Interview With Van Life Straya

Jade - VLB
The awesome Claire & Luke from Van Life Straya have just completed self converting a Sprinter Panel Van into their very own FULL TIME home!
  
We have throughly enjoyed watching this fun couple during their van build. Australia is near to our own hearts, so we have definitely been following this one extra closely! 

Let's dig a little deeper...

We saw you moved from Dubai to Australia to travel and live in a van (exciting!!) what inspired you to make this move?

We just felt like our time in Dubai was coming to an end and Australia was always the place where we'd wanted to move to next. We'd been craving nature and a simpler life and had been following the van life "movement" for a couple of years and so just decided that's what we were gonna do! :)

What advice would you give someone who is just about to self-build their own van?

See what other people are doing on IG and YT (doing your research will definitely help!) and don't be afraid to get stuck in. Mistakes are gonna happen but that's all part of the process!
How easy was it to decide what van to convert?
Well we wanted a van that had enough space for both of us and also that we could stand up in as we would be living and working from the
van fairly long term and not just doing short trips. So it kinda came down to the Ford Transit or the Sprinter and everyone said how amazing
the Sprinter was so we just went with that ;)
What was the hardest part of your build out?
Hmm the most frustrating part was the tiles. We used the wrong adhesive (it didn't say on the tin that it wouldn't work on timber) but after checking on the website after we'd stuck them all down we got a tip from Claire's bro that it might not work and sure enough it wasn't really meant for timber. So it took us another whole day to
strip them off and all the adhesive before finally settling on just using heavy grade liquid nails ;) It basically took us three days when it should've been just under a day. Anyway we won't make that mistake again! The other part I hated was installing the reflective vapor barrier, so bloody annoying and time consuming!

What was the easiest part of your build out?
Honestly struggling to think. Nothing was really that easy or as quick as we sometimes thought it might be. Probably pulling out the cage and
existing ply that came with the van originally! ;)

What is your favourite part of your van so far? She’s looking like a beauty!
Aw thanks! Actually we're super happy with how a lot of it has turned out. But maybe the bed wall where the slide out table and toilet cupboard are, pretty happy with how we (as a couple of amateurs)
managed to finish that off!
What do you both do for a living and will you be able to work remotely?
Claire is a personal trainer and nutritionist and has recently switched her biz to go online so has some select online clients that she works with. 
Can catch her on @coachedbyclaire if you wanna check it out. My main business, Wild Wood (@wildwoodme), still operates from Dubai so yes I can work on that and oversee it remotely too which is great :)
What’s the plan once you are all done? Where are you off?
Well the original plan was to head through the middle of Aus through Alice Springs into NT and then onto WA. We're not used to this cold
Melbourne weather and wanted to get north for the winter! But doesn't look like the SA or NT borders will open anytime soon so we're thinking about going east coast route into Queensland now.

Luke, we see you like the tradie wear over on your Instagram - looking good fella 😄 AND it certainly looks like tradies get the ladies -

Claire is beautiful and so funny in all your insta-stories! What are all of your social accounts so that people can follow you along?

Haha Tradies def get the ladies! ;) Thanks a lot, yeah definitely count myself extremely lucky to have Claire for a wife! A kind hearted beautiful comedian all wrapped up in one haha :) 


Can catch us on these:

@vanlifestraya

@islandofluke

@clairefalconer__

If you have  your own van life story to share, please do not hesiate to get in touch!


~ Jade x @vanlifebuilds


*blogs are opinion based by each writer*

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