Our unique caravan is a 2011 Cell viewfinder, 27 foot. We bought it second hand in 2018. From the start we had a plan to live full time in a caravan. We have previously adventured around Australia in a 2008 Transit van for 4 and half months and fell in love with the lifestyle of life on the road. So we made the big decision and bought this caravan after looking at caravans for 2 years. When we saw this caravan we fell in love but thought it would blow our budget. We were lucky we got it for an amazing price and were very happy. We bought it for $35,000. We knew that this caravan had so much potential to turn it into our full time home while travelling Australia. We renovated the caravan on and off for 2 years in Naomi’s parents driveway. After a whole lot of time and effort we finally got out of the driveway in July 2020 for a mini test drive. When we got back we set a date when we will leave on our big adventure around Australia.
Our Caravan
The theme of our caravan is modern with a grey color scheme. In the bedroom we decided to use twisted rope paint color on the cupboards to brighten the room up when the lights are on., Whilst everywhere else we went with a color scheme of 2 tones of grey. The paints we used were timeless grey and western mall as when we used one grey it clashed and didn’t look right. We like the colors we have used in the caravan as it has modernized the caravan and brightened up the space nicely.
Storage
The storage in the van is awesome, we have all our belongings in here and we don’t seem to struggle to fit our things. Also Stefan has made extra storage spaces if there was a space that was doing nothing he would make it storage. For example there was a space next to our front door so we decided to make it our bin cupboard which is amazing and doesn’t leave a smell in our caravan. We have also added a storage cupboard above our fridge, a draw under our fridge and a draw under our bed which makes it easier to access everything under our bed. It is incredible what you can fit in the caravan once everything has its own place.
The Kitchen
In our kitchen, we have painted the cupboards with two grey paints (western mall and timeless grey). Replaced our splash back with white hexagon stick-on tiles from Kmart, which are amazing and weren’t too expensive ($25 for 4 squares). Put in a full-sized fan forced oven and grill with a gas stovetop.
Our Dinning/Living Room
Dinning Area
In our dinning area, we replaced the table with a wooden table that Stefan cut, fit and did some electric burning across the table. we also replaced the upholstery on the seats and where the blinds are. We also put in a Projector screen, lights and a new sound system.
Living area
In our Living area kept our recliner chairs, added in a projector and replaced the upholstery around the blind. We also added two side table in to put our drinks on while watching shows on the projector.
Our Bathroom
In our shower area we have replaced our shower from a small bathtub to a full size shower with a Rain shower head. We also have put in a wall nook to put our bit’s and bob’s in while in the shower.
In our bathroom, we replaced our sink with a black sink and our tapware with rose gold tapware. We also put in a new wooden countertop and a washing machine underneath the sink. Although we don’t use the washing machine here it is a great place for it to live and not get in the way. It is amazing having our washing machine it means we can save money on the road and do the washing whenever we have access to water.
The Flooring
We changed our flooring to a nice oak laminate floor in the kitchen and bathroom and in the bedroom we went we black plush carpet these choices lightened the caravan up and the carpet made it feel more homely plus its very nice on the feet. We also reupholstered all the curtain trims to a grey material to fit with the rest of the caravan.
We decided to take our aircon unit out and replace the hole with an infinity mirror as the aircon unit didn’t work and it saves us 60kg of weight in the caravan. We have survived a summer in Victoria and Tasmania and the fans have done the trick. We also have 2 x two-way roof fans one in our kitchen and one in our bedroom to cycle the air around.
Information on the caravan
Fridge:
Bushman 12v 190 liter fridge.
Which is a good size for the 2 of us and we can fit plenty of food to last us 1 week maybe 2 weeks.
Tanks:
1 freshwater tank 200L, 2 grey water tanks 2x 100L, and a 100L black water tank.
Power:
Battery- 500ah lithium batteries
Solar- 800 watts of solar on the roof 200 watts on the car
Inverter- Integrated 3000 watt Giandel inverter to give 240-volt power caravan wide. We can comfortably live on the road and have not had to use a PowerPoint once whilst living on the road yet. We are comfortable charging up all our equipment and still have plenty of power to watch movies at night on the projector.
Specs- Our caravan weighs 3.3 tons fully loaded and we tow the van with a 2011 Volkswagen Toureg. We have a new subframe fitted along with new axles fitted to the van, as we wanted to increase the ATM limit of our Van.
We absolutely love our caravan and wouldn’t change anything else about it, We have turned it from an old granny flat which was dated and dull to a modern home. It is very comfortable to live in full time. If you have any questions about our caravan feel free to send us a message on Instagram. Also If you are interested we have made a before and after video on our caravan and you can watch the video Here.