Turning a 2009 Sprinter into a Home

We spent about 4 months building out our new tiny home. During the winter/spring of 2024 we enjoyed Ohio staying with Gus’s dad and brother. We were eager to get into the build but Ohio’s winter can be bitter cold. This postponed our build timeline but everything worked out in the end!

How we bought the van! There was a rough layout that gave us a great base but look at that wallpaper! It was time for a renovation!

From the beginning, we spent a lot of time talking about how we wanted the van to look, drawing layouts, and researching how to build things! Neither me nor Gus had much experience with building before this. Thankfully we had some helping hands (shoutout Pai ,Vô, e Vó). It was a fun and difficult learning experience building our home on wheels but it feels good to know we put in a lot of hard work and made it just for us!

There are many things that make our 2009 Sprinter our home. It’s a mix of the good vibes (brought by us!) and the versatility of the space. One of the main features of our van build is the bench seat. We wanted a space for sitting that doubled as storage for our refrigerator and power bank. This has been key in hiding away these bulky yet crucial pieces for living on the road. Another fun route we took was with the kitchen sink. Gus proposed the idea of using an actual bathroom vanity for our kitchen. After some protesting (from me), we installed the vanity and added two pop up wooden slabs for extra counter space (must-have!). This has worked so well for us and it’s really sturdy! The kitchen in the heart of the house, so this piece gets a lot use! We faced some challenges along the way but somehow the most difficult part of this van build was putting the hardware on the cabinetry! Dang! That caused some arguing hehe! We learned a lot during these 4 months of brainstorming, building, and creating.

The thing with our van build is that it’s constantly evolving. We wouldn’t say there were any mistakes made, just ideas that hadn’t been thought of yet! Recently, Gus and our buddy, Mateus, built a new counter/storage space that is amazing! They cut our bench seat in half but somehow added more space for our bathroom, technology corner, and stovetop! We have learned that you can never have too much storage space! Check out the photos at the end of this blog for reference. I’m currently writing this on our Lagun table (must-have). For work and meetings this spot on top the bench seat and in front of the feathery blue backsplash makes it look like we are in an actual office! Our color scheme for the van focuses on whites, blues, and grays. The lighter colors have made our tiny space feel bigger. I’m also happy to report that I have been able to keep some plants alive! We get enough sun and it has never been too hot inside. All these features together make this space really feel like home. How could I forget! Last but not least, this year we added a diesel heater thanks to our friend, Sky! This has been a game changer on chilly nights and will be used a lot once we get to Colorado! Our home has really come together over this past year and we feel grateful for this journey!

A peek inside our home on wheels! Check out the garage to the bench seat and countertop/storage and our kitchen “bathroom” vanity!

For those of you who are interested in building out a van, it was extremely helpful to have a place to stay and keep the van and tools while completing the build. We have friends that bought vans already built out and they’re great! For us, the van we bought needed to be finished so we took it upon ourselves and made building decisions on how we wanted the van to turn out. For those of you who have met Pablita, we hope you enjoyed your visit! But for those who have yet to meet her…check out the photos below!

Back on the road we go!