It all has to begin somewhere. Longing for a van to be my second home between work assignments, November 10, 2018 was the momentous day. I work for Doctors Without Borders (in logistics) and was on an assignment in Africa when I got a call from my son saying he found a van to convert. On faith and trust I purchased the van…sight unseen for me. It was a big gulp. But transferring $21,000 out of my bank account made it a reality. I now had a “blank slate” cargo van.

Lucky for me I have a very talented, dedicated, project-minded son who likes challenges and agreed to sign on to help transform the van from a cargo van to a home. He sent some pics and started the transformation. A year and seven months later to the day, it was done. It was quite the journey, but really only the beginning.

Pictured here is what we started with. A big white van. My son named it Polar Bear since it was to go to Alaska for its ‘home base’. I suppose the name could have been Kodiak in honor of our massive, iconic brown bears, but the van was white, not brown, so we could not name it after a brown bear.

This Build Blog takes you through all the steps, processes, thinking, rethinking and decisions we made to make the conversion. We looked at a million You Tubes of other conversions, saved posts, made lists, compared, etc. before coming up with our design. And we continue to do that! Always comparing what I have with other great designs and ideas out there. It’s addictive. Of course there are some tweaks we would make a “next time,” but I’m happy with what we produced. Throughout the blog, I’ll share suggestions for what could have been done differently.

I hope this site helps inspire you to make a change, take on a challenge and see it through to the end. Dream big and dare to fail. (My husband’s motto - Norman D. Vaughan) You can do it. You only fail when you quit. It took a lot of effort, but we did not quit and we crossed the finish line and are so proud of the finish. A smile crosses my face every evening and morning as I reflect on my new vanlife lifestyle.

Click the Master Materials List for all aspects of the van build products we used down to my favorite collapsible electric tea kettle & vacuum coffee canister as well as fuses, wiring, solar, potty, and the proverbial kitchen sink. Or click on specific blog pages for specific product categories.