It can be difficult to document these van builds because you start with very clear delineation between types of projects, but as the build goes on, everything starts to bleed together. Electrical blends with kitchen set up, aesthetics and carpentry are one big pile of paint at some point. Consider this the catch-all post for all the little projects and costs that we haven’t been able to cover in the other posts of our van build series.
Kitchen Appliances
We’ve put together a comprehensive kitchen set-up post that covers all of our favorite gear. We recommend checking that out if you’re looking for a deeper dive into our kitchen! We are also not including “household contents” in our budget because this will be drastically different from person to person. That leaves us with kitchen appliances, the stovetop, oven, and refrigerator.
We went with the RecPro 4.4 Cubic Feet 12V Refrigerator. This fridge holds so much food! It keeps really consistent with temperatures in both the fridge and freezer areas and we have packed it full.
For our stovetop and oven, we knew we wanted to go with a fully electric kitchen in this build since we had such a huge battery bank to work with. We went back and forth on one burner or two for our induction cooktop, but ultimately ended up with a single burner for space reasons.
Our oven might be one of my favorite parts of our build. It’s so cute and it fits the space so well. We have the Our Place Wonder Oven, and we love how quickly it heats up! It does a great job doubling at an air fryer too!
I’m also adding our backsplash here. We wanted to have a magnetic backsplash to hold our Gneiss Spice spice rack, but we knew we could add other things as well. The piece of stainless steel we ordered was cut to size and works perfectly!
**All prices in this post are based on our costs in 2024:
- RecPro 4.4 Cubic Feet 12V Refrigerator–$664.60
- Nuwave 8″ Heating Coil Induction Cooktop–$84.99
- Our Place Wonder Oven–$195.00
- Stainless Backsplash–$86.35
The “Office”
It was important to us that, in this van build, we both be able to work at the same time. This meant we needed to create two distinct work stations. We achieved this with a combination of one static “desk” that we built out of scrap from our countertop with a bench seat we built from scrap plywood from cabinets. This desk has a mounted monitor that can swivel and doubles as our TV when we want a movie night.
The second station is made up of swiveling our passenger seat and a lagoon table that we had salvaged from our first van build. We decided to swivel both seats, but to be transparent, we only swivel the driver’s seat maybe once a week. We went with the Scopema swivels as they added the least height and modifications necessary.
- Scopema Swivel Seats–$768
- Lagoon Table–$0 (Salvaged from Previous Van Build)
- Bench Seat Lumber–$0 (Left Overs from Cabinets)
- Monitor Mount–$39.99
- Desk Surface–$0 (Scrap from Countertop)
Making the Bed
Our bed is built on a platform and is not a “standard” size. To combat any potential moisture issues caused by the platform we used Hypervent. We have used Hypervent on both of our boats and our previous van build, and it does a fantastic job of keeping air flowing under the mattress and keeping things dry.
The other way we prevent moisture issues is by using latex foam mattress toppers as our mattress. We used this exact setup on our boat Ecola, and the bed was so comfortable, so we knew it would work here too! We use a combination of a 1″ firm topper as our bottom layer and 3″ of medium topper as our second layer. We then cut the toppers to the right size. If you have a more standard mattress size, Sleep on Latex has standard mattresses as well.
- 60″x80″ Hypervent–$102.21
- Matress Toppers–$464.21
Window Covers, Bug Nets, and Seat Covers
I said I wasn’t going to include household contents in our budget, but we really do not think that window covers, bug nets and seat covers fall under household contents and could be considered a requirement for a van build.
We have the VanEssentials window covers for the cab, and they are just about the best thing since sliced bread. For the slider window and our bunk window, Andy made us covers from leftover reflectix and fabric.
We are from New England, and we knew that bug-nets would be in place nearly 100% of the time we were in the northeast, and we have dreams of someday taking our van to Alaska. We decided to go with the Living in a Bubble bug nets for the slider and the back door. We’ve really loved them.
Part of the reason we were able to get such a great deal on our van is that it had already lived a good portion of it’s life as a contractor van. The seats were gross, so we invested in some really nice seat covers that we highly recommend if you have a promaster!
- Vanessentials Window Covers–$279.95
- Slider and Bunk Window Covers–$0 (Leftover materials)
- Living in a Bubble Bug Nets–$248
- Seat Covers–$119.54
Flooring
We have had great luck with peal and stick vinyl in other projects. It is durable and super easy to install! Unfortunately, in this build, we used a different brand than usual and it hasn’t held up well. I won’t link it here, but you should buy your peel and stick from Home Depot, not Lowes.
- Vinyl Flooring–$77.60
Ceiling
During this build, we were trying to reuse and recycle as much as we could to keep costs low. We found a ton of whitewashed tongue and groove pine in the loft of my dad’s garage and decided that we could cut the tongue and groove off to make our ceiling! The pieces are backed with fabric that we had left over from another project and screwed into furring strips in the ceiling.
We installed puck lights into the ceiling to give us nice downlights for cooking and working.
- Pine Lumber–$0 (Recycled from Family)
- Fabric–$0 (Left overs from another project)
- Puck Lights–$50.66
Other Misc Costs
There are a few other items that didn’t make it into other posts for this build:
- Slider Window–$493.60
- Bunk Lights–$45.42
- Moon Shade Awning–$500.00
- Random Assortment of Adhesives–$52.20
Let’s Tally It All Up!
The links below will take you to the post that has a full breakdown of each category! A reminder that our goal was to build this full-time van for less than $30,000.
- Broken Van and Replacement Transmission: $13,273
- Planning and Prep: $76.44
- Cutting Holes in Our Van (Windows and Fans): $1306.23
- Subfloor: $218.49
- Insulations: $278.88
- Framing: $434.88
- Cabinets: $1949.27
- Electrical: $3110.34
- All the Stuff on the Roof: $2939.91
- Plumbing: $1122.04
- Everything in this Post: $3241.67
Grand Total: $27,951.15!!
It is worth noting that we had not originally included an air conditioner unit in our initial $30,000 budget, and we planned to eventually put on when we could save up a little more money. But we were so under budget when we finished that we decided to go back and install one right away.
We are incredibly proud of our build and how well-equipped it is for our budget! We were fortunate that we had a lot of materials that we could repurpose during this project, which helped us stay on budget!
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