Our life with FR-EUdolin

Upon request from some and with a little delay, we are now writing a blog post about our Freudolin and his inner life.

About a year ago, we decided to buy our Opel Vivaro, which was still a caretaker's car at the time. During the winter, we collected ideas, and since last spring, we have been working on it every weekend and built all the furniture ourselves (with the support of Papa Bertram), so that it was ready just in time for our start in September.

And this is what it looks like inside during the day when we are on the road or when we sit inside to chill, eat, play, etc. On the right, we have our kitchen block. Next to it is an open cupboard that contains our supplies and games/books, held in place by a rubber band. And underneath is our 11 kg gas bottle, which we only connect to the stove when in use and otherwise is securely connected to the car. At the very back is our wardrobe, where each of us has a door all to ourselves. In fact, we have more space in it than we need :P And to the left of the wardrobe is our bed or, in this state, our chill sofa with a bedspread.

This is what it looks like at night when the bed is pulled out. We have a lying area of 1.85 m by 1.20 m, or about 1 m at the narrowest point. Our mattress is actually a real foam mattress, which we have cut to the perfect size and can put together at night. And now we have really great sleeping bags! Unfortunately, normal blankets would take up too much space :(

Our own kitchen block creation has a small sink on top, which is connected to a water tank and a waste water tank. So we have running water thanks to a pump, which is really valuable. On the work surface, we have attached boxes at the back, where our dishes and vinegar/oil find their fixed and adapted place so that they don't slide around during wild rides. On the side wall to the left, we have attached two baskets where we store the most important spices and daily hygiene items.

At the bottom of the block, we have placed a second battery, which can be supplied by both our solar system on the roof and the alternator via a charge controller. This allows us to charge our electronic devices via USB and a cigarette lighter socket and also provides us with light. Above that, we have designed a drawer that contains our compressor cooler box. This way, we have optimal access to our groceries from above. However, since it is quite heavy, we have to secure it before each drive so that it doesn't shoot towards us.

We have stored our other utensils such as camping chairs, table, camping stove, cookware, toolbox, shower, our camping toilet (which so far looks like an umbrella - if you have it, you don't need it), etc. under the sofa. You can access these things either through the rear doors or from the inside by lifting up the sofa.

We installed a rotating console in the passenger seat so that we have a little more space and Tobi can sit upright :P We can attach ventilation grilles to the side windows to have some air circulation at night. And between the two seats is our diesel heater, which we have been very happy about on several evenings and are very happy with the investment.

Now you have an impression of our cute home, which we have been living in for 2 months already and will probably continue to live in for another 10 months. We are really satisfied with our conversion, everything works as planned, and so far nothing has turned out to be impractical.

Actually, you can set up and feel comfortable in about 5 square meters, and apart from the luxury of sanitary facilities, we couldn't say that we miss anything so far.