Hi my name is Aitor and I'm Laia. We are The VanEffect. We are a couple
from Spain. We live in Catalunya. This is our van.
I'm an illustrator and I studied graphic design. I make websites and I'm working as a waiter.
2015 we bought the van second hand with barely nothing in it.
We decided to take a trip to Portugal and we completely fell in love. We just
thought, "why only on holiday?" We decided to build a van so we could live
full-time and travel around Europe while working freelance and also we have
an online shop. We want to make products that help you to produce less waste when
you're traveling available to travelers. We start working on the conversion of
the van one year and a half ago. We were working on a steady, we only had the
weekends to work on it. The total cost of the van was fifteen
thousand euros with the price of the van and the conversion.
This is our van it's a
2005 Peugeot Boxer. We bought it three years ago and it cost
five thousand and five hundred euros. We have our water in that.
It has 69 litres. We have our van for the kitchen area, external connection
for charge the electric system. Two 140 solar panels. They charge up to 190 amp
hour batteries. In the back we have two portholes, an external shower, plus
connection, connection for the water pump. We take these magnets from this side
one corner in here and then we put another one in this side. We take the
hose and just connect here the shower. Diesel heather, it's a Webasto 2000. The hot end
goes inside this, heats the five litre of water and then here the cold water
and hot water mix.
Hello this is our home. The first thing that you see is our kitchen which is
very important for us. Aitor loves cooking and I love eating so we had to
have a lot of space. This is the sink, which we bought in a place that's called
Brickellobe, it was very cheap. This is a faucet which we love because it has a
very antique feel. Some storage, things for the bathroom, cleaning things. This is
our only cleaning product which we do ourselves. It's white vinegar. We soaked
it with lemon peels and some baking soda. Gas for the kitchen, a pullout drawer
some more storage for cutlery and glasses and everything. We have three
little drawers, coffee maker. Under here we have the water tank. We have a little
hole in it and we installed a LED light which we turn on from here so we can see
the level of water that we have. Microwave we basically got it for
popcorn and pizza. Here we have the little fridge. We bought it in a
supermarket. I think it cost us like 130 euros or something like that. On top of
the cabinet we use as a pantry. This is a bigger stove, goes like this. This fan
which also works as a light. This one is electrical. It has filters. We went for
this one because you don't need to make a hole in the van.
More storage for food. We went for a very big mirror. We thought that we would get
a feel that van was bigger and so I could see myself completely. We have two
cabinets here. We have the fuse box, all the controls are here, and the wires for
the solar panels and batteries go inside this wall and then they go under the bed
which is where we have the batteries. Next to the batteries we also have the
bedding, porta potti, that's hidden here. You just pull these out, you access it
from here. Under the potti we have the heater so you just pull it a bit up and
then and to you and that's it. When we started
sleeping the different parts would separate. We put some velcro and now you
just put it like that again. Back to sofa. Our wardrobe
we've got magnets on the doors so they don't open while we're driving. It
actually fits more than what we thought initially. Most of the van is done with
recycled pallet wood except for the walls and these parts that are darker. We
had a boy who was studying how to work with metal so they are handmade with the
curtains and the lights for whenever we're watching films. New cupboard, a little
space for the backpacks and if we're putting out the dirty clothes whenever
we're traveling. Power stereo system. This was some speakers that we had at home
and we took out the case and we built this wood frame to go inside the van.
This is some extra fabric that we had from the sofa. Raspberry Pi to
play video games and we have the wires and the controls here, some more storage
more books, and more books. Some more little cupboards for those things that
are always everywhere and you don't know where to put. This is to secure
everything so it doesn't fall. A computer screen. We connect it to the laptop. We
use it to work and to watch films then this goes connected to the speaker's the
control for the heater, more storage. We put our shoes in here. We have some holes
that we made so we could install the table. We put this up, put this, on you put it here.
Oh you have the table. We've had like six people having dinner here. If we need
more space for the table we can also use that part. We have two showers one which
we use outside. We use the same shower curtains that we have for outside
and we bought this little swimming pool. You can find it as a dog swimming pool. We put
these little clips in here and then you just install them here and and then when
everything is covered we pass the hose from the back then you can leave it
hanging here and to take the water out we have this little suction water
that we put here and the water goes right into the sink.
If you are stuck in the same place thinking about those two days
in the week that you have free or that month in a year that you can go
somewhere there's not going to be a right time to do a change. It's scary. I
mean we are scared to make this change. Know what you're going to do while
you're traveling, what your priorities are and then just make the reel according to it.
Thanks for watching this week's episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If
you did be sure to share it with a friend that you think would enjoy it as
well and thank you most of all to the Patrons that support the channel, I
really appreciate you. You can follow our journey of living full-time in a
van @thevaneffect Instagram or through our blog www.thevaneffect.com.
Have a great week, peace!