Van life? Nomad life?… how did I get here?!
Covid…. Covid changed everything. I had been finally starting to gain some ground in PA with the business transition to focusing on bigger projects when it all hit. Moving to Pennsylvania was a huge gamble due to the large cost of living increase, but I knew something had to happen when making the change in 2019.
Last summer as my lease was ending my landlord decided to sell my townhouse after we had agreed upon a lease extension a few weeks prior… Needless to say this left me in a predicament. I either found a new place and got a part-time job while covid ran its course, or I put my stuff in storage and hit the road for a bit creating content around the northeast through the end of 2020 safely.
Friends all stepped in at the right time allowing me to hit the road exploring while chips was well cared for. This kicked off a 4 month adventure which resulted in capturing the fall foliage all-around New York State.
Originally, my plan was to evaluate everything in early November and figure out a new place to live as I was expecting life to be getting into some sort of normalcy before 2021 began. It became clear that this was not the case. Plus, where I had been living was seeing an almost 20% increase in housing prices since the beginning of covid. With not much work on the horizon… I really couldn’t justify signing a 12 month lease agreement for a lot of money without work ready to go making it affordable.
At the same time, I also couldn’t think of anywhere else to move to for a while because of everything going on. This created a bit of a conundrum for a few reasons… My biggest issues while adventuring in the outback were 1) lack of real power to charge equipment and 2) lack of ability to stay inside in in climate weather. I also want to be able to bring chips with me on the adventures as she loves travel.
Initially I was looking at tow-behind campers which would work behind my outback… but none of them really addressed my power needs as they are built to take shore power only… no real off grid type charging solution that would allow me to work from anywhere. Also, tow behind campers aren’t really able to be parked just anywhere like i’d been able to do with just my outback. Plus, these still cost anywhere from $10-25k for something that I could use for work and life.
Then there was the thought… what if I build out a camper van… Ya know… the sprinter/promaster/transit build that’d let me put in exactly what I need, while also maintaining a pretty small natural looking footprint. This would allow me to have exactly what I need for work & life without all the extras I don’t. However to do this affordably… I’d be doing a lot of work myself. Good ol sweat equity is something I’ve definitely been a fan of… however the electrical components of this set up scared me a little.
In the end… I decided on the van! While I knew this would be a bit more expensive than a small tow behind, but it’d allow me to easily do everything I need to do… Plus… It’ll be sweeeeet!
Stay tuned for Pt 1 of the build!