Van Life Lesson #1: Good things take (so much) time.

I dreamed about downsizing and traveling across the country in a van years before I actually made it happen. I created Google docs with tips from reading van life blogs and filled notebooks with to do lists, layout options, and photos of cozy van interiors.

I bought my van through a friend of a friend in South Carolina in July 2018. The back seats had already been removed – the van had been outfitted with a wheelchair lift so the previous owner could take her brother on a trip to Florida.

For as much research and planning as I had done, I actually had no idea what I was doing after taking it down to the metal interior. I didn't even know where to get rid of the wheelchair lift, let alone how to disconnect the wiring for it (that was draining my van's battery).

So I asked my dad for help. Every weekend, I would drive the van to his house and he would ask me, "What do you want to accomplish today?" Sometimes we got a lot done and sometimes we spent all day trying to fit a piece of paneling around the windows (none of which were the same size or shape). He taught me how to use a jigsaw, a circular saw, a miter saw, and helped me slowly put together my own tool kit full of electrical testers, wire cutters, metal screws, and so many drill bits.

The first lesson I learned was that everything took about five times longer than I planned. I thought I would be on the road within six months but the van build actually took me nine months. The most time-consuming part was the electrical system: figuring out which wires went to speakers (that I didn't need) and which ones powered the taillights (which I did need).

Most of the electrical issues were solved after I unhooked the wires that ran from the van battery to the amp, which powered the wheelchair lift, but I installed a switch on the battery so no electricity would run through it if I was in one place for an extended amount of time without driving anyway. I also bought two external batteries – one to jumpstart the van if I needed it (I haven't yet) and another to charge my computer and phone that ran off a solar panel.