extended version so I have a lot of room a lot of space to live in and enjoy myself and my build I've never seen anyone on YouTube or any other social media with my build. This is something that God gave me and I am happy with it. If I had another vehicle that was the same vehicle as this one I would do this build all over again. So this where I'm sitting right now is my bathroom. This is like my vanity. This is like my sink. The water actually goes in a container underneath and I empty it and I have these little containers that I actually had in home life that just pretty much stay still while I drive unless I hit a curb and then they will come tumbling down. So you guys this is my little loveseat area where I can sit and chill and even put my feet up on a little stool that's right here in front of me and look directly outside of my van and just enjoy nature life wherever I'm at. I don't have air in my van. I'm not a hot-natured person so I really don't sweat that often. You can look at me right now I'm really not sweating uh but I might be perspiring because I got a guy with a camera in my face. A lot of DIYs you guys if you're gonna live in van life you save money and space by doing a DIY and recovering your pillow on different sides so that way you don't have to buy two pillows and take up more space. So that is that. Behind the pillows that is my kitchen. So this is my four burner stove and I try to cook meals two to three times a week. I love my stove. This is my prize position. When I'm in down mode and I want to put all my stuff away at night I can put everything up here. I could take my pillows and put all my pillows and everything up there and that serves as a storage or if I have people over and I want to cook a Thanksgiving dinner or whatever and I could lay out all the food here and so this could serve as a serving area as well for all the food and I can actually sit here while I'm cooking as well and I have several seating areas throughout the van where everybody else could be sitting even though this is a small van I could actually sit eight to six to eight comfortably in my van. The back wall leads to storage in the back and it's also just to be able to block things off for the front. I actually bought that tile at a thrift store. I went to Home Depot. I went to one of the box stores and two of the box stores and it was too much. So I went to a thrift store and I got all the tile that I needed for $20 and so I pretty much did that myself and cozy comfortable and I love it. These spice racks right here I actually had an idea that I wanted to be able to have more space in my van and get things out of my closet back here so I could have more clothes and so I came up with putting things on the outside to free up space to make it more handy. I take herbs and vitamins every day and to go inside of something I was forgetting to take my vitamins but now that I have everything on the outside it's so handy and I can grab it and I can see it and I remember to take my vitamins and my herbs every single day now. Okay you guys I decided to do van life. I actually wish I would have known about van life sooner. I was actually homeless for about 10 years and I was living in a vacant building with no lights, no gas, and no water. I did have a vehicle but I didn't know anything about van life and I had a cargo trailer and I was converting the cargo trailer into as I travel and I was going to be able to live in the back and somebody stole my cargo trailer. It was a brand new cargo trailer and then I ended up kind of got depressed after they stole my cargo trailer and I ended up letting my new vehicle that I had. I did a voluntary repo on it. It was actually a cargo van with 8,000 miles on it that I bought off the car lot and I actually did a voluntary repo on it. Didn't know anything about van life so now I'm without a car. I'm depressed. I'm sad and I just started praying and asking God to help me get another vehicle. I didn't have a vehicle. I started watching YouTube videos seeing people doing van life and I'm like I wish I would have known about that when I had my van and I prayed to God and asked him to help me get a vehicle and he actually did. My father passed away and when he passed away my aunt, his twin sister, gave me two thousand dollars and with that money I asked God to be able to let me find a vehicle and hence I found treasure and it's a story behind that. The man posted a listing of this on Craigslist for $2,500. I didn't have enough. I tried to call him and he wouldn't answer my calls and then next week I look on Craigslist he have it for $2,000. He still won't answer my call. Next week I look on Craigslist he have it for $1,800. He still won't answer my call. Next week I look on Craigslist he have it for $1,500. I say what is wrong with this vehicle? I say either don't nobody want to buy that vehicle or God have that vehicle for me and so I called him. He went all the way down from $2,500 to $1,500 and I called him to come look at the vehicle, took it for a test drive, got on the freeway, put my pedal to the metal and came back and I was crying on the way back and God said this is your vehicle. I dried my tears and said I don't want to see him. I don't and when I got back I asked him I said mind you he wanted $1,500 and he went down from $2,500 and I asked him I said sir because I knew I needed enough money for tax title and license and if I got it for $1,500 I wouldn't have had enough so I asked him I said sir would you please take $1,300 and he said you really need a vehicle don't you? I said yeah and he said yeah and here is treasure you guys I got her for $1,300. She is not perfect. She is a work in progress. I am a work in progress but we love each other because she has not left me stranded yet. So you guys remember I said to decide what is most important to you in van life before you even start your van bill so you can do your van bill around what's most important to you. Number one for me was having a and number two was being able to have clothes a lot of them because I don't want to wear the same clothes every single day. I don't want to have five outfits in van life. I want to have some shirts, some pants, some shorts, some swimsuits and I want to have options and in Houston we have a 25 cent thrift store and I am a thrifter so I find all kind of cute stuff. So this whole wall from beginning to end is my closet you guys. So this is my closet and my doors are removable or slidable and I have access to every single thing in my closet. These are my branded shirts and when I mean branded they have Vanessa's van life journey on it. These are all my leggings. I love leggings and exercise pants and this is all my dresses. These are all my socks. Shirts, bras and panties and I have some hats up here but behind them my swimsuits. So this is just one of my storage closets. Pants down here. I can't even remember but I can change clothes. I can go a month without washing if I don't want to and this outfit that I have on today I bought from a thrift store for 50 cents and I just can't pass up deals. I'm addicted. I know but I still consider myself a minimalist because coming from home life to having four and five closets full of clothes just to having three closets full of clothes. I think I'm still doing great but that's up for you to decide. Tell me in the comments bar below if I'm doing great or not. But that is just one of my closets. This is pretty much my clothes over here and having floor to ceiling storage you guys in a small space like this it is life-changing. It doesn't matter if you're storing clothes down here. I have pots and pans in this one and also I can my own foods so while I'm traveling I could take my canned foods with me and I can still eat healthy. So it was just important to me to be able to have enough storage space to store every single thing that I need to store in my van to be able to do van life and to be healthy at doing van life and to have options you guys. I don't want when I leave outside of my van for somebody to say she looks like a bomb and I can tell she lives in a van. So I want to be able to look like a regular human being every now and then. Most of the time I do look like a bomb because I'm working on my van. I'm not trying to be cute when I'm doing my van build. Also you guys if you would look up to my glorious ceiling this is my cards that I get from my subscribers. They send me greeting cards and just share love with me and one day I was in my van and I was like I want to display my cards but I didn't know where to display them and I was like you know what I'll put them on my ceiling so when I'm in bed on a rainy day when it's raining outside and I can't go outside or on a day when I'm sad and I can just remember that somebody loves me no matter what the devil tells me. Somebody loves me so my cards that people send me are on my ceiling to remind me that somebody out there appreciates me and loves me and I love looking up at my cards and I appreciate everything that my subscribers do for me. Okay in van life you guys I do not have a fixed bed and I love the fact that I do not have a fixed bed because it gives me all of this space that you see here. I would not have all of this living space had I opted for a fixed bed so my bed area is actually going to be where I'm sitting at now and it's the floor. I love not having a fixed bed if that's an option for you go with that option. If it doesn't work for you get a fixed bed. Van life is something that you make it. It's catered to you your needs and this is what I needed in my life. Welcome to the front of my van you guys. I took out my passenger seat because I'm a solo female van lifer and I don't need the seat but I'm a woman and I need the space so so I took out the seat and there is under storage underneath here where I store my battery banks and everything and my tools and everything. This is like my love seat sofa area but this actually serves a purpose to this can sit two to three people comfortably and also while I'm out somewhere I could actually lay up here and take a little nap or just chill out up here. VVJ stands for Vanessa Van Life Journey and it is very comfortable. I could lean back put my feet up. I have multiple places in the van and you would think in a van this size I would not have so much seating but like I said I could seat six to eight people comfortably in this van and it is the truth. Also I would like to share with you guys my toilet. It took trial and error to figure out my toilet. I finally did. God led me to videos on YouTube. Anything you want to know you guys I don't care if it's far-fetched and you think you are the first person who ever thought of it you're not. Go look it up on YouTube and you will find videos about it. So right here everything in my van serves multiple purposes so right here this is where I store my blankets and it's just decorative. I like to look decorative cute and pretty makes me feel good. It just gives me a sense of peace to have things nice neat and cute and pretty. Underneath that is my toilet and nobody would ever know that this is my portable toilet. I finally perfected it and I can do number one and number two in here. No odors. I've shared my remedy on my YouTube channel and a lot of people have tried it when I go camping. People ask me about what do you do for a toilet and this is actually a regular cooler. I love the fact that it has a lid on it where you can screw it down and in the inside is what I use to store pine pebbles. Pine pebbles are the secret to your issues with your toilet. It absorbs the urine and it takes away the odor completely. The urine is actually the thing that causes the most odor and with the pine pellets you will have no odor at all. You can use this for two or three days and do not even empty it. You're not going to smell anything. So I store my pine pellets at the bottom of it and just with a mason jar fill the bag up and put it over here and use and go do my do. After it starts to get a little full or whatever you take another thing of pine pellets and throw it over the top. You will not smell anything in the van and you you can go to the bathroom day or night. Even when I'm sitting out at a park all I have to do is close my curtains over there my curtains over here and I'm in the privacy of my own home and I can use the bathroom whenever I feel like it. I don't have to go to public facilities and that is a lifesaver. Taking out the passenger seat again gave me so much living space and it's a matter of you living in the moment and enjoying things as they are and not letting things take up space in your life that are not going to do anything for you. So sometimes you can get rid of stuff and it does something for you and you can keep stuff and it does nothing for you. So what are you going to do? Get rid of it. I actually did not have a budget. In the description of my... I have a YouTube channel it's called Vanessa's Van Life Journey. In the description of my videos I said from the beginning I started my YouTube channel without a vehicle. I started my YouTube channel just making videos telling people I was going to start van life. God was going to bless me with the vehicle and I just started my channel talking about DIYs and stuff like that. I started my channel purging all of my clothes, cleaning out my house, preparing for van life. I set my mind to do van life even though I didn't have a vehicle, didn't have money and didn't know how I was going to do it. I just started acting on my dreams because I wanted to do van life. I am a Houstonian. I am a Texan. I've never been anywhere before in my life besides Texas and Louisiana. I know that there is more to offer in the world than the four walls and the surrounding that I grew up in. I grew up in a very toxic environment and family and I was fighting for my life and that is what led me to want to do van life, is to explore and see something different before I leave this earth. I know that there is something else out here in the world other than what the four walls of my neighborhood allowed me to see. That's how I started van life. That's why I wanted to start van life. I suffered from depression as a child going through so many things and van life is liberating. It helps me mentally. It helps me physically. The challenges of building my van weren't really challenges for me because I have had a challenging life. When you've had a challenging life, even though it's something that you don't know how to do, you look at it differently because you've overcome so much in your life already and you know that you can overcome this. I did have challenges. I wasted money trying to learn how to do the cuts, you know, to scribe and all of that, but at the end of the day you wasted money to learn a skill that the next time I do it I will not have to waste any money and I can help anybody else, any female, any male that wants to learn how to do this on their own. Now I have a skill set that I can help somebody else and pass that knowledge on to them. Welcome to the outside of my van. This is my front door patio area. Actually, I'm a hoarder. Maybe, maybe not. My sister used to say I'm an organized hoarder and so I believe in organization and I believe in having everything you need. I don't consider that to be hoarding. I just consider that to be efficient. So on the outside of my door, which is the inside as well, when I'm sitting in the inside of my van, I can grab anything that I need. Dishwashing liquid, spoons, forks, silverware, scissors, whatever I need, it's at my fingertips and I love being able to have access to that. And my color scheme came into play. I actually bought some some cardstock from Joann Fabric and took it to Office Max and got it laminated and just put it in here to incorporate my colors in here. And I actually love, love, love this. Thanks to the subscriber who sent me this. Also, you guys over here, this is a folding table, a regular dinner folding table, dinner tray that one of my friends gave me. By the way, you guys, I forgot to mention almost everything in my van is thrifted, came from home life, dumpster diving, and all of the decor items my subscriber sent me off of my Amazon wishlist. So thanks to the people in my life who have shared their lives with me, that when I get ready to do van life and I'm on the road, I can actually remember the people in my real lives that are back at home or watching my YouTube channels that shared a bit of their world with me. So from the inside, there is my vanity that I told you guys was my vanity and my sink area. And I have access to that from under here. And just like my closets, I have sliding doors that slide and also pull out. And my sink drains down into this. Welcome to the back of my van. And as you can see from the inside, I have so, so, so much space on the inside. But you guys, I have just as much space on the outside and storage. So these are regular crates, the regular black crates, milk crates that you get. And I actually covered them up with some t-shirts so that you would not be able to see and I can get whatever color t-shirts I want to match my decor. And again, these are just some more of the little containers that I have in the inside to store my clothes in. And I have all kinds of stuff up in here. And also this right here is what most people would probably call the garage. But this is actually what my refrigerator and my stove is sitting on. But this is how I get to everything from the back side. And you guys, this goes all the way to the front, about three or four feet deep. And I can my foods. These are some more pine pellets. I didn't have enough room. I actually bleach just anything. I use mason jars. And you guys, some people would say, you can't use mason jars in van life. They're gonna break. Well, proof is in the pudding. They're not broken. I travel. I hit curbs and I hit curbs and they're still intact. And like I said, you guys, I love to can my food and to travel with my food. So I have canned food, canned meats, and all of that underneath here. And over here, I have all kinds of containers. Y'all ain't gonna believe how deep this is. What kind of child, anything I need, I have it from my dishwashing liquid. I just like to have stuff with me. I never want to be without it, especially when you're camping or something and you might think you need something. These are all my pots and pans over here in regular home life. I love to cook, you guys. And so I have some antique pots, some magnolite pots, and I did not want to get rid of my pot sets. So I have actually three sets of pots here and other little miscellaneous things so I can cook. Also, you guys, this is my propane tank. Again, I need to cook. So what do you need to cook? Gas. And I have the little flowers up here to disguise my laundry bag. This is where I put all my dirty clothes in on top of the propane tank. Usually when that gets full, then it's time for me to go do laundry. And sometimes I wear my clothes two and three times a day, you know, for three days in a row. So I don't have to go washing for like a month. So welcome to the top of my van. In van life, you want to utilize every inch of every space of your vehicle. And I have done that because, like I said, it's up for debate whether or not I'm a hoarder. But anyway, I have a roof rack on top. And I recently, this is a recent addition to my van. This is a, what do they call this thing? Anyway, it's a storage for the top of your vehicle. And this is a ladder. I eventually want to get a ladder mount on the side of my vehicle and add a six foot ladder so I won't have to climb up here and try to take this ladder down every time I get ready to fill up my water tank. I do have water in my van. And I think this is an 18 gallon water tank. And because it is black and because I live in Texas and it get hot, guess what? Y'all, this water come out hot. So this is my water tank. And I hooked and fixed everything up myself. And I'm actually proud of my accomplishments that I've made. I'm a creative person, I think outside the box. And if there's a way to do it, I will probably figure out a way to do it. It may not be perfect, but it's definitely going to work. Thank you so much for checking out my channel, Vanessa's Van Life Journey. I appreciate you guys. I look forward to you coming over to my channel and supporting me on my journey of living free from depression, stress, and just being happy. Hence the yellow, it makes me happy. Hence everything in my van, it makes me happy. And I hope I've encouraged you guys in some shape, form, or fashion today to get out and live your dreams. And no matter if you have the money or the know-how, just put one step in front of each other and do it to the best of your ability.