Personal Experience: How a Girl Remodeled a Tiny House on Wheels

The heroine of this story is a graphic designer named Annie from Germany. In October 2018, the girl was traveling through the USA and dreamed of buying a tiny house on wheels.

At the same time, Annie's friend accidentally found an ad for the sale of an old Mercedes Benz bus, which was already 40 years old at that time. The girl asked her friend to buy the van, even though she hadn't seen its photos yet. They finally met in January of that year. Annie affectionately called the bus Elsa and began working. The girl shares her challenging but interesting experience on Instagram.

When I first saw Elsa, I started screaming and crying with joy. It was not easy to realize that I had really bought this old van.

What's most amazing is that the girl managed to do most of the work herself, even though she had no prior experience. Her father helped with the most difficult stages.

She decided to get rid of all the old furniture right away: even cleaning the vehicle's body from anything unnecessary took about two days. Then Annie removed the old coating from the walls and floor, and this is where real difficulties started. The whole body was rusted, and in many places holes had already appeared.

There was especially a lot of rust under the wooden flooring, so it had to be removed. Instead of heavy plywood, Annie chose a lightweight and waterproof wooden floor with polyurethane insulation. This floor will definitely withstand all the furniture. By the way, it was planned to be made manually from wood.

The walls and floor were also completely replaced. A uniquely shaped dormer window was even created in the ceiling. In the driver's cabin, Annie decorated the ceiling using thick fabric and aerosol glue. The key is to let it dry completely to avoid unevenness.

All the furniture was designed to be made from wood. It resulted in a full dining table, a bench with internal storage space, and a loft bed. Currently, Annie is working on a wardrobe, in the lower part of which she has hidden all her electronics.

By the way, the dining table is made from the floor panel that was purchased for the floor. Annie decided to save money on everything — and it actually worked!

Before, I had never worked with wood, but I secretly always dreamed of it.

Beneath the bed, Annie managed to fit her entire wardrobe. The boxes have holes so that clothes won't mold due to high humidity.

I don’t have that many things: just six large boxes — all I need.

Photo source: Instagram profile @elsa.the.bus