We Bought a Van

We Bought a Van.  After months of searching, disappointments, calls, messages and viewings we have finally found a van.

Let me take you back a few steps. The longer this has been going on the more and more disheartened we were becoming.

Disappointment

I think we have been through it all.

Viewing

This particular van we went to view was in Taunton. Just Mark and myself went to view while the girls were with their Nan (thank you Nan!).  What was nice was also Mark and I getting to spend time together. It is so rare (and half the reason we have made the decision to sell everything, buy a van and convert it to travel full time starting in the UK).  If you are curious as to why we made this decision we shared it in one of our blog posts.

The van was an Iveco Daily XLWB extra high and on viewing was huge (in comparison to others we had seen). We had originally thought about getting an XLWB (extra long wheel base) and then thought that maybe it would be better to just have a LWB for ease of parking.

Was this the one?

Some of the conversion work had already been started.  The couple who owned the van had done the prep work. They had insulated and nearly completed the vapour barrier.  Like us, you may then be wondering why they were selling.  

Well, like many discover, converting a van is very time consuming and if like them, you work full time and are often away for work the progress is slow going.  Even more frustrating if you just want to get away, so, they brought another one, that was completed.

Being an older vehicle there was minimal rust and as they had documented their build to date on instagram just like us we were able to see how thoroughly they had carried out the work.

Have to say at this point we were getting excited.  Mark took it for a test drive while I was a passenger.   It is a big van so clunky gears was to be expected and yet it was pretty smooth and all engine stuff (Mark’s domain!) seem to check out just fine.

The Talk

We left the couple saying we would get back to them either way in a few days as we had a few other vans to see and well, discussions needed to be had.

We headed off to the shops to get some lunch and a few obligatory things from a hardware store.  The drive through the back lanes was stunning. So many amazing views. Yet we stopped to eat in probably one of the busiest lay-bys in the area to eat!