It’s true that nothing worth having in life comes easy. If it was easy everyone would have it and it wouldn’t be so desirable!

We get it, It is so easy to get pessimistic and think there is no way you could live a life that you’ve designed and you are passionate about (in this case a life of freedom and adventure).

We had done everything strictly by the books.

We both got our Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering in 2011. We got married and moved into our first house together in 2012. James worked a conventional automotive engineering job while KJ went on to complete her Master’s in Engineering in 2013. After endless searching we found jobs in Utah and achieved our first BIG dream - Move out west!

Eventually, we bought our first house in the burbs. We were still very much by the book; work 9-5+ day after day, gaining freedom only on the weekends and a few nights after work. Our jobs looked really good on paper. We got paid well and we’d ticked all the boxes, except the one that says you have to have a kid after you get married.

Despite everything looking pretty good on the outside, we felt like we were missing something by doing everything so cookie-cutter.

KJ had always been interested in tiny living. Then somehow, in the YouTube rabbit hole, we found van life. It seemed SO extreme but also doable (and one heck of a challenge).

We eventually said challenge accepted!

We stopped our extra spending, saved our money, then after 6 months of scouring used car ads, we bought our van!! It took us 9 months to build the van while we worked full time. It wasn’t easy. There was burnout. There was stress. There was decision fatigue. In the end though we loaded up our Storage Unit, signed our house over to renters, and didn’t look back!!

If downsizing and living in a van is your idea of freedom and adventure,

YOU CAN DO IT TOO!