Planning is half the battle. Especially if three of you share six square meters. Katharina Maloun stands on a campsite on the coast of France, her boyfriend Andreas Weiss works on the bus and somewhere in between dozes the dog Charly, who was adopted by the couple last year during a stay at home due to corona. A normal working day in the life of the Viennese freelancer and the photographer from Upper Austria. Digital nomads – they are at home on the go, their office is everywhere.
In 2016, the 32-year-old, who was then working for a PR agency, decided to take a year off to travel. Portugal, Central America, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Australia, Indonesia and India were their stations. “I met Andreas in Nicaragua. We both love to surf. We wanted to travel but backpacking was very tedious. That’s how we came up with the idea of expanding a bus.”
Three years ago, the two started to convert one Citroën Jumper L2H2. This transforms into your new home within six weeks with a small shoe rack under the passenger seat, herb box, gas stove, running water, toilet and 310 watt solar panel on the roof of the bus, which enables working on the go. In the course of researching the conversion, however, the couple quickly realized that there is no blog that is also suitable for beginners and offers easy-to-understand tips or instructions. So the two of them start “mein-camperausbau.de”.
Here they explain how mobile living dreams can also be realized by absolute beginners: Which van can be converted into a camper? How is a roof hatch installed? How can you cleverly create storage space? Because every centimeter wants to be used. Tables can be extended or folded. Behind every box there is a detail that is important for everyday life. “A camper is like a home on wheels. You can do everything yourself: electrics, water pump, woodwork, sewing curtains‘ Maloun enumerates.
However, the mobile home differs in one thing – you have to pay attention to the weight. “You are forced to build very lightly so that the axles can carry the load.” Also: In most buses there are almost no straight walls, so it is only in the rarest of cases that ready-made furniture can be bought. “Of course you should like the bus, but functionality should definitely come before the look,” explains the trained yoga trainer. Especially when it comes to storage space, you should proceed in a structured manner. “In which direction and how should compartments be able to be opened? What do I often need, what not?”lists them and also advises packing in a minimalist way.
Constructed around surfboards
Last year, Maloun and Weiss parted with their spacious Citroën and with the conversion a smaller VW T5 Bulli started. „Friday“ is the nickname of the camper they are traveling with, which was designed entirely around their surfboards. Two additional windows for more light and a pop-up roof were installed in the used bus so that it is also easy to move around in the bus. The two paid around 28,500 euros for the vehicle and all the modifications. By the way, Charly has already found her “room”. She sleeps on the continuous seat next to the steering wheel. “Our children’s room,” says Maloun and laughs.
