I Renovated A Van Alone At 19.

[Music] so this is it this is the van guys in the last episode of borderless i spent my life savings on this thing so i could

have a sustainable way to make my dreams of traveling a reality i officially own this this is officially mine this is insane i mean i'm gonna be living out of it

it's a 1990 dodge b250 camper van and i'm naming it spiffy because well i met the guy that i bought it from in the parking lot of this restaurant called spiffy's and the name is just kind of

ironic because i think the word spiffy means like fancy or luxurious and clearly it's not the fanciest thing it's from 1990s so but in the last episode i kind of

forgot to mention spiffy actually looks like this when i first got it [Music] [Applause] [Music]

ew holy [ __ ] that is so [ __ ] disgusting well um i'm gonna just state the obvious here

based off of the looks of it um this van needs a lot of work thankfully as of right now most of the mechanic aspects of everything have already been checked out and that is in the clear as of right now at least

so the main thing i'm going to be focusing on is just the interior and actually making the inside a livable situation because right now it's not looking too good so yeah before

i can actually travel around living out of my van i need to actually make it livable okay so long story short i have to wear this because the van is

infested with bugs and it needs to be cleaned out now thankfully i had tried to save a little extra money for gas potential breakdowns and the inside renovations

but i think when i first imagined preparing the inside of whatever van i ended up with i kind of just thought it'd be some cute fun decorations you see on pinterest or something there's a whole swing in this one the layout of

this one is really cool but i have to say the the plants have to be my favorite there's a bunch of little trendy lights around the top of this van this one has like house plants all around it it's like a whole

house garden in there this one is so cool actually come to find out though my van actually needed a lot more work than just some aesthetic trendy decorations here and there

oh my god that is so in there literally who the [ __ ] put this in [Music] oh

it was around this point where i think i started to realize this was going to be a lot harder than i originally expected every day i keep doing this van build i keep questioning more and more

what i've gotten myself into which is why i really just had to try to take things one step at a time each day [Applause]

[Music] day three day number four day number five day six day seven day eight day nine so today is the day that i start doing

the vinyl on not only the walls but the flooring as well i'm not gonna lie i have little to no idea what i'm doing but i'm hoping i'm kind of just gonna like figure it out as i go

[Music] from scraping the mold off the top of the van to replacing the walls and the flooring and then even trying to learn how to do upholstery along with an

entire new paint job i felt like i was slowly but surely starting to make progress [Music]

i think the first coat is kind of done it's far from perfect but it's gonna have to work i feel like anything i do at this point will look better than how it looked before so that's what i

just have to keep telling myself like it's not gonna be perfect but it's definitely gonna look better than it did before i'm trying to get all these little button things off of this so i can take

it off and replace the upholstery so i feel like the hardest part about this whole van build so far is just the fact that it feels like and looks like i'm not making any progress

whatsoever even though i'm working really hard like literally the van right now looks worse than it did when i first got it which kind of defeats the whole purpose of me like doing all this hard work i haven't

even painted the outside yet so it just like the primer that's the primer on the outside i've been waiting for it to like dry so i can sand it down and it just looks dumb one of the lessons i

started to learn working on this project is that even if things are seemingly not progressing to an end goal not all progress has to look or feel linear before i can actually start seeing

things come together like visibly i kind of have to strip everything out that i don't want because i have to make room for all the new stuff that i want to put in so that's kind of been the hard part is

just like watching it slowly turn into more of a [ __ ] box basically i know it's probably going to be worth it in the end but i also don't want to like focus too much on the end goal and in

the big picture because that will just like stress me out and i want to actually be able to like enjoy every moment of this project and not just like rush through it i knew i was working as hard as i possibly could and

even if that hadn't yet amounted to anything rewarding i knew it was eventually going to if i just kept

working

[Music] and the more and more i kept working the

more of a symbol the van and the entire van build started to become to me so i'm re-watching like all this footage of the whole van build right now and just like seeing this story come

together is making me realize that to me like in my head this was so much more than like just a van build not only was this one of the most like self

empowering like liberating experiences of my life but i also feel like it was the most like isolated i've ever been or felt because

of this path i'm taking in life is just very untraditional i think it makes it like really hard to relate to people or have other people like understand that feeling of just

like being so isolated and alone really like forced me to embrace it and kind of like be independent and channel it into something constructive

which was the van and like building the rest of the van and like finding the motivation to keep going with the whole build because it got really [ __ ] hard at times and now i'm kind of having like this epiphany that it's it's always really

been hard for me to like open up to people and like trust people so this project and this whole experience to me was like almost like this like tangible

embodiment of how i've like felt a lot of my life feeling like i have to just like do everything on my own and like not trust people and i'm still trying to figure out if if that's like a bad thing or if it's a

good thing or if there needs to be like a balance because on one hand it is good to like be independent and not depend too much on other people but then on the other hand maybe i just have like really bad like

trust issues or like abandonment issues or something i don't know but yeah i don't even know if that made any sense to anyone i just thought it might be an interesting storyline to include because i've just really felt very disconnected

from people in this past year of my life and feel like the van build was kind of just like my way of accepting that all i'm gonna have is myself at the end of the day this whole

project just overall taught me a lot about myself as well i learned how stubborn and impatient i can be at times

come on you little [ __ ] oh god this is really annoying i have to get every little one of these like nail things out of the wood of the upholstery i also learned

how toxic being a perfectionist can be when really doing anything creative but especially when renovating a 30 year old vehicle that's obviously bound to have imperfections regardless of how perfect

i was trying to make everything turn out so there just so happens to be a bunch of chips in the original white paint on the van so i think i'm gonna have to go around it and just fix all those little imperfections and

mainly just how my anxiety makes me take things a little bit too seriously sometimes who knew putting in [ __ ] knobs on cabinets would be this damn hard like

considering i was doing basically everything on my own with no prior experience there was quite a few really overwhelming moments throughout the build where i felt pretty discouraged i ran out of paint in the middle of

painting the van and so i went back to the store to go get the paint and the store apparently discontinued the paint in the shade that i need

so there is a chance now i might have to start over the whole [ __ ] painting process [Music]

but this taught me no matter how terrible something can feel in the moment ultimately everything works out one way or another i just had to drive to a completely different city to get one of the last containers of this paint

so let's hope it's going to be enough this time

[Music] this is definitely the most challenging and difficult project i've ever taken on but i think it was all worth it when i

eventually actually started seeing things come together today i am taking off all the masking on the van that's the plan so it's kind of going to be a moment of

truth to see if this really turned out or not and finally seeing everything come together was probably one of the most rewarding feelings i've ever experienced

dude i love this oh my gosh i just can't believe this is finally coming together i did it i just put in the new upholstered couch and it looks so good

this is it the curtains are looking good so far i got these little baskets on the wall right here and i got a spice

rack and stuff this is the bed area very cozy as you can see today's a really exciting day because i finally get to start moving into the van and putting all the like living

stuff in the van and mounting everything all the kitchen supplies are going in the cabinets today let's hope everything fits okay i think this is about done

[Music] so yeah after almost a four month renovation i'm proud to say the van is officially finished and this is what i'll be living out of

come on in guys [Music] starting out from the back of the van we have my favorite part of the van the

coffee bar this is the espresso maker machine uh we had to like bungee cord it in so it doesn't fly off when the van is driving then we have the kitchen area

over here we got a sink got a stove i had to have someone install this for me though like a new one because i don't know how to do that [ __ ] we got a spice rack a little fruit avocado

basket right here and then a nice mirror so like when i want to get ready in the morning or like wash my face or whatever the mirror is conveniently right here above the sink all the kitchen storage and everything like utensils and dishes

and stuff and just kitchen necessities go down here and then conveniently from the kitchen area we got the pantry and the fridge it's kind of nice because everything in this van just has its own like designated

spot where i can organize stuff plenty of closet space in the back on both sides and then also up top it's really cool because there's like toiletry space up here even though the bed situation

looks a bit inconvenient it's actually more convenient not having the bed down below because it just like allows so much extra space to be down here in its own special way it's kind of like

an actual bedroom to go to sleep in just a very small compressed bedroom the idea was to have a ladder like this by the bed and then just crawl up it

casually but um oh my god i've discovered it's a bit easier to just like hop up on the counter or the couch the storage below the couch is a little bit hard to open but it's still

very nice like shoes can fit in here and a bunch of stuff underneath the couch too the couch even pulls out into another bed and then i wanted to have a little area for the patreon board everyone on the patreon has helped make

this entire vin build possible so it only felt right to have a little spot for everyone on the wall right here these are the curtains they're actually homemade from the sewing machine i bought and then

returned when we were done making them innovative and then on to the front of the van it's mainly just for driving obviously jackery was actually nice enough to send me this big battery and

it's going to be my main power source in this van living off-grid most the time so thank you so much zachary for sending me that i got these pins for the map up front and each time we're at like a new location and stuff i'm

going to mark the place we're at if that makes any sense the map just honestly looks really cool too and it'll probably even look cooler when all the pins are in there in the back of the van we have

the bathroom aka just like a toilet i got off amazon that i don't know how to work yet [ __ ] there's still like instructions in here my feet kind of go off the ground it's

kind of funny actually i feel like i'm on like a swing for privacy purposes this door works really really great just one second i tried to put velcro on the door and

the velcro for some reason doesn't really work now [ __ ] just old vehicle vibes you know just got to replace things from time to time

good as new and then this right here is the polaroid wall obviously there's going to be more on it eventually but um this is like me working on the van this is the van when i first got it and

this is it almost finished this is me driving it to its first tune-up oh [ __ ] ignore these so yeah i hope you all like the way that it turned out i think i'm pretty happy with it it's obviously not

perfect by any means but it has all the basic like living needs in it has everything that i need to live out of it so that's super exciting this has definitely been quite the project but i definitely think it's been worth it and

i could not be more excited to show you all the content and bring you guys along for this journey just be patient because editing takes forever but stay tuned i hope it will be worth the wait and yeah

thank you so much for watching [Music] also in honor of finally finishing the

van build i decided to make some apparel [Music] i'm wearing the hoodie right now but it also comes in t-shirts the concept is like a blueprint of the

van like under construction kind of on the front in the back this drop is actually also a collaboration with my friend simon's clothing brand keep it wholesome and his nature heels collection we wanted to do a drop together that promotes getting out in

nature and how like important it is for your mental health to go on adventures and stuff this area is for where we store everything and i'm gonna store my half of the collab here when natalie's stuff comes in we're going to put her

stuff over here but yeah my friend simon is going to be helping me package these orders he knows what he's doing last time i tried to like do apparel on my own it didn't you know let's just not

talk about it um but yeah if anyone is interested in checking it out the link will be in the description um it really helps support these videos in my channel and stuff and i also just think it's really cool to get to wear like a little

actual tangible memento of the video itself so in the last episode of borderless i tried to prank everyone with the smoke effect i got off storyblocks and i think i got some of you guys pretty good so again this video

is sponsored by storyblocks because i love all their different demand driven worldc3 video assets including over a million different 4k or hd video and audio effects but also their stock

footage is very diverse and inclusive as a content creator myself i sometimes struggle to find video effects that are royalty free but thanks to the raw access plan i not only don't have to worry about copyright but i also get an

unlimited amount of downloads so yeah the link will be in my description for any other fellow content creators who are interested in checking them out thank you again storyblocks for sponsoring this video

i low-key look like a little astronaut ready to take off to the moon me when i got the van yeah all right you know i'm gonna take some

pride in this [ __ ] never mind you know the snow crunching come on in for the tour like i'm not like trying to flex my

[ __ ] van bathroom explaining it to me oh [ __ ] not the carbon monoxide so this would be a great time to show the carbon monoxide detector

uh it sometimes goes off when this door is shutting because we had to put it right here why do i think i'm laying on nails dude it's my keys

okay