Tiny house, big love: Our life in a renovated vintage caravan

Vinnie and the fam take Australia—our year in a tiny house on wheels.

We spent most of last year living in our 95-square foot vintage caravan. (Before you ask, I’ll go ahead and answer: no bathroom, no laundry facilities. Yes, that part was tough—we assumed it would be.) Going into it, I thought I’d write about our experiences much more; I regret that I didn’t. But life is what it is and writing didn’t come easily for me in 2015. There are many reasons for that (some better than others), and I’ve resolved that it was simply a tough year. Those happen. It was also an incredible year—one for our family history books for sure.

I don’t plan on writing much about the caravan life now, but I do want to give you a taste. My friend Katherine “Pez” Wilson took some brilliant images of our family in the van and I’ll forever be grateful for them. Of course, we all have clean clothes on and everything looks sparkling clean and tidy, but the truth is if we didn’t keep things neat and organized in that teeny tiny space I wanted to blow my brains out. So honestly, it usually was as tidy as it looks in these photos (but definitely a little dustier). My family did an amazing job of remembering that every single thing in that itty bitty house had a place. Incredible. (Survival, really.)

I’m not going to comment on the individual images—just share them. I think they speak for themselves and tell this part of our family story well. The one above is from the beginning of our year; the ones below are from the end. You can see some variations in hair and facial hair length for all of us. (Yes, I miss my long hair. No, I don’t really miss Ryan’s hipster beard.)

One of these days I’ll do an actual post of some before and after pictures from our renovation, because those are quite fun (imagine two-tone wood panelling, y’all!) and because I really do read my emails and actually take those into account when writing. (I hear you—more caravan pictures, please! Okay, okay.) I’m still really proud of what we’ve done to make the little home we’ve created. Ryan and I are a sucker for this type of thing. (In another life, we’d buy, fix up, and sell old vans for the fun of it.) In saying all that, I’m also glad to move into a “normal” house in two weeks. It will be wonderful to have our own space again and I’m looking forward to Vinnie the van becoming a holiday home, rather than our home home. (But I would never, ever undo living in there this last year. One of the best decisions we’ve ever made.)

At some point I also plan to write a “10 best things” and “10 worst things” post about living in a tiny house on wheels (we’ll see if I can limit myself to 10 of each!) and I’d also like to write some family travel highlights to help other families considering traveling or caravanning around Australia. It really is a spectacular country and life on the road is pretty awesome and do-able if you can work remotely and “road school” or “world school” your kids as you go. (You can always check out the #livingsmalltolivebig hashtag on instagram for more pics in the meantime. Or sign up for my tiny-ish newsletter—LoveNotes—and see more photos in the next edition.)

But for now, I leave you with a visual story of our tiny house and big love. Thanks again to Pez for capturing our family so well. I adore your work here, and I’m impressed to be in so many of the photos myself—a rarity.

Love,
A x

All photos below are by Katherine Wilson Photography. (You can also find her on facebook.) If you live in the Sydney/NSW area and love lifestyle photography for babies and children, families, or weddings, she’s your gal. I think she’s open to travel a bit, too.

 

Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-1 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-2 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-3 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-4Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-5 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-6 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-7 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-8 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-9 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-10 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-11 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-12 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-13 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-14 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-15 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-16 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-17 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-18 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-19 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-20 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-21 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-22 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-23 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-24 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-25 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-26 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-27 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-28 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-29 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-30 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-31 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-32 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-33 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-34 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-35 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-36 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-37 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-38 Tiny house, big love- life in our renovated vintage caravan — Adriel Booker-39

 

Living Small To Live Big: A series on tiny house living with a family

Living small to live big—our tiny house on wheels

About Author

Adriel Booker is an author, speaker, and advocate based in Sydney, Australia who believes storytelling, beauty, and the grace of God will change the world. Adriel has become a trusted voice in areas of motherhood and parenting, Christian spirituality, and global women's issues. She's also known for her work with the Love A Mama Collective—serving under-resourced women in developing nations through safe birth initiatives—as well as her years spent as a Bible teacher and leadership coach. Her latest book is Grace Like Scarlett: Grieving with Hope after Miscarriage and Loss and she's made the companion grief journal available for free. Find Adriel across all social media platforms at @adrielbooker or sign up for LoveNotes, Adriel's 'secret posts' that aren't published anywhere else online. ✌️

4 Comments

  • Andrea
    4 March 2016 at 2:53 am

    Love this! My family of 4 has just purchased our own 25 ft camper trailer that we too will be moving into. Please do more posts on your year, and tips to surviving small space living

    Reply
  • Bek @ just for daisy
    17 March 2016 at 10:35 pm

    I haven’t commented here in a long time… but found you again as I’m looking at organising a birth kit making night with my church. LOVE your van! It’s absolutely amazing! Did you guys do it up? I love it! What make/model is the van?

    Reply

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