New and Excited

[mctwister15]

Long time lurker, but finally a member! My name is Mark and I play the tuba, and enjoy riding my bike and all types of exploring.  Been fascinated by vans and sustainable building such as cob for years, and so excited about my new-to-me van that I bought in September.  I lived in LA for a few years, working part time as a bike messenger and would always stop and take pictures of all the cool vans that caught my eye along my routes.  Due to the country's current situation I felt the need to get out of the city.  The cost of a Uhaul to relocate seemed crazy to me, and felt more comfortable investing that money into something. I hadn't had a vehicle in years as I didn't need one living in a city, but would need one upon relocating, so I bought a 2001 GMC Savana with 85K miles to move and then have an adventure vehicle.  Although I wish the current logistics of my life would allow for me to live in my van full-time, so far I have been taking weekend and week long trips.  I have really enjoyed the slow, but steady process of building it out to suite my needs as I discover more and more what those are, and have enjoyed learning and doing more mechanical work myself (with help from others too!).  It all has been an interesting, but awesome balance of stress and relaxation. I've been learning a ton and valuing the process a lot. Getting a van has been a long term plan in the back of my mind, but so glad all of the pieces happened to fall together to make that logical time come sooner!

 

[highdesertranger]

Welcome mctwister to the CRVL forums! To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

It sounds like you have a great attitude. nice to have you onboard.

Highdesertranger

 

[crofter]

You might like this essentials list for starting out. Link to video.
-crofter



Here is part 2.


And there is also favorite things.

 

[nature lover]

Welcome to the forum. I have often thought that if we could be like Merlin in Camelot and live backwards; We would already be living in our van before we build it and would we know what we wanted or needed. I know it sounds stupid, but, believe me you’re going to be remodeling and changing several times. The phrase “a work in progress” is common around here. Good luck enjoy the ride.

 

[user 423]

...believe me you’re going to be remodeling and changing several times. The phrase “a work in progress” is common around here.

Yep. I'm on my 3rd. layout in 3 years.

Welcome to the forum Mark!

 

[crofter]

....backwards; We would already be living in our van before we build it and would we know what we wanted or needed....

I actually took my first trip with nothing in the van, just threw in my camping kit. Doing that helped with minimizing the build. I knew that each structure I added inside the van was taking away part of the space I had enjoyed on that first trip. 

As a result I have only one cabinet, no overhead cabinets, and I make use of freeform storage like fruit hammocks, hooks with bungee or netting, and stacked bins that can be moved easily to open up the space. 

Think of the van as a lovesac sectional on steroids. Each space having many uses.
-crofter