After Seth and Christy Jacob got married, they wanted to travel around the US. But they needed the perfect vehicle to do it in.
Seth Jacob, who works in software as a data operations analyst, always dreamed of living in an off-grid vehicle and traveling around the US.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, his and his wife’s jobs went remote, so it seemed like the perfect time to give it a try, he told Insider.
But his wife, Christy, who works in construction, wasn’t entirely convinced. She told him she’d only agree to van life if the vehicle lived up to certain standards.
The couple started looking for vehicles online that might meet those requirements, albeit with a little bit of work.
It wasn’t until they came across ads for retired ambulances that they started to get excited.
“We’d never thought of that,” Seth said.
The couple bought an out-of-service ambulance on Facebook Marketplace for $7,000. They chose it partly for its affordability.
The couple spent $7,000 buying an ambulance on Facebook Marketplace from a man who owned a non-emergency patient transport company.
They said a lot of people ask them why they chose an ambulance over an RV or a Sprinter van, and one of the main reasons was the price.
“We learned that they have to be retired from government use after 10 years or 100,000 miles,” Christy told Insider.
“So they have used ambulances pretty readily available and a lot more affordable,” she said. “It just made sense.”
A Sprinter van would have cost $30,000 at a minimum, and Christy said an RV wasn’t hardy enough for full-time use.
She said they could also save on costs by keeping the ambulance’s existing electrical components, insulation, and most of its cabinetry.
After they bought it, the couple started work on the ambulance, accompanied by their Giant Schnauzer — Atlas.
They gave themselves a hard deadline of six months to move out of their house and into the renovated ambulance.
The self-imposed deadline put the couple under a time crunch. They only had half a year to fully transform the ambulance and move out of their home near Atlanta, Georgia.
To hold themselves accountable, they even drafted a rental agreement with their friends which was scheduled to commence exactly six months after the start of the transformation process.
“It would force us out of the house,” Seth said.
They finished the project on time, but only with last-minute help from some professionals. In total, it cost around $35,000.
The couple hired professionals to do some last-minute engine work.
But Seth and Christy said it was only so they could get the job done within the six-month timeframe, not due to a lack of skills.
They actually did the vast majority of the renovation themselves.
“I would say 99% of it ourselves,” Seth said, adding that they worked on it in the evenings after finishing their day jobs.
The build-out cost was in the range of $15,000 to $20,000, with an additional $8,000 spent on getting the vehicle road-ready.
This brought the total cost of the project to between $30,000 and $35,000.
Seth used YouTube videos to teach himself how to do electrical and plumbing work.
Christy proudly told Insider that Seth was able to teach himself how to do complex repair work by watching videos online.
“He watched YouTube videos, taught himself electrical, plumbing, and all of that stuff,” she said.
Seth, who said he also learned the skills necessary to do some engine work, now describes himself as a “graduate of YouTube University.”
Some of the work was straightforward, like removing the ambulance decals — a legal requirement.
“For the most part, the outside looks fairly the same,” said Seth, explaining that the only major change was removing the ambulance signage.
“We had to take off the decals for legal reasons,” Christy added.
The process also involved removing the red lens covers, so that other drivers wouldn’t identify the vehicle as a functioning ambulance.
They then spray-painted it all white, giving it a fresh look.
But other elements of the project were a lot more challenging, requiring Seth and Christy to think outside the box.
At times the couple needed to get creative, placing a particular focus on functionality and upcycling.
For example, Seth and Christy repurposed the mechanics used for the existing ambulance bench to build a bed for the two of them.
“We removed the bench part that they had but we use the same hydraulics to raise and lower our bed and build track systems on there,” Seth said.
The bench was transformed into a fold-out bed. It’s easy to reconfigure and comes with storage.
One of Christy’s prerequisites for moving into a van was that the bed should be easy to reconfigure.
The couple thought a fixed bed might take up too much space and leave them little room to move around the vehicle, so creating a fold-out bed using the existing hydraulic system seemed like a great solution.
It also came with the added bonus of under-bed storage.
The kitchen transformation also made use of existing spaces. And it was a great way to save money, the couple said.
For the kitchen renovation, the couple didn’t want to totally scrap the old ambulance features.
So they cut some and kept other parts, to create aluminum framing that could be used for cabinets.
Making use of some of the existing structures was a good cost-saving strategy, Seth said, adding that it was in line with their guiding philosophy — make things look nice without making unnecessary changes.
They were so committed to not changing things for the sake of it that even a panel of buttons near the kitchen, which now powers the lights, remains labeled with the original color-coded patient codes for paramedics.
“All those labels are the same but they now do different things,” said Seth.
But keeping the ambulance structure meant struggling to find appliances that would fit into existing spaces.
Seth and Christy removed one ambulance seat, which left a small slot to put an oven in. But a conventionally-sized oven wouldn’t fit, resulting in a challenging search for one with the right dimensions.
“It had to be these exact dimensions to fit in there,” said Christy. “I mean it was cost-saving, but it took a lot more on his part, for sure, thinking and researching to find things that fit in the already-built space.”
They managed to fit in everything they needed, while also creating hidden storage compartments.
The couple found space for a fridge, oven, and a lot of shelving in the kitchen, but they also didn’t want any space to go to waste.
“There were inches on either side of the oven, so we got creative and put in a little side for pans,” Christy said. “Some of it was very intentional, some of it was like ‘We have a few inches here we can’t waste, what can we do with it?'”
Elsewhere in the van, they also made sure to make the most of every spare inch.
Christy said: “There was space behind our seats, so I put coat racks behind the seats.”
Seth and Christy say they have everything they need in the converted ambulance, after getting rid of many of their possessions.
The couple purged a lot of possessions before moving in, getting rid of everything in their “junk drawers” and that lacked sentimental value.
They also put some of their bigger furniture in storage.
With a scaled-down inventory, the couple said they don’t feel like they’re missing out on anything.
“I feel like in here we have pretty much everything that a typical home has, it’s just smaller,” said Christy.
“It’s really impressive how much you can fit in these cavities,” she added.
Despite Christy’s fears, she said it hasn’t felt claustrophobic. They have lots of room to move around.
Christy feared that the converted ambulance would feel “cramped” and was unsure how she would adapt to moving from a three-bedroom house into the van.
“I thought we were going to bump into each other a lot more and we haven’t really, so that’s been nice,” she said.
Part of the reason they’re not brushing shoulders constantly and getting in each other’s way is because of the layout.
The fold-away bed gives them an open walkway, allowing plenty of room for maneuvering, she said.
And there’s even enough space for Atlas to keep himself entertained.
Atlas, their Giant Schnauzer, has also adapted well to van life, the couple said.
Christy said he’s made the most of getting to explore the many nature spots they have visited and stopped in, adding that he is always well-behaved and comes back to the van.
“If we’re in a national forest or BLM land or a desert or whatever, we normally just will open the back doors and he can kind of pop in and out as he wants,” she said.
They’ve named their converted ambulance ‘Mitty’ — in honor of their favorite movie and to inspire them to keep traveling.
Once the ambulance was complete, it needed a name. The couple landed on Mitty — the name of the main character in their favorite movie, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”
Christy said: “It’s Ben Stiller and he’s at a desk job and things happen at work and so he just kind of starts making some crazy choices and he ends up in Greenland, he ends up in Iceland, and he fights a shark and stuff like that.”
She added: “That’s where Mitty came from, that’s our inspiration.”
Seth explained that when they were both re-watching the movie, they realized that there was nothing stopping them from going on a big adventure other than themselves.
Seth and Christy have spent 18 months in the van, and are now ready to return to a home not on wheels.
The couple have now been living in the ambulance for a year and a half, six months longer than they had originally committed to.
Despite enjoying themselves, they said they are now ready to stop living in it full-time.
Seth explained that they want their home in Georgia to become their main base, with the ambulance allowing them the opportunity to regularly take long trips for a month or two at a time.
“I am excited to be back into a bigger space,” he added.
But they plan to take time off work to explore even more of the US.
Christy said she didn’t really take off many workdays during their ambulance adventure, so the couple intends to take vacation time on their future trips.
So far they’ve explored the deserts of Utah, the rainforests of Washington’s Olympia National Park, and some major US cities.
But there is a lot more they want to see.
“There’s so much that the United States has to offer,” Christy said.
SOURCE: businessinsider.com
