Carpet Cleaning

Since the van was owned by a tile company it was pretty dusty. We decided to rent a few carpet cleaners and give it a once-over. I think it could have used three more "once-overs" but an initial cleaning definitely pulled out a lot.



I was so surprised by the amount of dirt that we pulled out (again no picture - blerg) but the bottom of the buckets had significant amounts of mud. It smells much better and hopefully won't be a problem with allergies.

The van is already a fan favorite with the kids. Here are Aaron's nephews enjoying the open space.

The First of Many Trips (however vanless)

We bought the van hoping to have it ready for my spring break which was a little ambitious. We decided to go to Moab anyway and I couldn't help but throw up some pics for inspiration to get the van done.

We met up with Aaron's brother Josh to do some rock climbing. The hike was awesomely tough...


But the views were definitely worth it...


Getting ready to climb the chimney...




Sadly, Aaron and I couldn't quite hack it so we had to just do the first pitch. It was still amazing and I'm so glad we tried it.


We then went to "Wallstreet" for some climbing a little more on our level but we were so wasted from before that Josh was the only one who climbed.


Moab has a special place in our hearts because its where Aaron and I got engaged. Aaron proposed on a cliff overlooking Delicate Arch (I know ladies, be jealous) so we decided to hike back. It was so much fun remembering that trip and discussing how what we remember feeling and thinking. We even reenacted the conversation leading up to the cliff.

Jessica - "Aaron I don't think we're suppose to go off the trail."

Aaron - "Um its fine, its a national park, we pay for those trails."

Jessica - "Yea but if everyone went off the trails then where would we be."

Aaron - "Seriously Jess, I think it'll be fine."

Little did I know glad I would be that we took that little detour.



We would have carved our initials in the rock if that wasn't one of our biggest pet peeves. Yea for Moab!

Getting to the Goods

The inside of the van is really what we cared about considering that is where we will be spending the most time. As previously stated, the shelving was a big selling point since we were going to build it anyway.


We wanted to keep it on one side only since the other side will contain the bench/bed. So with some help the other side quickly was removed.





The other side took a little finesse...



We also took out the rubber flooring since it was pretty beat up and burnt quite a few calories cleaning the metal floor. It now looks as though we might be able to live back there.

More on the carpet cleaners later...

The One

It all happened so fast! We had just gotten back from the auction and were healing from our experience. We found a few vans on KSL and decided to go and check them out. The first on on the list was this little gem...


And we fell in love immediately! It has shelves, is insulated, has low miles, and a great body! We took it for a test drive, told the fabulous couple that we had a few more to look at, and decided as we drove away that we wanted it. So we went to eat (as to not appear complete crazies) and then went back to pick it up. Best of all the owner took off $500 because it needed new brakes.

Van Purchased: $1700

The Search

So we had been watching vans on a local classifieds website (ksl.com) but were waiting for an auction where companies can unload their fleet vehicles. We get there at 9:00 and start checking out the vans.


I must admit we were a little overwhelmed and kind of forgot to take pictures (oops) - we'll try and do better.

Aaron giving them the once-over...



Crossing a few off the list...


And a little glimpse at what we dream of outfitting one day...


You'll notice that we don't have any pictures of us bidding. Once the bidding on the vans rolled around (approximately 6 hours after we got there) we found that they rapidly exceeded our price range. But we got a good idea of what we wanted and how much we wanted to pay.

The Beginnings

So, about a year ago Aaron and I started to dream of this...


and this...


and THIS....


But sadly we are still on a college student budget (and Aaron would never ever fit on the beds in these) so we decided - "Who needs years of R&D and engineering!? Let's build it ourselves!" We began to look into the idea of converting a 15 passenger van into a camper van. We found some great sites for inspiration:

mybigadventure.com
campervanlife.com
campervanconversion.co.uk

And so we begin, wish us luck!