 Happy Sunday everybody. It's Robin with Creativity RV and I am very excited today because I get to share with you an interview and tour I did with my friend Barbara who has the most stylish, sophisticated, stealth campervan I've ever seen. She's going to share with us how she designed the inside, what modifications she did to give herself more storage and room, and she's going to tell us the one thing that surprised her the most about van life. Welcome to the van. Well this van is really a thing outside the box, box. It's box, it's small, but it lives large. When I was working, living full-time in Chicago and became aware of Sarah Susanka and just became just absolutely fascinated with her concept of building. You spend far less money building small, but then your finish out is more high-end. You save your money for that and I wanted to apply that concept to a van. When I got around to buying the Winnebago, Winnebago Trevato, she was very instrumental in what I did to tweak it or mod the inside to suit myself. I just would encourage people, van dwellers, full-time, part-time, to make the space your own. You don't have to buy a Winnebago or any of the other brands and just live with it as is, because really what I've done here is take the Winnebago concept, which I liked a lot, but then tweak it to accommodate what I felt I wanted to do in this space. Being small and being comfortable and enclosed is something we all do as kids. What was one of the best and favorite memories we had was making our little forts under tables with who didn't do that as a kid. The idea that you feel protected, you're inside something that is a space you made and is small, but then fits within a bigger picture. I always wanted to make it a reflection of what I felt I was or who I was and I've always done that with every place I've lived and so there was no reason why I wouldn't do that in the van. When did you learn about the van life and that this was an option for you? Well, early from you. I mean four or five years ago we were just talking a minute ago about your early videos and you were very instrumental because you were real. You were professional and your personalization of what you were doing and why your sister and the reality of living life now. I thought this is perfect because you can do that and go wherever you want to go. You don't have to just be stationary in a large metropolitan area and I was ready to move on. How do you feel when you're in here? I feel comfortable. I feel peaceful. I don't have to be distracted by the van. The van helps me move forward in more ways than one in life. Tell me about why you chose the things that you did in here for this very small space. What's the process? I know I want to do this phase and I start looking for accessories first of brands that I like. Like at the time I was really into best made out of New York. And I know you did these wool drapes. Yes, yes. Tell me about that. Well, I found out through the Travato owners in one of these that it's really important to create this barrier between the cab and the van and until I knew that it was like freezing crazy in here in the winter and too hot from the single pane windows up there in the front. Instead of using draperies I decided to use these wool swiss army blankets. This van had a valance all around. It was just one of the many things I did to kind of tweak what Winnebago did. I took the valances down and opened up the windows. I'm sorry Winnebago but I debagged the whole van. I took all the Winnebago logos and everything off the outside so it's completely plain and it just looks much more as people in the van community say stealth that way. A lot of the interior is redone. I had a professional upholsterer redo all the cushions. I had a finished carpenter do the wood treatment in the van to change it out from the actual factory. After I first bought this I didn't go anywhere for the longest time. It was in the driveway. I was thinking about what I would do to the interior. I would go maybe back to Chicago or just a short trip a day trip and it wasn't till probably a couple years into it that I actually went somewhere and that was Washington D.C. And you could do that in the van. Yes. Yes. Actually one of the stories I love to tell people who are considering this is that when you do a van 20, 20 and a half, 21, 20 feet or less you can parallel park. I parallel parked in downtown Chicago in this van. Is there anything in your travel so far that you weren't expecting that has surprised you? Yes. Showers in truck stops are the best kept secret in van life. It's like a flying J or loves or pilot any of them. It's like you just think these are going to be crazy really icky and not all of them are as nice as some of the others but it's amazing. They're nice. They're heated. They give you heated towels. They're cleaned after everyone who uses them. There's 10 to 15 showers. You go in, you pay for a shower, you leave and you don't have to be in a campground and you can just keep going. I bought this van to travel not to camp. I don't usually ever hook up actually because of the style in which I use this van which is to travel versus to camp and it's to avoid all the hotels and avoid the expense of the hotels. You just have your things, your way, your bed, your clothes and it all surrounds you and you don't have to lug it in and out of a hotel. Tell us about your bed. Well, this is a Murphy bed. This was this that came with the van from Winnebago but I did modify it quite a bit by cutting it shorter. This originally came all the way to here and it would sleep too. I'm by myself. I sleep one. I modified it so I could scoot through here, shimmy through here and get to the back of the van without crawling, crawling, crawling over. You know what? I have seen these without that being done and I remember saying to myself, this would be so great except for that. Yeah. So you really figured it out. I don't know. I cut the bed off about this far, actually, you know, about this far and then reinstalled the hinge and then it's permanent. It does go up and down and there are three drawers under here. What about the mattress? Did you have to have a new mattress? No, no, because this always was like this. This folds down, pulls out and no. But you don't do that? No, I don't. Because I can sleep right here. Yeah. And I don't have to mess with all of that. It looks very comfortable. And it is. And then you've got lots of storage. You have a cat and the litter box is down there. That's nice. This is my storage over storage in the Yeti. Get it, Vanna. This is the bathroom. So you have a shower but you prefer the truck stuff if you can. Oh my God, it's huge. Yeah. It's a wet bath. This is the shower head. I cover that. Listen, I have a wet bath and it's tiny. This is huge. Lucky. Yeah. It's nice. I installed the carpet because, you know, vans and some RVs are notorious for kind of colder floors. For sure. So I put a pad down and put some carpet in them. And what do you think about the storage up here? It's great. Is it good? It's great. I have some things in these boxes but some things just the clothes stacked and easy to get to. Wow. That's a huge fridge for a van this size. Yeah. And it's really nice. It's a three-way electric battery propane. And out here, as you mentioned earlier, as far as boondocking, just put out propane. It just runs forever and just sips propane. And the same with the heater, which is very highly rated Trumacombie, which all Winnebago products come with. And it's just fabulous. It's propane and electric. And how is the kitchen working out for you? Right. Love it. Love it. It's a two-top on the gas stove, runs on propane. And the sink is pneumatic. Most people are familiar with the spout there and the handle. And nice storage here. Three drawers and the one under counter. Thanks. And the over with the, I installed this little light to give me a little bit of help up here. Oh, that's great. How did your cat take to traveling? Love it. Love it. Love it. Yeah. Love it. Love it. Love it. That's great. He looks happy. He is happy. Mama looks happy too. Thanks Barbara for showing us your, well now don't step on me. Okay. That's going in the blooper reel. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Barbara, for telling us all about your van life and how you made it your own. Thank you. Thank you, Rob. And we've been watching you for a long time, Mel. Sure. Sure. Why not? Does my armpit small? Because you're right up in there. No. Okay. Okay. You ready? These things always seem so forage, don't they? They really do. It's just, I can't. It's so unnatural. It is unnatural. I've got to tell you something funny when we're done. Okay. Thank you, Barbara, for giving us a tour and telling us how you made your van life your own. Thank you, Robin. It was a pleasure. Yeah. And I'll be back next week. Until then, everybody out there have happy travels and be free.