I proudly present my first ever home away from home! A converted E-350 Ford van.

If you want to read from where the tutorial starts, it will begin where the van is empty.

This is the finished product, after about 2 weeks of 14 hour days to sort out the construction, and an easy 2-4 weeks of casual painting plus little installments over time.

Before I begin my journey I would first like to deeply apologise for not providing you with as much as I would have liked to. These images have all been from my girlfriends phone as mine died before coming home, I had about 3 times as many photos to show, it is what it is. My first advice: don't throw your phone on the floor if it's too slow, percussive maintenance can only go so far...

So, the story:
It begins in Australia with a lot of savings and a big dream. We depart for Canada and arrive with a suitcase of luggage each.

The next day, we buy van. It runs on petrol(gas) and LPG(propane) via an electronic switch connected to a solenoid. I have used vehicles like these before and I know their economic value so I jumped on the sale after confirming it's mechanical integrity.

In a few images (where I actually begin the tutorial portion) you will see the state of the vehicle as purchased, we scored a few things off of Craigslist and off we went to Kelowna to meet with a friend who happened to have a lot of tools for us to use.

This is a map of our travels.

My handy dandy tools.

The van in her glory.

Here I should mention (as I have no photographic evidence) the van runs off of a 12v system of two parallel 12v 100ah deep cycle batteries which is charged via the alternator during transit and via 270w of solar power which are attached to the roof. They run through a charge controller which mediated the flow and does the work for you.

In the van is a small 12v pump for the water tap, a 1000w true sinewave inverter (with a startup surge allowance of 2000w) with a powerboard, and a 150w minifridge.

The power and reserve I had was more than enough for us to live very comfortably.

So here it is. Humble beginnings. First things first is giving it a clean.

After the clean, getting some white spray paint and sealing the scratched parts. This presents the cab from rusting from condensation after it's insulated.

Bits of ReflectX are cut up and glued to the main parts.

Small timber struts are screwed in as guides for the walls to reduce as much space waste as possible. After this spray insulation is filled inside a the gaps.

Insulation bats are spray glued to all 3 surfaces. As you can see. I have also got some cabling through a conduit on the top left corner and running down the side. The bottom left side where the wires are bunched on the floor is where the batteries will be at the end.

The ceiling is up. 1/4 inch ply. You will also begin to notice the markings and lines I draw into the ply as guides for drilling holes and for screwing into.

Walls are up and filled, screws concealed, and the floor insulation is down. 1inch foam.

Here she is making the boxes to go over the wheel arches.

Floor is down, 1/2inch ply. The box also serves as a base for the bed. Wheel arches are covered and lines are filled.

So this frame was donated, free and a queen size... Perfect! Attached with 90 angles and good ole PVA. With 2x4 supports. As you can see the bedframe doesn't line up with the wall of the van, this was intentional. There's about a foot of extra width where our clothes hamper is going to go, lining up with where the mattress will rise to.

Little door niches made and cut out. My girlfriend did a good job, right.

This one is more of a pocket, used mainly for storing our alcohol in the end.

Drawers being assembled. We eventually had 3, these two here were for cutlery and plates, the bottom was for smaller foods. A large drawer for big pots and large foods.

Bedframe complete with a 1/2 inch board on top.

Sink construction taking place, where my girlfriend took the picture, she was sitting on the bedframe, for perspective.

My simple plumbing goes like this: there's 2 5gl/20L Jerry cans (IN and OUT). The IN has clean water and is pumped up via an electric 12v pump through the tap where a hose connected to the bottom of the sink leads to the OUT. Just refill the IN and dump the OUT when needed. Nothing fancy.

Resting... You can see the big drawer in the photo as well as the MDF face. Up and to the back those books were on that bench top/hamper I mentioned earlier, it runs continuous with the kitchen and all the way to the back. You can see it better in the finished photos above.

Sealing the sink in. And staining the wood.

Shelf up, draws knobbed, cabinet up, fridge in. Things are all coming together slowly. Some paint up too.

My girlfriend had a lot of fun at IKEA.

Some more paint, the little black box to the left is the controller for the inverter.

Some shelving in, some flyscreens put up. Some cornices put in and now a chalkboard wall... This is the last of my photos and the start of our journey. Here we (she) drew North America and marked where we travelled. What an incredible 6 month journey it was and we we so glad to find some good people to sell our van when we had to go back home.

Hope you enjoyed the post!

Time to make another soon down here in Aus!