The Van Conversion Logs - How to Stay Motivated

I’m not going to lie, I don’t know exactly what my plan is with these van conversion logs, but I sort of just want to capture what’s going on each week with the van, how I’m feeling and what things are like mentally, emotionally and physically. Something I haven’t seen really talked about or well-represented in all of the van content out there is just an honest assessment or tracking of what the conversion process is actually like for people. There are endless “how to” videos and blogs, or you see someone working on a project in a 30 minute video which gives you no real sense of what it was actually like to complete it.

And so it begins, I’m already rambling. My point is, maybe it’s just me but I’m a month and a week into my van conversion and I have already run the gamut of emotions, from triumphant to despair, and everything in between. I have to keep reminding myself that this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. I also often remind myself of how lucky I am to be able to be building while living with my parents and my father is an engineer with a carpentry hobby which are privileges that I’m super grateful for.

Regardless, I have made mistakes that took hours to fix, and I have had decisions made which then took hours of research to double check. If there is one thing everyone says that is true, it’s that everything will take about 10 times as long as you think it will. Something will come up, you’ll have to wait for paint or stain to dry, you’ll need a tool that you have to order online that will take a week to arrive, you’ll have to rethink a design and then sleep on it because your brain stops working.

And all of that is after I spent about 100 hours researching van conversions and how to videos in the months leading up to the actual conversion. I even have spreadsheets people…SPREADSHEETS. I thought my spreadsheets were my armor, they have never failed me before. I don’t want to be too harsh to my spreadsheets, I love them. There is just nothing that prepares you for converting a van into a tiny home except for doing the damn thing.

But honestly, even with all of the hard parts, there have been some amazing moments too. And every time my hand is cramping from doing something else that requires a lot of hand muscles (seriously, what is up with that. I’m going to have really awesome grip strength by the end of this), I just visualize the end game and remind myself of my “why” and it immediately reenergizes me. I’m also getting to spend a lot of quality time with my parents, and I feel super lucky for that.