THE TURTLE
It all began with a dream of the ultimate tiny house. Something we could travel around in discretely, comfortably, and could pack up easy for a quick weekend get away. After searching on Craigslist for week, this grand ole 1982 Ford E150 popped up. She had an original Sports-mobile interior, ran well, and the canvas pop-top, which was in great condition - this was the major selling point for us. Not to mention there was only 105,000 miles on it. The main quirk was some apparent surface rust, but the frame was solid.
We had been in contact with the sellers and everything was in line. Detail shots of the tires and interior looked promising, but the deal was that we weren't the only interested buyers. It was a first come, first served kind of deal. It was a very slow Friday at work; everyone was out of town at a conference. And in what was probably one of the most rash decisions I have ever made, we left at lunch time, picked up cash, and made our way to the Ohio / Pennsylvania border.
Now, just to preface, everyone my age was out buying brand new vehicles with money earned from new jobs. I've never been a flashy gal, so of course I decided the '82 Ford creeper van was my first "new car" purchase.
The previous owners called her "the turtle" for her green exterior and hardtop shell. It wasn't until the remodel that we came up with the perfect name, which I'll reveal later. So the turtle ran great on the test drive, the rust truly was just on the surface, the refrigerator and sink worked, and the stove and heater had a questionable propane hook up, but all the parts were there. We started driving her home in some of the worst icy, snowstorm weather I've experience and called in a night in our first of many Walmart parking lots to come.
We took her out a good handful of times in the first year. We had some issues with some stalling...and then a tire that blew out, but all were safe and there were some great times had in the turtle. It wasn't until later opportunities came along that we saw a whole new life for this old '82.
the demo
At the end of 2015, we made the decision that we were going to step away from our jobs, explore the world, and experience a bit of life. "Do it while we have the chance," was the mentality. We had our first plans in line with a one way ticket to India. We figured we'd escape winter, explore a whole new culture, and try the idea of the Bazaar Suitcase, which helped us meet a lot of interesting people along the way. India had always been top on my list and with budget traveling in mind, it was a great region for us. We had the international portion outlined to last from the very end of January 2016 - the beginning May 2016, which was my next scheduled wedding photo shoot.
Next came our plans for the US travels. Ultimately, we knew we'd have to go back to work, but the question was where?? Both of us have been lucky to have travel be a huge portion of our lives, but actually moving to a new city for more than a few months. This was a new step for us. We decided we wanted to do a 50 roadtrip in five months to try and find our "perfect" city...turned out to be a little ambitious, but we had it all laid out.
So with the idea set in place, there was one last major question to answer: what vehicle would we take? We debated back and forth whether the Turtle was the right fit. We had fell in love with the old gal, but one of the major concerns was we were going to need to be discrete. Sometimes we would have the luxury of camping for free in National Forests, but other times we would be in parking lots and parked on the sides of streets. We wanted to attract as little attention as possible. The issue was, the bed required the top to be popped, and the couch below was comfortable enough for a weekend trip, but we were dreading sleeping 5 months straight with a bar in your side. These issues, along with our craftiness and desire to make our first "tiny tiny house," piled up to make it a go. We would start from scratch. Tear out the insides and make it our own.
the rebuild
I have to start by voicing how incredibly lucky we were. My mom helped with the fabric and reupholstering, our company provided a warm place to work, my brother lent us multiple tools, and our dear friend helped us solder wires for the lighting: there were so many people who helped make this dream a reality and we could not have done it on our own. So thank you to those many hands who contributed in one way or another.
So once we had a clean slate to work with and our plans drawn out, we got crackin'! We were putting in 10-12 hour days each weekend trying to put as much in place before our travels abroad. We got a good chunk done that fall/winter of 2015 and did the remainder the first two weeks of May 2016.
Mark and I are lucky in the fact that we both have a lot of skills that balance each other out. We both worked through the design process together and lent a hand whenever it was need. He was the builder, the engineer, the mechanic, and so much of the manual labor. I got to be the designer from making the tiles to working with all the fabric and colors, and doing finishing touches like building drawers and painting. It was a long and challenging project, but we both learned a lot and are super proud of our finished product. Below are some process shots taken along the way.
I also compiled a few images to see the progress side by side.
The final reveal
And now for the grand finale, here's our finished van, Melonie! We decided to name her Melonie since she's basically a giant melon; green on the outside with the red inside. It was a joke at first, but it's stuck. Enjoy checking out the photos of our beloved Melonie!
