We have been house-sitting for just over 3 months straight. It has been a mixture of good, useful, and sometimes not-so-ideal experiences. Not all the houses we have stayed in are as clean as I’d like. Occasionally, they are dark, gloomy, and cluttered. Every home comes with a new bed and a different level of firmness. We like a firm mattress and find soft beds detrimental to our sleep and our bodies.
Doing a whole house clean at the end of a sit takes considerable time and energy. Combined with a drive to a new sit the next day and sometimes having to be social with homeowners, the transition phase of house-sitting often leaves us drained.
But house-sitting has allowed us to throw tons of money at our new van without worrying about the cost of living somewhere. It is a great exchange. We take our pet sitting “jobs” very seriously. And it is always a joy to hang out with a happy pet.
We spent 5 1/2 weeks taking care of Tori in Chapel Hill, NC, and I fell in love with her. She was not happy at first. She growled and barked at Greg. But she soon realized we weren’t a threat and warmed up to us. Eventually, she was my constant pal. She could be stubborn and demanding, but once we figured out that we could keep her entertained by playing with her and two balls (she loved tennis balls) at once, we could easily wear her down, and everyone was happier.
We got out a few times while we were in Chapel Hill. Maids came every week, so instead of hiding out in the guest suite in the basement, we decided to take a break from the van build and go on a few excursions with Tori. Our first outing was to Dix Park in Raleigh, about a 30-minute drive away. Dix Park is named after Dorothea Dix, an advocate for the mentally ill. A mental hospital was built and named for Dix on the site where the park is now. Many of the buildings remain. The park also has artwork scattered through the grounds, small trails, gardens, and places to relax. The big draw for us to the park was the 5 Thomas Dambo Trolls. Perhaps you have heard of these trolls? They seem to be popping up all over the country now. But I think Tori’s favorite part of the day was chasing tennis balls in the dog park.
The following week, we took Tori to the North Carolina Museum of Art, also in Raleigh. The museum has a large outdoor sculpture park and many trails to roam on. I’m not sure if Tori appreciated the Rodins as much as we did.
We left Tori the week before Thanksgiving and made our way south to Beaufort, South Carolina. There we met Sammy and his owners. We were treated to a nice dinner by Sammy’s people that evening, and the next morning, they showed us everything we needed to know about Sammy and the house before they hit the road.
Sammy lives for going to the dog park and chasing his spiky ball. It has to be a spiky ball, a regular ball won’t do. He gets very excited when he sees his ball and jumps up and down like a little kid. He is a big boy, so to see him fly in the air after his ball is very impressive.
Beaufort is a coastal city in South Carolina’s Low Country. The house where Sammy lives is set on a marsh. Sammy’s people invited us to use their kayaks, and we took full advantage on Thanksgiving Day. We don’t usually celebrate Thanksgiving, but this year we decided to make a mushroom Wellington. It was Greg’s first time making puff pastry, and it turned out great!
A bonus of being in this part of the country is that we are only about an hour and a half away from Greg’s daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. They came to visit us in downtown Beaufort the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We truly enjoyed seeing them and walking around historic Beaufort.
Van Build Expenses
Cost of the Van: $54,652.75
Cost of upgrade so far, 11/30/25: $14,365.80
| Electric | ||
| Wire | 643.66 | |
| Switches/plates/etc. | $26.77 | |
| Battery Cells | $830.99 | |
| Battery Hardware | $321.82 | |
| Solar Panels | $339.18 | |
| Solar Panel hardware | $287.85 | |
| Electric Components | $2633.99 | |
| General Electric Supplies | $141.43 | |
| Total Electric | $5225.68 | |
| Ventilation | ||
| Vent Fan | $336.38 | |
| Ven Fan Installation Hardware | $6.36 | |
| Side door window | $1,190.97 | |
| Window installation hardware | $58.53 | |
| Total Ventilation | $1,592.24 | |
| Swivel Seat | $660.78 | |
| Tires | $792.16 | |
| Walls | ||
| Inside walls | $734.82 | |
| Walls structure | $54.39 | |
| Walls Total | $789.21 | |
| Heater | ||
| Heater | $729.00 | |
| Heater supplies | $42.14 | |
| Heater Total | $771.14 | |
| Floor | $204.94 | |
| Tools | $491.70 | |
| General Supplies | $168.49 | |
| Appliances | $1,815.43 | |
| Bed | $41.62 | |
| Furniture | $144.75 | |
| Shower | $468.65 | |
| Plumbing | $80.90 | |
| Awning | $419.43 | |
| Starlink | ||
| Starlink Mini | $532.68 | |
| Starlink Accessories | $16 | |
| Starlink Service | $150 | |
| Starlink Total | $648.68 | |
We spent $1,598.50 on Periplo in November.
Greg spent most of November while we were in Chapel Hill building Periplo’s power station. It was a lot of work and a lot of wire. $322.35 worth of wire! An additional $83.47 was spent on electrical supplies—ring connectors, copper crimp connectors, fuses, heat-shrink wire connectors, etc.—and $4.22 on a wall plate, gang box, and outlet. We also bought a shore-power RV adapter for $18.26.
More supplies for our walls were purchased: glue ($38.66) to install additional insulation, and plywood ($26.86) and rivnuts ($27.53) to make furring strips to attach the walls to.
Then there were two new tools. A cabinet jig for $35.46 and a ferrule crimping tool for $24.50.
The cabinet jig makes nice, round holes for hinges. We are a ways off from building cabinets, but I decided I wanted to practice with the jig. I didn’t get around to it, but the jig is just waiting for when I find time.
The ferrule crimping tool was used to make inverter/charger connections.
There were $46.99 in general supplies. Screws, masking tape, twine, tape for Greg’s digital label maker, screws, and pocket screws.
Pocket screws are nifty. They allow you to join two pieces of wood end to end and to screw boards together at a right angle from the inside, thereby hiding the screws.
We spent $32.12 on more plywood for the bench.
And $50 for our Starlink service. The service underwent another test when I used it as we transitioned from Chapel Hill to our house sit in Beaufort. But this time it was on the roof, not the dashboard. We have been gifted a few items that are not reflected in our running expense total (I will calculate their value at the end of our build). One of the things I got this past month was a magnetic Starlink mount. I was leery at first about using magnets to hold the Starlink on top of the van, but the case is very secure, and the magnets are strong. It did great on the trip to Beaufort!
Our biggest purchases in November were a couple of Black Friday buys. I have never shopped on Black Friday, but shopping online and getting significant savings throughout Thanksgiving week seemed like a real boon for us and our mounting expenses, even though we won’t need these items for a while.
First, we bought a portable, removable Moonshade awning. At $419.43 for the awning and the magnets to hold it on the roof, we saved over $100.
Next, we bought an in-floor shower pan. This shower pan has a low profile and is made to be installed flush with your van floor. We got it for $468.65, and honestly, I don’t think the website said that it was a Black Friday special, but it was a good bit cheaper than anyone else was selling it for. And I just checked, and it is now selling for $80 more.
So yay! We saved almost $200!!!
November’s Projects
In November, we added a little more insulation, and Greg built the power station. Since I know little about how all this works, I’ll let him tell you about it…
November was the month to build and test El Corazón de Periplo (the power station) of our van. This power station is much more robust than those of our past travel vehicles. In addition to charging from solar and the alternator, we can now plug into shore power. And we have double the battery capacity, which we will need to heat water and to cook with electricity instead of LP gas.
Our power station is more condensed than anything you’ll see on van build videos. In October, I built a model from cardboard on the dining room table to make sure everything would fit. Duwan had a great idea to put all of the breakers and fuses we might need to access on a single protected panel. When we saw that everything could fit, I built the space that would hold all the components.
All except one. The star component, our inverter/charger, is tall, heavy, and must be mounted vertically. It sits adjacent to the power station.
We try not to spend much on tools we’ll never use again, but some were required for this effort. We bought some heavy-duty cable cutters and crimpers. And for really thick cables, I got a tool that you hit with a hammer to crimp on fittings.
The space is tight. But if I need more room to work, the batteries can be turned off, disconnected, and removed. They each weigh 55 pounds. So, hopefully, not too often.
We’ve installed so many things that really couldn’t be tested until the power station was built. I had concerns that there would be lots of problems. But the roof vent fan, the new gas-fed cabin heater, the fridge, the one AC outlet we have so far, and the power station’s air circulation worked after a little debugging.
I was really worried about the Victron Multiplus II inverter/charger. It knows a whole lot more about electricity than I do. The factory settings are configured to charge traction batteries (like those used by forklifts). And they should only be changed by an electrician. Well, the inverter part worked right away, giving us 110V AC power from the batteries. But the charger kept tripping breakers when I plugged in to shore power. But when I changed some parameters on the battery side, it worked!
Periplo now has a heartbeat.
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!
Yay, making good progress with the van! Well done on the power station, Greg! It’s so nice you have house sit driveways to build out the van. That was a brilliant idea. Soon, we will be very envious of you both when your campervan is ready and we haven’t found our home on wheels yet. We wish our van build idea in South America would have worked out.
Dogs who love two balls at once are so funny! We’ve pet sat one in the past as well and the current dog of my brother-in-law also carries around two balls. And, wow, the grandson is getting tall!
I’m glad you had a nice Thanksgiving – with special food and kayaks! We plan to cook up a storm next week to celebrate a delayed Thanksgiving (we were busy and wrapping up our lives the day of) and an early Christmas (we will be on a plane on the actual Christmas day).
At first Greg wanted us to rent a place to build out the van. But I convinced him that we could find enough places house sitting that had adequate space to do everything we needed to do. It has worked out well so far. All the houses (except for the Asheville one) had good driveways to work on the van. We have also been lucky to find back-to-back sits in the Southeast!
Yes, Gabe is getting big! He is a good kid. It was good to be able to see him since we have only seen him once since we got back from South America.
We don’t usually care about Thanksgiving, but Greg saw a mushroom Wellington recipe, and I got inspired. Our next house sit has a pizza oven, so guess what we are going to have for Christmas dinner!
Hopefully you will have a good quiet flight on Christmas day.