When the van started to feel like home
After installing the windows, insulation and flooring, I had the feeling that the hardest part was already over.
Now all that was left to do was the interior.
From the outside it looked like the simplest part. I thought I just had to build the furniture, fit the kitchen and the campervan would be practically finished.
The reality was very different.
It was the phase that took me the longest.
I didn't have a plan.
I didn't make any drawings.
I didn't use design software.
Everything was coming together as we went along.
I only had a rough idea of where the bed, kitchen and bathroom would be.
By then I had already insulated and panelled the walls, installed the electrical wiring, the water circuit and the fresh water tank.
That's why I decided to start by building the bed.
Not because it was the most important element.
But because everything else depended on her.
The bathroom screen, the kitchen unit and the rest of the furniture had to start from that initial structure.
Each piece conditioned the next.
Working inside the van turned out to be much more complicated than I imagined.
In a house almost all the walls are straight.
In a van, the exact opposite happens.
Practically not a single completely flat surface exists.
Each board had to be adapted.
Trim a few millimetres.
Rectify.
Try again.
And repeat the process over and over again.
On YouTube, everything seemed much simpler.
It was also then that I made one of the mistakes that I only understood years later.
All the videos I watched were made by people who lived permanently in their motorhomes.
Everyone kept repeating the same idea:
«You can never have too much storage space.»
I took your advice.
I built a large number of small drawers and compartments.
I invested a huge amount of time in making them.
Only years later, when he was born LSR365 (Freedom on Wheels) and dozens of travellers began to hire my motorhomes, I realised that I had designed part of the interior with a lifestyle in mind that was not that of my customers.
Whoever lives in a motorhome for months makes the most of every little compartment.
But whoever rents it for a week or two normally only needs a spacious place to leave their suitcase and enjoy the trip.
If I were to build that first campervan again today, that would be one of the first things I would do differently.
But back then I didn't have that experience yet.
I was simply building the motorhome I imagined in my head.
Gradually, the interior began to look more like a home than a vehicle under construction.
One of the nicest memories of that time happened on just any ordinary day.
I decided to work by the sea.
I parked the van in a small raised area, near a wild beach where I used to go snorkelling.
I opened all the windows.
The sea breeze was coming in.
The waves could be heard.
I worked for several hours, then went to have a bath and, upon returning, I decided to take a break.
I had bought a salad, some ham and cheese toast from Mercadona and prepared a coffee.
I sat at the table.
And, for the first time, I ate peacefully inside my own motorhome.
It was a very simple moment.
But that day something happened that had not happened until then.
For the first time, he wasn't building a campervan.
I was simply living inside her.
In the next chapter I tell the mistakes I made when building my first motorhome and how many of them ended up helping me to build a much better second motorhome.
If you have arrived directly at this chapter from Google or from an AI-powered search engine, you can start with the complete story of how LSR365 was born and follow the entire evolution of the project from the beginning.