"In order to rise from its own ashes, a phoenix first must burn." – Octavia Butler
Projector and Screen
Think you have to give up Netflix and chill when you hit the road? Wrong. The Nebula projector allows us to take our favourite shows wherever we go, perfect for winding down and rainy days. We just hook up to Wi-Fi or hotspot from our phone to access whatever we’re bingeing at the time. Netflix, Disney+ or even just screen mirroring from your other devices, easy as. We opted to go with a white canvas blind from Spotlight to form the screen and it hasn’t missed a beat, saved us a ton of $$$ too.
Dedicated Laundry Compartment
Doing laundry sucks, but what’s worse is having smelly clothes floating around in the van with nowhere to go. So, when we were fitting out Huey, we made sure to include a space to store our dirty gear in. Its also a friendly heads up to do some washing before you run out of clothes.
Slide-Out Bin
Pretty self-explanatory, but some people do opt for the bin liner hung on a drawer handle or outside. We mounted a slide out bin under the fridge for easy access to toss things out and keep the kitchen tidy. There's enough flies around without leaving garbage out for them and DON’T get me started on bin juice.
Easy Awning
Huey came with a awning when we bought him, however it was so bulky and was a nightmare to set-up. We contacted the company Platinum Trimming in Gold Coast after seeing their fit-outs for Kombis, to inquire about a new awning. Our new awning doesn’t require any pegs and can easily be put up by one person in a jiffy. We can even drive short distances with it on, perfect for snaking a better campsite nearby when someone else leaves, it turns some heads while we do it too!
Lithium Battery System
Like most young people, technology is such an integral part of our lives and work. We needed a system that was going to support our needs. Traditional AGM batteries take up 4x the space and weight of a lithium equivalent, which we couldn’t afford in our tiny home. Although more expensive upfront, the investment is well worth it and sometimes inevitable in our opinion. For a more in-depth explanation of our system, some do’s and don'ts check out our Electrical System Blog.
Toiletry Cabinet
This was a late addition in Huey, as we noticed we didn’t utilise all of the space we could’ve during the build. We were tired of getting our toiletry bag from out of the back drawers every time we needed to brush our teeth or wash our faces, so we made the toiletry cabinet. It’s fixed to the wall beside the bed and the door opens top-down like a drawbridge, supported by chain. This allows us to use the door as a desk when its folded down.
Electronics Hub
To avoid the clutter of having devices on charge everywhere and a cluster of tangled cables that comes with it, we built an electronic storage hub. A narrow space beside the bed, for storing laptops, phones and other gear, equipped with USB ports so that the devices can be stored away while charging. From the outside looking in, none of our devices can be seen which adds some peace of mind when we are out and about in sketchy areas.
Towel rack
Another late addition, the towel rack came to be when we were away on a weekend and realised we had nowhere to hang up wet clothes after a swim. With enough space to hang up a couple of towels and some swimmers, we don’t need to pull out the clothesline too often. We mounted ours across the inside of the back door, so we can just close it when we need to move on, no need to take the clothes off it.
Slide out Kitchen
Huey’s original build had the kitchen located inside, which was a major pain. We could only have one person in the kitchen, and it meant whoever was cooking was trapped indoors. When we decided to rebuild from scratch we wanted to turn that idea on its head, so we went for the slide-out kitchen instead. We have a base that slides out, that houses the 2 burner stove and grill, it also has another set of slides that telescope out from it that forms a prep bench for cooking. This was logistically a better set-up, it even allows for one of us to be inside doing some preparation or clean-up while the other cooks. Check out our van tour for a clearer idea of our system.
Doormat
It sounds so trivial, but we think it’s a must and see plenty of people without one. Keeps the dirt off the floor and out of the bed. We opted to screw some ply floor to the step into the van, then secured a coarse fibre doormat to it with Velcro. This way we can just peel it off, shake it out and put it back in when it gets a bit feral.
