February 2026 Update and Van Build Expenses

The snow is finally gone. You still see it off the highway and piled high in the parking lot at Home Depot. But it is no longer a concern for us. Penny, our house-sitting charge, can run in the fields again and, on warm days, hang out outside. I am starting back on my regimen of walking back and forth to the mailbox for exercise. As it happens, every time we return from adventuring, I gain weight. Burning calories walking around in the Andes was easy. Burning calories while designing a van and writing blogs, not so much. And Greg is enjoying not freezing while he works on the van.

We are still treating ourselves to a night out to eat on Thursdays or Fridays. But mostly we are trying to get the van finished. We have less than a month left at this house sit. And unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the van will be ready for extended travel by the time we have to leave here. So we have booked another house sit.

The snow is starting to melt. But it is still cold, so Penny needs to wear her coat.

More snowmelt! No coat!

Sometimes Penny likes to get in my face when I’m lying on the couch studying Spanish.

Yay! A day warm enough to hang outside.

Penny says, “Really, you are building a camper van…”

…BORING! I’d rather walk to the mailbox!”

We will have a nine-day gap between this house sit and the next, when we will visit some friends and family, and if we have our bed, go camping. From April 9th to May 3rd, we will be house-sitting a golden retriever puppy (what have we gotten ourselves into???) on Lake Keowee in South Carolina. Yes! We will be much closer to some of you! Anyone up for a visit?

*All pictures are click-to-enlarge. You can also view them in a slideshow.

The Design

We started the passenger/galley side of the van this past month and spent some time scrutinizing my design. One of our main concerns on this side is the ease of access to and removal of the plumbing components (if ever there are problems). Once we had the actual components in hand and looked at the design more closely, we realized we had some issues. So, I started moving things around. We solved the water heater access/removal issue by moving it to the space under the cabinet behind the two double doors and moving the sink over to the doorway. I’m looking forward to stellar views while doing dishes. This move also gives us better access to our sink plumbing. We created access to our water-fill by running it through the under-the-counter pantry. All this rearranging now gives us more space in our pantry for food storage (despite a water tube running through it). We also decided to nix the hinges on the shoe cabinet because the nice hidden hinges that we wanted to use take up too much space. Now, the shoe cabinet will be bolted in place, unbolted, and slid across the floor if we ever need access to the water tank.

I have also learned to color things in my design program, Autodesk Fusion. This helps to differentiate components. Light colored areas don’t move. Dark-colored areas move.

Here are some of my redesigns.

Galley/shower and potty area on the passenger side with all doors closed.

A view of the galley with the shoe cabinet on the end.

A view through the van wall of the back side of the galley/potty and shower area.

The galley/potty and shower area with some of the doors open.

A view with doors open from the front of the van.

A view from outside the van on the back of the galley with doors open.

A view of how the shoe cabinet will slide out.

Van Build Expenses

Cost of the Van: $54,652.75

Cost of upgrade so far, 2/28/26: $19,442.74

*Numbers colored red-violet indicate an increase from the previous month.

We spent $4059.04 on Periplo in February. There were some BIG purchases!

Our biggest purchase we made was in our new expanded plumbing category.

Our water heater cost us $1,098.49! I know, that’s a lot for something we have been able to do without for the last 14 years. But we really want the convenience of having a shower in the van for when we are boondocking. And I can’t take cold showers.

The new moving water category in plumbing ($298.48) includes all the components that hold water or through which water passes (besides the water heater). New this month are a 30-gallon water tank, $85.99, a pre-pressurized accumulator tank, $31.58, a water filter system, $47.37, and a water pump, $52.64.

The water accumulator and the water pump.

Our 30-gallon water tank with a few plumbing parts installed.

Water filter.

We also bought a bunch of plumbing fixtures ($298.84). $80.02 for a bidet sprayer. This will be used as our shower. More on that in another post. $73.62 for our sink faucet. $133.63 for our sink. And $11.57 for a water inlet.

$696.79 was spent on our toilet. This is a composting toilet and doesn’t use water, so maybe it shouldn’t really be in plumbing. Anyway, $631.90 was for the actual toilet, and $64.89 was for the toilet ventilation system. In our last van, we built our own toilet for a fraction of this cost. I’m sure we could build one that worked well again, but we are balancing the convenience of buying ready-made components with building our own. The ready-made plastic toilet won this one. The toilet fan that is sold with this toilet is expensive. I was ready to cobble together a fan system to keep everything dry (and not smelly) myself when I found one online that had everything we needed for a reasonable price from a company called Johnny Compost.

The bidet sprayer for the shower.

Our kitchen sink and faucet.

The composting toilet.

The toilet fan kit with fan, inline fan enclosure, hose, floor vent, roof vent, and parts for attaching the hose to the toilet.

And finally, $136.97 was spent on plumbing hardware, hoses, levers, glue, elbows, etc. There is so much of this small stuff!

Our second-biggest purchase was in a whole new category: soft furnishings. This is for things like the custom futon mattress we have on order for $901. I know that is a lot for a mattress (and there will be an additional shipping fee), but I love sleeping on a futon, and this one will be made with all-natural materials.  We also got cushions for the seat bench. Greg had to make a quick trip to Greenville, SC, and while there, bought a couple of pieces of foam ($40) from my friend who owns the Greenville Army & Navy Store.

Our lumber cost went up by $300.03, and our general supplies by $140.43. Our electric category went up by $93.82 for more wire, general supplies, and some switches and plates. We spent another $5 to keep our Starlink service on pause. And $26.72 in the hardware category for two more 180° hinges and some brackets for the bench. The tool category went by $103.37 for plumbing tools and, unfortunately, a new ratchet screwdriver.

February’s Projects

And now Greg will tell you about February’s projects…

Unlike the last week of January, this last month we could go out shopping and have things delivered. Lots of time was spent trying to make sure new components would fit together. So, no pics of that.

We did a lot of work on the driver’s side. First, I put lids on the bench. Then we built and installed the Murphy bed.

The passenger side is for the galley and baño. Duwan has told you about the design changes, but there was one pivotal point. It became clear that our original spot for the water heater wouldn’t work. In just a few hours, she was able to produce a pretty significant redesign. And, of course, every day as the deliveries arrived, we’d check to see how the new parts fit. Then do more tweaking.

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!