Hi I'm Sarah and this is James, Stella, and our dog Lavender and this is our
home Topanga.
So about two years ago we built a tiny house in upstate New York and we were
living in it. It was about a hundred ninety five square feet and we loved
living small but we wanted to be able to travel and the trailer wasn't gonna be
able to make it around the country. We got our head set on that we wanted to
get a van at the end of the year and on January 1st we were like, "well, maybe in a
couple months, we'll find a van", right? So I'm like on Craigslist and we found
something and literally in 48 hours we had the van in our possession. Made the
same year that we were both born so kind of like worked out perfectly. We
thought it was fate. Yeah. We're like, "it's an 88, cool". I was working a job that
I had to be at 40 hours a week plus three hours of commuting both ways and she
was working and you know we didn't see each other and we realized what's the
point of living if we don't have that freedom to do what we want? I walked into
my job and put in my notice. Then we found out Sarah was pregnant.
Ironically I got pregnant right after he quit his job. She's only known tiny living.
I think too when you live in a big house and you have like a lot of
really nice things, fancy things, like you have your children you're like, "don't
touch that, don't touch that", you know? I want her to be able to explore and touch
and feel and learn the world through her hands and through her mind.
So this is Topanga. She is a 1988
Ford Econoline van. She has about 250,000 miles on her. When we first got her she
was a carpet cleaning van. She was bright red so the first thing that we did to
her was give her a nice new paint job I think some of the Dodge vans are painted
like this. We kind of modeled that look off of it even though it's a Ford
whatever. Then off of the back we can put our stove up here and cook and
it's a big nice cutting board space and we like it. In the back we have storage
too for stove, camping gear, other various things, spare propane, blankets and stuff.
So I was dead set on doing a porthole window. We just got this one off Amazon
and we actually intentionally installed it backwards so the porthole's
supposed to have the black on the outside and the silver on the inside but we have
kind of like a gold thing going on on the inside so silver it was. We just made
sure that it was super duper like waterproof. We tested it like 18 times to
make sure, but we love it. We think it's a super fun little thing.
This is the cockpit area and you know it's kind of overlooked usually in a van build but we
wanted to do something a little bit special for it. We actually had built
originally like this beautiful cup holder thing here and Stella as she got
a little bit older she just started kicking the crap out and she totally
broke it to pieces so this is the bottom part of it and we just kind of put this
up here now that way we at least have some steady ground to set some
things on to. Stella's car seat was probably the trickiest part about
literally this whole build. So what we ended up doing was it's hard to see but
we have a forward Econoline metal seat essentially that we got off at eBay and
it's literally bolted through the floor and then secured from underneath.
So James laid underneath the van and then bolted it.
So one of my favorite parts of the whole van build was working on the doors. I
just felt it was really underutilized space so we made these little pantry
boxes and they're super handy to hold like all your loose dried food
a little coffee storage area and then on this side I really wanted to make sure we
have plants in the van. I love plans and I didn't want our travels to make my
plant infatuation end so do you notice in the van there's just so many plants
and there were even more but they have they have passed on.
This is our little kitchenette area. We use this for a couple purposes. So this is our like
bathroom sink as well as kitchen. We usually do food prep over here. We store
our pots and pans and plates and everything down there and we have a little
silverware drawer up this way and we also hide our camper toilet for emergencies
down below. Underneath here we have a little hidden storage space so we have
tools and stuff anything we might need flashlights everything like that up top
and then below we have extra water storage then we have our little pantry
here. We keep food, shoes, and stuff underneath and spices and everything up
there. So then this is what we call our entertainment area. We have our Cubic
Mini wood stove so this thing is great. It's dual vented so actually just a
little bit of wood that fills there actually will burn for about 4 to 5
hours straight. It's vented right through the roof so we don't have to
worry about that and then our external vents a little bit hidden up there so
somebody can't see. Down here we keep our camera gear, different equipment, and then
we have our Goal Zero solar system so it runs all the way up through behind the wall
and then up through the ceiling to our panel that's permanently attached but
I'd say this is single-handedly one of the best large investments we made
because it keeps us powered anywhere we need it and we've never really
run out of power just even with one solar panel. This is our living area
slash bed. This is our primary configuration when it's in an L-shaped
couch and then the bed pulls out and these back mattresses pull down and
actually turn into our bed so we convert that throughout the day whenever we need
it. It's the perfect width so Stella can actually take a nap back here
and one of us can lay down with her while the other one still is getting
work done. We have three different drawer areas all for our clothes so Stella has
one, I have one, and Sarah has one. They're all the same size and we can fit pretty
much everything we own other than a coat or two in here for each of us. So each of
us has our own. Stella we have our little library back over here with books
that we pick up. We have a rotating stock that we sell when we get to towns and
pick up new ones then Stella has her little toy cabinet there and then this
is another book holder and then our basket up here is for our keys and stuff at
night so we always have easy access to grab them.
So we also bought this little table that we set up when we're either working or
eating. Surprisingly it actually fits all three of us around it and it's great to
hold a laptop when we're working or one of us wants to get some you know editing
done or anything like that and then it also serves as Stella's
little play area and you know where we eat most of our meals unless we're
outside at a campground.
I think it's normal to question yourself as a
parent. You know especially when you're doing something a little bit different.
Talking to other people about it lucky that is very reassuring for us like
"this is this is a good move for her." It's amazing to be able to bring her to all
the National Parks and let her see the world as it is before she ever hits the age
of three so as she's developing her view of the world she's seeing different
people and how they interact with the world and our natural elements that are
here and getting a real appreciation for what life is really like. You don't have
to end your life just because you have kids it doesn't mean like everything
changes you have to settle down you have to like fit into this norm you can do
weird and funky things and your children can be better for it.