Turning My Van Into a Hobbit House on Wheels - FULL BUILD TIMELAPSE

Hi I'm Jessica and I live and travel full time across Europe in my campervan Frodo with my puppy Heidi. Frodo is a medium wheelbase Vauxhall Murano and my dream tiny home and I spent three and a half months converting him from an empty shell into a cozy hobbity cabin on wheels with the help of my partner. If you want to dive deeper into any part of the build I shared the full process in a detailed chapter by chapter van build series here on my channel but today I'm showing you the realistic timeline exactly how it all unfolded chronologically in all its glorious detail so let's go back to the beginning. Our journey started driving around the area and salvaging lots of pallet wood from farms and businesses which we then broke apart and I also thrifted a couple of vintage cabinets to save time building furniture. We rented a corner of a local farmer's barn for cheap and after I'd modeled the entire build and made sure that the dimensions roughly made sense we started by taking out the subfloor and deep cleaning the van. Rosie framed the floor with buttons which she glued to the floor and we got our hands on a bunch of cheap and free secondhand insulation board from marketplace which we used to insulate the entire van 25 millimeters in the floor 70 in the walls and 50 in the ceiling. In the last van we converted we used hemp as our insulation material because it's quite sustainable but we found that we had to buy a lot of thermo wrap to create a moisture barrier which you don't really have to do with insulation board because it's already lined with foil so these secondhand boards we found had an overall lower material impact and were a lot cheaper as well. I reused the subfloor that came with my van and then we used more buttons and insulation board for the walls ceiling and doors. We now put down a couple of planks of the waterproof eco-flooring I was going to use and started on the basic bathroom structure. We used waterproof boards and built it directly into the structure of the van to maximize space because while a bathroom with shower and toilet was non-negotiable for me I didn't want it to take up a big chunk of the van. Next I started on the ceiling by attaching some fabric to the insulation to prevent the silver from shining through and processing a lot of pallet wood. I wanted a design with curved ceiling beams inspired by the hobbit homes of middle earth which was quite difficult and we ended up having to redo the entire ceiling framing to make everything fit together. Once I was making progress on the ceiling again Rissi finished installing the flooring with the help of his mum who was converting her van alongside mine. While I was working on the ceiling I had a ventilation fan installed at her local van conversion place which will help get rid of any condensation in the kitchen and then it was back to the workshop to finish the ceiling and floor and drill a hole in the floor for my shower plumbing. We started altering one of the vintage cabinets I had thrifted and once our materials had arrived we moved on to painting the exterior of the van. We sanded down the white paint, degreased and desanded everything a couple of times, masking taped everything we didn't want to paint and then gave everything two coats covering every bit of white metal. While the paint was drying I continued working on the vintage cabinet and then fixed all of the little paint imperfections. Once the paint had fully cured we could finally install my solar panels. Normally this is something you do early on in the conversion process but it would have been awkward to paint the roof of the van with the panels in the way which is why we delayed this job. We installed 400 watts of solar on my roof, wired everything up and then I started working on the walls with more pallet wood where we reframed and wired up my ventilation fan. I found a second vintage cabinet which was just perfect for my bed area but we had to alter it to make it fit around the wheel arch and we also took off the feet and one of the doors to alter it. In order to install this cabinet we first had to build the basic structure of the bed which would be an L-shaped sofa by day and a cozy double bed at night. The bed has quite a lot of different storage compartments so once Rissi had put up the basic structure I took over and built the rest of it and then I could finally alter the cabinet door to fit around the bed where Rissi started making drawers for my bed storage. Hi guys, hope you're enjoying the video so far. As some of you will know Frodo is my second camper van conversion and I previously lived in a much bigger van with my partner so in this build I had to add a few security features because I'll be mostly traveling alone and I just wanted to make sure that I stay safe traveling solo. And the one thing that has made the biggest difference to my peace of mind is my security camera from Reolink who are kindly sponsoring this video. Reolink have become a bit of a go-to in the vanlife community and for good reason. Their cameras are reliable, easy to set up and they work anywhere whether you're parked in the middle of nowhere on a mountain road or in a quiet village. I'm using the Reolink Go Plus which runs on 4G and has a rechargeable battery so it stays connected even when I'm completely off grid. And if you want to mount your camera on the roof of your van you can also pair it with the Reolink solar panel so it stays topped up automatically. Setting it up was super easy and only took me about 10 minutes. I mounted mine in the driving area and it gives me a really good view around the van and through the sliding door which is often a target for break-ins. The picture quality is really sharp in 2K and it still looks really clear at night thanks to the built-in infrared sensors. It also has smart detection which means it can tell the difference between people, vehicles and animals so I don't get woken up by false alarms. If someone does come too close I can talk to them straight through the two-way audio and everything records securely onto a micro SD card. And through the Reolink app I can check on my van from pretty much anywhere whether I'm out on a hike or spending the day exploring a town which gives me a lot of peace of mind when I'm traveling alone. So if you've been thinking about getting a security camera for your van, home or any outdoor setup now is actually the best time because Reolink are running their Black Friday sale which is their biggest sale of the year with lots of exclusive discounts across their entire range. You can click the link in the video description to explore their offers and you can also get an extra 5% off with my code JESSICA5. Thank you so much again to Reolink for supporting the channel and sponsoring this video and now let's go back to the build. I finally got an appointment to have my windows fitted which took ages because the supplier managed to break my first order in transit but we got there in the end and now I was finally able to finish the walls while Risi continued working on the bed. I thrifted some old oak beams which were quite short and wonky and I had them sliced up at a sawmill to hug around the ceiling and I used them to connect the wood of the walls and ceiling. We built two storage hatches for the long side of the bed which will be home to my bedding and laundry and then Risi built the folding mechanism of the bed and helped me extend the vintage cabinet to create a little library. And then the bed was transformed into a Swiss cheese to allow my mattresses to breathe. Meanwhile I was working on the storage at the back of the bed. I framed everything using leftover pallet wood and used old scaffold board for the drawer fronts. At this point I was waiting for my custom shower tray to arrive so that we could continue working on the bathroom and in the meantime I started working on some shelves for my wardrobe and cooking ingredients again with some leftover pallet wood which took some time to figure out because of the curved walls. I also screwed mason jars to the bottom of the shelf for extra food storage. Once my shower tray had arrived Risi continued working on the bathroom by building the walls and waterproofing them thoroughly so that I could install a shower inside while I continued building the bed storage and my library in about 40 degrees heat. Now that the bed was mostly done I stained and oiled all of the wood to protect it from moisture. Doing this also brings out the grain of the wood really nicely and makes the whole van smell really lovely. And once that was done I also added another storage shelf on the other side of the van. I would like to say that it was easier to do the second time round but I would be lying because it turns out that my walls were curved to different degrees so again this took quite a while to get right. At this point we had to finish the bathroom so that we could move on to the kitchen so I cut out my bathroom door and Risi waterproofed it and connected my shower plumbing while I started cladding the outside of the bathroom with sanded down pallet wood to save space because in this corner of the van every single millimeter mattered. Risi now installed my underslung water tanks 86 liters fresh water and 30 liters gray water and started working on my running water system which would live in the part of the vintage cabinet we extended earlier. The next step for me was to line the inside of the bathroom with waterproof tiles while Risi started on installing fireboard in the corner next to my bathroom where my wood burner would be installed. We did have to remove a bit of insulation around where the flue would be and also realized that the area overlapped with one of my solar panels so we swapped it for a smaller one. And the reason I decided to install the wood burner here is firstly because my food storage will be lower down so it will stay cooler that way and I also didn't want to risk my dog accidentally burning herself. Now it was time to finally extend the kitchen where I would also store my electric system and induction cooker. For a while we went back and forth between working on this and figuring out how best to fireproof the area around the wood burner which took a lot of research and I was also simultaneously working on finishing the bathroom. We now fireproofed the second wall around the wood burner. For both sides we had to make sure that the entire area around the wood burner was protected by vermiculite fireboard with a five centimeter air gap. So for the outer wall we just removed the insulation and attached the fireboard to the metal structure of the van and we also created a hollow shower wall to allow the heat to dissipate in a safe way. I bought a custom-made kitchen counter made from reclaimed scaffold board and cut a hole for my small ceramic sink. Rissi installed a tap in the corner and I stained it about the same color as the vintage cabinet. I was going for a medieval church door vibe with a bathroom door and here I also used seven millimeter sanded down pallet wood to keep the weight of the door as low as possible. I finished waterproofing the interior of the bathroom using silicone and quadrant trim, built a little shelf for my bathroom products from pallet wood offcuts, Rissi installed my bidet shower and now this corner of the van was finally done. And now I went back to the bed area to finish it. I added a few second hand drawer pulls, cladded the side of the bed with the filthiest pallets we had left over and installed a piece of driftwood in the corner to hide the bare metal of the van. We had also made an appointment to have my wood burner installed so we had to make some progress on building the furniture it would sit on and it also had to be pretty strong because my wood burner weighs about 50 kilograms. Once I had finished the bed our next job was to finish the kitchen. Rissi installed my tap, I oiled the counter and started framing the furniture with pallet wood offcuts from the other areas of the van and I also used a couple of pieces of driftwood to make the place feel a little bit more like a tree house. For my tiny kitchen I also built a backsplash from old scaffold board which I will tile later and I also built a spice shelf from a pallet offcut and another piece of driftwood. Rissi installed my sink, I siliconed around it to make everything waterproof and I also put up a hazel branch to hang my pans and lights from before continuing with the furniture doors. Once all of the furniture was built Rissi finished my water system while I organized my electrics and charging cabinet which helps me keep the van clutter free. Then I installed some handmade botanical tiles around the sink as well as the backsplash which I had built from a piece of scaffold board. Now it was time to tile the area around the wood burner onto the fireboard because my install appointment was drawing very close. I used the same botanical tiles I had in the kitchen and while the tiles were drying I altered some curtains I had found at a car boot sale. Now I got a professional involved to install my flue and chimney just to be on the safe side and he cut my porcelain sheet and figured out how to install my flue. We had to order a couple of 45 degree pieces to reroute my flue so it wouldn't cut through the ceiling beams and while we were waiting for that I decided to install another row of tiles because I had a few left over. While we were waiting for the parts I also made some progress on the wood burner furniture and then cut a bed leg from a piece of driftwood and built the last door for the bed storage as well. And then it was finally time to install my wood burner which was the absolute highlight of the conversion for me. There were a few complex aspects to this like avoiding cutting through the ceiling beams and generally just working with a very little space so I'm really glad I got someone experienced to do this for me. I added some thermo wrap to my curtains to give them some extra rigidity and then moved on to one of my final jobs which was cladding the back doors. I'm not gonna lie this was probably the most difficult job of the entire conversion which is why I procrastinated until the very end. My very final job before I set off on my adventures was to paint and decorate the driving area to match the rest of the whimsical hobbit inspired conversion. I just used regular brown spray paint for the dashboard and prepped the area thoroughly so the paint wouldn't flake off. Then I decorated the entire area with leftover pieces of wood, fabrics we had leftover, just random bits and bobs we had lying around, and a few pieces of woodland decor I got from local businesses. Once the driving area was converted I let everything air out for a couple of days and then worked on some final jobs like screwing my plant pots to the windowsills, velcroing things in place so they didn't fall down while driving, and I deep cleaned the entire van before moving in all of my worldly possessions. And now after three and a half months in the workshop building seven hours a day, seven days a week, my tiny home on wheels was finally done and I could hit the road. I honestly couldn't believe it when the day finally came and I was so over the moon with what we had created. Frodo is the perfect blend of cozy and practical and just the best van I could have wished for for full-time adventuring and living. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure to watch the full tour of my van and the van build series if you want to see any of the areas we build in more detail. Don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video and I'll see you next time. Bye!