We wanted a modern looking van; more small apartment than a caravan. Build took about 6 months.

Foil lined bubble wrap glued to van skin. Then 25mm foil lined polystyrene board. Spaces in between filled with lambs wool insulation. More foil bubble wrap, then 9mm ply.

Initially 15mm ply, but later replaced with 9mm. Original weight was too high. Vinyl floor tiles. Easy to lay and easy to clean.

We made the curtains by covering both sides of a silver windcreen sunscreen with material. The rear door ones just sit inside the door frame, and the sliding door one is held by strong magnets. Totally blocks the light.

Batons Sikaflexed to roof, then 4mm ply.

Under-sofa storage with magnetic doors hiding wire baskets.

Three 20L jerry cans under the sink - two for water, one for waste. Drinking water kept in the fridge. Using jerry cans makes refilling /emptying easy. A couple of 12 v pumps get the water to the taps.

Sink with fold down taps / lid.

We run a 12 volt dc 140 litre fridge.

We opted for a Webasto diesel cooktop. It takes its fuel from the main vehicle tank. It takes two or three minutes to get hot, and is then as quick as an electric cooktop to cook stuff.

• Webasto X100
  Looks good and works well. Pricey

There is an internal and an external table. The inside one folds away and is stored in the arm of the sofa. The outside one folds down from the back of the sink cupboard in the door way, for sitting outside.

Fully-made up bed on an electric bed hoist by Happijac.

• Happijac electric bed hoist
  Can stop at any height. Saves converting couch to bed. Uses 12A but only for a short period of time.

We used a 14cm latex mattress from Ikea which is fairly comfortable. We later added a memory foam topper as well.

We use 2x 150 Ah AGM batteries (Ritar brand), wired in parallel. Morningstar Tristar 45 PWM controller. We have a couple of inverters (380 watt pure sine wave, and 1200 watt modified sine wave). It is all monitored using a Trimetric 2025 battery monitor.

475 watts of solar on the roof. They're glued / screwed to two aluminium box frames. 5 panels are wired together in parrallel on the roof, so heavy cable can be run to to the charge controller to minimise voltage drop and subsequent loss of power.

In the ceiling, a Fantastic vent was added which causes through flow.

Because the van is so well insulated with metallic overed foam, not much phone signal gets inside the van. So we put a 5db antenna on the roof which plugs into the modem / hotspot.

Our van has a small 'porta-potti' for emergencies. Added a slide-out drawer to stop the floor being scratched.

No shower room. We opted for a pop up shower tent instead.