So what are you doing next?
This is the question that followed me round the halls of my school as I handed in my notice. It was a big question. So many teachers would walk straight into another school and here I was giving up a secure income to go live in a van...
The thing was, I'd always wanted to do something a bit different and the call of the freedom that Van Dwelling offered seemed to good of an opportunity to give up. My parents had also left teaching to start their own company but that was after 20 years, after a fulfilling career. I was planning on leaving after 3! I guess it came down to the money, we had been saving furiously for a couple of years - this money was supposed to be our house deposit. The next most sensible thing to do at our age was to get married and buy a house. But it didn't feel right to us, there was so much more we wanted to do! So much more to see!
...the idea of breaking free from the daily grind started forming...
This is a choice I could never have made without Max, we had met at a festival he ran 5 years ago and seeing a life that was led in seasons and driven by people was really eye opening. Also the ability to go to the toilet whenever you wanted didn't sound half bad...
Max is an event production manager by trade, something that he wanted to eventually branch out in on his own. Travelling to London for meetings was getting expensive, and boring, so when Max began getting offers of independent work the idea of breaking free from the daily grind started forming.
With reduced living costs it would be possible to work the summer season in the UK at events and then be off travelling the rest of the year - as long as we had internet connection.We'd worked summer season previously by living in a tent and we knew if we were working we'd need a more permanent base. So the dream of van life was born! We quickly started searching for vans online, moving through LDV's and Sprinters until we noticed a Turquoise Mercedes Vario for sale. It was a stupid choice - we couldn't drive it as it required a different license and it didn't have an MOT. But the moment we saw it we could see the potential and the day after we made an offer.
The van was quickly winging its way to use on trade plates and the adventure had begun. We still had no idea what we were doing or how we were going to do it, but the seed of that idea had become reality and we were off!
Follow along with our journey on our Instagram and YouTube channels to see the ins and outs of our build!
Thanks for reading, Sophie
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