October 2025 Update and Van Build Expenses

We began the month in Hillsborough in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. There, we were house-sitting with a dog named Rakwa. We spent a lot of time working on the van, but also managed to get out a bit. We enjoyed the river walk along the Eno River and were just a few blocks walking distance from downtown.

Rakwa in his favorite spot in the yard.

The Hillsborough River Walk.

We hung out at this cool bar and record store called Volume.

Hillsborough is very proud of the jazz pianist and composer Billy Stravhorn who has roots in the town.

Another bar we visited a few times, Yonder: Southern Cocktails and Brew.

From Hillsborough, we moved to Asheville to sit for two golden retrievers, Chewie and Freddie. I had no idea that golden retrievers were so big!  Because this sit was just a “filler sit” (a week) between Hillsborough and the next sit, we didn’t have the time to start any van projects. We spent the week enjoying the company of our large charges, taking them hiking and to a pond where they enjoyed chasing balls thrown into the water.

I’m not sure that Freddie had ever heard a guitar before.

The pet parents loaned us one of their cars to take the goldens on excursions. They loved going in the car!

And they loved going to the pond to chase balls.

Chewie looks on as Freddie flies into the pond. Freddie would only jump in after you threw two balls. He would retrieve them both at the same time and swim back with them in his mouth.

Duwan with Freddie and Chewie hiking to Catawba Falls.

A mouth full of tennis balls.

Greg with Freddie and Chewie at Catawba Falls.

After Asheville, we went back to the Research Triangle to Chapel Hill, where we house-sat an adorable little dog named Tori. This house sit (which is ongoing) is booked for 5 weeks, allowing us lots of time to get a little further on our van build. We have a great driveway here to work in and lots of room for us to spread out with our projects.

Tori wasn’t sure about us at first. But now we are best friends.

When she pulls out her toy basket and puts it in front of us, we know it is time to play.

Tori being super cute!

Van Build Expenses

Cost of the Van: $54,652.75

Cost of upgrade so far, 9/30/25: $12,767.30

We spent $1,357.44 on Periplo in October.

Our largest expense category, Electric, increased by $639.74. Most of this was for wire ($321.31) and an electronic panel ($182.23). Our electric system will be one of the most important things in our van. We will be running more electric devices than we did previously. So our system is bigger and more sophisticated.

We spent $84.56 in the Flooring category. This was for glue, spacers for the big gaps between ribs in the metal floor, and stain for the subfloor. Some of the subfloor will be the floor underneath the cabinets, so we wanted it to be sealed and finished to protect it and for easier cleaning.

Tools went up by $234.36. Most of this was for a table saw ($160.18). Greg did some free-hand cuts with his circular saw and quickly realized that a portable table saw would make more accurate and uniform cuts. We also bought a hole saw bit, some crimping tools, and a cable cutter. Some of these tools—especially the table saw—we hope to be able to sell once the build is done.

There were $25.42 in General Supplies expenses. Screws, painters’ tape, and caulk.

I have changed the Refrigerator category to Appliances to lump all of our electric galley equipment together. We add $129.83 to this expense. We bought tie-downs for the fridge and an outlet to connect the fridge to our electric system. We also bought an oven/air fryer. Like the fridge, although we are not ready to install an oven, I went ahead and bought it because it was the exact one I wanted, and I didn’t want to risk it becoming unavailable.

I added a Furniture category. This is where I will keep track of how much we are spending on building our cabinets, platforms, counters, and benches. Our initial expenses ($112.63) in this category were for building a bench that will contain our power station and serve as storage for bigger things like our ladder and camp chairs.

Plumbing is also a new category. We spent $80.90 on a grey water tank and a motorized ball valve for emptying it.

And finally, we added $50 to our Starlink expense. Although we are not using the service, we are paying for it so we can test it when we connect it up to our electric system.

The Design

Greg has started building the interior of the van, so I thought it would be a good time for me to share my designs. I am designing the van using free software called Autodesk Fusion. The design has to be super precise so that we don’t have any wasted space. Cabinets and compartments have been measured to fit our stuff exactly!

Click on the pictures to open them in a slide show and see the captions to better understand the components of the design and how they will function.

A view of the van’s interior from the front.

A view of the interior from the back.

The driver’s side. Our top loading fridge sits on a platform on the left-hand side. To the right of it is a tall cabinet for storage and above the fridge are two more cabinets. The cabinet on the far left will hold our oven, Next to the tall cabinet is a bench with storage underneath. The power station will live in the far right side of the bench. In back of the bench is the Murphy Bed. Attached to the front of the Murphy Bed are cabinets for clothes. To the right of the bench is our inverter and systems monitor.

The driver’s side with all the cabinet doors, bench doors, and fridge door open. Also shown is where the removable panel will be on the bench in front of the power station. This panel will allow easy access to the breaker box and other switches.

The passenger’s side. On the right is the hidden toilet and shower area. Oops! I forgot to add the shower pan to the floor in front of the toilet. Next to the toilet is the sink and counter space for cooking. A portion of the counter is hinged to access a reach-down pantry. At the far-left end of the counter is a swing-away shoe cabinet. Above the counter is more cabinet storage. Not pictured under the counter will be more storage and our plumbing system.

Passenger side with all the cabinet doors open.

View from the front of the van with all the cabinet doors open. You can see the swing-away shoe cabinet here on the end of the galley counter.

And here is how the swing-away shoe cabinet will work.

When the shoe cabinet is open, we will be able to access our water heater and water tank.

This is how the Murphy Bed will work.

Here is the Murphy Bed fully deployed (minus the bed).

October’s Projects

Greg completed the subfloor while we were still in Hillsborough. He glued 1/4 inch plywood to 1/2 insulation. He used spacers on the van floor where the ribs were spread farther apart. He then glued the panels to the floor and used spray foam to fill up the spaces around the edges. Finally, he painted it with a stain-poly combo.

Greg’s final project in Hillsborough was to drill one more hole in the van. This time, it was in the side wall for a shore power connection.

Greg glues insulation to the bottom of the plywood subfloor and cuts it to size.

Spacers for the big gaps on the van floor (3/8″ shoe molding is the same height as the existing ribs).

Another hole in the van.

Our shore power outlet goes into it.

Shore power outlet from the inside of the van.

Subfloor finished and painted.

At the house sit in Chapel Hill, Greg started on the power station and the bench that will hold it. Because it is a tight space and there are so many components to our electric system, he made a prototype of the power station out of a cardboard box. Next, we used my design to lay out the floor of the driver’s side to make sure the design would work. We did a few tweaks to the design, and once we were satisfied with it, Greg started building the bench. On October 31, he started assembling the power components and putting them in place.

Greg’s cardboard prototype of the power station.

Laying out the floor with painter’s tape.

Greg using a new tool, a pocket hole jig, to make the bench.

Greg works on the bench.

Greg adds a floor to the power station box to make it extra sturdy.

The power station box and the bench so far.

The panels and switches that will be accessed from the front of the box.

Starting to install the power components.

I’m super excited to see what the November recap brings, but because I am being so timely with this post, I’m not sure what we are going to work on/build next. We have 3 more weeks at this house sit in Chapel Hill. And we hope to make great progress!

To see all of our van build expense reports, click here.

To see our travel expense reports, click here.

If you are interested in reading other expense reports from nomads who really know how to live cheaply while still having a good time, check out the blog from our friends Mark, Liesbet, and Maya at Roaming About. They are currently traveling in their truck camper in South America!

If you are interested in becoming a Trusted Housesitter or having a Trusted Housesitter take care of your pet, use our Trusted House Sitters discount code for 25% off!