One small step for the van, one giant leap for vankind. Well hello again! We’re back, exactly two months after purchasing the step van, to share the progress we’ve made thus far! Words cannot express the excitement we feel to finally see some momentum. First things first: tear down. As you may recall from our “before the conversion tour,” the van has many shelves that need to be removed. The wall panels, while we’re still debating about repurposing or building out new walls, also need to be removed so that we can check out the brackets and be sure there isn’t any hidden rust. The wall separating the driver section and the living section is covered in a gray-fabric that needs to be removed, as well. These are all things that sound easy, in theory. We learned quickly ;)
While Tanner is naturally handy and just understands how to do things, it’s taken some patience from both of us while I try to figure things out. One Saturday, I broke three drill bits. What did we do? We went to Lowe’s and bought titanium drill bits. Ha! Take that! No struggle has seemed too big, thus far. A big reason for that, I have to admit, is that we’re blessed to be parked in Jim and Anne-Lise Sellers’s driveway and have access to the tools they’ve collected over their 15 years of marriage. Jim, my step-dad, often comes out with a tool in hand that proves super helpful. Anne-Lise, my mom, comes out to brainstorm, talk through ideas, and jumps into to help now and again. Having both of their support has been amazing! It’s taken us a total of four weeks to complete the teardown process. There are still a few things here and there that need to be removed, but we’re now ready to move on to installing new doors, adding windows… and maybe even get started with insulation! We have no expectation on how long these next steps will take, or even if we’ll get them right the first time around. Either way, we’ll be back soon to keep you all posted! Thanks so much for following along in this crazy project.
Till next time! The Phillips Pack
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Thanks for tuning in again for our fourth blog, which will be the last “introductory” post - moving forward, we’ll be sharing progress of the conversion! Stick with us for this post, though, as we cover one of the most important topics yet: budget. Tanner and I are huge budgeters - each month, we allocate every dollar to a specific category and track our savings. I find genuine joy in reconciling our accounts, correcting our overspending, assigning dollars for next month, etc. I could talk about my love of budgeting all day, but sharing the actual numbers gives me some real anxiety. So please, bear with us as we try to be transparent through this process :) For the initial commitment (buying the van), we set our maximum budget at $8,500. We had been setting a portion of our income aside to buy a home, which is where most of the cash came from. We spent an afternoon moving around dollars from various budget categories to come up with the total. After doing a lot of research about the cost of converting, we settled at an all-in cost of $15,000. Once you exclude the amount for the vehicle, there is a leftover $6,500 to go toward to conversion. The step van, however, came in at $750 under our max budget… so really the conversion budget comes out to $7,250. Wanting to be strategic with the money that we have, and not shoot ourselves in the foot should any emergencies occur, we did not commit an additional $7,250 of our savings to the van. Rather, we’ve projected our savings over the next six months to reach that goal. We have an idea about the big ticket items and what they’ll cost. Adding AC to the van? Probably about $2,000. Adding a solar kit? Estimating about $1,500. A compressor fridge? Hoping for less than $500. Ventilation fan? $250. That leaves us with about $3,000 for other items that are mostly up in the air - we’ll do what we can with our budget, and opt out on things that take us over. We recognize that we might run into issues, or we may be completely off on some of our estimates (knock on wood). Also, it’s been important for us to remember that life happens - emergencies could occur that set us off of our timeline, if not entirely. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:14 At the end of the day, we’re taking a chance with this opportunity because life is short. If we aren’t promised tomorrow, then we ought to live today! Alright, so that covers it! We can’t wait to come back to this post when it’s all said and done. We’ll either be impressed with ourselves or humbled by our failure to predict costs. We do want to give a shout out to YNAB.com - we have used the site/app for budgeting since we got married, and 10/10 would recommend. Next up, we’ll begin to share the progress we’re making on the conversion.
Till next time! The Phillips Pack At this point, you’ve probably gathered that we ultimately decided to purchase a step van (I mean, the name of this blog kind of gives it away). But what got us to sign the check? Was it planning or spontaneity? Was it research or a gut feeling? Was it mulling over every detail or was it going with the flow? Honestly - it was a combination of all of those things. Budget
So! Here we are with this hunk o' metal. While we are super happy with the purchase, the van does come with its own challenges. For one, the engine doesn't have the greatest reputation. The van also doesn’t have AC - in Texas, that's going to be an issue. It also has a ridiculous fold-down passenger seat that just won’t do for longer road trips. It may not be the absolute perfect van, but that doesn't stop our excitement; we're excited to tackle all the challenges together! Check out the video below for “before” shots of the van.
In our next blog, we’ll dive into the budget we have for the van (along with our savings goals). This is one of the blogs that we will look back at, once the project is complete, and either smile with pride at our accuracy… or laugh at how far off we were. Time will tell. Till next time!
The Phillips Pack |