I earn £28K but spend nothing on rent as I live in a van – converting it was nearly a tragedy but it’s now my dream home
A WOMAN has shared how she transformed a bland white van into a pink paradise that she lives in full time.
Tamzin Imogen Adams bought the ex-Network rail van in November 2020, after she had graduated from university and has spent £4000 converting it.
The 25 year old Senior Marketing Campaign Executive still lives in the van even though she earns £28,000 a year, as she said travelling around in a van has been her life long dream.
Tamzin, who is from Leeds, has spent the last two years travelling around Europe in her pink van, and has visited, Germany, Belgium, France and loads of other countries.
She revealed that her van transformation looks so good, that online trolls have refused to believe that she did it herself.
Tamzin takes these comments as compliments thought and shared that she was able to save £16,000 by doing the conversion herself.
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She told Media Drum World: “I’ve heard people spreading rumours that I only pretended to convert it myself but actually paid professionals to do it in secret, which I actually take as a compliment if people think it looks good enough to have been built professionally.
“I’ve also had people speculate that someone must have bought the van for me rather than me using my own money that I’d earned.
“It is hurtful and degrading that people still assume that a young woman couldn’t have the skills or the finances to do a project like this independently.”
Tamzin revealed that she bought the van after her dad encouraged her to follow her dreams.
She said: “I bought the van in November 2020, a few months after graduating from university.
“Graduating during the pandemic and lockdown was tough as I’ve always longed to travel as much as I possibly can.
“Instead, I had to move back in with my family and rethink my future.
“My dad told me that there’d be no better time to do it and if I didn’t do it now then it’d likely never happen.
“It felt scary and irrational as I would have to spend all my savings to buy the van when most people start saving for a house or a family in their 20’s.
“I didn’t want to have any regrets when I was older though, so I decided to just go for it.”
Tamzin said that she converted the van during the evenings and weekends, when she was not at work.
She said: "I loved the idea of converting the van myself so that I could design it to be exactly how I imagined it, I wanted it to be cosy, homely, and beautiful, not like a standard camper or caravan interior.
“I also thought it’d be cheaper to do it myself as I was on such a tight budget.”
During the conversion, she added solar panels, built furniture, insulated the van, and did the plumbing.
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She said that the hardest thing was having to learn lots of new skills "and having to learn the hard way by getting things wrong initially".
Sharing an almost tragic experience she had with a power tool, Tamzin said: “Once, I got my jumper caught up in an electric sander. It shredded my jumper and almost started shredding the skin on my stomach but luckily, I managed to pull the plug before it got that far.
“In the end, the blood sweat and tears were well worth it though and making anything by hand is the most rewarding experience ever. Every time I enter the van I still think ‘wow I can’t believe I managed to make all this!’
“My favourite comments to hear about the van are from older people saying, ‘I wish I’d had the courage to do something like that at your age’ and commending my independence.”
Tamzin said that her favourite thing about living in a van is the freedom she has.
She said: “I can essentially move my home to wherever I feel like being,” she said.
“If it’s raining, I can drive somewhere sunny. If I feel like being in the mountains I can head there, or the beach or the city.
“I used to feel like I couldn’t do anything without being accompanied by a friend, partner, or family member.
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“Since getting the van, I feel far more capable and independent and love spending time alone and travelling solo as well as with loved ones."
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