Week one of the Van Build

We finally started on Ophelia's new look. in December we purchased our blue-grey beauty on a whim after months of dreaming and researching the van life. It’s been officially 2 months since we brought her home and I am really glad we took the time to discuss plans for what our expectations were as well as get one road trip in while we had an empty box.

The thing we decided to tackle first was the most complicated- the back of the van.

With only 144” of space we need to be very strategic on our vision and specifically communicate what a weekend looks and feels like, so that both of us are satisfied with the outcome. We obviously wanted a bed since our main goal for getting this van is to go down to Mexico for weekend adventures and longer road trips.

If you’ve been following our journey, you know that we gutted, designed and renovated our 1971 travel trailer last year and named her Luna (click here for a blog post). Inside Luna we have a full size bed, kitchen and amazing seating area with a huge pop out window. The bed is so comfy, our kitchen has just enough space and I find myself doing so many things at the table, like blogging reading, watching sunset, eating dinner, ect.

When thinking about our van I was very concerned about watching sunset and where we would have conversations over a nice glass of red wine.

Since day one, Will and I have agreed that there is just something magical about the sun falling and the mark that it makes when it disappears. We have made that time of night a priority, whether we are at home or traveling afar.

Before I move onto the layout, several people have asked if we are selling Luna or what we plan on doing with her and the answer is simple, we are keeping her. So why Ophelia? Because we LOVE Mexico and while we could take our cute little trailer across the border there's a few things that hold us back. First and most importantly, we have the Sentri pass, and we use it at least once a month. If you don't know what I’m referring to, the simplest explanation is this: it is a pass that allows you to travel from a separate lane in Mexico making the trip as quick as possible. It makes the trip out of Mexico a breeze!

RVs, Motorhomes and trailers are not allowed a Sentri pass. I’ve had Sentri for years and I cannot imagine having to wait more than 30 minutes at the border to come home.

Now back to Ophelia

Once we agreed to the back portion of the van (a table that converted to a bed) it was easy to draw out where the kitchen would go.

Will has gone into great detail as far as the layout.

The layout is more than just placement of the kitchen and bed, it's also things like the propane tank, electrical and water storage. There is a ton of work involved in the back end of things and this happens to be my husbands’ specialty.

We have currently started on the top of the van installing a roof rack, solar panel and fantastic fan. There is a ladder to get to all of those items that we picked up locally (and saved $200 on shipping). Will installed it on his own and said it was very easy to do.